trained small groups of young players aged 7 to 14. He grouped kids ages 6 to 10. Most of his customers are 10 to 13 years eld
them by age, gender, and skill and conducted training sessions and enroll in two to three Rocky programs per year. He has also
for small groups of five to seven at a local park. The first kids run a few camps in Boulder and Northglenn, which are ab-We
he attracted came by word of mouth as they quickly told 50 miles from Fort Collins. These have been successful but are
friends and teammates about “this British guy who teaches currently limited.
soccer and makes it fun.” His small al:t€:I’-SCl‘1C)Ol camps quickly There are several small cities within 25 miles of Fort
grew to include more than 50 kids. Word continued to get Collins. Loveland, a city of about 60,000, borders Fort Collins
around, and by the following summer Henning conducted 10 on the south. Greeley and Longmont, each with about 80,000
different camps-and quit his job at the meat packing plant. people, are about 25 miles away by interstate highway. These
He also trained 11 different Rocky 3v3 soccer teams that com~ areas have very limited soccer training programs except for
peted in tournaments across the state and nation during the their competitive teams, and awareness of Rocky is not very
summer. All of his players had bright blue jerseys with the high. Those who have heard of his academy are often not fa.
Rocky name across the front, and the success of these teams miliar with its philosophy and programs. I-lenning is not sure if
made the jerseys a great promotion vehicle. In Zoo8, four of parents in these communities would be willing to drive their
his teams competed in the national 3v3 soccer tournament, kids to Fort Collins for training. If not, he would have to run
with one winning a national championship. his programs there.
To keep up with the rapid growth, Henning brought a few Henning knows that he wants to grow his business, but
friends over from England to assist with training. Will Bowman wonders how he can accomplish his goal. He currently sees 3
moved to the United States to become Henning’s assistant di» few options:
rector of coaching. Henning and Bowman planned to work _ I
Veamound as trainers and hire amuple of-local coaches to help 1. His current customer retention rate is pretty high: about
them conduct training sessions. During the summer he added a 80 percent‘ _HoweVer’ when the kid? r_efaCh 14 or 15 ‘fears
couple of local college soccer players and a few former team» Bld’ other high School Sports ‘arid actwmes rflaké them less
mates from England. The summer season works nice for his lnterested In Elma Soccer trall“ng’ one Optlon 15 to t’W_[°
British mates, because that is the off-season for those still play» Increase retemlon by developing programs targeted at lads
ing professionally. Henning is confident he can hire and train Over M‘
more Coaches if he needs them to handle future eI.eWth_ 2. Another option is to develop a marketing strategy that
Youth soccer is big in Colorado and across much of the would encourage his Current Customers to bu? more‘ He
United States. It is the largest participation sport for kids. wonders if they have Other needs that he might be able “3
Fort Collins is a soccer hotbed, and this has helped Henning’s Serve”
business grow. He now trains about 600 kids per year. But he 3- Henning ‘-“-oUld UV Eo ETOW the l3115iI‘-655 bl’ efltfififlg new
has even greater ambitions. For example, he would like to markets 3nd acquiflng new Cl13’3om31”3- His market PET1eU’3′
build a training facility; the space he currently rents is not “On with kids‘ 6 ’30 9 Years Old 15 Still Clulle mode5t- H3
always well=suited to soccer. However, he figures he would mlghl Cle‘l’¢loP new Programs ro berrer rrleer rl1l5 8r‘3UPl5
need to double his business to justify the cost of the soccer needs-
complex he wants to build. So he is now wondering how to 4. Another new market option would be to serve more kids
grow his bu3iness_ from Loveland, Longmont, and Greeley.
About 90 percent of his current customers live in Fort
Collins, which has a population of about 110,000 people. Hen» Evaluate Henningb dififerent options for growing Rocl<y’s cusv
ning believes awareness of his program is close to 100 percent tomer equity. Develop a. set of marketing strategy ideas for each of
among competitive soccer players ages 11 to l4-and is prob» the options. What could Henning do for marlcet research to better
ably at about 40 percent among families with soccer-playing assess his options?
