analyze a business case
Project Overview
For this project, you will analyze a business case, Yahoo! Inc.: Marissa Mayer’s Challenge, and make recommendations based on the outcome of your analysis. The goal is to demonstrate strategic critical thinking skills when analyzing a business scenario, taking all factors into account, and recommend a strategy to move that company forward. Your analysis and recommendations should flow together, providing your readers with a clear picture of the issues at hand and leading them to the logical conclusion of your strategic recommendations. Your case analysis should be designed for an audience of working adults who are seeking to improve their understanding of your chosen topic.
Case Topic
“Case 30: Yahoo! Inc.: Marissa Mayer’s Challenge,” (page 30-1 to 30-12). In preparation for your case analysis, As you develop your analysis and recommendations, use the tools provided in your text to guide you.
Use the attached paper and the feed back below to update the paper
A good case study should be viewed as a practice in strategic planning. If you assume that you are tasked by the Board of Directors to assess their situation and to give them direction on where they should lead the company, you want to go through the basics of the strategic planning process in your thinking.
Do they have an effective mission? Is their progress to date based on a clear vision? If not can you suggest how they might create clarity in that vision?
Assess their external environment, that is, their customers (students), their competition, and the general climate in the industry. Assess their internal organization and its effectiveness. Reflect your assessment in a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis. Where are they strong and how can they take advantage of that? What are the major threats? What are the opportunities for growth or improvement? What are the weaknesses in their organization that might cause them trouble, especially in light of the threats?
Given the SWOT analysis, can we expand on the recommendations and options? What new avenues for growth would you suggest and how would that impact their organization? What weaknesses might they have to correct in order to be successful with your recommendations?
A good case study should also be grounded in good analytics. There should be some sort of financial analysis. How are they doing financially now and how would your recommendations (in theory) effect the financial performance of the organization? You do not need detailed financial statements. But can we talk about how these recommendations would impact the key financial variables?
Finally, a good case study should be well organized and written. Start with a brief summary of the organization’s situation and what you think needs to be done. Then explain in the body of your paper following the guidance above. Finally, give a brief summary and conclusion that is compelling and would ‘seal the deal’ with the board of directors. Remember, in a good presentation, you “tell them what you are going to tell them, then tell them, then tell them what you told them.”
