Strategic Management Spring 2020

FINAL PROJECT
Directions
Type Team project (5 people per team)
Follow-up meeting Webex meetings with each team will be held during
Week 15 (Monday 4th and Wednesday May 6th)
Due date and time Monday May 11th, 11:59 pm
Submission Via Moodle
Deliverables Executive report (Word) 50%
Pecha Kucha (Power Point) 40%
Co-evaluation (Survey Monkey) 10%
Last date to upload assignment with a minus 20-point penalty
is Wednesday May 13th 11:59 pm. Later assignments will not be graded.

The objective of the final project is to put into practice the strategic management
concepts and skills we have covered during the course. You will work in a team as part of a
consulting firm. Please read carefully the case presented in the next pages and propose a
strategy for your client. The audience of your proposal is of executive level. Please keep
this in mind and present the deliverables of your project accordingly. The project consists
of three deliverables:
 Executive report
Consists of a written executive report detailing the research that was conducted and the
proposed strategic plan. It will be graded both by its content (90%) and format (10%):
Content SWOT analysis of company’s product 20
PESTEL analysis of assigned countries 15
Country selection method 25
Five-forces of product's industry in chosen county 20
Generic competitive strategy recommendation 10
Format* Organization and format 5
Grammar and spelling 5

*Please write in English using font Times New Roman or Arial, size 12 font, double
spacing, and references. It is very important to present data from reliable sources and
that you are specific as where you obtained the information. Failing to report data
sources will diminish the strength of your proposal, and therefore have an impact on
your grade (minus 20-points). Check grammar and spelling.

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 Pecha Kucha
You will prepare a presentation in Pecha Kucha format. This type of presentations was
originated in Japan and is characterized by being highly visual. The structure of a Pecha
Kucha presentation consists of 20 images, each appearing for 20 seconds. This means
you need to create a presentation lasting a little less than 7 minutes. Using the data from
your written executive report, you will do a Pecha Kucha presentation for your client. It
might be impossible to show all your research in the presentation. Therefore, select
wisely which parts of your research you think should be presented. Remember that if
your client wanted to look with more detail at something shown in the Pecha Kucha,
they can always go back to your executive report. Since there will be no live
presentations, your Pecha Kucha presentation must be timed to change slide every 20
seconds and you will record a voice over. It is not necessary that all team members
voice is heard, you can decide who will record the voiceover. For more information on
Pecha Kucha you can go here https://www.pechakucha.com/ and some tips on making
your own Pecha Kucha please go here https://youtu.be/32WEzM3LFhw
The rubric for the Pecha Kucha is:
Contains relevant information 40
Visually attractive 20
Audio works properly 20
Length = exactly 20-slides 10
Timing = slides change every 20 seconds 10

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 Co-evaluation in Survey Monkey

The objective of the co-evaluation is to reflect upon your participation with your team
for the final project. Each member will evaluate the other members via a Survey
Monkey instrument. The link will be available on Week 15. You have two days after
submission to complete it (Wednesday May 13th 11:59pm) so you can properly evaluate
working with your teammates. Specific evaluations will only be known by the
professor, meaning no team member will know exactly who gave each grade. However,
you will receive an overall score of your team’s evaluation of your work. The possible
scores are: “superior”, “above average”, “average”, “below average”, and “weak”.
The aspects to be evaluated are the following:

Please bear in mind that if you receive an overall grade by your teammates of "below
average" or "weak", then the team grade obtained in the final project will be adjusted:
70% of project grade if co-evaluated "below average", and 50% of project grade if
co-evaluated as "weak"). Project grade refers to the grade obtained in the executive
report and Pecha Kucha presentation.
Failure to do the co-evaluation of the teammates, will have a direct minus 10-point
penalty for that team member as mentioned in the final project directions. The
evaluation received from the rest of the team, will be taken into consideration for
scaling the project grade if necessary.

