Strategic Analysis and Choices Assignment

Strategic Analysis and Choices Assignment

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Strategic Analysis and Choices Assignment

Discussion Forum

Go to the end of Chapter 5 and do Exercise 5B “Should Coca-Cola, Build, Borrow, or Buy in2020 -2021?” Steps 1, 2, and 3 (minimum of one page assignment).  (When accessing Coca-Cola’s website, you’ll have to click on “Press Center,”.)

Then go to the end of Chapter 6 and do Exercise 6A “Perform a SWOT Analysis for Coca-Cola” as an individual, one page assignment.  After completing Exercises 5B and 6A, submit your assignment in the discussion forum for this week.  Then type two peer replies (200 word minimum each) attempting to refine your strategies and your SWOT.

Text –

Fred R David, F. R. (2019). Strategic Management: A Competitive Advantage Approach, Concepts and Cases, 17th edition. Pearson.

Chapter 5: Strategies in Action

Chapter 6: Strategy Analysis and Choice

Answer the question in APA format, NO plagiarism, need two peer responses

There are two types of credit analysis. The first is ratio analysis, which examines the health of a company’s finances, which is done to determine the strength or weakness of the company. The second form of analysis is ratio growth, which is done to determine the growth rate of a company’s finances.

This means making adjustments to raw data or ratios to get a clear and concise view of the financial health of the company. This analysis is usually done on balance sheet data like assets, liabilities and shareholders’ equity. Ratios, ratios of ratios and all the other accounting jargon usually apply to the above balance sheet data. Companies use these ratios to measure and compare their finances against their competitors, the sector and the market in general.

Financial Ratio Analysis The first thing a person, investor or banker should know when analyzing a company is to know the difference between the terms, equity, debt, leverage and risk. Equity: Equity (often called assets) is the amount of money or value of assets owned by the company. If you buy shares in a company and that company does well, you are a shareholder in that company.

As a shareholder, you are part owner of the company and in return, you share in the profits the company makes. Debt: Debt is money a company owes to other people or institutions. For example, if you put down a deposit to rent a property and the company defaulted, you could sue them for the amount you had invested.

Leverage: Leverage is the ratio of debt to equity. If a company has one dollar in equity and 10 dollars in debt, it means the company owes 10 dollars to anyone with a claim on the company. They could include an investor, a supplier, a partner, or any other creditor. If the company earns more than 10 dollars in profit, but pays less than 10 dollars in interest or repayment, that means that the company will pay more in interest or repayments than it earns in profit.

The company is taking on more risk because it is paying more in interest or repayments than it makes in profit. Risk: Risk is the chance something will go wrong. Companies that are not subject to risk are known as non-risky. These companies have minimal risk of defaulting on their debt. There is a chance, however, that their profit and or cash flow could go down.

Companies that have significant risk will be the ones most investors watch. Equity/Debt: Ratio The equity/debt ratio is a measurement of risk. A good debt/equity ratio is one that has less than a ten to one ratio. It is a measure of risk.

A competitive profile matrix is a way of evaluating how well your business website reflects who you are as a company. In simple terms, it’s a snapshot of the online presence that tells the world all the things your business is proud of, what makes your company unique, and the things that make you a poor choice for potential employees or clients.

A competitive profile matrix can be used to eliminate applicants. It can help to determine the potential strengths and weaknesses of the applicant. It can be used to eliminate applicants who have weak points in their profiles and be a guide for selecting the most qualified applicants for the job. However, it is used to rank the applicants and a recruiter or hiring manager has to keep the most relevant factors of each candidate in mind.

This is important to ensure the best possible fit for the job. Competitive profile matrices are useful tools to help you to develop and maintain a well-balanced and robust matrix that fits your organizational context. If you are unsure whether or not you want to work for an organization, it is extremely important to learn about their culture, mission, and business model.

As you look at your own company’s current technology, and where it is headed in the future, it is important to first understand where you are at and how your competition is doing. You do this through competitive profile matrices. A competitive profile matrix identifies where your company is at with your current technology and where it is heading.

Once you have done this, you can see where you are strongest and weak. As your technology improves and your focus in certain industries shifts, you can quickly gauge how well you are meeting the needs of the market. This gives you an understanding on whether your company needs to shift resources to a different area, or even completely change how it operates.

A competitive profile matrix (CPW) is a list of all the products and services you offer that are available on the market and then compare these to the products and services your target customers purchase. This matrix will help you see how your products and services align with their needs.

