RECENT ASSIGNMENT

Instructions:
In this class we explore the concept of competitive advantage extensively. For this assignment, each team will select a company that has lost its competitive advantage. This may be a company that is still in operation (struggling or successful) or may be a firm from that past that was once successful but that is no longer in operation.
Use your strategic analysis skills to document what their competitive advantage was, how/why it was lost, and what the firm could do/could have done to prevent this or redevelop a new competitive advantage. Each team will collaboratively write a report that will include the following:
· High-level description of the company (or the specific business unit/division of the company you are focusing on, if applicable). This is more important if you pick an obscure company than if you pick a well-known company.
· What was the firm’s one-time competitive advantage? Be very explicit about this and use specific information from our textbook and other sources to explain in detail why the capability you identify qualifies as having been a true competitive advantage.
· Discuss the sustainability of that competitive advantage. How long was it sustained? How did the firm manage to sustain that advantage?
· What happened to cause their competitive advantage to be lost? Be specific.
· What happened to the firm as a result of having lost this competitive advantage? Where are they now?