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Ernst and young company

Case Study
Please form a group of two and prepare a case study about a knowledge intensive firm. KIFs include audit companies, law firms, software companies, media-production companies, architectural firms, advertisement companies, consultancy firms etc. Please find a firm where more than 10 professionals work. You have to make a skype interview with the founders or partners of the company. You also have to make web research about the company which includes web pages and media coverage. You also ask documents from the company (brochures, notes, presentations, videos, public announcements and speeches). Using the template below, you will prepare a presentation (power point) and a report (word document). Please form the group immediately and contact with a KIF to study. During our online lectures, you need to submit both the groups and the firms that you have chosen. You have only two weeks to submit the firm and the group.
1.) Introduction to the KIF case
• What is the business of the organization? what the company does? What are their products or services?
• How it developed historically
• What is the background of the company: age, size, growth, market share? Who are their customers and/or suppliers?
• What industries and industry segments the firm is involved in, and the current position or situation of your firm within the industry
• What problems it is experiencing currently?
• “What is the specific business situation that is the focus of this case?”
2) The strategic-analysis section
• What is its mission?( Did you have to deduce it, or was it stated)
• Current strategy?
• Is this strategy consistent with the objective/goal, appropriate for the environmental context, being followed by management?
• Is there a clear objective/goal that can be quantified?
• analyze and discuss the nature and problems of the company’s business-level and corporate strategy
• and then analyze its structure and control systems.
3) The SWOT analysis,
External Environment-Opportunities and Threats (This section investigates the external environment in which the organization operates.)
• What are the key environmental trends?
• What are the competitive forces in the industry?
• Who are the key competitors? Which of the five forces (Porter’s) in the environment are currently affecting the level of competitive intensity within the industry?
• Which present current or future threats or opportunities important to your firm?
Internal Environment (Strengths and Weaknesses)
• Top Management: The objective of management is to ensure the survival of the organization within its environment. Is management achieving that objective? Has top management established a systematic approach to the formulation, implementation, evaluation and control of goals and strategy? Is there a vision, clearly articulated, guiding firm activities? Discuss decision making authority, degree of autonomy, team building, empowerment, etc.
• Finance: What was your objective in relation to finance? Numbers crunching is not the objective in this section. You are looking for significant trends that can impact the survivability of the firm. In conclusion to this section discuss the strengths and weaknesses of this function.
• Human Resource Management: The objective of the HRM function is to maximize labor force effectiveness. Did you achieve this objective? Or….
• Marketing: State your objective in relation to marketing. Did you achieve your objective? Provide a graph of market share change over time compared to other firms. You answer this in relation to 4 P’s:Is the firm’s pricing appropriate? Compare the place (distribution system) of the product offering. Evaluate the promotional efforts of the firm. In conclusion to this section discuss the strengths and weaknesses of this function.
• Operations/Production: The objective of the operations function is to increase productivity. Did you achieve this objective?
4) Conclusion
Conclude the paper with your prognosis of your firm

Case Study Writing Tips
➢ Keep your audience in mind: remember that you are writing for the audience who are not familiar with the background, details, and terminology of the situation. Keep jargon to a minimum and use complete sentences.
➢ Avoid meaningless details, but be specific if necessary. Only select details that support your case. You make a stronger report by adding specific detail. For example, don’t say that “profits increased” if you could say that 2001 profits were 13% higher than profits in 2000.
➢ .Make sure the sections and subsections of your discussion flow logically and smoothly from one to the next. That is, try to build on what has gone before so that the analysis of the case study moves toward a climax. This is particularly important for group analysis, because there is a tendency for people in a group to split up the work and say, “I’ll do the beginning, you take the middle, and I’ll do the end.” The result is a choppy, stilted analysis because the parts do not flow from one to the next, and it is obvious to the instructor that no real group work has been done.
➢ Use short-story-writing techniques: A case should be interesting. Each story element should move the narrative forward.
➢ Openings: Grab the reader with a character facing his or her biggest problem: set the scene for the oppositions, the frustrations, and the main conflicts.
➢ Provide relevant details: After an opening that sets up the situation, provide relevant details about goals, strategies, dilemmas, issues, conflicts, roadblocks, appropriate research, relevant financial information, people, and relationships. Be stingy with numbers (do not show all the numbers, but summarize them); they must help solve the problems, not confuse readers or send them off on unproductive analytic tangents.
➢ Use as much dialogue as possible: Make the characters come alive with dialogue. Straight narrative is boring.
➢ Endings: After providing the reader with a clear picture of the major problems, give the answer of what wa