CLIENT CONSULTATION AND Q&A: Scenario alternative for REAL Case step 2
MGT490C, Spring 2017
Strategic-Management Consultant: NAU ID# _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Date and time of submission:
(Deadline is noon, Tuesday, February 28, 2017)
Client:
Title:
Web or LinkedIn bio URL:
Organization:
Office Location: Client: Thank you for the work you’ve prepared, and for meeting with me today to share your
insights. I’m expecting considerable value from your application of concepts from your Capstone
course to the strategic challenge(s) I and my organization are facing. Please answer fully but
concisely at least six of my questions…
(Relevant PPT slide(s) referenced from files posted on Bb.) Q1. How coherent do you see our overall strategy-setting to be, and how would you
recommend it be improved? (Slide #10 on 1/24)
Q2. What two or three factors of our industry’s general environment present the most
prominent Opportunities and Threats? Please cite your media sources for explaining the issues
that make these factors fully strategic — involving planning, creativity, breadth, and relatively big
implications. (#9 1/31, and #5 1/24)
Q3. Who are the other members of the strategic group you see our company within, what’s the
basis of us clustering and the boundary factors that hold others out, and what are some
implications of this grouping? (#13 1/31)
Q4. Which two or three of the Five Forces do you see as most impactful on the rivalry within
our strategic group, and why? (#11 1/31)
Q5. What core competencies and resources have you determined are our most relevant
Strengths, and how do they rate in the VRIO model? And what are our key Weaknesses relevant
to the issue(s) you identified in Q2? (#9-14 2/7) Q6. So what? What “offensive” strategies are you recommending with the intersection of
Strengths and Opportunities you’ve identified? What “defensive” strategies should result from
the Weaknesses and Threats you’ve identified? Also, are there any crucial strategies at the
intersections of Strengths and Threats and/or Weaknesses and Opportunities? (#4-5 2/7)
Q7. Given the competitors in our strategic group and these offensive and defensive
recommendations you’ve provided, should we pursue a cost-leadership strategy or a
differentiation strategy? What pros and cons come with doing so, given where we are today
and where we need to get to? (#9-13 2/21)
Q8. Relative to key rivals, how do we rate in each of the four types of “generic building blocks of
competitive advantage?” Which two or three building blocks are most crucial for the strategies
you’ve identified, and how should we deploy our particular resources and capabilities to
develop them? (#15 2/21)
Q9. What stage of industry evolution is our business in? What key implications does this lead
to for two or three functional areas you see as being most crucial for the strategy you’re
recommending? What resulting tactics do you recommend regarding timing and/or mode of
entry? (#18-20 2/21)
Q10. Given these insightful recommendations of yours, what two or three contemporary issues
within general “contexts and special dimensions” are most relevant to us? (Please cite and
explain the media sources you’ve researched.) Combining them with what you’ve identified
already, what implications of these should we consider along with your recommendations?
