This document provides instructions for a case assignment analyzing the U.S. cable service provider industry using Porter's Five Forces model. Students are asked to choose one cable company and recommend a strategic direction over the next five years in a 3-4 page paper. The document outlines key resources for conducting an industry analysis, including an IBISWorld industry report and background readings on Porter's Five Forces model and the Boston Consulting Group matrix. It provides guidance on research, analysis, formatting, and evaluation criteria for the assignment.

1. Module 4 - Case
PRINCIPLES OF STRATEGY
Assignment Overview
For this module, you will draw on the background readings to
prepare a strategic analysis of the U.S. cable service provider
industry using Porter’s 5 forces model. Examples of competitors
are Charter Communications, Comcast Corporation, and Verizon
Communications, etc.
Choose one company and recommend a strategic direction for
the company over the next five years (half to one full page).
Your analysis and recommendation should consist of a 3- to 4-
page paper (not counting the title page and references). You
may attach charts or tables you consider important as
appendices to your paper. (Like the cover and reference pages,
appendices do not count in the final number of pages submitted
in the assignment.)
To do this analysis, rely on the industry analysis discussion and
samples presented in your background readings, including:
Kunc, M. (2019). Chapter 4 - Industry Dynamics. In Strategic
Analytics: Integrating Management Science to Strategy. New
York, NY: John Wiley & Sons. Available from Skillsoft
database in the Trident Online Library.
For a useful industry analysis of the cable service providers to
help you organize your thinking, use the IBISworld data base
available through the Trident Online Library where there is an
industry report.
McGinley, D. (2018). Cable providers in the US. IBIS World
Industry Report 51711a. IBISWorld. Available in IBIS World
database in the Trident Online Library.
Case Assignment
Submit the worksheet as an appendix to your 4-5 page paper
(not counting title page and references) analyzing the U.S.
wireless telecommunication provider industry.

2. Keys to the Assignment:
1. Thoroughly review the materials on Industry Analysis and
Porter’s Five Forces Model in the background reading.
2. Conduct additional research on the U.S. cable provider
industry by using IBISWorld from the Trident Online Library.
IBISWorld is accessible through the Trident Online Library
Access search section of the TLC portal page. Under the Library
Access search box, click on Additional Library Sources.
IBISWorld is the fourth entry in the databases list. For
navigation help, click IBISWorld Navigation Tips.
3. Use at least 3 library resources in your research. At least two
of these resources must be high-quality references from peer-
reviewed academic journals. These are found in the Trident
Online Library.
4. Explain your analysis using terminology and concepts
introduced in this module. (All terminology should have a
definition from a peer-reviewed academic journal reference.)
5. Cite all sources and provide a reference list using APA
format.
6. Proofread and edit the paper. The goal is zero errors.
7. Submit your paper to TLC by the due date for this module.
For instruction on writing papers, citing sources, proper
referencing, and so forth, use Trident University's Student
Guide to Writing a High-Quality Academic Paper.
Assignment Expectations
Your paper will be evaluated using the criteria as stated in the
Case rubric. The following is a review of the rubric criteria:
Assignment-Driven: Does the paper fully address all aspects of
the assignment? Is the assignment addressed accurately and
precisely using sound logic? Does the paper meet minimum
length requirements?
Critical Thinking: Does the paper demonstrate graduate-level
analysis, in which information derived from multiple sources,
expert opinions, and assumptions has been critically evaluated
and synthesized in the formulation of a logical set of