An example of a matrix would be a comparison of a product to the features offered by its competitors. A CPW is an extremely powerful tool that you can use to identify your most compelling and unique products and services, and it’s one of the most powerful tools available. A profile matrix, also known as a customer value matrix, is a table that allows you to compare and contrast the features, benefits, and/or services of your business to those of your competitors.

It can help you see who your customers value, what they want, and what they expect from you. A profile matrix lets you see who your customers want to talk to and who they will want to talk about the business with. It provides a snapshot of your competitive position in the marketplace.

A customer value matrix isn’t only helpful for understanding your customers, it is an extremely effective tool for improving your customer service, and it can help you gain new customers and grow your business.

Financial Ratios are one of the important things for you to understand and get to know about the organization. It can help you find some hidden problems and dangers in the organization. Financial ratios are simply a ratio between a company’s various financial ratios, and there are six financial ratios. 1. Current Ratio

2. Quick Ratio 3. Earnings to Fixed Costs 4. Sales to Fixed Costs 5. Earnings to Total Assets 6. Sales to Total Assets Let’s know about each of them. 1. Current Ratio It is the most popular of all financial ratios, because it’s easy to calculate. It’s usually the ratio of a company’s current assets to its current liabilities.

And it can be used to calculate the quick ratio as well. Current Ratio = Current Assets / Current Liabilities. It can give you some idea about your organization’s ability to borrow and invest now. To have a good current ratio, you need your cash flow positive and your assets higher.

Also, it can tell whether your organization is spending money wisely. If your cash inflows are greater than your cash outflows, it’s a great indicator. 2. Quick Ratio It’s the ratio of a company’s quick assets to its quick liabilities. It usually has a shorter maturity, but can be very useful in forecasting the company’s operating cash flow.

A company’s quick assets are made up of short-term cash, accounts receivable, inventory and prepayments. A company’s quick liabilities are made up of accounts payable, short-term borrowings and short-term deposits.

That was a great report, I should say. You presented a very diversified view. It is true that financial ratios are a very important tool for people trying to evaluate a company’s performance. There are different kinds of financial ratios like Liquidity ratios, Leverage ratios, Activity ratios, Profitability ratios, Growth ratios, etc.

These ratios help us in understanding different dimensions of a product of a firm or a company’s performance on a whole level. Each of the ratios has different purposes. For instance, the Current and Quick ratios are helpful in determining if a firm is in a suitable position to honor short-term business obligations. The Debt-to-Total-Assets ratio and Debt-to-Equity ratio help determine the number of funds pooled by creditors and investors.

Each of these ratios has different purposes and is useful to employees working in different roles. From this, we can understand that there are a bunch of ratios available for different uses. The toughest challenge that we can expect now is that do these ratios always provide appropriate insights or would the team that is supposed to use them for the firm’s benefit be capable of running the ratios and developing a proper analysis of the firm’s performance.

You have nicely described the financial ratio analysis case in this week’s discussion forum based on the learnings from the chapters and the broad understanding from the finance websites. In addition, your description of the critical success factors for Coca-Cola is the rating values ranging from 1-4 with the performance ranges to be responsive from poor to superior. I would like to add that the organizations most widely use financial ratios to analyze the financial performances, which strengthens the company and prepares for any untoward circumstances.

The financial ratios can be calculated from the organization’s information from the income statement and the balance sheet. The formula that can be used ranges from debt, equity, sales, revenue, gross profits, net profits, etc. The ratios can be built on several years and can become historical information. The inventory turnover ratio can be used and based on industry trends, but it keeps on changing with evolving trends.

Further, the importance of financial ratios lies in the fact that it helps the company to compare its operation against its competitors on various levels. The company can use multiple parameters to compare with its competitors and gain consequential information that can be used to gain a reasonable gain.

Great overview of the competitor profile matrix, and also finding a TON of financial ratios! As far as the competitor profile matrix, we used mostly the same success factors but also had one or two that were unique to our own. With all of that, we still had very similar scores where the Coca-Cola Company scored the highest overall, with PepsiCo in second, and Dr. Pepper coming in last out of the three.

It was interesting seeing the differences in the scores and how we viewed the company at their various success factors. Between my first job being with Coca-Cola straight out of my undergraduate college, and the current CEO having the last name of Quincey, I feel a slight connection to the brand and when grabbing a soda, I typically prefer Coca-Cola, unless Mountain Dew is available.

