Case: Apple Inc.’s 2012 Strategy for the PC Market
Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple Inc. is considering his options for securing the company’s long term competitive advantage in the PC product market. He has employed you as a consultant to help him prepare for the next investor meeting. Please prepare a report containing a strategic analysis for Apple’s PC business along with a recommended course of action. Apply concepts and frameworks from your assigned reading materials as appropriate. Your recommended course of action for the future must be supported by your analysis. You are not expected to find firm/industry data beyond the information provided in the case.
The report accounts for 20% of your total grade and must be written individually. You are not allowed to collaborate on this assignment. I will look for your unique contributions to the analysis.
The paper must be a max of 5 double spaced pages (excluding cover page and appendices), with Times Roman 12 point font and standard margins (2.54 cm). Deadline: February 11 at the start of class.
Tips on How to Write a Case Analysis.
1. Please read: (a) handout in Blackboard’s Course Documents section on how to do prepare an effective case analysis and (b) guidelines in the course outline.
2. The case analysis should be written out in essay-form. You can use headings and sub-headings, etc. The paper can be no more than 5 pages, double-spaced with 12 point font.
3. The financial ratio chart and the SWOT (bullet point) summary should be placed in appendices (main conclusions from the ratios must be discussed in the paper itself.)
Here’s an overview of the main sections of your paper:
(a) Introduction and key issues: very briefly introduce the case (couple of sentences) and then outline or briefly discuss the key strategic issues facing the company AT THE TIME OF THE CASE (this should be one para or max of two.)
Please note: place yourself at the time of the case (for example, 2012 for Apple Inc.) and pretend that you are there. Don’t use any info that you now know and don’t use outside research. The case info may be incomplete or ambiguous – use your skill as an analyst to do the best you can with the limited info at hand!
(b) Situation Analysis:
Provide an analysis of the company’s external and internal situation/environments, using the frameworks and material in the text and readings. Again, do a “current” analysis, AS OF THE DATE OF THE CASE. Do not spend a lot of time discussing the history of the case. For example, we don’t need to hear from you about Apple’s founder and history (you can assume I already read the case.) Tell us your analysis of Apple’s external and internal environments as of 2012 and going forward. As far as possible, try not to repeat case facts from the text; instead, provide a high quality analysis that uses facts and data to support your main arguments.
Note: for the final team project, please also use extra tables or appendices to summarize data that are not central for the main analysis.
For the (Apple) individual case analysis, you are only allowed 2 appendices for: (a) financial ratios numbers; and (b) SWOT bullet points.
In the internal analysis, you must include a FINANCIAL analysis. This means computing and analyzing all the different categories of ratios – profitability, leverage, liquidity, activity, and stock market performance (please see the “Introduction to Financial ratios” article in your case packet.) You may compute two ratios from each category and make sure you do this for the most recent three years of company data. If a case doesn’t have all the years or all types of data you need, that’s o.k. Just do the best you can, i.e., do as many ratio calculations as possible.
Present the ratios in an appendix and discuss your conclusions about them in the internal analysis.
(c) SWOT Summary
Summarize the main points from your external and internal analyses in a SWOT section. You could use bullet-points since you already discussed the same ideas in your situation analysis. (You are summarizing and highlighting the main strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats from the perspective of Apple Inc.)
(d) Strategic Alternatives
Provide alternatives to address the key issues you identified in the intro section; please note they should be consistent with your analysis. Everything should flow logically in this paper.
(e) Strategic Recommendations:
Select from the alternatives you provided – tell us what the best course of action is and how it may be implemented. Make sure: (a) your recommendations flow logically from the key issues and situation analysis; and (b) they are comprehensive (cover the main issues well.)
Conclusion: the case analysis will be a challenging and useful critical thinking exercise! Good luck and please don’t hesitate to ask me if you have questions.
APPLE INC. GUIDELINES
Case: Apple Inc.’s 2012 Strategy for the PC Market
Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple Inc. is considering his options for securing the company’s long term competitive advantage in the PC product market. He has employed you as a consultant to help him prepare for the next investor meeting. Please prepare a report containing a strategic analysis for Apple’s PC business along with a recommended course of action. Apply concepts and frameworks from your assigned reading materials as appropriate. Your recommended course of action for the future must be supported by your analysis. You are not expected to find firm/industry data beyond the information provided in the case.
The report accounts for 20% of your total grade and must be written individually. You are not allowed to collaborate on this assignment. I will look for your unique contributions to the analysis.
The paper must be a max of 5 double spaced pages (excluding cover page and appendices), with Times Roman 12 point font and standard margins (2.54 cm). Deadline: February 11 at the start of class.
Tips on How to Write a Case Analysis.
1. Please read: (a) handout in Blackboard’s Course Documents section on how to do prepare an effective case analysis and (b) guidelines in the course outline.
2. The case analysis should be written out in essay-form. You can use headings and sub-headings, etc. The paper can be no more than 5 pages, double-spaced with 12 point font.
3. The financial ratio chart and the SWOT (bullet point) summary should be placed in appendices (main conclusions from the ratios must be discussed in the paper itself.)
Here’s an overview of the main sections of your paper:
(a) Introduction and key issues: very briefly introduce the case (couple of sentences) and then outline or briefly discuss the key strategic issues facing the company AT THE TIME OF THE CASE (this should be one para or max of two.)
Please note: place yourself at the time of the case (for example, 2012 for Apple Inc.) and pretend that you are there. Don’t use any info that you now know and don’t use outside research. The case info may be incomplete or ambiguous – use your skill as an analyst to do the best you can with the limited info at hand!
(b) Situation Analysis:
Provide an analysis of the company’s external and internal situation/environments, using the frameworks and material in the text and readings. Again, do a “current” analysis, AS OF THE DATE OF THE CASE. Do not spend a lot of time discussing the history of the case. For example, we don’t need to hear from you about Apple’s founder and history (you can assume I already read the case.) Tell us your analysis of Apple’s external and internal environments as of 2012 and going forward. As far as possible, try not to repeat case facts from the text; instead, provide a high quality analysis that uses facts and data to support your main arguments.
Note: for the final team project, please also use extra tables or appendices to summarize data that are not central for the main analysis.
For the (Apple) individual case analysis, you are only allowed 2 appendices for: (a) financial ratios numbers; and (b) SWOT bullet points.
In the internal analysis, you must include a FINANCIAL analysis. This means computing and analyzing all the different categories of ratios – profitability, leverage, liquidity, activity, and stock market performance (please see the “Introduction to Financial ratios” article in your case packet.) You may compute two ratios from each category and make sure you do this for the most recent three years of company data. If a case doesn’t have all the years or all types of data you need, that’s o.k. Just do the best you can, i.e., do as many ratio calculations as possible.
Present the ratios in an appendix and discuss your conclusions about them in the internal analysis.
(c) SWOT Summary
Summarize the main points from your external and internal analyses in a SWOT section. You could use bullet-points since you already discussed the same ideas in your situation analysis. (You are summarizing and highlighting the main strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats from the perspective of Apple Inc.)
(d) Strategic Alternatives
Provide alternatives to address the key issues you identified in the intro section; please note they should be consistent with your analysis. Everything should flow logically in this paper.
(e) Strategic Recommendations:
Select from the alternatives you provided – tell us what the best course of action is and how it may be implemented. Make sure: (a) your recommendations flow logically from the key issues and situation analysis; and (b) they are comprehensive (cover the main issues well.)
Conclusion: the case analysis will be a challenging and useful critical thinking exercise! Good luck and please don’t hesitate to ask me if you have questions.
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