3. conclusions? Does the paper address the topic with sufficient
depth of discussion and analysis?
Business Writing: Is the essay logical, well organized, and well
written? Are the grammar, spelling, and vocabulary appropriate
for graduate-level work? Are section headings included? Are
paraphrasing and synthesis of concepts the primary means of
responding, or is justification/support instead conveyed through
excessive use of direct quotations?
Effective Use of Information: Does the submission demonstrate
that the student has read, understood, and can apply the
background materials for the module? If required, has the
student demonstrated effective research, as evidenced by
student’s use of relevant and quality sources? Do additional
sources used provide strong support for conclusions drawn, and
do they help in shaping the overall paper?
Citing Sources: Does the student demonstrate understanding of
APA Style of referencing, by inclusion of proper citations (for
paraphrased text and direct quotations) as appropriate? Have all
sources (e.g., references used from the Background page, the
assignment readings, and outside research) been included, and
are these properly cited? Have all sources cited in the paper
been included on the References page?
Timeliness: Has the assignment been submitted to TLC
(Trident’s learning management system) on or before the
module’s due date?
Module 4 - Background
PRINCIPLES OF STRATEGY
Strategy is a broad term that refers to how a company competes
in the marketplace. A strategy reflects the firm’s values, its
purpose for existing, and how it will compete. A strategy is not
a detailed plan, but rather serves as a guide for how decisions
should be made. Strategy provides direction.
There are 3 levels of strategy.
Corporate-level strategy. The corporate level answers the

4. question “What business should we be in?” As an example, a
conglomerate corporation like General Electric that competes in
many industries or businesses – including aviation and financial
services – must carefully consider its corporate strategy.
Business-level strategy. The business level focuses on how the
firm will compete in a given industry. Will it try to crowd out
the competition by offering multiple brands and dominating
grocery store shelf space? Will it offer its products at a cut-rate
price and make its profit on volume rather than margin?
Functional-level strategy. The functional level (e.g., financial
strategy, marketing strategy, human resource strategy) defines
activities and processes that support the firm’s corporate and
business strategies.
Various models have been developed to assist strategic decision
makers in arriving at the right strategy for their organization.
We will review several important ones here:
The BCG Matrix
The Boston Consulting Group (BSG) matrix represents a
portfolio approach to corporate strategic planning. Many of this
popular models’ terms have become part of the everyday
language. This approach recognizes that many firms have more
than one product or line of services, and that not all of them
should have the same strategies because each may face different
competitive environments. Thus, a different strategy may be
called for, depending largely on market share and marginal
costs. Thus, a product with high market share and low marginal
costs would generate a large amount of cash high ROI or return
on investment) which could then be “milked” to fund other
products or lines that had higher costs and/or smaller market
share. The BCG matrix characterizes business into four types,
depending on how much cash they generate vs. cash they use:
· Stars
· Cash cows
· Dogs
· Question marks
The following video offers an excellent overview on how the

5. BCG matrix works:
Alanis Business Academy. (2016) Episode 96: How the Boston
Consulting Group (BCG) Growth-Share Matrix Works.
Retrieved
from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lc36fK38pLA
The following reading explains the BCG matrix in the context
of overall strategic planning and decision-making. You can
locate this book in the Trident Online Library, ebook collection.
Campbell, A., Alexander, M., & Goold, M. (2014). Some
history: From Boston box to three logics that drive corporate
action. Chapter 2. In Strategy for the corporate level: Where to
invest, what to cut back and how to grow organisations with
multiple divisions (2nd Ed.). pp 31-73. New York, NY: John
Wiley & Sones. Available in the Trident Online Library.
Porter's 5-Forces Model
Before a firm can settle on a specific strategy, it must have a
good grasp of the competitive environment in which it operates
and the possible approaches it might take to achieve growth.
What follows is a description of three models commonly used to
help strategic planners understand the competitive challenges
faced by the organization.
A traditional approach to strategy has the industry or business
as the focus of strategic analysis. The main method used to
determine a competitive strategy is the “industry analysis”, and
the primary tool used to conduct an industry analysis is
renowned strategy scholar Michael Porter’s Five Forces Model.
Porter’s model identifies five key forces that shape an
industry’s competitive landscape:
1. The threat of substitutes
2. The threat of new entrants
3. Bargaining power of suppliers
4. Bargaining power of buyers
5. Degree of rivalry among existing firms
An analysis of these factors can give insight into concerns like
the likelihood of price wars, the ease with which consumers can
switch from one product to an alternative, the likelihood that