For companies, doing a competitor profile matrix, and consistently updating it, will help them realize where they can make improvements against the competition to ultimately obtain more revenue and market share.

I have never done, or even heard of, a financial ratio analysis so that was certainly new and eye-opening for me. I thought it was rather difficult figuring out some of the ratios as I couldn’t easily find some of the financial items listed through the various websites. However, it seems that the financial ratio analysis is another great technique for companies to use to constantly see where they can improve the financial standing overall to make sure they are doing the best for the company and shareholders.

I have read through your article, and I am impressed by your work. You have provided great information with reference to the Competitive Profile Matrix. The Competitive profile matrix is very much helpful in comparing many of the critical success factors taking most of the business institutions or products belonging to a specific line of business from different organizations.

We are all aware of some of the most important critical success factors like Advertising, Market Penetration, Global Expansion, Financial Position, Product Quality, Management, Customer loyalty, Profit Margin, Distribution System, Competitive Pricing, Variety of products, Brand Value, etc.

However, not all of the critical success factors may be suitable for all the organizations due to some of many reasons like the local governing laws or the size of their operations, or their customer’s demographic location. This stands true even if they were all in the same industry or if their products belong to the same line of business.

So, choosing the right critical success factors for comparison as part of the Competitive Profile Matrix is crucial to ensure the analysis, we are going to invest in is of any worth. Unless we take utmost care in choosing suitable critical success factors, we might run into incorrect analysis, which leads to situations where companies would still keep running with processes that might not be beneficial for a company’s existence.

I really enjoyed reading your Discussion post for this week. I like the different factors you chose to use for the matrix. I actually weighted advertising low too, because I didn’t think it was as important of a factor than some of the others. I rated advertising for all 3 companies the same across the board because I thought that the advertising for the companies were about the same. It looks as if you rated the revenue for the company’s the same as I did, which PepsiCo ranking the highest.

PepsiCo probably makes such a great revenue due to all the different types of products they offer to consumers. This would also help Coca-Cola and Dr. Pepper is they decided to venture out and produce other products as well. You added several factors that I didn’t think to add like Net income and Profit Margin.

I think customer loyalty is important and each of these companies have loyalty from a large consumer base. I believe that price competitiveness and product quality are some of the most important aspects here. your matrix also shows that PepsiCo has the greatest score, and that is exactly how mine turned out as well, followed by Coca-Cola, then Dr. Pepper.

You did a great job of laying out a matrix it was spot on with the data. Reflecting on the statistics from Coca-Cola we see the dominant stance in the drink beverage market. I noticed that Coke outweighed Pepsi in most categories. Although you included Dr.Pepper that is a Coca-Cola product so it’s not really a competitor to Coke. It is in competition with Pepsi. Coca-Cola company can look at the sale of all its different sodas under its umbrella to see which one sale the best.

Of course, Coke stays at the top of the list so it’s the most produced. Great review of critical success factors you seemed to touch on all areas and rate each one of them. The data seem to correlate directly with real market information that can be seen on the company’s website. None of them got zero which shows a great regard for some effort in each category.

Overall, they have some downfalls, but all of the soda brands seem to be doing financially well with assets being more than the debt incurred. Keep up the good work I look forward to working with you in the future on more post.

Thank you for sharing your informative and interesting post this week including Coc-Cola, Pepsi, and Keurig Dr. Pepper Comparative Profile Matrix (CPM).  In my opinion, I thought think Coca-Cola needs to explore product diversification and possibly strengthen their financial position.  Keurig Dr. Pepper saw a 50% increase in revenue after the two companies merged in 2018.  Keurig Dr. Pepper needs to venture into the international market with their product line or partnering up with an international company.

They could benefit greatly from a marketing and distribution standpoint.  It appears Keurig Dr. Pepper product line is very diverse but could it be too diverse?  Another goal of all three firms could be to create a healthy alternative to the sugary drinks they are currently producing.  After reading this week’s chapters, I feel it is very important to perform audits consistently and utilize metrices such as the SWOT, CPM, and conduct a financial analysis to determine the strengths and weaknesses of a firm in order to develop a strategic plan that will yield a competitive advantage.

In reviewing Coca-Cola’s financial statement, it appears the company is stable but there are opportunities that are not being explored.  It is imperative that all firms and organizations consistently assess their risks and opportunities.

