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Once you have chosen your group, please select a firm that you will analyze for the semester.
Once you have chosen your group, please select a firm that you will analyze for the semester. Post that firm in the discussion board with your firm choice in the heading. A firm can only be chosen once per class, so once someone has taken it, it is gone.
* You may want to study a public or private firm. Either of these is ok, just understand that there are tradeoffs. Private firms will have less data available but are often times more interesting. Public firms, on the other hand, have way more data than you could ever go through in a single semester. Rather than excessive digging, you will need to be concerned with determining what the most relevant data is and what is not helpful.
*You cannot choose a firm that you or any group member is employed with or have been employed with in the last 5 years.
* The professor also reserves the right to reject a topic organization if previous classes have frequently analyzed it (e.g., Google, Amazon, Apple, St. Arnold’s Brewery, Landrys and so on).
*Your final project will apply the concepts we learn in the class to your chosen firm. A skeleton outline is below. Pages are a suggestion of what a strong project looks like, but they are not a hard limit. Content is the most essential piece to achieving a strong grade, but most good reports come in at 60-100 pages (including front and end matter, graphics, etc.)
*As you can see below, the first 8 chapters are fundamental to every business. What you will learn in these chapters is a diverse set of mental models that can be applied to whatever context you find yourself in. You will need to fully analyze your firm using the tools found in these chapters. Chapters 9-16 are a deep dive into more context-specific areas of business. You will choose the three chapters that are most relevant to your situation and use the tools found in these chapters to analyze your firm. After you have chosen your firm, work with your team to decide on what 3 chapters from 9-16 are most relevant to your situation. Once you have done so, please confirm with your professor that you are on the right track and your three chapters are approved.
Chapter 1
Answer the below questions. (1/2 Page each)
What goals does your firm have – Both short and long-term?
Briefly describe their competitive environment
What resources do they have?
How have they implemented their strategy historically? In the past 3 years?
Chapter 2
Performance – analyze the firm’s performance – compare to 3-4 close industry competitors (pg 40) (1/2 page – 1 page)
Where do you see their performance going in the next 5 years? (1/2 Page)
Chapter 3
Analyze the General Environment and use Porters 5 Forces to complete an Industry Analysis – 5-10 pages
Chapter 4
Analyze your industry using strategic groups and segmentation. Draw a strategic group map and explain. (2-5 pages)
Chapter 5
Use both Value Chain & RBV Analysis to analyze your firm value. (5-10 Pages)
Chapter 6
Analyze the Organization of the firm (4-6 Pages)
Chapter 7
Describe your firm’s Competitive Advantage. (8-10 Pages)
Chapter 8
Analysis of Industry Evaluation (What stage in the industry life cycle are we in? What has the history of your industry competition looked like up to this point?) (5-10 Pages)
Chapters 9-16
Choose 3 of the most relevant chapters and use those tools to analyze your firm. (5-10 Pages Each)
On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder
On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder
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On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder
On Tyranny is a book by Timothy Snyder which focuses on the rule of president Donald trump and suggests that Americans should be aware of what is expected of them as well as what they should do and make sure that they do not fall victims of authoritative nature of his rule. The notion of president trump becoming an authoritative leaders came just immediately after he was elected and this book was conceived as a twitter post then it became a reality. In the book Snyder discusses 20 different ways Americans should look out for themselves and avoid being trapped in a situation which is very difficult to get themselves out. This paper discusses these two ways Snyder discusses and how Americans received the leadership of president Donald trump in the face of conflicts and other arguments of what his main goal as president was.
Firstly, Snyder begins by warning the Americans that there is no democracy which is strong enough to resist change. This is especially in terms of authoritative governance when the person who wants to be authoritative and in this case with regards to president Donald trump has enough plans on how to execute his plan. He further affirms that the checks and balances which were established by the founding fathers had a reason so that one arm of the government was not too powerful and therefore an authoritative governance tries to break the institutions which are given the responsibility of upholding these checks and balances (Snyder, 2017). This means that when the institutions are not able to deal with the presidents’ ‘evil’ dealings it becomes very easy for such kind of leader to change the country leadership from democracy into authoritative like in the Holocaust whereby violence was very highly demonstrated.
The first rule which Snyder brings out in his book is the ‘do not obey in advance’ rule this means that Americans should not just be obedient to the president without looking into the direction he is going and what he could do when he receives the support of most of the Americans. He clearly states that tyranny succeeds by first winning the obedience of the masses and then using that obedience against the masses. He gives a clear example of how tyrants like Adolf Hitler got to be trusted by their people and then due to that trust they developed a kind of leadership which made the people suffer and, in the end, it is the people who allowed such kind of people to lead them in such a way.
