Conduct an environmental and competitive analysis of your company and explain whether its success is strategically sustainable.

Part 1 (YOU ARE NOT REQUIRED TO DO THIS PART)
As a team of strategy consultants, you are required to conduct research on a company of your choice that has enjoyed, or deemed to have enjoyed, significant performance success in recent years, as measured by quantitative and qualitative data, relative to other firms in the industry. Drawing on relevant models, concepts and theories covered in this module and those gathered from your extensive group and individual research attempt the tasks below:

Task 1
Conduct an environmental and competitive analysis of your company and explain whether its success is strategically sustainable. Make sure that you present a working definition and framework of strategic success as well as solid data based on researched materials to support your case ( 20 marks)

Task 2
Identify and discuss the possible strategic trajectories or paths that your chosen company could follow in order to break away from its current industry and open up new market opportunities in spite of its current success. Justify your argument. ( 50 marks)
Task 3
In relation to evidence on your chosen company, discuss the view that innovation and creativity are critical components of strategic performance. (10 marks)
Task 4
Critically evaluate your research findings and explain what lessons you, as a group of consultants, have learnt from this assignment that may be of benefit to your academic and professional development. (10 marks)

THIS IS OUR GROUP PRESENTATION AND WE HAVE ALREADY DONE IT. WE CHOSE FACEBOOK INC. AS THE COMPANY FOR OUR REPORT AND MY ASSIGNED WORK IS TASK 1 WHICH IS Conduct an environmental and competitive analysis of your company and explain whether its success is strategically sustainable. Make sure that you present a working definition and framework of strategic success as well as solid data based on researched materials to support your case. WE HAVE 5 PEOPLE IN OUR GROUP. 2 STUDENTS WILL BE RESPOSIBLE FOR TASK 2, 1 WILL RESPOSIBLE FOR TASK 3 AND 1 WILL WORK ON TASK 4 AND POWERPOINT SLIDES. HERE IS MY DRAFT FOR TASK 1 AND I THINK YOU CAN USE IT TO ANSWER PART 2 WHICH IS Individual Supporting Contributions to Group Presentation
Task 2 draft
Facebook Inc. SWOT analysis
Strength
– Facebook Inc. is the largest social network site with 1.49 billion monthly active users all over the world by the end of July 2015. The enormous user base supplies invaluable personal data to Facebook. By knowing users interests and behaviour, Facebook can appeal more advertisers to advertise their products on the site to the users and therefore generating more revenue for the company.
– The second strength of Facebook is that the company does not spend a lot of money on marketing this is because their main marketing strategies are word of mouth and positive network affect.
– Revenues surge over many years due to strong ad sales
– The Facebook brand name is also a strength of the company. It is ranked at 122th in the list of 500 valuable brand name and valued at $24,180m by Brand Finance http://brandirectory.com/profile/facebook
– Facebook is run by a highly skilled executive team such as CEO Mark Zuckerberg, COO Sheryl Sandberg, CFO Mike Ebersman etc.
The social network site is available in 70 languages
– There is no hierarchies in Facebook management structure therefore decisions are made quicker and more efficient
Weakness
– Facebook has a complicated privacy model which seems unfriendly and not understandable enough to users for many years
– The majority of Facebook revenue is generated by advertising which accounts for 76% of the total revenue (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-25954825)
– Facebook does not have its own mobile operating system and hard ware therefore the operation of Facebook app will depend on other operating system such as IOS or Android
Opportunities
– The global online advertising market, excluding mobile advertising, is forecasted to increase from $68 billion to 120 billion from 2013 to 2016.
– Payments and other fees market is also projected to grow fast. It is forecasted that virtual good sales will reach $14 billion by 2016
– Facebook bought whatsapp which has 800 million MAUs. This give Facebook access to the massive Chinese market because Whatsapp is not banned in China
Threats
– Ongoing privacy concerns which could lead to strict privacy law could negatively affect Facebook business strategy and operation
– With increasing number of users and personal data, Facebook need more data centres to store user’s information. However, data centres consume huge amount electricity and emit CO2 into the surrounding environment which could bring strict environment regulation in the near future
– Government censorship in some countries could ban Facebook from operation
P.E.S.T.A.L analysis
Political
– Censorship policy is a political problem that Facebook Inc. is facing at the moment in some country such as China and Vietnam. These governments want to have control the flow of information from outside the countries and they also want to protect their domestic social network sites
– Changes in privacy regulation will have huge impact on Facebook operations. Ongoing privacy might result in strict privacy law in EU and other non-European countries
– Countries tax policies also have effect on Facebook financial performance. According to BBC, Facebook only pay £4327 in incorporation tax in 2015 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-34504474 which is too low compare to its estimated earnings generated in the UK
