WHOLE FOODS 1. What are the chief elements of the strategy that Whole Foods Market is pursuing? 2. Is Whole Foods’ strategy well matched to market conditions in the food retailing industry (one of the criteria for a winning strategy discussed in Chapter 1)? 3. Do you think John Mackey has a good strategic vision for Whole Foods? Why or why not? What do you like/ dislike about the company’s mission “to promote the vitality and well -being of all individuals by supplying the highest quality, most wholesome foods available?” 4. Do Whole Foods Market’s core values as presented in case Exhibit 2 really matter? ma tter? Are they “real” or just cosmetic window dressing? What evidence can you cite to support your answer? Have Whole Foods’ core values contributed to the company’s success? Why or why not? 5. Based on the financial statement data in case Exhibit 1, how would you assess the company’s financial performance since 2009? Use the financial ratio information in Table 4.1 of Chapter 4 (pages 81-83) to assist you in calculating a revealing set of` financial ratios and interpreting them. 6. Based on the store operations data in case Exhibits 3 and 4, how well is Whole Foods Market performing from a strategic perspective? Does Whole Foods enjoy a competitive advantage over its 3 chief rivals—The rivals—The Fresh Market, Trader Joe’s, and Sprouts Famers Market? Does the company have a winning strategy? 7. What recommendations would you make to John Mackey regarding the actions that Whole Foods’ management needs to take to sustain the company’s growth and financial performance? APPLE 1. What are the chief elements of Apple’s overall o verall competitive strategy? How well do the pieces fit together? Is the strategy evolving? 2. What are the key elements of Apple’s strategy in computers, personal media players, tablet computers, and smartphones? Are those strategies successful? Explain. 3. What does a competitive strength assessment reveal about Apple’s domestic computer business, as compared to the leaders in the domestic computer industry? Use the methodology in Table 4.3 to support your answer. 4. Does it appear that the company’s competitive comp etitive positions in personal media players, tablet computers, and smartphones are stronger or weaker than its position in computers? What steps should it take to ensure that the iPad becomes a major contributor to the company’s overall performance? 5. Does it make good strategic sense for Apple to be a competitor in the computer, personal media player, smartphone, watches, and tablet computer industries? Which of the five products lines---computers, tablet computers, personal media players, watches, or smartphones---do smartphones---do you think is most important to Apple’s future growth and profitability? Why? Should any of the product lines be di scontinued? 6. What is your assessment of Apple Computer’s financial performance the past three years? (Use the financial ratios in the Appendix of the text as a guide in doing your financial fi nancial analysis.) 7. What strategic issues confront Apple in 2015? What market or internal circumstances should most concern Tim Cook and the company’s senior leadership team? 8. What recommendations would you make to Apple to address the strategic issues confronting it in 2015 and sustain its impressive growth in revenues and earnings?
PANERA BREAD 1. What is Panera Bread’s strategy? Which of the five generic competitive strategies discussed in Chapter 5 most closely fit the competitive approach that Panera Bread is taking? What type of competitive advantage is Panera Bread trying to achieve? 2. What does a SWOT analysis of Panera Bread reveal about the overall attractiveness of its situation? Does the company have any core competencies or distinctive competencies? 3. What are the primary components of Panera Bread’s value chain? 4. What does the data in case Exhibit 1 reveal about Panera Bread’s financial performance? How well is the company doing financially? Use the financial ratios in the Appendix as a guide in doing the calculations needed to arrive at an analysis-based answer to your assessment of Panera’s recent financial performance. 274 In addition to the ratios in Appendix, there are occasions when you will also need to calculate compound average growth rates (CAGR) for certain financial measures. The formula for calculating CAGR (in percentage terms) is as follows: CAGR % = [ending value ÷ beginning value] 1/n – 1 x 100 (where n = the number of year-to-year or period-to-period changes) 5. What does the data in case Exhibit 2 reveal about Panera Bread’s operating performance? 6. What does the data in case Exhibit 7 reveal about Panera Bread’s 3 business segments? 7. Based on the information in case Exhibit 3, which fast-casual and full-service restaurant chains appear to be Panera’s closest rivals? 8. What strategic issues and problems does Panera Bread management need to address? 9. What does Panera Bread need to do to strengthen its competitive position and business prospects vis-à-vis other restaurant chain rivals?