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Case: The super foods market in the COVID-19 era

Consumers worldwide adopt different lifestyles that respond to changing conditions,

trends, new habits, and changing values. In the past years, there has been a growing
wellness trend in which consumers are becoming more conscious about their lifestyle
choices regarding their health habits. According to a recent Passport report, as a response to
the wellness trend, consumers worldwide have a renewed interest in ancient grains,
especially those that are perceived as super foods. This behavior can be seen primarily in
young consumers that want to be sure their food is good for their health and, at the same
time, friendly with the environment.
Even now, in the current COVID19 situation, many consumers are looking for foods that
can help them strengthen their immune system. Although there is no study that mentions
eating or drinking certain types of food will prevent people from getting sick of this novel
virus, health experts have advised consumers to maintain healthy habits. These habits
include eating properly and doing exercise through the mandated quarantines that have
been enforced by governments worldwide.
One of these ancient super foods produced in Mexico are chia seeds. Chia seeds come
originally from central Mexico. They were used by the ancient cultures of the region not
only as food, but also to extract oil to manufacture body paint. Today, people use the chia
seeds in food and drinks such as lemonade with chia. Also, it can be used to extract oil or to
produce flour for bread. For this final project, you are a consulting team for a Mexican
company* producing chia or chia-based products such as: chia seeds (raw), drinks, power
bars or healthy snacks.
The first step in this project is to do a SWOT analysis** to get to know your own
company and chia-based product. The company has pre-chosen five possible export
markets***, so you need to conduct a PESTEL analysis**** to know more about those
countries. Once you have information on all countries, you need to perform the country
selection method***** to choose one country among them to be the recommended export
market.
With that chosen country, the next step requires you to understand more about the health
and wellness industry in that chosen country. For that, please map Porter’s five-forces

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model****** to understand how strong is the influence of each force. Finally, knowing the
strengths of your chia-product and having mapped the state of the industry, you can
recommend one of the generic competitive strategies******* to the company.

Notes
*Mexican company – a company from, established, and operating in Mexico that produces
or manufactures chia-based products. If the company manufactures many different
products, choose the one product that you like (for example a power bar).
**SWOT analysis – analysis that includes strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
Please include at least 2 for each part of the analysis. You can present this in a grid as it
was shown in Week 4 (SMw4s6-Where are we-Firm level.pdf)
***Possible export markets – These countries are the result of mixing your individually
assigned countries.
****PESTEL analysis – you need to do a PESTEL analysis (political, economical,
environmental, technological, ecological, and legal) for each of the countries. At least 2
aspects for each, however it is recommended to add more. You can check the
presentation in Week 1 (SMw1s2-Where are we-Macro level.pdf) and Assignment 1
where you did this. Just remember in these past months many things have changed
(COVID19) and you might need to update your Assignment 1 PESTEL analyses.
*****Country selection method – you need to do the country selection method to choose
one country. You are required to incorporate 15 variables, with at least one from each of
the PESTEL categories. Also, you must have at least 5 qualitative and 5 quantitative
variables. You will need to show the country selection table. You can do this in an Excel
or by hand. I do not require to see the transformation or calculation, by looking at the
table I will be able to assess your work. Information on the country selection method is
under Week 11 (SMw11a-Where to compete-method.pdf) and this session was recorded
(check Class video recordings file for more details).
******Porter’s five-forces model – you need to map the five forces for the health and
wellness industry in the chosen country. The five forces include: rivals, new entrants,
substitutes, suppliers, and consumers. You can get some insights in the Passport
database available in ITESO’s Digital Library. You can also use external sources. Please

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use only information you can find in free websites and databases, there is no need to
purchase information as this is an academic project. If you cannot find information for
2020 use the most recent information available. We covered the five-forces model in
Week 3 (SMw3s5-Where are we-Industry level.pdf).
*******Generic competitive strategy –The strategies are: cost leadership, broad
differentiation, focused low-cost, and focused differentiation. The best strategy for your
chia-based product would be determined by the type of competitive advantage being
pursued and the market target.

More information about chia and super foods

Comisión Nacional para el Conocimiento y Uso de la Biodiversidad. (n.d.). Chía. Retrieved
from https://www.biodiversidad.gob.mx/usos/alimentacion/chia.html
ConnectAmericas. (n.d.). Chia: the global craze for this Latin American seed. Retrieved
from https://connectamericas.com/content/chia-global-craze-latin-american-seed
Everitt, L. (2012, March 23). The chia craze. Retrieved from
https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-17476690
Hursh Graber, K. (2013, January 19). Chia: Ancient Mexican seed and modern superfood.
Retrieved from https://www.mexconnect.com/articles/3963-chia-ancient-mexican-seed-
and-modern-superfood
Passport (2018). Reinventing Ancient Grains: From Traditional Staple Food to Modern
Superfoods. Retrieved from
http://www.portal.euromonitor.com.ezproxy.iteso.mx/portal/?m9OuxzUFi40QGAwTyK
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