The second rule which is also of great essence is the defending of institutions. As stated above leaders who want to introduce authoritative kind of governance deal with the institutions so that the members of such institutions will not be able to look out after the leader when he does wrong or tries to compromise the democracy (Snyder, 2017). Therefore, Snyder urges Americans to defend the institutions which defend their democracy and through their defending they will have the checks in place to avoid the country from falling into authoritative hands.
The third rule he states that Americans should be aware of one-party state. This means that the one-party state should never exist because without an opposition the president’s party gets the power to run the country in the manner they way since the voice to criticize them is faint or even non-existent. This however is significant in united states which has two major political parties and the others just very small or young political parties which affiliate themselves with either democratic or republicans.
The other rule Snyder states that Americans must take responsibility and face the world. This means that they have to reject showing off what the leaders want them to show off. For instance, hate, loyalty or exclusion which even comes into their private lives. The other very important part is that he urges Americans to remembers their professional ethics. Some professions have very strict ethics and even a career like doctors and nurses must take an oath (Snyder, 2017). He urges Americans to uphold these professional ethics of individuals like doctors, lawyers, and businessmen. He gives an example of how Adolf Hitler wanted his people to obey him and get away from the professional ethics and through this he demands that people stick to their ethics.
On military force, Snyder states that people should be warry about secret military force or death squads which the people in power use to enforce their ideologies. He discusses a lot of things which make sense to the Americans and indeed very important. Therefore, it is a good point to look into while at the same time not being too worried that the president cannot be allowed to work and dispense his duties. It is a positive book which arouses Americans will to maintain democracy and fight for what they belief it is true.
Reference
Snyder, T. (2017). On tyranny: Twenty lessons from the twentieth century. Random House.
On the economic front
On the economic front, the coronavirus has been devastating to most Americans. More than twenty people have lost their jobs which is really terrible. The basis of economic growth is that people earn money from their jobs and then spend in on different areas, which further stimulates growth. However, right now, there is minimal spending with people confined in their homes. When people are free to go out, they visit malls, restaurants and other establishments that encourage them to spend money. This spending is also what allows employers to make a profit and pay their workers. Now that most people cannot go out, they have very little chance to spend money, and this has led to people losing their jobs as businesses have closed down. Additionally, many people have lost their primary sources of income. Those working in the service industry such as hotels and restaurants, tourism, hairdressing and others have lost their jobs because these require close contact with customers. People who have lost their jobs have less disposable income; thus, this further depresses economic growth for the state and the country in general.
Psychologically, the virus has taken a severe toll on Americans and people all over the world. The majority of the world’s population have had to stay home to limit contact between people. The virus spreads rapidly the more people keep close contact with each other, thus staying home is the best way to minimize the spread of the virus. Staying confined to their homes for weeks has affected people psychologically. For those who have large families, people get on each other’s nerves, and there may be much fighting and arguing in homes. Everyone feels that the other is stepping on their toes and interfering with them. For those who live alone, they could be feeling lonely as they are unable to visit their friends and family. People also feel stressed because of being confined in one space for a long time. On regular days, people were free to go anywhere they want, such as work, out to dinner, get their hair done, and even just paying visits to their loved ones. With the current situation, staying at home can make people irritable, claustrophobic, anxious and even depressed. They worry about what the future will bring, like when they will get back to work.
The government has done many things in response to the spread of the virus. For example, most states imposed a stay at home order beginning in March. This protects more people from getting sick as it minimizes contact between people. The government also gives unemployment benefits and stimulus checks to individuals and businesses which have been an enormous boost. Most businesses would have collapsed under the weight of the virus. The citizens also have a responsibility to take care of their own welfare. Over the past week, there have been protests against lockdown orders which defeat the whole purpose of the lockdown. It was meant to keep people from close interaction, but protesters move in large crowds often without protective gear such as masks. People must realize that it is their responsibility to protect themselves and those around them.
In conclusion, the coronavirus has been devastating on the economic, political and psychological areas of life for people all over the world. My family has not been spared as we too have been struggling with the situation. My siblings and I have had a hard time adjusting to not being able to go to school. Our parents have also had to stay at home as they practise social distancing. However, on the positive side, we get to spend more time together, which happens very rarely on normal days.