Industrial analysis

Instructions: The goal of this assignment is for you to get a sense of how the industry operates. In this report, you should explain how the industry of the case company operates. You should identify the players in the industry (e.g. type of companies that supply raw materials, those that manufacture products, distributors, marketers, retailers, service providers, etc.). You should also illustrate how those players are connected and how they interact with each other. Your report should include at least one diagram that shows the industry’s supply chain (which may or may not be a linear sequential chain and may have forks and loops). You should also list major products/services of the industry, and the main customers. Please limit your use of numbers and statistics. The main objective is to have a description of the ins and outs of the industry. Please read all the material in the folder named “About the Case Company’s Industry”. Feel free to look for more data on the internet. Every external source you use should be listed as a reference at the end of your report in the APA Citation Style. – The assignment doesn’t ask you about the company; it’s about its industry. This is what the instructions says “you should explain how the industry of the case company operates”. Among other things, you should figure out and explain what raw materials are used by this industry and what products are produced using those raw materials. The overarching goal is to identify all the activities performed by this industry (including delivery, in-bound logistics, production, etc.) A diagram that shows those activities and how they’re connected can help a lot. – When identifying the industry players, you should first specify what type of companies are involved (major buyers, suppliers, partners, distributors, service providers, etc.) and for each you can name 1 or 2 companies. Again let me emphasize that this is not about the case company. It’s about the industry. So you should NOT identify Kimberly Clark’s buyers, suppliers, etc. You should identify the type of companies that are suppliers of raw material and other inputs to this industry. The same goes for buyers, complementors, service providers, distributors, etc. – Identifying the interrelationships between the industry players is not about how those players communicate. It’s about the transactions between them and how the materials, products, and services are exchanged between them. This can be easily done using a diagram. – Yes, you need a diagram. It serves many purposes, as you can see in the bullet points above. – Make sure you list the industry’s products; not Kimberly Clark’s. There may be some industry products that KC doesn’t offer/produce. Also, we’re looking for product types, not brand names. As for the customers, the question is who the companies in this industry directly sell to? The producers may not be in direct contact with the customers. So you may want to make the distinction between customers and end users. – A good starting point is the reading all the reports in the “About the Case Company’s Industry” folder.