Thank you for your response to my post. I do however have to respectfully disagree with you regarding Coke and Pepsi tasting “almost exactly alike.” I am a Coke drinker and if you reach me a Pepsi, I know from the first sip that it is Pepsi due to the sweetness of the cola. Coke has a stouter taste where as to me Pepsi is like drinking sugar. I do agree with you in that business and business practices have changed significantly for most every company still open.

It is sad that many doors had to close due to the pandemic and have not been able to reopen. We struggle on a weekly basis trying to find people to work in the clinics. Most are getting more money in unemployment benefits than they were working forty hours per week, which is sad.

There is no incentive for people to return to work if they can stay home and receive more unemployment benefits. That will change this this at least for Kentucky as the extra money stopped this past Friday so hopefully more businesses can reopen and have employees to work.

The competitive profile matrix shows that Coca-Cola ranks higher than Pepsi Co and Dr. Pepper. My competitive profile matrix showed that Coca-Cola ranked behind Red bull but higher than Pepsi Co and Monster Beverage Company. Coca-Cola can use the information shown to develop strategies to increase the company’s rankings, especially opinion or employee-based rankings.

When developing my matrix, I used both research and reviews to develop the scores and weights of the different aspects. Per the research, employees were distraught with Coca-Cola for promising bonuses, increased salaries, and effective management but failed to uphold any promises given to employees.

With the knowledge of how the employees view the company, Coca-Cola can implement goals to increase employee satisfaction and create effective managerial roles throughout the differentiated sectors of the company. With the financial ratios, Coca-Cola has increased its sales and revenues from 2020 but has not reached amounts that exceed years prior.

A key problem with Coca-Cola’s decreased sales before 2020 is linked to the coronavirus pandemic, consumer income fluctuations, consumer taste preferences, employment decreases, and consumers wanting nutritionally healthy and sustainable products. Coca-Cola has many areas that need improvements, with several areas the company excels in, all of which should be incorporated into the company’s overall goal of increasing profitability and productivity.

I really enjoyed your analysis of your CPM and ratios for this week’s assignment.  I found it interesting that you included the cold war between Pepsi and Coca-Cola in the 1980s.  I am very aware of the “New Coke” and how that it backfired on Coca-Cola and the quick changes they made to bring back the original formula.

I have actually watched a couple of documentaries on Coca-Cola and “New Coke.”  In fact, when I was a high school business teacher, that was one of the videos I would should show to my classes when talking about marketing and disasters that companies can make.  I notice that we have several of the same critical success factors on our CPMs.  One of those factors is advertising.  I gave advertising a weight of .06 and you gave it a weight of .08.

We both scored PepsiCo and Coca-Cola with a score of 4 on advertising.  You gave Dr. Pepper Snapple a 3 on advertising and I gave them a 2.  The reason I gave Dr. Pepper Snapple a 2 on advertising was that they only spent roughly $547 million on advertising in 2017 while PepsiCo spent over $4 billion and Coca-Cola spent slightly less than $4 billion.  What was interesting was that Dr. Pepper Snapple was still the 4th largest beverage company in 2017 with only spending $547 million on advertising.

I agree with you that Coca Cola is one of the leading organizations in its industry and has multiple strengths that help the company to thrive.  The strengths not only help Coca Cola to protect their market share in the existing markets but aid in their ability to penetrate new markets.

I also agree that here in Eastern Kentucky, people in general, when ordering a dark colored beverage, they typically ask for a Coke with their meal whether the restaurant offers Coke products or Pepsi the description is still the same and all these positive descriptions of Coca Cola are due to many factors including their advertising and marketing team, product quality, management, distribution and brand image.

I really like how you mentioned the 1980’s cola war between Coke and Pepsi and that for a short time Pepsi was the leader in sales and that it was in part due to what was described as a taste test experiment Pepsi set up and they blindfolded the participants and had them test a sample of Coke and then Pepsi and then choose their favorite. I think during that time is when Mountain Dew really started picking up also. Growing up in the 80’s and 90’s I know that everyone loved Mountain Dew

