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Paper Instructions;
Week 3 Assignment
Week Three: Individual Country Analysis and SWOT
Assignment Overview:
Client Company: Walmart Inc.
Country level analyses to find countries with positive opportunity and trends and threats that will need to be mitigated.
The countries selected are Russia and Vietnam
You will use the PESTEL framework to analyze the POLITICAL, ECONOMIC, SOCIAL, TECHNOLOGY, ENVIRONMENTAL AND LEGAL opportunity and threat factors and trends in the external environments of two countries.
Please note a sample of this assignment is attached. I need you to create a document for Walmart that analyzes the opportunity for expansion in Russia and Vietnam.
Resources:
· PESTEL and SWOT articles in Required Readings
· How to write an Executive Summary – document attached
· Research Databases listed in Required Readings:
Assignment Objectives: Your objective is to compare PESTEL Opportunity and Threat in China and India markets; specify trends in those Opportunity and Threat factors that are likely to affect the country's business and economic environment over the next 3-5 years; and recommend one country as the better new market for your client.
Notes on Data analysis:
1. Be sure you compare the same Opportunity and Threat factors/trends for each of the countries and ensure that any ratings, rankings or aggregate measures you use are measuring the same underlying factors in both countries.
2. Whenever you use a country rating from a source, include a brief summary of the main country conditions (PESTEL factors) that contribute to the ratings. For example:
. "Business Environment" may be rated more favorable in one country. But what specifically is being measured: the POLITICAL, ECONOMIC, SOCIAL, TECHNOLOGICAL, and/or LEGAL indicators are more informative and may be more relevant to your client than the summary measure would indicate.
Similarly, if you use a “Risk” Rating, a higher risk rating may not be as important as the types of risk that are being aggregated into a summary ranking.
For example, if "Business Environment" or "Risk" is rated better in one country primarily because of legal protections for IP (which shape the overall better rating), but your client has no IP to protect in its expansion, then the more favorable ranking in one country is not relevant to your client, and both countries might be considered equally attractive IN SPITE of the better overall ranking of one..
Assignment format and requirements:
The Introduction to this paper should consists of (a) your statement of purpose; and (b) a description of your client company and industry (from your team's W2 analyses).
The body of the paper (approximately 10-15 pages double spaced) should be organized around Opportunity factors and trends first, and then Threat factors and trends:
I. Opportunity factors and Trends.
A. Economic Market Opportunity and potential growth: ALWAYS START WITH THE $'S WORTH OF OPPORTUNITY!
As an initial comparison, you can start with macro level measures from Five Year Economic Forecast, including GDP and Personal Disposable Income (PDI) as indicators of ECONOMIC opportunity—the Buyers’ potential ability to purchase your company's product/service. However, you should try to get as close as possible to indicators of opportunity for your client's particular product/service;: For example, if you are selling software to hospitals, look for health care spending; if your client is selling cybersecurity services, look for cybersecurity spending to compare across the two countries. But remember that you must have the same information for both countries in order to compare them!
B. Opportunity support factors are those PESTEL factors and trends that support the Economic market opportunity; e.g..,
1. Political support may consist of existing or pending trade agreements or positive trade relations with the client’s home country; government policy that supports funding/advancement of your industry
2. Economic support may consist of tax benefits, low or trending lower tariffs;
3. Social support may consist of favorable attitudes towards U.S. companies or growing interest in your client's type of product (e.g., green technology)
4. Etc…. for Technological, Environmental , and Legal support factors and trends
5. Include the opportunity to support your client's operational needs (the needs that your team identified in your company profile)
II. Threat factors and trends
Country PESTEL Threats and trends should be ranked by degree of threat, along with an explanation for your assessment/ ranking; e.g., if you consider political instability to be a greater threat in the country than currency fluctuation (Economic threat), explain why.
III. The Opportunity and Threat factors/trends can be shown in a summary table, but the text should explain how you weighted the factors/trends in order to compare Opportunity and Threat in the two countries.
• Include under the appropriate PESTEL the Threats to your client's operational needs. For example, if a technologically sophisticated workforce is required for your client to operate successfully in country, a country that lacks such social (education) support will be a significant risk for your client's operational success.
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IV. Conclude with a summary recommendation for one country as the better entry option.
VI. Write an Executive Summary for the entire paper (include company and industry description). Aim for approximately 2 pages, double spaced.
VII. Include a Title Page
Include a Table of Contents
placed just after the Executive Summary. Pages should be numbered, starting with page one as the Body of the paper (your statement of purpose), The Executive Summary can be unnumbered or numbered as i, ii...but it is not a part of the body of the paper.
VIII. Include a Reference list, using proper APA format for references and all in-text citations.
