Description
Strategic analysis paper
Home organization: Revlon
The organization we are acquiring: ELF beauty
*This paper might require more pages, I would suggest not to focus on the appearance of it just the writing. For examples do not do the cover page, table of contents, line or paragraph spacing.
step 1: Conduct strategic analysis work on your “Home Organization”
Following careful research on your part—prepare a Competitive Profile Matrix (CPM; Ch. 3, p. 78-81) on your “home organization” using several competitors. You must include this CPM in your final paper.
Utilizing what you are learning from Chapters 1-6, perform a strategic analysis on your home organization. In your prepared analysis, you are required to include at least these five in addition to the CPM described in above:
- Evaluation of Mission and/or Vision Statement (Ch. 2, p. 47-51)
- External Factor Evaluation Matrix (EFE; Ch. 3, p. 77-78)
- Internal Factor Evaluation Matrix (IFE; Ch. 4, p. 116-118)
- Financial Ratio Analysis (Ch. 4, p. 104-106)—select at least one ratio from each of the five types (liquidity, leverage, activity, profitability, growth)—calculate and interpret each. You are not limited to only five—do more if you wish. Choose ratios with which you are most familiar and which hold the best promise of providing you useful information.
- The SWOT Matrix (Ch. 6, p. 171-174)
When you include these matrices in your final paper, do not merely include a statistical
summary of the matrix. You are to present the full detail of the matrix in addition to your interpretation of the results. For example, if you are doing the External Factors Matrix (EFE), you are to show your entire list of opportunities (5-10 etc.) and your entire list of threats accompanied by the weight, rating, weighted score, and final total.
The student should not include in this section the complete copy of the “Home” organization’s Income Statement and/or Balance Sheet required in Step 1 above.
Step 2: Conduct Strategic Analysis work on the Organization you plan to acquire
It is not a requirement of this assignment, but you may find it desirable to prepare a CPM on your second organization especially if they are not a competitor of your home organization.
Using the same five required analyses listed above for your “home organization,” prepare the same detailed analysis of the company you propose to acquire.
- Evaluation of Mission and/or Vision Statement (Ch. 2, p. 47-51)
- External Factor Evaluation Matrix (EFE; Ch. 3, p. 77-78)
- Internal Factor Evaluation Matrix (IFE; Ch. 4, p. 116-118)
- Financial Ratio Analysis (Ch. 4, p. 104-106)—select at least one ratio from each of the five types (liquidity, leverage, activity, profitability, growth)—calculate and interpret each of the chosen five, and include them in your analysis. You are not limited to these five. Choose ratios with which you are most familiar and which hold the best promise of providing you useful information.
- The SWOT Matrix (Ch. 6, p. 171-174)
A comparison of these matrices should provide you a rich resource of information to compare and contrast the two companies, evaluate strengths and weaknesses of both, the benefits, the hazards, the cautions, etc., regarding acquisition, etc.
The student should not include in this section the complete copy of the “Home” organization’s Income Statement and/or Balance Sheet required in Step 1 above.
Step 3: You may want to consider additional analyses
(these are not a requirement for your paper)
Additional, optional Strategic Analysis tools are described in our text which you can choose to use for your analysis—this is not a formal requirement for your paper:
As you work on this strategic analysis, you are urged to use what you consider to be the strengths you bring to this class (accounting, marketing, finance, etc.) based on previous academic training and/or personal experience. Leverage what you are already good at as you select (as you see fit) other analysis tools to include in your Strategic Analysis Paper from the list below—you, of course, are not limited to this list:
Value Chain Analysis (VCA; Ch. 4, p. 113-116)
Porter’s Five –Forces Model (Ch. 3, p. 71-74)
Strategic Position and Action Evaluation Matrix (SPACE; Ch. 6, p. 174-178)
Boston Consulting Group Matrix (BCG; p. 178-181)
Internal-External Matrix (IE; Ch. 6, p. 181-184)
Grand Strategy Matrix (GSM; Ch. 6, p. 185-186)
Your professor wants to strongly suggest you might look closely at a couple of these for possible use in your paper . . .especially Porter’s Five Forces, and the SPACE matrix. . .but none of the above is a requirement for your paper.
Step 4: Make your decision about possible acquisition
Do a thorough comparison of the prospective acquisition company with your own organization with a view of proceeding with the acquisition.
As part of your comparison, analysis, and decision-making, you are required to use the Quantitative Strategic Planning Matrix (QSPM; Ch. 6, p. 186-190) to further guide you in your decision process. You are to include this QSPM in your final paper and indicate how you used the statistical summary to guide you.
You may also use information found in the text to help with your determination. For example, you might choose to use “merger/acquisition” strategies on p. 150-151. . .or, using the information gleaned from a BCG matrix for both organizations. You should take into account information on why acquisitions fail (page 150, Table 5-5) and some of the anticipated benefits of acquisition (page 151, Table 5-6) given in our textbook.
If in your research you are able to get a good grasp of what the organizational cultures of your two organizations are like, it would be a really smart idea to include in your paper some analysis of what the possible acquisition of a company might mean in terms of impact to the cultures of both companies. Are they significantly different? Very much alike? Would the acquisition tend be traumatic or relatively easy?
Step 4: Write your paper
Your Strategic Analysis Paper needs to conclude with either (1) a strategy to proceed with the acquisition, and what would be the anticipated benefits and challenges; (2) a strategy to abandon the acquisition effort, and your reasons why; or, (3) a strategy to continue pursuing the acquisition but conditional on gaining additional, essential, confirming information. You must specify what that information might include, but you are not actually required to develop it.
With all three possible conclusions, you must include a full development of your reasons for arriving at that conclusion.
A suggested outline for your Strategic Analysis Paper might be:
Introduction /Purpose of the paper—be sure your paper addresses these two
Strategic Analysis of “Home” Company
Strategic Analysis of the Company to Possibly Acquire
Comparison/Contrast of the Two Companies
Your Strategic Plan Regarding Possible Acquisition
You are not required to follow this suggested outline; rather you may create your own which may serve your purposes far better.
In preparing your paper, you have the latitude to either blend your matrix tables into the text of your paper, or you may cite them in the text as Appendices found at the conclusion of your paper.
Your paper should follow basic, simple APA guidelines to format your paper (your professor does not want to be burdensome with this). That is, prepare a cover and reference page for your paper following the APA formats, then follow these basic requirements: use 1” margins on all four sides, double space everything, use only 12-point font, allow 5-7 space indentions, and number your pages starting with the cover sheet (do not use the APA “Running head”).
Sample Solution
