Module 2 – Case
PLANNING AND CONTROL
Assignment Overview
http://tse1.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.GOmLhIg8ZvGub1NkALaJzgEsDH&pid=15.1Few
companies are in the news or generate as much controversy these days as
Uber. When they were founded eight years
ago, few would have predicted that the simple idea of providing a mobile phone
app that connects passengers with drivers would have grown to a business of
over six billion in revenue that operates in 570 cities worldwide. While their service has become very popular
and is still growing, they still face huge challenges. If you check out the latest news on Uber, it
is a solid bet that they’ve gotten into some type of controversy regarding
their practices or business model.
Case Assignment
For this assignment, you will be conducting a SWOT analysis
(strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) for Uber. You’ve all read about SWOT analysis in the
background readings, but most of you have probably never conducted one
yourself. Here are the steps to take
when doing your research on Uber for your SWOT analysis:
Start out by conducting the “SW” portion of your
analysis. Remember that strengths and
weaknesses are internal to the company.
For this part of the analysis, you only need to look within Uber. Do they have enough money from investors to
operate and expand their business? Are
they profitable, or losing money? Is
their technology high quality, or does it need a lot of improvement? Is their brand name and public relations
strong or weak? These are just a few
examples of what to look at when conducting your internal analysis of
Uber. Do your research primarily through
a search of reputable news sources such as Business Week, Wall Street Journal,
Forbes, etc. Take careful note of what
internal aspects of Uber are strengths, and which ones are weaknesses.
Next, conduct the “OT” portion of your SWOT analysis. Remember that opportunities and threats are
external to the firm. Is there a growing
or shrinking market for their service?
Is regulation going to become more favorable to Uber, or less
favorable? Are they facing lawsuits? If
so, how serious are they? Are there new
markets or products they could offer in the future? For this part of your SWOT analysis, use a
combination both of specific articles on Uber in the business press as well as
IBIS World’s industry report by Brian Saylor on Taxi and Limousine Services in
the US #48533. The business press should provide the latest developments in
Uber’s external opportunities and threats, and IBIS World will give you the
“big picture” in terms of the total market for taxi-type services as well as
trends in this industry.
Once you have finished your research on Uber, write up a
four- to five-page paper with the following items:
Provide an overview of your SWOT analysis with one to two
paragraphs each for your discussion of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities,
and threats. Make sure to include at
least one reference to a recent article on Uber for each of the four aspects of
SWOT analysis, and for the discussion of opportunities, make sure to include
some information from IBIS world. The total length of this answer should be two
to three pages, with citations to at least three recent articles on Uber.
Prepare a table that summarizes the results of your SWOT
diagram. Each quadrant should have a few
bullet-points that summarize the key points for each aspect of your SWOT
analysis of Uber. Here is an example of
a SWOT analysis diagram that was conducted for IKEA, which is of course a much
different company; but this diagram should give you an idea of what to include
for your table for Uber:
https://2012books.lardbucket.org/books/advertising-campaigns-start-to-finish/section_11/db00f32f1e74f061df27f5df6ea8c2b6.jpg
Finally, now that you’ve conducted a SWOT analysis, suppose
you’ve been given $1,000 on the condition that you have to bet all of this
money for or against Uber succeeding in the next two years. Will you bet they continue to grow and
overcome any threats and weaknesses? Or
do you think they will crash and burn?
There is not a right or wrong answer to this question, as nobody can
predict the future. But regardless of
what bet you will make, you need to explain the logic and reasoning for your bet. Why do you think the strengths and
opportunities outweigh the weaknesses and threats or vice versa? Give at least three reasons for your bet, and
explain the reasons with respect to specific information you found in your SWOT
analysis. And no – you can’t hedge by
betting $500 on each outcome. You need to predict success or failure and place
all your money on this outcome. Your
answer to this part of the assignment should be one to one and a half pages.
Assignment Expectations
This assignment will be graded using the same grading rubric
as in Module 1. Additional considerations
in preparing your assignment:
Case reports are to be prepared in Microsoft Word and should
be 3-4 pages in length, in addition to a cover page (course name and number,
module number, session name, student name, and date prepared) and reference
list – double-spaced, 12 pt. type, Times New Roman font.
Report content should include a brief introduction to the
assignment, background information about the organization being studied, and
some preliminary discussion of the analytical tools (situation analysis and
SWOT analysis) being applied in addressing the questions or tasks proposed in
the assignment.
Use subtitles, bullets, and tables to improve presentation
values. In this case, a suggested
structure for the assignment might be
Introduction
Situation Analysis
SWOT Analysis
Discussion
Conclusion
Attention is to be
given to citing sources of information in text as well as in the reference list
at the end of reports. Citation and
reference style instructions are available at
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/10/.
Submit your report in the case dropbox for this module on or
before the due date, as indicated in the TLC Homepage.