6. the market could be flooded by competitors offering the same
goods or services, etc. All these factors will have an impact on
decisions about what products to sell, how to brand them, where
to sell, at what price, and how much of a profit margin can be
expected. The Harvard Business Review offers the following
concise video introduction to Porter’s Model.
Aleem, Q. (2016, March 22). Porter's 5 Forces Model in just 2
minutes. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved
from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWQMwnCFIj0
For somewhat more, here is an interview with Professor Michael
Porter. He discusses several examples of how the five forces
work in several industries including airlines, soft drinks, the
internet, and others:
The Five competitive forces that shape strategy. (2008).
Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYF2_FBCvXw
The Value Chain and Integration
Depending on the characteristics of the industry, the firm must
find a way to establish a competitive advantage. One way to
think about establishing this advantage is to think of a firm in
terms of its value chain. At each step in the manufacture and
delivery of a product or service, value is added. So, if you start
with a raw material, like ore, that material is then processed, for
example into steel. Then the steel is further processed into
machinery, which is then distributed to wholesalers, and then
retailers, who sell to consumers. You can see how at each step,
value is added.
A company can operate at any step in this chain. The degree to
which the company performs operations at multiple levels in the
process is called Integration. There is forward and backward
integration, depending on whether the firm moves closer to the
source materials or the end consumer. Integration can eliminate
or ameliorate some of the negative competitive forces identified
above. A firm can reduce buyer power, for example, by
purchasing the outlets where the product is sold. Think of the

7. farmer who sells his produce directly to consumers at a farmers’
market rather than selling to a grocery store. The farmer no
longer has to settle for the price the supermarket is willing to
pay – he has alternatives.
The following video offers an introduction to Value Chain
analysis as conceptualized by Michael Porter:
MindToolsVideos. (2017, March 6). Porter's Generic Value
Chain Model. Retrieved
at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeshYi6lj2Y
Also, read this short description of integration and be sure to
view the video there that gives some examples of how this
might work and provide a firm with strategic advantages:
Kenton, W. (2019, February 19). Backward Integration.
Investopedia. Retrieved
from http://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/backwardintegration
.asp
Li, W., & Chen, J. (2017, March 2). Backward integration
strategy in a retailer Stackelberg supply chain. Omega, 75, 118-
130. Available in the Trident Online Library.
Generic Strategies
Once a company understands its competitive environment and
its options for growth, it is time to generate some plans for
action. Most plans for action can be characterized as one of
three basic generic strategies. They are called generic, because
they apply to a number of industries: from manufacturing, to
service, to education, to health care. Porter’s three original
generic strategies were:
· Cost Leadership
· Differentiation
· Focus or Niche
The following video does a good job of explaining the different
generic strategies and offers examples:
The five competitive forces that shape strategy. (2008, June
30). Harvard Business Review. Retrieved
from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYF2_FBCvXw.

8. Standard YouTube License.
The following excellent article describes these three strategies
and shows how each calls for different types of tactics to
address the competitive forces identified in the Industry
Analysis (e.g., entry barriers, threat of substitutes, etc.).
Woodruff, J. (2018, December 17) Four generic strategies that
strategic business units. Chron. Retrieved
from https://smallbusiness.chron.com/four-generic-strategies-
strategic-business-units-use-496.html
Resource-Based View of the Firm
Another approach to analyzing and contemplating a firm’s
strategy is the resource-based view of the firm. In the resource-
based view, the focus of strategic analysis is not the industry or
business and the generic strategy a firm will pursue, but rather
the corporation or firm itself and the resources, capabilities, and
core competencies that the firm possesses.
The following video explains the resource-based view and
contextualizes the theory in strategic management theory:
Academi lib. (2015, August 2). The Resource-Based View
(RBV) of the Firm. Retrieved
from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-7wB1kild4. Standard
YouTube License.
The following reading gives an excellent overview of the
resource-based view:
Assensoh-Kodua, A. (2019). The resource-based view: A tool of
key competency for competitive advantage. Problems and
Perspectives in Management, 17(3), 143-152.
doi:10.21511/ppm.17(3).2019.12. Open Access article.
Available in the Trident Online Library.
Videos
Academi lib. (2015, August 2). The Resource-Based View
(RBV) of the Firm. Retrieved
from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-7wB1kild4. Standard
YouTube License.
Alanis Business Academy. (2013, March 7) Episode 96: How
the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) Growth-Share Matrix

