Recently, thanks to the nearing of deadlines, each weekend has been dedicated to finishing or working on projects for classes. Last week it was Brand Strategy and this weekend Competitive Strategy. Comp Strat, or Consulting 101, has been a great class.
For those of us heading to Consulting after graduation, it’s almost a must-have. The first part of the class is lecture around different types of analysis and concepts that can effect a business and how they can help a person develop an effective strategy. The second half of the class consists of teams of 4 presenting their analysis and recommendations for cases that were assigned during the first week.
Our team’s case is Bernard Matthews (giant turkey company in the UK). We have to make recommendations on where BM should go in the future. Should they continue to expand only in the UK or move on to the European Community (time line is 1990)?
I’ve enjoyed working with our group. We work well together and that’s a good thing considering that over the last 2 days we’ve been together approximately 18 hours. Two meetings, one around 10 hours the other 8; thank goodness we get along reasonably well.
The deck is essentially complete. We only have a little more analysis on the valuations to do, but all is good.
The professor takes the presenting teams out for a drink at the end of the class. Now that will be time together well spent.
This is an interesting one to do… but I’ve got to wonder, the thing is, Bernard Matthews already operates outside the UK… was your assessment done in the light of the bird flu outbreak? The company has already begun to make some shifts in its product range etc (which apparently were in the pipeline prior to the outbreak).
Ah, okay, just read it properly – does “time line is 1990” mean that you are standing in 1990 making an assessment based on the 1990 climate?
I have recently completed and presented a case study on Bernard Matthews as part of my study (so you popped up on my Google search!), so I’d be interested to hear the outcomes of your study… I feel like I’ve been thoroughly immersed in BM for quite a while now.
Fortunately we had drinks (and dinner) after the class too, but it was a bit hard on those who still had to present the next day!