TESLA MOTORS 1. What are the key elements of Tesla Motors’ strategy? 2. Which one of the five generic competitive strategies discussed in Chapter 5 most closely approximates the competitive approach that Tesla is employing? 3. Are you impressed by the strategy Elon Musk has crafted for T esla? Why or why not? 4. What is your assessment of Tesla’s financial performance as shown in case Exhibit 1? Use the financial ratios in the Appendix of the text in calculating a revealing set of financial ratios and interpreting them. 5. What do we learn from the data in case Exhibit 2? Does the data provide additional valuable information? Why or why not? 6. What grade would you give Elon Musk for his handling of the battery pack fires and batterycharging fire in the residential garage of a Model S owner? 7. What are the issues/problems that Elon Musk and other members of Tesla’s top management team need to address? 8. What, if any, changes/adjustments in Tesla’s strategy would you recommend that Elon Musk consider? 9. What is your outlook for Tesla’s future performance and its prospects for revolutionizing the global automotive industry’s use of gasoline-powered engines versus battery-powered engines?
PEPSICO 1. What is PepsiCo’s corporate strategy? Briefly identify the business strategies that PepsiCo is using in each of its consumer business segments in 2015. 2. What is your assessment of the long-term attractiveness of the industries represented in PepsiCo’s business portfolio? 3. What is your assessment of the competitive strength of PepsiCo’s different business units? 4. What does a 9-cell industry attractiveness/business strength matrix displaying PepsiCo’s business units look like? 5. Does PepsiCo’s portfolio exhibit good strategic fit? What value-chain match-ups do you see? What opportunities for skills transfer, cost sharing, or brand sharing do you see? 6. Does PepsiCo’s portfolio exhibit good resource fit? What are the cash flow characteristics of each of PepsiCo’s six segments? Which businesses are the strongest contributors to PepsiCo’s free cash flows? 7. Based on the preceding analysis, what is your overall evaluation of PepsiCo’s business portfolio in 2015? Does the portfolio provide the company’s shareholders with an opportunity for above-average market returns? 8. What strategic actions should Indra Nooyi take to sustain the corporation’s impressive financial and market performance? Should its free cash flows be used to fund additional share repurchase plans, pay higher dividends, make acquisitions, expand internationally, or for other purposes? What other strategic actions should be pursued by corporate level management? SOUTHWEST AIRLINES 1. Is there anything that you find particularly impressive about Southwest Airlines? 2. What grade would you give Southwest management for the job it has done in crafting the company’s strategy? What is it that you like or dislike about the strategy? Does Southwest have a winning strategy? 3. What are the key policies, procedures, operating practices, and core values underlying Southwest’s efforts to implement and execute its low-cost/no frills strategy? 4. What are the key elements of Southwest’s culture? Is Southwest a strong culture company? Why or why not? What problems do you foresee that Gary Kelly has in sustaining the culture now that Herb Kelleher, the company’s spiritual leader, has departed? 5. What grade would you give Southwest management for the job it has done in implementing and executing the company’s strategy? Which of Southwest’s strategy execution approaches and operating practices do you believe have been most crucial in accounting for the success that Southwest has enjoyed in executing its strategy? Are there any policies, procedures, and operating approaches at Southwest that you disapprove of or that are not working well? 6. What weaknesses or problems do you see at Southwest Airlines as of mid -2014? 7. Do you approve of the AirTran acquisition and the way that Southwest has gone about integrating AirTran into its operations? Is the integration taking too long? Why go so slow? 8. What strategic issues and problems do Gary Kelly and Southwest executives need to address as they complete the integration of AirTran’s operations into Southwest’s operations and migrate AirTran’s employees into the Southwest organizational and ways of doing things? 9. What recommendations would to Gary Kelly and Southwest executives as the company heads towards the end of 2014 and on into 2015?
TOMS 1. In what ways does TOMS exercise its commitment to corporate social responsibility? 2. How does TOMS’ dedication to corporate social responsibility contribute to its competitive advantage? 3. What issues do you forsee coming from TOMS’ critics or what improvements do you suggest can be made on TOMS’ business model?
