As part of learning about strategic management, it is crucial to learn how to critically evaluate businesses. Since we are in an online class, it is difficult for us to have speakers, so to alleviate that problem, you will find a non for profit/socially responsible for profit business CEO/President/Owner to interview as well as do research about the company you pick. Explain to the leadership that you are interested in doing a case study of their business and get their approval. Then proceed with the following steps in creating a page case study:
Business Case Study
- Investigate and Analyze the Company’s History and Growth. Up to 50 Pts A company’s past can greatly affect the present and future organization. To begin your case study, investigate the company’s founding, critical incidents, structure, and growth.
- Interview the Leader you have identified: Up to 50 Pts Some basic questions could be the following. Formulate your questions in advance.
- Gather Information on the External Environment Up to 50 Pts The third step in a case study involves identifying opportunities and threats
- Basic biographical information and information about any organizational affiliation.
- Brief history of how s/he worked to address the social issue at hand.
- What successes or changes has s/he seen?
- What pressing problems is s/he still facing?
- What other individuals or organizations has s/he partnered with in change efforts?
- What suggestions would s/he have for college students interested in having an impact on the issue?
- How does s/he define leadership? Service? Does s/he see them as connected?
- What other resources (organizations, web sites, readings) does s/he recommend?
within the company’s external environment. Identify the competition for this non-for- profit as relating to fundraising and the population they serve. Also, what opportunities to fundraise and help their constituents exist?
- Analyze Your Findings Up to 50 Pts Using the information in steps one through three, you will need to create an evaluation for this portion of your case study. Identify, based on your research and leader interview, and compare the strengths and weaknesses within the company to the external threats and opportunities. Determine if the company is in a strong competitive position and decide if it can continue at its current pace successfully.
- Identify Company Strategy Up to 50 Pts To identify a company’s corporate strategy for your case study, you will
need to identify and evaluate the company’s mission, goals and leader interview. Is this the strategy the leader is following? Is there a new direction for the non-for- profit that the leader is working on?
- Make Recommendations Up to 50 Pts The final part of your case study should include your recommendations for
the company. Every recommendation you make should be based on and supported by the context of your case study. Never share hunches or make a baseless recommendations.
- Review Your Case Study Up to 50 Pts Look over your case study when you have finished writing. Critique your work to make sure every step has been covered. Look for grammatical errors, poor sentence structure, or other things that can be improved.
Requirements a) Use pictures and graphics that are appropriate, such as logo,
owner photo, business product pictures, etc. to enhance interest of your case study. Pictures should be appropriately placed within the case study and not just added at the end.
- b) Case study not to exceed 3 pages not including sources and interview. All files to be saved in PDF format.
- c) Include interview of CEO/President/Owner transcribed or a summary and at least 5 other reputable sources, such as articles about the business, industry and competition, business website and any social media the business uses.
Business Case Study Q&A
- Basic biographical information and information about the organizational affiliation. Cradles to Crayons started in 2002 in Boston Massachusetts. In 2006 we opened our second location in Philadelphia, and in 2016 the Chicago location was opened. Below please see our mission and vision.
Our Mission: Cradles to Crayons provides children from birth through age 12,living in homeless or low-income situations, with the essential items they need to thrive – at home, at school and at play. We supply these items free of charge by engaging and connecting communities.
Our Vision: One day every child will have the essentials they need to feel safe, warm, ready to learn, and valued.
- Brief history of you worked to address the social issue at hand. Although we collect many different items for children, our prime focus in clothing insecurity and educating the public on what clothing insecurity means. All of our clothing comes through donations. We do purchase certain products that must be new for example (diapers and hygiene products) but we do not purchase clothing. Many corporate and community groups hold clothing drives for us. Anyone can donate clothing at one of our 50 plus drop off locations.
- What successes or changes you have seen? I have only worked at Cradles to Crayons for about a year now, but I know we had a tremendous increase in requested items in our busiest season (October-December). In 2018 our average or requests for KidPacks was 500 per a week, in 2019 it was close to 1000.
- What pressing problems are you still facing? With the increase demand, we have seen an increase of volunteers and product but not to what our demand is. During the busy season, we ran out of clothing and some other essential items that we do not normally run out of throughout the rest of the year. We have not been able to fully support the demand operationally.
- What other individuals or organizations have you partnered with in change efforts? We have over 50 different partner organizations. Below are a few that we partner with. Please let me know if you need the full list:
- I Grow Chicago
- Heartland Alliance
- Metropolitan Family Services
- LIFT
- Youth Guidance
- Carole Roberston
- Las Casa Norte
- Trina Davila
- Family Focus
- ChildServ
- New Moms
- 6. What suggestions would you have for college students interested in having an impact on the issue?
I would say educate yourself as much as you can on issues in your local community, see what interests you the most and make and impact.
- How do you define leadership? Service? Leadership- Leading a group of people for the right reasons not the popular or most liked reasons. Service- Putting other’s needs before your own.
- What other resources (organizations, web sites, readings) do you recommend? My suggestions would be Google search specific non-profits or organizations that you are looking to learn more about. Chicago.gov is also a good place to search.
- What kind of strategy does the organization and you as per your decisions have? Due to the current situation, we are trying to serve as many kids as possible. With that being said, we have had to adjust our model for the time being and only distribute in bulk and new products. The organization is also looking at a pilot program where we connect families who have items that others are looking for. We are at the very beginning stages of this program, but we are hoping to serve kids who are geographically further away than Chicago.