How attractive is the industry in which the firm is competing?

How attractive is the industry in which the firm is competing? How important are the broad environmental trends (and what are they). What does a 5-forces analysis look like? How does the company compare with the industry average?Internal analysis: What does the inside of the firm look like? For Example, what is the company culture? Is there anything unique about the Board of Directors and the Top Management Team? What are the company’s resources? (recall the VRIO framework) Capabilities? What can you say about the firm’s value chain? Make sure you include financial resources in your VRIO analysis.These are the professor’s instructions:The introduction from the professor was: Your group project this semester is to take a publicly traded company; perform an analysis of their performance over the past 3 – 5 years and then to make strategic recommendations to the CEO concerning the next 3 – 5 years. In doing so, you will not only need to analyze the industry in which they compete, but also determine how the firm can gain or maintain a competitive advantage, and identify macro-environmental opportunities and/or threats.Your analysis will be based on research from secondary (published) information that is available about your company. The company assigned to you is publicly traded and therefore there is plenty of information available. Your job is to select the relevant information about the firm (and the industry), and analyze (not describe) what has happened to the firms over the past 3-5 years. You must include footnotes which show the sources of information (citations) that you used in your paper.Some places to look for information are:1. Company’s website2. Annual reports and 10-K reports (in the library or go to www.sec.gov). Check also the proxy statements for the companies for data on the composition and compensation of the Board of Directors and the Top Management Team.3. Look at industry publications, research conducted by financial analysts and marketing research companies. Check Hoover’s Online, as well as the Standard and Poor’s Industry Survey’s. Look at the companies stock performance relative to the rest of the industry (www.bigcharts.com)4. Look for information about the company in the business press. Use Lexis/Nexus as well as on-line databases such as EBSCO and PROQUEST. Comprehensive company reports are often published in The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Fast Times, Business Week, Forbes and other business publications.5. Finally, look for press releases from the company as well as business publications from which you can glean information about the internal structure, control systems and organizational culture.