Course Project (25% of grade)

The course project may be completed in groups of 2 or individually. The requirements, explained below, are the same whether one works alone or together with one more colleague.

 

Select two companies in the same industry from the list below:

 

INDUSTRY                                      COMPANIES

Agrobusiness        AgriSA, Adler Seeds, AVEBE, Agria Corp, Adeco Agro.

Apparel                Cheil Industries, H&M, Kering, Gap, Christian Dior.

Automotive           Lexus, Tesla, Hyundai, Tata, Volvo.

Aviation               Lufthansa, Emirates, Delta, China Southern Airlines, Ryanair.

Biotech                 Illumina, Vertex, Gilead Sciences, Amgen, BioMarin.

Machinery            CNH Industrial NV, Linde AG, Kubota, ABB, Komatsu.

Personal care       Shiseido, Coty, Beiersdorf, Johnson & Johnson, Kao Corp.

Nuclear power      BNFL, General Atomics, ENEL S.p.A, Babcock and Wilcox, Areva.

Oil and gas          Lukoil, ENI, Aramco, Total SA, Chevron.

Shipbuilding        Daewoo Shipbuilding, Austal, United Shipbuilding Corporation, Shanghai  Waigaoqiao, STX Group.

 

Next.

1   Conduct environmental scanning and analysis of the value chain for the two companies selected. Summarize the findings of the analysis in a SWOT table.                                                                                       

2   Analyze and evaluate corporate governance and strategies (corporate and global) of the two companies. Approximately equal weigh on corporate governance and strategies.                                                

3   Taking into account the competitive dynamics of the market the two companies operate in as well as your analysis and evaluation in points 1 and 2 above, comment on issues you think the two companies should pay attention to, and if there is anything that the companies should do differently. For instance, strengthen corporate governance, do more acquisitions, change strategy/ies, enter strategic alliances, restructure, subcontract, etc.

Executive summary:      After the project has been completed, you must write a one-page long, executive summary and attach it in the beginning of the project.

The executive summary is NOT a collection of randomly selected sentences from the body of the paper but it must read as an integrated whole and summarize the major points.

Sources:      You are expected to use a minimum of five (5) sources, two of which may be the websites of the two companies selected (webpages in the same website count as ONE source). The textbook does NOT count as a source. Sources other than in English language are acceptable provided they have been translated in English by you.

All sources used must be dated after 2015 and included in the list of references.                             

Unreferenced and undated Internet sources are NOT acceptable.

For co-authored projects, the contribution of each student must be clearly indicated on the cover page. Although the project will be marked as an integrated whole there may be cases that the contribution of each member will be marked separately.

Projects must be handed in person, in hard copy

 As per course syllabus (p. 3) the mark for the project includes a 5% component for presentation and answering questions from the floor.