This week we are studying the External Environment as a criticalpart of developing strategy. A PESTEL Analysis is one of the majortools you use in studying the external environment.
STEP 1 - Please perform a quick PESTEL Analysis anddetermine what the biggest risk is to each company. Your task is todetermine the biggest PESTEL risk to each company and notnecessarily a comprehensive analysis.
STEP 2 - You have $1 million to invest in thesecompanies. You can invest in one, two or even all of them. Whichones would you invest in? How much of the $1,000,000 would youinvest? You must hold the investment(s) for fiveyears.
Analyzing the External Environment with PESTEL
This week we are studying the External Environment as a criticalpart of developing a strategy. A PESTEL Analysis is one of themajor tools you use in studying the external environment.
STEP 1
Please perform a quick PESTEL Analysis and determine what thebiggest risk is to each company. Your task is to determine thebiggest PESTEL risk to each company –and not necessarily acomprehensive analysis.
STEP 2
You have $1 million to invest in these companies. You can invest inone, two or even all of them. Which ones would you invest in? Howmuch of the $1,000,000 would you invest? You must hold theinvestment(s) for five years.
Alibaba Group Holding Limited is a publicly tradedHangzhou-based group of Internet-based e-commerce businesses,including business-to-business online web portals, online retailand payment services, a shopping search engine and data-centriccloud computing services. In 2012, two of Alibaba’sportals handled1.1 trillion yuan ($170 billion) in sales. The company primarilyoperates in China, and at closing time, on the date of its historicIPO, 19 September 2014, Alibaba's market value was measured asUS$231 billion. The group began in 1999 when Jack Ma founded thewebsite Alibaba.com, a business-to-business portal to connectChinese manufacturers with overseas buyers.
Alibaba's consumer-to-consumer portal Taobao, similar to eBay,features nearly a billion products and is one of the 20most-visited websites globally. The Group's websites accounted forover 60% of the parcels delivered in China by March 2013, and 80%of the nation's online sales by September 2014. Alipay, an onlinepayment escrow service, accounts for roughly half of all onlinepayment transactions within China.
Conagra Brands Inc. is an American packaged foods companyheadquartered in Chicago, Illinois. ConAgra makes and sellsproducts under various brand names that are available insupermarkets, restaurants, and food service establishments. ConAgrawas founded in 1919 and in 1940, the company began producing flourat its own mill. It created the Duncan Hines brand of cake mixes in1951 as a way to market more flour. It is currently the thirdlargest flour miller in the U.S. ConAgra produces a wide array offood products including cooking oil, frozen dinners, hot cocoa, hotdogs, peanut butter and many others. Some of ConAgra's major brandsinclude Hunt's, Healthy Choice, Marie Callender's, OrvilleRedenbacher's, Slim Jim, Egg Beaters, Hebrew National, P.F. Chang'sHome Menu and Bertolli.
Cumulus Media Networks is an American radio network owned andoperated by Cumulus Media. It controls many of the radio assetsformerly belonging to the American Broadcasting Company (ABC),which was broken up in 2007; Cumulus owns the portion of thenetwork that was purchased by Citadel Broadcasting that year. Thenetwork adopted its current name in September 2011, followingCumulus's acquisition of Citadel; prior to this, it had been knownas Citadel Media Networks since April 2009, after licensing the"ABC Radio Networks" name from The Walt Disney Company for nearlytwo years. The company is helmed by two radio executives fromAtlanta. Prominent hosts carried by Cumulus Media Networks includeDon Imus, Geraldo Rivera, Mike Huckabee, Mark Levin, MichaelSavage, Jim Brickman, Adam Bomb, Kix Brooks (American CountryCountdown), and Tom Kent.
Kaplan, Inc. is a for-profit corporation headquartered in NewYork City and was founded in 1938 by Stanley Kaplan. Kaplanprovides higher education programs, professional training courses,test preparation materials, and other services for various levelsof education. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Graham HoldingsCompany, formerly known as The Washington Post Company.
Kaplan Higher Education is a group of institutions that offerclassroom and online certificate and degree programs in fields suchas criminal justice, health care, business, information technology,and legal studies. Iowa College Acquisition Corporation, operatingunder the Kaplan University brand, also offers online programs. Atyear-end 2013, Kaplan Higher Education had approximately 60,300students enrolled. Kaplan Professional offers education forlicensing, certification, and training purposes, in areas includingaccounting, insurance, securities, real estate, financial planning,information technology, and architecture. Established in 1938,Kaplan Test Prep sells preparation materials for standardized teststhrough tutoring, on-site classes, asynchronous and live programs,print books, and digital products. With programs for individuals,schools, and businesses, Kaplan Test Prep offers preparation formore than 90 standardized tests.
VTB Bank is one of the leading universal banks of Russia. VTBBank and its subsidiaries form a leading Russian financial group –VTB Group, offering a wide range of banking services and productsin Russia, CIS, Europe, Asia, Africa, and the U.S. The Group’slargest subsidiaries in Russia are VTB24, Bank of Moscow, andTransCreditBank. VTB was ranked 236th on the FT Global 500 2011,The Financial Times’ annual snapshot of the world's largestcompanies. It climbed to 82nd in the ranking of the 500 largestcompanies in Europe, the FT Europe 500 2011, and to 38th in the FTEmerging 500 2011, the list of the 500 largest companies on theworld’s emerging markets. The Moscow-based bank is registered inSt. Petersburg and came 65th in the British magazine The Banker’sTop 1000 World Banks in terms of capital in 2010.
Wyndham Worldwide Corporation headquartered in Parsippany-TroyHills, New Jersey, operates several hotel brands across the world.Wyndham Hotel Group offers brands in lodging franchising, vacationownership, vacation rentals, and vacation exchange. It is composedof nearly 7,400 hotels under 15 brands spanning 66 countries in sixcontinents, competing in brand markets ranging from economy toupscale. In 2008 it purchased US Franchise Systems, Inc., owner ofthe Microtel and Hawthorn Suites brands.
Its brands include Days Inn, Dolce, Hawthorn Suites, KnightsInn, Microtel Inn & Suites, Ramada, Super 8, Travelodge,Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, and Wyndham Grand Collection. Itreported 2015 revenue of $5.5 Billion and is listed on the NYSE(WYN)
ZTE Corporation (formerly Zhongxing Telecommunication EquipmentCorporation) is a Chinese multinational telecommunicationsequipment and systems company headquartered in Shenzhen, China. Itis the world's fourth-largest mobile phone manufacturer. It alsooffers products that provide value-added services, such as video ondemand and streaming media. ZTE primarily sells products under itsown name but it is also an OEM.
With the evolution of the mobile industry, ZTE has grownsignificantly in its handset business and ranked No. 4 for bothmobile phone and smartphone domains as of Q2 2013. And ZTE won the5th place in U.S. smartphone market.
