OVERVIEW AND GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS The Billcutterz.com case describes a small start-up company that has suddenly begun to experience rapid growth, resulting from a wave of highly positive publicity for the company and its CEO/entrepreneur Barry Gross. Your overall task in this exam is to evaluate the company’s internal and competitive situations, and recommend some specific actions that would enable the company to successfully capitalize on its rapid growth, create and/or strengthen its competitive advantage, and improve operating and financial performance. In the process of doing so, you will apply many of the concepts and analysis tools and frameworks covered so far in TPGS Chapters 1 – 6, related Instructor Notes, and weekly Discussion Forums. Additionally, you will find it useful to apply some concepts and techniques that you studied in other required courses, such as managerial accounting and marketing. In order to organize your analysis of the case (and your exam paper), the Specific Instructions (below) have been grouped in six (6) Parts. Please organize your exam paper using the parts and numbering scheme as shown in the Specific Instructions. NOTICE: One of the primary reasons students lose points on written case exams is because they fail to follow the instructions, exactly as they are written; therefore, I suggest that you cut-and-paste each Specific Instruction onto your exam paper. Also, because of the depth of some of the analyses involved, you should NOT anticipate that you can write a good exam in one sitting (so start early in the week). SPECIFIC INSTRUCTIONS In response to each of the Specific Instructions, you must support and justify your response(s) with relevant evidence from the Case and relevant concepts covered in appropriate TPGS Chapters and/or related Instructor Notes. And, you are reminded to organize your exam paper using the Part and numbering scheme as shown in these Specific Instructions. Part 1: Assess Billcutterz.com’s current situation, by completing each of the tasks listed below: 1. Regarding Billcutterz.com’s strategy at the time of this case (May 2014): (1A) Identify and describe the key elements of Billcutterz.com’s strategy. (1B) Based on your response to (1A), which one of the five generic competitive strategies appears to be the foundation of the company’s overall business strategy? Support and justify your response. 2. Regarding Billcutterz.com’s business model: (2A) Does the company have a compelling Customer Value Proposition? Use relevant evidence from the Case and relevant concepts studied in this Course to support and justify your response. (2B) Does the company have a viable Profit Formula? Use relevant evidence from the Case and relevant concepts studied in this Course to support and justify your response. 3. Regarding Billcutterz.com’s current financial condition: In which financial areas is the company strong and/or growing? In which areas is the company weak and/or losing ground? In order to answer these questions and to provide support for your assessment, you must calculate and explain the implications of at least four (4) different financial ratios (using data from Case Exhibits 1 and 2). NOTICE: In order to make a meaningful comparison of Billcutterz.com’s 2014 to 2013 financial data, you must first annualize some of the 2014 data (because there is only 5-months data in the Exhibits). For example: Annualized 2014 Revenues on the Income Statement would be $221,208 ($92,170 divided by 5) X 12). You should do similar calculations only for the data that you use in your financial analysis. 4. Regarding Billcutterz.com’s current operations (its Value Chain): (4A) In which areas of its Value Chain does the company appear to be inefficient and/or ineffective (a potential weakness of the company)? (4B) In which areas of its Value Chain does the company appear to be very efficient and/or very effective (a potential strength of the company)? Use relevant evidence from the Case and relevant concepts studied in this Course to support and justify your responses to both 4A and 4B. 5. Regarding Billcutterz.com’s current resources and capabilities: Use the four VRIN Tests to evaluate the competitive power of at least three (3) different resources and/or capabilities that the company currently appears to possess. Explain why each resource or capability does or does not pass each of the VRIN tests. Use relevant evidence from the Case and relevant concepts studied in this Course to support and justify your responses 6. Regarding Barry Gross’s performance as CEO and General Manager: (6A) How effective has Barry Gross been at establishing and communicating a viable strategic vision for the company? Use relevant evidence from the Case and relevant concepts studied in this Course to support and justify your response. (6B) How effective has Barry Gross been at establishing and communicating viable financial objectives for the company? Use relevant evidence from the Case and relevant concepts studied in this Course to support and justify your response. (6C) How effective has Barry Gross been at establishing and communicating viable strategic objectives for the company? Use relevant evidence from the Case and relevant concepts studied in this Course to support and justify your response. Part 2: Use the PESTEL Analysis Framework to identify and describe at least three (3) strategically relevant trends that are likely to present either opportunities or threats for Billcutterz.com and similar companies in the “bill negotiation” industry, over the next 2 – 3 years. NOTICE: For the purposes of this analysis, you should use the present time (early 2017), as opposed to trying to recall 2014; therefore, you can think of the next 2-3 years as being 2017 – 2019. Part 3: Use Porter’s Five Forces of Competition Framework to assess the competitive conditions in the bill negotiation Industry. NOTICE: Because there is very little information on the bill negotiation industry in the Billcutterz.com case, you must first do an Internet search on the “bill negotiation” industry. 1. Evaluate each of the five competitive forces on two (2) or more different factors that affect that particular force, and rate the intensity of competitive pressure of each competitive force as being Strong, Moderate, or Weak. Justify and support your responses. 2. Based on your analysis of all five competitive forces, which of the five forces present potential threatsto the profitability of companies, like Billcutterz.com? Explain and support your answer. 3. Based on your analysis, which of the five competitive forces present potential opportunitiesfor average-to-above average profitability of companies like Billcutterz.com? Explain and support your answer. 4. Overall, is the collective strength of all the five competitive forces conducive to good profitability for firms, in the bill negotiation industry? Explain and support your answer. Part 4: Create lists of Billcutterz.com’s SWOTs: Based on the outcome of your analyses and assessments up to this point (in Parts 1 through 3), draw-up lists of Billcutterz.com’s internal Strengths and Weaknesses, and external Opportunities and Threats. NOTICE: Please number each item listed, for example: S1, S2, W1, W2, O1, O2, T1, and T2. This will make it easier for you to complete Part 5 (below). Finally, there should be NOTHING on your listings that cannot be traced back to one of your responses in Parts 1 through 3. Part 5: Based on your analysis of the SWOT listings created in Part 4: 1. Using the SWOT matching process (described in the Week 2 Instructor Notes), generate a list of 5 – 6 potential actions that Barry Gross could take that would enable the company to successfully capitalize on its rapid growth, create and/or strengthen its competitive advantage, and improve operating and financial performance. 2. From the list of potential actions that you listed, choose the three (3) that would most strongly recommend Barry Gross take. You must justify and support each recommendation. Part 6: Insights Gained: Describe at least three (3) ways in which your understanding of strategy and the strategic management process (NOT of Billcutterz.com) was enhanced as the result of having completed Parts 1 through 5 of this exam. .