4. Lakeside Technology Services
Carmela lglesia is getting desperate about her new business. She knew that many of the upscale summer residents relied on
She’s not sure she can make a go of it-and she really wants to a home computer to keep in touch with business dealings and
stay in her hometown of Petoskey, Michigan, a beautiful sum» friends at home, and it seemed that someone was always ask»
met resort area along the eastern shore of Lake Michigan. The ing her for computer advice. She was optimistic that she could
area’s permanent population of 10,000 more than triples in keep busy with a variety of on-site services-setting up a cus-v
the summer months and doubles at times during the winter tomet’s new computer, repairing hardware problems, installing
skiing and snowmobiling season. software or upgrades, creating a wireless network, correcting
Carmela spent four years in the Navy after college graduar problems created by viruses, and the like.
tion, returning home in ]une 2009. When she couldn’t find a Carmela thought that her savings would allow her to start
good job in the Petoskey area, she decided to go into business the business without borrowing any money. Her estimates of
for herself and set up Lakeside Technology Services. Carmela’s required expenditures were $7,000 for a used SUV; $1 ,125 for
plan was to work by herself and basically serve as a “for hire” tools, diagnostic equipment, and reference books; $1,700 for a
computer consultant and troubleshooter for her customers. laptop computer, software, and accessories; $350 for an initial
548
In a a very well written case, witha strong argument, in 3 pages for the famous case Rocky soccer Academy.
While some of you may have significant experience analyzing and preparing business cases, others may be new to the process. Both groups can benefit from the guidelines provided on the following pages. In particular, be sure to follow the format guidelines outlined in Writing and Formatting section below.
6-step Case Analysis Process
Step 1. Management Dilemma. The dilemma is a signal of an underlying problem. It is not what you need to do or the company’s problem. It is the event or indicator (metric) that led you to think that there was a problem? Although there may be many dilemmas in the case, I want you to focus on one. Examples of a management dilemmas are decreasing profits, lack of competitive advantage, slow market growth, etc.
Step 2. Situation Analysis. A situation analysis is an analysis of the key factors in the case — it is not a summary of the key factors in the case. The SA represents an opportunity to integrate key points and apply course theory. The goal of the SA is to identify the core problem behind the management dilemma that you identified in Step 1. Try to avoid falling into the trap of confusing symptoms with problems. Declining sales, increasing costs, low morale are symptoms that are commonly identified as problems. You need to figure out why these symptoms are occurring. Also, do not make recommendations in the SA.
Step 3. Decision Point. A decision point is like an actionable problem statement. It should be connected to the SA and the MD. For example, if the core problem behind decreased sales is “The firm’s pricing strategy does not match its stated positioning strategy”, your decision point may read “How can the firm reformulate its pricing strategy so that it better reflects the market position goals and increases sales?” Thus, your DP is always in the form of a question and must flow logically from your situation analysis and management dilemma.
Step 4. Identification of Alternatives. You must briefly discuss three alternative solutions for dealing with your DP. Each of these alternatives should be realistic and meaningful. That is, do not throw in alternatives that have no value just to make three alternatives. Also, do not combine two alternatives to make a third alternative. It should not be hard to come up with three distinct alternatives.
Step 5. Decision Criteria. In this section you will discuss the key criteria used to select between the three alternatives. Similar to the DP, these criteria should flow logically from the SA and the Dilemma section. For example, if you identify decreased profit or revenue as symptoms of the identified problem in the SA, then profit and revenue are likely candidates for decision criteria.
Step 6. Analysis of Alternatives and Decision. Using the decision criteria identified in Step 5, you will discuss the pros and cons of each alternative and then select the most appropriate one. If you use a decision matrix and/or scales to quantify fit of each alternative with the decision criteria you must explicitly discuss the meaning of the numbers. That is, if you assign a 5 to alternative one on the profit criteria, you must be clear on what “5” represents. For example, does this mean alternative one does a good job of satisfying the profit criteria? Furthermore, if you are going to assign numbers to alternatives, include an explanation for why the number assigned for one alternative differs from the number assigned to another alternative.