– Another political factor which also influence the company business activities is the change in government for example US 2016 election.
Economic
– Facebook Inc. is an international corporation therefore its financial performance will be effect by exchange rate, interest rate and inflation rate. Employment rate also affect Facebook revenue due to its impact on advertising spending.
Social
– Changes in lifestyle does have an effect on social network site. People nowadays spend more time online and on social network. Purchases are also being made more online which creates more revenue from advertising for Facebook.
– People witching from PCs to mobile devices such as smartphone, tablets will affect the site to invest more in advertising on mobile devices
Technology
– The advancement of technology such as 4G, smartphones has widened people’s access to social network site. Consequently, number of monthly active users of the site keep increasing.
– Increase in online bullying, viruses, spyware might prevent people from sharing too much their personal information online.
Environmental
– Strict environment regulation might result in how social network sites operate their data centre because these centres emit huge amount of CO2 into the environment.
Legal
– Intellectual property protection, privacy law and copyright law will effect on how social network sites operate. There have been numerous of dispute in regard with intellectual property or copyright e.g Facebook vs Myspace
Porter’s five forces analysis
Threat of entry
– In order to achieve economies of users, a social network site has to appeal a huge number of users and this is extremely difficult to achieve by a new site. The cost required to start a social network site is low however as the business grows, substantial capital will be needed to inject into the business to take it to a different level. Therefore, new site must have high capital in order to grow and compete. Intellectual property protection is also a barrier for a new rival because it is complicated. Additionally, a new site is required to offer highly different services in order to compete with other existing competitors such as Google+, LinkedIn, etc. Finally, a new site has also comply with strict government regulations on privacy and environment. Therefore, Threat of entry is a weak force
Threat of substitutes
– Online advertising on social network can be substituted by offline advertising and broadcast advertising such as television, radio. However, the future spending on these substitutes is forecasted to decrease because they are more expensive and less effective. As a result, threat of substitutes is a weak force
Bargain power of buyers
– The buyers in this industry is considered as advertisers who wants some space on social network site to advertise their products. As there are huge number of these advertisers such as Unilever, Starbucks, buyers are not concentrated. There is no switch cost if advertisers want to switch to different site for their adverts. The main revenue stream of social network sites is from advertising. Therefore, buyers have moderately high bargaining power. In conclusion, bargain power of buyers is moderate.
Bargain power of suppliers
– The main suppliers of social network sites are the users as they supply their personal information for the sites. The switching cost for suppliers is considered as none because users do not have to pay any fees to join any site. Therefore, power of suppliers is relatively high.
Competitive rivalry
– There are several balanced competitors in this industry such as Facebook, Google+, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Therefore, competition is fierce and the differentiation of the service they offer is low because they are using the same pricing models which are Cost-per-click or Cost-per-view for advertising. Additionally, the fixed cost required is high in order to run data centers, paying employs or investing in technology. As a result, Competitive rivalry is a strong force

NOW WHAT I NEED YOU TO DO IS TO ANSWER THOSE QUESTIONS BELLOW (HIGHLIGHTED IN GREEN). I ALSO NEED AN INTRODUCTION AND A CONCLUSION.

Individual Supporting Contributions to Group Presentation (Part 2)

Critically analyse a case situation in terms of strategic issues and make justified recommendations.

(a) Provide an executive summary for their personal and individual research and work undertaken for the topic set-required in Executive Report standard format: 150 WORDS
(b) Indicate and identify the key areas of research and sources which the student has had to identify and undertake to contribute to the group report and their key sources of research/references/literature search sources related to the topic selected. 150 WORDS
(c) A critical discussion of strategic models from the evidence identified by the individual student related to the topic set . 900 WORDS
(d) An indication of the individual key conclusions and findings related to strategic theories and models and the practical implications. 400 WORDS
(e) Identification of the key issues and conclusions which the student has learned as a result of undertaking the group assignment on the topic set and an idenfication of the success or failure of their group-team endeavours. 200 WORDS
(f) An indication of the way in which their individual contribution impacted on Group Discussion by listing the action points included in the report 400 WORDS