COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

Assignment 1: Identify Your Competitive Advantage

Due Week 3 and worth 80 points

A SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis is a strategic planning tool that can help a business to boost profits and productivity by understanding its competencies (strengths and weaknesses) as well as the competition. For this assignment, you must select one (1) of following restaurants; Cheesecake Factory(http://www.thecheesecakefactory.com/ ), Ruby Tuesday (http://www.rubytuesday.com/ ), or Chipotle Mexican Grill(http://www.chipotle.com/en-US/Default.aspx?type=default ), and determine its competitive advantage. Be sure to identify the restaurant you have chosen in your written paper.

Write a three to four (3-4) page paper in which you:

Explain the restaurant’s strengths and weaknesses, and justify your explanation.
Identify one (1) way in which the restaurant can utilize its strengths and minimize its weaknesses to be competitive. Explain why you believe this would be effective.

Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:

Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; citations and references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.
Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required assignment page length.

The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are:

Explain a capital market system, the role of competition in a market economy, and how it impacts decision making.
Use technology and information resources to research issues in business.
Write clearly and concisely about business issues using proper writing mechanics.

Grading for this assignment will be based on answer quality, logic / organization of the paper, and language and writing skills, using the rubric found here.