9. Works. Retrieved
from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lc36fK38pLA. Standar
d YouTube License.
Aleem, Q. (2016). Porter's 5 Forces Model in just 2
minutes. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved
from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWQMwnCFIj0. Stand
ard YouTube License.
Kryscynski, D. (2015, January 5). What is Strategy? Retrieved
from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TD7WSLeQtVw. Stand
ard YouTube License.
MindToolsVideos. (2017, March 6). Porter's Generic Value
Chain Model. Retrieved
at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeshYi6lj2Y. Standard
YouTube License.
Porter’s Generic Strategies. (2013, July 15). Education
Unlocked. Retrieved
from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wXVnBrpZ-
U. Standard YouTube License.
The five competitive forces that shape strategy. (2008). Harvard
Business Review. Retrieved
from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYF2_FBCvXw. Stan
dard YouTube License.
Required Reading
Assensoh-Kodua, A. (2019). The resource-based view: A tool of
key competency for competitive advantage. Problems and
Perspectives in Management, 17(3), 143-152.
doi:10.21511/ppm.17(3).2019.12. Open Access article.
Available in the Trident Online Library.
Backward Integration. (2015). Investopedia. Retrieved
from http://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/backwardintegration
.asp
The following reading explains the BCG matrix in the context
of overall strategic planning and decision-making. You can
locate this book in the Trident Online Library, ebook collection.
Campbell, A., Alexander, M., & Goold, M. (2014). Some
history: From Boston box to three logics that drive corporate

10. action. Chapter 2. In Strategy for the corporate level: Where to
invest, what to cut back and how to grow organizations with
multiple divisions (2nd ed., pp 31-73). New York, NY: John
Wiley & Sons. Available in the Trident Online Library.
Hummel. (2018, April 13). Danish sportwear major Hummel
International forays into India. Asian News International.
Available in the Trident Online Library.
Kenton, W. (2019, February 19). Backward
integration. Investopedia. Retrieved
from http://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/backwardintegration
.asp
Kunc, M. (2019) "Chapter 4 - Industry Dynamics". Strategic
Analytics: Integrating Management Science to Strategy. New
York, NY: John Wiley & Sons. Available from Skillsoft
database in Trident Online Library.
Li, W., & Chen, J. (2017, March 2). Backward integration
strategy in a retailer. Stackelberg supply chain. Omega, 75, 118-
130. Available in the Trident Online Library.
Manktelow, J., & Carlton, A. (2015). Porter’s Five Forces:
Assessing the balance of power in a business situation.
Retrieved
from https://goenglishlive.com/index.php/case10/case10-2.
McGinley, D. (2018). Cable providers in the US. IBIS World
Industry Report 51711a. IBISWorld. Available in IBIS World
database in the Trident Online Library.
Woodruff, J. (2018) Four generic strategies that strategic
business units. Chron. Retrieved
from https://smallbusiness.chron.com/four-generic-strategies-
strategic-business-units-use-496.html
Optional Reading
Charan, R. (2014). It's time to split HR. Harvard Business
Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2014/07/its-time-to-
split-hr
Lawler, E. III (2012). Corporate Strategy: How HR Can Become
a Player. Forbes. Retrieved
from http://www.forbes.com/sites/edwardlawler/2012/08/15/cor

11. porate-strategy-how-hr-can-become-a-player/