Assessment of simulation:

Any company starts from a mission statement. The goal of our company ( company# 6)was to make changes in a downhill performance of a existing company by taking a corrective actions and implementing a right strategy in order to see a positive performance at the end of semester. The main stakeholders were stock holders and our customers whom we want to make satisfied and happy by giving them a good value for their money, selling them our dinner plates.

External analysis : Porter's five forces model

Rivalry within the industry-Low Attractiveness
The dinnerware was a competitive industry, because seven different companies were competing against each other, that's why I give a low attractiveness for a rivalry within the industry.

Threat of new entrants- Medium Attractiveness
There is a low prices of raw materials and also capital requirement is minimum too. However no threat of a new entry was in our case.

Power of buyers-Low Attractiveness
Customers have a lot of varieties to choose from. (7 companies)

Power of suppliers-Low Attractiveness
The raw material is a very simple, in general can be bought anywhere.

Substitutes-High Attractiveness
There is no substitutes for plates, may be paper or plastic, or dining out.
So, by applying Porter's 5 forces model, an overall evaluation is LOW ATTRACTIVENESS.

Internal analysis:

It was not easy compete against another six companies, we had to find a right strategy to make our company profitable. We thought that price is everything, when we lowered the price and sold more quantities. However, our company had some profit loss. So, we decided to cut cost and increase the sales price of our product and it worked out well, because our company became profitable. Our sales growth was up to 45% at the end of Q4 2006.

Business strategy:

Our company issued some bonds and also bought back shares of stock in order to raise the stock price. We also were trying to increase earnings per share.

Performance assessment:

Our company didn't do well as other two companies, because we made some mistakes. First of all, we didn't expand capacity from the beginning and than later we had to pay to subcontractors. Second, we didn't invest enough in R&D, Engineering.

Changes:

We would probably focused on more upscale products by selling more unique and luxury plates.

Strategic problems

Strategic problems can be crucial for any businesses and companies. There are so many problems that can affect performance of business. One of them might occur when auto makers limit themselves to narrow product line and don't invest in new- product development and innovation. Product development requires a lot of capital and time and when management refuse to look into the future the company will suffer, because it is not easy to satisfy customer's needs in today fast changing environment.

Ford is known as one of the largest US car maker. For many years their focus and concentration was on trucks and SUV. In a such competitive industry American legend have problems to attract customers due to high gas prices and tough competition from Japanese car makers: Toyota and Honda. Customers want to drive some mid-size and small hybrid cars and Ford is working hard to get loyalty of their customers back by improving quality of their cars and investing in a new products such as crossover vehicles. Company also face a big financial problems (net loss in 2007 was $ 2,7 compare to 2006 $12.7 billion). They had to put a lot of assets as collateral, reduced operating cost, cut workforce and sold their luxury brand Aston Martin . Hopefully, the management of the company will find the right solution in a such challenging time.