Nike Analysis

Paper detalis:

I am part of a  group project for school. As a group we decided to look at Nike,  specifically the shoe industry of the business, and look at Adidas as  their main competitor.
The part I was assigned is as follows:
External analysis:  How attractive is the industry in which the firm is  competing?  How important are the broad environmental trends (and what  are they).  What does a 5-forces analysis look like? How does the  company compare with the industry average?
Internal analysis: What does the inside of the firm look like?  For  Example, what is the company culture? Is there anything unique about the  Board of Directors and the Top Management Team?  What are the company’s  resources? (recall the VRIO framework) Capabilities?  What can you say  about the firm’s value chain?  Make sure you include financial resources  in your VRIO analysis.
These are the professor’s instructions:
The introduction from the professor was: Your group project this  semester is to take a publicly traded company; perform an analysis of  their performance over the past 3 – 5 years and then to make strategic  recommendations to the CEO concerning the next 3 – 5 years.  In doing  so, you will not only need to analyze the industry in which they  compete, but also determine how the firm can gain or maintain a  competitive advantage, and identify macro-environmental opportunities  and/or threats.
Your analysis will be based on research from secondary (published)  information that is available about your company.  The company assigned  to you is publicly traded and therefore there is plenty of information  available.  Your job is to select the relevant information about the  firm (and the industry), and analyze (not describe) what has happened to  the firms over the past 3-5 years.  You must include footnotes which  show the sources of information (citations) that you used in your paper.
Some places to look for information are:
1. Company’s website
2. Annual reports and 10-K reports (in the library or go to  www.sec.gov).  Check also the proxy statements for the companies for  data on the composition and compensation of the Board of Directors and  the Top Management Team.
3. Look at industry publications, research conducted by financial  analysts and marketing research companies.  Check Hoover’s Online, as  well as the Standard and Poor’s Industry Survey’s.  Look at the  companies stock performance relative to the rest of the industry  (www.bigcharts.com)
4. Look for information about the company in the business press.  Use  Lexis/Nexus as well as on-line databases such as EBSCO and PROQUEST.   Comprehensive company reports are often published in The Wall Street  Journal, Fortune, Fast Times, Business Week, Forbes and other business  publications.
5. Finally, look for press releases from the company as well as business  publications from which you can glean information about the internal  structure, control systems and organizational culture.