Homework
Case Study, Stage 1: Business Environment Analysis
Before you begin this Homework, be sure you have read the "UR UMUC Healthy Fitness Center Case Study."
Purpose of this Homework
This Homework gives you the opportunity to apply the concepts of the Porter Five Forces model to a specific business, develop a strategic direction for your Fitness Center, and identify a process that could be improved with the use of technology. This Homework specifically addresses the following course outcomes to enable you to:
1) Analyze business strategy to recognize how technology solutions enable strategic outcomes
2) Analyze internal and external business processes to identify information systems requirements.
Business Environment Analysis for UR UMUC Healthy Fitness Center
The UR UMUC Healthy Fitness Center has been in business since 1980 and hasseen an increase in competition from small fitness centers, Cable TV and Internet Exercise channels and sites, Wii and other TV Game Console, various exercise equipment infomercials and increasing supply of Exercise DVD's . One of your fitness instructors told you that she saw a sign announcing the construction of Gold's Gym (a well-known national fitness franchise) a few blocks away. Your staff is worried and is looking to you to provide reassurance that the competition will not affect the business. In addition, you have decided to develop your strategic direction for bringing the UR UMUC Healthy Fitness Center into the 21st century.
You know that Michael Porter's Five Forces Model is a useful tool for analyzing a business, understanding the importance of the five competitive forces and helping to develop its Generic Strategy. It is also used to aid organizations facing the challenging decisions of dealing with changes made by existing competitors, entering a new industry or industry segment, or developing a strategy for dealing with new competition. The Five Forces Model helps determine the relative importance of the forces affecting competitive position that could affect the future success of a business. The Five Forces are:
i. Buyer Power
ii. Supplier power
iii. Threat of substitute products or services
iv. Threat of new entrants
v. Rivalry among existing competitors
The Five Forces and the Generic Strategy are fully described and discussed in the textbook, and the Business Model and Competitive Advantage are covered in Module 1. In order to analyze the Fitness Center's current competitive position and develop a Generic Strategic direction, you have decided to use the Five Forces Model to analyze your Fitness Center business.
Task
Using the textbook and external resources, write a short paper 2-3 pages in length, not including References page and cover sheet, responding to the bulleted items below.
Create a document that includes the following:
1) Brief introduction providing the background of the case, why you are writing and what is to come in your paper. This should only be 3-5 sentences.
• Perform a Porter's Five Forces analysis for your UR UMUC Healthy Fitness Center, addressing each force in one or two sentences and defining the force, its impact (Positive, Negative or Neutral) on the Fitness Center and whether it should affect your strategy (Yes/No). (See Textbook, pp. 18-21 and Course Module 1.) Do not identify solutions or things that you are doing that would affect the factor. (The idea is to identify how the different forces affect the UR UMUC Healthy Fitness Center and how much.) This provides you with a view of the business that will allow you to select a Generic Strategy and a Strategic Business Area on which to focus your efforts.
1) Determine which of Porter's ThreeGeneric Strategies (see textbook page 22) that you will use to improve your UR UMUC Healthy Fitness Center for the 21st century and explain why you selected it and tie it into the significant forces that you have identified.
Format your homework according to the following formatting requirements:
(1) The answer should be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides.
(2) The response also includes a cover page containing the title of the homework, the student's name, the course title, and the date. The cover page is not included in the required page length.
(3) Also include a reference page. The Citations and references should follow APA format. The reference page is not included in the required page length.