Stock Investment-Business Strategy Management
You should select one public company that you think has competitive advantages and explain why you think this company is better than its competitors. Imagine that you are a Robin hooder; you will select only one stock that you will keep investing in, at least until next year. Try your best to explain why you believe this stock (or company) will rise more highly than its competitors. However, please do NOT use finance-based metrices, such as P/E ratio or EPS, as this is not a finance course. Please apply ALL the constructs you will learn from this course.
Do NOT choose big companies, such as Apple, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Tesla, Walmart, Nike, and Disney, because we all know that these companies have competitive advantages compared with others. Please choose a company whose 1) market cap is under 20 billion dollars (you can use this website for screening: https://finviz.com/screener.ashx?v=111&f=cap_midunder) and 2) annual 10-K report (for year 2020) is publicly available on Edgar (https://www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml).
Further Description
The more content/figures/graphs you include in this paper, the more likely you are to receive a high grade on this task. Please answer all the questions below in your final paper. Questions (Chapter 1) What is this companys mission or vision?. Please copy and paste the overall description of the company from its 10-K annual report. (Chapter 1) What are the companys risk factors?. To answer this question, please visit the firms annual report (10-K), read the Risk Factor section, and summarize what the company reported. (Chapter 1) Please compare the companys risk factors published in its annual reports for the years 2020 and 2019. Is there any change between the years? Did they report more (or less) risk factors in year 2020 than in year 2019? . (Chapter 5) Who are this companys competitors? Please find one or two by using two criteria.
Market commonality and resource similarity. (Chapter 2) Analyze the industry to which the company belongs. Do you think this is a rising or a declining industry? Do you think the incumbent can reap many benefits from this industry?. Why do you think so? Please use Porters Five Forces Competition model, and apply all the constructs of this model in answering the questions. (Chapter 3) Do you think this company has valuable, rare, and non-imitable (VRIO) resources compared with its competitors?. Why? Please use Barneys VRIO model for your assessment. (Chapter 4) What business strategy do you think this company uses?. Cost leadership, differentiation, or a mix of both?. Do you think this company selects the best business strategy?