Strategic Analysis and Choices Assignment

RUBRIC QUALITY OF RESPONSE NO RESPONSE POOR / UNSATISFACTORY SATISFACTORY GOOD EXCELLENT Content (worth a maximum of 50% of the total points) Zero points:  Student failed to submit the final paper. 20 points out of 50:  The essay illustrates poor understanding of the relevant material by failing to address or incorrectly addressing the relevant content; failing to identify or inaccurately explaining/defining key concepts/ideas; ignoring or incorrectly explaining key points/claims and the reasoning behind them; and/or incorrectly or inappropriately using terminology; and elements of the response are lacking. 30 points out of 50:  The essay illustrates a rudimentary understanding of the relevant material by mentioning but not full explaining the relevant content; identifying some of the key concepts/ideas though failing to fully or accurately explain many of them; using terminology, though sometimes inaccurately or inappropriately; and/or incorporating some key claims/points but failing to explain the reasoning behind them or doing so inaccurately.  Elements of the required response may also be lacking. 40 points out of 50:  The essay illustrates solid understanding of the relevant material by correctly addressing most of the relevant content; identifying and explaining most of the key concepts/ideas; using correct terminology; explaining the reasoning behind most of the key points/claims; and/or where necessary or useful, substantiating some points with accurate examples.  The answer is complete. 50 points:  The essay illustrates exemplary understanding of the relevant material by thoroughly and correctly addressing the relevant content; identifying and explaining all of the key concepts/ideas; using correct terminology explaining the reasoning behind key points/claims and substantiating, as necessary/useful, points with several accurate and illuminating examples.  No aspects of the required answer are missing. Use of Sources (worth a maximum of 20% of the total points). Zero points:  Student failed to include citations and/or references. Or the student failed to submit a final paper. 5 out 20 points:  Sources are seldom cited to support statements and/or format of citations are not recognizable as APA 6th Edition format. There are major errors in the formation of the references and citations. And/or there is a major reliance on highly questionable. The Student fails to provide an adequate synthesis of research collected for the paper. 10 out 20 points:  References to scholarly sources are occasionally given; many statements seem unsubstantiated.  Frequent errors in APA 6th Edition format, leaving the reader confused about the source of the information. There are significant errors of the formation in the references and citations. And/or there is a significant use of highly questionable sources. 15 out 20 points:  Credible Scholarly sources are used effectively support claims and are, for the most part, clear and fairly represented.  APA 6th Edition is used with only a few minor errors.  There are minor errors in reference and/or citations. And/or there is some use of questionable sources. 20 points:  Credible scholarly sources are used to give compelling evidence to support claims and are clearly and fairly represented.  APA 6th Edition format is used accurately and consistently. The student uses above the maximum required references in the development of the assignment. Grammar (worth maximum of 20% of total points) Zero points:  Student failed to submit the final paper. 5 points out of 20:  The paper does not communicate ideas/points clearly due to inappropriate use of terminology and vague language; thoughts and sentences are disjointed or incomprehensible; organization lacking; and/or numerous grammatical, spelling/punctuation errors  10 points out 20:  The paper is often unclear and difficult to follow due to some inappropriate terminology and/or vague language; ideas may be fragmented, wandering and/or repetitive; poor organization; and/or some grammatical, spelling, punctuation errors 15 points out of 20:  The paper is mostly clear as a result of appropriate use of terminology and minimal vagueness; no tangents and no repetition; fairly good organization; almost perfect grammar, spelling, punctuation, and word usage. 20 points:  The paper is clear, concise, and a pleasure to read as a result of appropriate and precise use of terminology; total coherence of thoughts and presentation and logical organization; and the essay is error free. Structure of the Paper (worth 10% of total points) Zero points:  Student failed to submit the final paper. 3 points out of 10: Student needs to develop better formatting skills. The paper omits significant structural elements required for and APA 6th edition paper. Formatting of the paper has major flaws. The paper does not conform to APA 6th edition requirements whatsoever. 5 points out of 10: Appearance of final paper demonstrates the student’s limited ability to format the paper. There are significant errors in formatting and/or the total omission of major components of an APA 6th edition paper. They can include the omission of the cover page, abstract, and page numbers. Additionally the page has major formatting issues with spacing or paragraph formation. Font size might not conform to size requirements.  The student also significantly writes too large or too short of and paper 7 points out of 10: Research paper presents an above-average use of formatting skills. The paper has slight errors within the paper. This can include small errors or omissions with the cover page, abstract, page number, and headers. There could be also slight formatting issues with the document spacing or the font Additionally the paper might slightly exceed or undershoot the specific number of required written pages for the assignment. 10 points: Student provides a high-caliber, formatted paper. This includes an APA 6th edition cover page, abstract, page number, headers and is double spaced in 12’ Times Roman Font. Additionally, the paper conforms to the specific number of required written pages and neither goes over or under the specified length of the paper.
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