Background Information

ToolsCorp Corporation is a fictitious company that does not exist anywhere. For the purpose of this course, it is located it in Tennessee. It builds power tools, lawn mowers, lawn furniture, microwaves, and ranges. All products are manufactured locally and sold through large retailers that place sales papers inserted in every Wednesday and Sunday paper. Although they have a thriving business in the United States and Canada, ToolsCorp is trying to break into the global marketplace.

ToolsCorp Corporation is a fictitious company that does not exist anywhere. For the purpose of this course, it is located in Tennessee. As members of the senior management team of ToolsCorp Corporation, your group has been asked to prepare a neat and organized report for the Strategic Officers Steering Committee (SOS-C) of ToolsCorp Corporation. The purpose of this paper is to obtain permission from them to go forward with the next step (developing a full-blown business plan) for ToolsCorp's strategic initiative to break into the global marketplace.

Paper should discuss the following (at a minimum):

• Executive Summary
• A complete strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis (including at least 5 factors from each category and full explanations of why each factor is important and why it was placed in the category) of the environment that exists within ToolsCorp and the environment that ToolsCorp is proposing (the SWOT analysis must identify at least five factors for each category of the SWOT—Strength,Weakness, Opportunity, Threat—and make doubly sure to fully explain eachfactor—why it is important, how its intended to use it, why it belongsin this category, and any other issue you feel explains its importance in theanalysis. Be sure to note the SWOT Common Mistakes, make sure you do not makeone of those mistakes. Be sure to realize, the internal SWOT factors must becurrent; while the external factors can be current or future-oriented factualinformation. Therefore, you cannot just make-up factors, especially theinternal SWOT factors—the Strengths and Weaknesses, the attributes of the firmin question—they are especially susceptible to unfounded and unsubstantiatedstatements, because ToolsCor p isa fictitious company. For example, youcannot claim ToolsCorphad x-number of dollars in sales last year; no such data exists, ToolsCorpis fictitious. Please see the Drawing Logical Conclusions file)

• An outline of the business plan to be developed for ToolsCorp's strategic initiative ( Generic BPs and MAs can be researched aslong as you find one that closely resembles ToolsCorp,its industries, and its goals—e.g., a manufacturing firm going global to thearea of the world you intend to locate and to the level of involvement youintend for ToolsCorpwould be ideal—engineer it by findingsuch a firm, then applying those specifics to ToolsCorp.However, get as close as you can and make changes to these generic plans totailor them to your ideas for ToolsCorp)
• Key operating principles as you will apply them (The Operating Principles need to statethe value or ideal the firm holds to help them make their decisions.)
• A preliminary market analysis of the market(s) into which ToolsCorp expands (Generic BPs and MAs can be researched aslong as you find one that closely resembles ToolsCorp,its industries, and its goals—e.g., a manufacturing firm going global to thearea of the world you intend to locate and to the level of involvement youintend for ToolsCorpwould be ideal—engineer it by findingsuch a firm, then applying those specifics to ToolsCorp.However, get as close as you can and make changes to these generic plans totailor them to your ideas for ToolsCorp.)
• The one-year, five-year, and ten-year strategic objectives of the strategic initiatives presented as one strategic proposal for each time frame (3 strategic proposals in all), complete with implementation plans, potential ramifications, and feedback mechanisms (each of your three strategies mustidentify three necessary elements—implementation plan, potential ramifications,evaluation mechanisms and measures. The implementation plan must tell us HOW toaccomplish your plan. Telling us WHAT you want to do is not a plan. Thepotential ramifications must identify several advantages and severaldisadvantages which may result from implementing your plan—the more pros andcons you identify the better. The evaluation mechanisms and measures must befour faceted—proactive and reactive mechanisms and the qualitative andquantitative measures those mechanisms gather. Be sure to note the StrategyCommon Mistakes section)
• The additional material that your group considers necessary to support the case for going forward with ToolsCorp's global strategic initiative (This is not optional, you must input additional material.) – should be financials of the company, the prospective financials after expansion, include a chart to reflect current and future