Individual research report

If you work for a for-profit organization or company of at least 100 employees and 5 years of operational history, you should conduct research on your EMPLOYER for this assignment. If you are a full-time student or your employer doesn’t satisfy the qualifying requirement described earlier, please ask the instructor for the company that you study for this assignment. The goal of this exercise is to solve a problem that the company faces and provide the firm a recommendation of strategic actions so that the firm can improve its performance. You are expected to employ the tools we discuss in this course to analyze and support your analyses and recommendation (e.g., VRIS framework, core competencies, business level/corporate level strategies, etc.). Your report should include, but not limited to, the following analyses:
 • Identify the company and industry/industries that the company competes in. 
• Identify the corporate and business level strategies of the company. 
• Identify the core competencies of the company, if any, and employ the VRIS framework to analyze the core competency of the company and its weaknesses/problems. 
• Identify the problem that you want to help the firm resolve 
• Summarize your recommendation to the company. 
• Explain the rationale of your recommendation by outlining the strategic analytical tools and analyses that you have conducted. 
• How your recommendation helps the company gain and potentially sustain competitive advantage.
 In your research report including the cover page, you need to follow the following format: Your report must not be more than 3 pages excluding cover page and appendices. You must include a cover page which clearly identifies your names and section number. All exhibit and graphs must be placed in the appendix. Page/word limit is not applied to title page, tables, figures, appendices and references; 2 line spacing; Times New Roman 12-point font; 1-inch margin all around (i.e., top- bottom-, left- and right-hand margins); Use 8.5 x 11 paper; Use page numbers; Insert footnotes and proper citations (APA format) where necessary. You will lose 5% of the assignment grade for violating any of the formatting rules. You will lose points equal to 5% of the assignment grade for each violation.