strategic-management

86 PART 2 • STRATEGY FORMULATION
ASSURANCE OF LEARNING EXERCISES
Assurance of Learning Exercises 3A
Developing an EFE Matrix for
McDonald’s Corporation
Purpose
This exercise will give you practice developing an EFE Matrix. An EFE Matrix summarizes the
results of an external audit. This is an important tool widely used by strategists.
Instructions
Step 1 Join with two other students in class, and jointly prepare an EFE Matrix for McDonald’s
Corporation. Refer back to the Cohesion Case and to Exercise 1A, if necessary, to identify external
opportunities and threats. Use the information in the S&P Industry Surveys that you copied
as part of Assurance of Learning Exercise 1A. Be sure not to include strategies as opportunities,
but do include as many monetary amounts, percentages, numbers, and ratios as possible.
Step 2 All three-person teams participating in this exercise should record their EFE total weighted scores
on the board. Put your initials after your score to identify it as your team’s.
Step 3 Compare the total weighted scores. Which team’s score came closest to the instructor’s answer?
Discuss reasons for variation in the scores reported on the board.
Assurance of Learning Exercise 3B
The External Assessment
Purpose
This exercise will help you become familiar with important sources of external information
available in your college library. A key part of preparing an external audit is searching the
Internet and examining published sources of information for relevant economic, social, cultural,
demographic, environmental, political, governmental, legal, technological, and competitive
trends and events. External opportunities and threats must be identified and evaluated before
strategies can be formulated effectively.
Instructions
Step 1 Select a company or business where you currently or previously have worked. Conduct an
external audit for this company. Find opportunities and threats in recent issues of newspapers
and magazines. Search for information using the Internet. Use the following six Web sites:
http://marketwatch.multexinvestor.com
www.hoovers.com
http://moneycentral.msn.com
http://finance.yahoo.com
www.clearstation.com
https://us.etrade.com/e/t/invest/markets.
Step 2 On a separate sheet of paper, list 10 opportunities and 10 threats that face this company. Be specific
in stating each factor.
Step 3 Include a bibliography to reveal where you found the information.
Step 4 Write a three-page summary of your findings, and submit it to your instructor.