Approaching a typical (IB) Case Study

1. Profile the Industry

1. How big is the industry?

2. How global is the industry?
3. Who are the key players? What are their strategic positions?
4. What is the basis of competition in this industry?
5. Who are the suppliers and buyers?
6. How is the overall industry attractiveness?

2. Identify the Value Chain

7. What are the various activities carried out in this industry?

8. How much of upstream/downstream control do the key players wield?
9. How are the value chain activities configured and coordinated?
10. Which value chain activities are central to competitive success in the industry?
11. Where do my skills/competencies rank in comparison to the players in the industry?

3. Identify the Business Model of Self/Competitors

12. What do customers in this industry value? Are there country differences in terms of what
customers want?
13. What value proposition are players in the industry offering?
14. What are the key resources and capabilities that drive competitive advantage in this
industry? How are such key resources and capabilities acquired or developed?
15. Is there scope for strategic partnerships in the industry? Are my competitors already
pursuing such opportunities?
16. Is there a consistency between my value proposition and value chain choices? Have I
evaluated the problem-solution fit, product market fit and business model fit of myself and
my competitors?

4. Profile the Macroeconomic Environment

17. What determines customer demand in this industry? Is the demand cyclical/seasonal?
18. Are there broader risks (economic, currency, political, geopolitical, technological, natural)
etc. that my industry is extremely sensitive to?
19. How sensitive is my business model (and my competitors’) to changes in specific macro-
environment variables?
20. Which aspect of my value creation process will be affected by changes to macroeconomic
variables?
21. Are there trends in adjacent/complementary markets/technologies that I can take
advantage of?

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5. Location Decisions

22. Are there potential locations that I can target for globalizing my value chain or markets?
23. What is the market potential for each of the chosen markets? What is the size of the
industry in these respective markets?
24. What institutional risks should I be aware of when I target such markets? How are they
likely to change in the near/distant future?
25. Which activities should I be dispersing to the chosen locations? How am I going to
coordinate those dispersed activities for aggregating advantages?
26. Can the selected locations serve as a beachhead for me to target other proximate
markets?

6. Selecting the Mode of Entry

27. What entry mode choices exist for me to enter the locations of interest? How have my
competitors entered these countries?
28. Does the chosen entry mode provide me the advantages that I am seeking through
globalization?
29. Does the chosen entry mode permit me to successfully capture value that I am creating
across borders?

7. Craft the International Strategy

30. Which product/service offerings should I be taking to the chosen markets? How much
aggregation/adaptation should I build into my offerings?
31. Where should I locate each of my value chain activities? Should a greater portion of the
value addition come from home or in the foreign location?
32. What should be my chosen strategic positioning across Aggregation-Adaptation-Arbitrage
to realize the expected advantages across borders?
33. How should I structure my organization to take advantage of the benefits of globalization?
34. How much should I invest in the foreign venture? Do I make a small upfront investment
with incremental additions or do I go full throttle right from the beginning?

8. Implement the Strategy

Break down strategy into purchase/procurement, operational, human resource, marketing and
corporate finance decisions/targets and implement them. Ensure sufficient strategic oversight for
realizing advantages.