Q For part 2, you will focus on analysis. You will write a report assessing the potential strategic actions the company could take based on the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats you identified. The purpose of this second part is to give you an opportunity to practice analyzing how the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of a company can match up with each other, and in doing so, be able to identify the best actions for the company to take. Part 2 is due Thursday, February 24th at 11:00 pm CT. To accomplish the analysis for Part 2, you will expand this SWOT matrix from part 1 into a Strategic Alternatives Matrix (see the Strategic Alternatives Matrix below). In the Strategic Alternatives Matrix, you will identify the actions that come from the strengths matching with opportunities (SO), strengths matching with threats (ST), weaknesses matching with opportunities (WO), and weaknesses matching with threats (WT). For example, Coca Cola could use one of its popular brands (a strength) to launch a new health or wellness related beverage (the opportunity being an increase in demand for health related foods). You will produce this matrix and include it in your written report. The body of your report should describe and compare all the actions you identify and make an overall recommendation to the firm about the top three strategic actions they should take and why they should take those actions over the other actions. Your description of the eight potential actions could include how the company would go about performing those actions, the challenges and outcomes associated with those actions, and how the contribution of those actions to the success of the company could be determined. • SO – Actions that use strengths to maximize opportunities • WO – Actions that minimize weaknesses by taking advantage of opportunities • ST – Actions that use strengths to minimize threats • WT – Actions that minimize weaknesses to avoid threats Strategic Alternatives Matrix Internal External Factors Factors Strengths 1. Strength1 2. Strength2 Weaknesses 1. Weakness1 2. Weakness2 Opportunities 1. Opportunity1 2. Opportunity2 Strength-Opportunity (SO) 1. Strategic Action1 2. Strategic Action2 Weakness-Opportunity (WO) 1. Strategic Action1 2. Strategic Action2 Threats 1. Threat1 2. Threat2 Strength-Threat (ST) 1. Strategic Action1 2. Strategic Action2 Weakness-Threat (WT) 1. Strategic Action1 2. Strategic Action2 Expectations for SWOT Report Part II (due Thursday, October 7th at 11:00 pm CT) Points Assignment uses correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation and conforms to the provided submission format 3 The strategic alternatives matrix is included in the written report 10 A total of 8 strategic actions are identified: 2 in each of the SO, ST, WO, and WT cells. These items should not be more than 1 sentence in length (ideally, they should just be a few words). 8 The report is at least 4 single spaced pages in length (including the strategic alternatives table, but excluding bibliography), uses 12 pt. font (Calibri or Times New Roman), and has 1-inch margins. 16 The report is well written, easy to read, and persuasive as to the top three strategic actions the company should take. This part is subjective so do your best. If it is hard to understand what you are talking about, you will lose points. You must be very clear about which three actions you recommend. Adding some formatting may help improve the clarity of your recommendations. 10 At least three visualizations of data are included in the body of the report. For example, visualizations such as pie charts, line chats, bar charts, or infographics are included. 3 Total Possible Points 50 Your report must be at or fall below the 20% similarity threshold on Turnitin or it will not be accepted. You cannot use work submitted for a previous course. Your report is submitted through Moodle and a Turnitin report will be generated for you. Try to submit your report early so that if you do not meet the threshold, you have time to edit and resubmit it.