U51062 Semester 2 2011 Strategic Management

• Two books on FedEx are available in the Short Loan Collection at Wheatley Library (the red section neart the Library entrance). Neither are particularly recommended, but we expect them to be heavily reserved:
• Basch, Michael D. (2002) Customer culture: how FedEx and other companies put other customers first  658.812 BAS
• Birla, Madan (2005) FedEx delivers: how the world’s leading shipping company keeps innovating and outperforming the competition  388.044 BIR
• Business Source Complete is always a good starting point. Firstly, click on More in the Toolbar and click on Company Profiles. In the search box enter FedEx to retrieve the Datamonitor company profile. It includes a SWOT analysis and a list of Top Competitors. For most competitors listed a company profile is available: Deutsche Post, Nippon Express, United Parcel Service, TNT, Con-Way, United States Postal service, YRC Worldwide, Arkansas Best Corporation, Japan Post. Profiles are not available for the Royal Mail or ABF Freight Systems. The profiles are concise, but reading them is a speedy way to see what the competitive landscape looks like.
• Continue in Business Source Complete by selecting the Advanced search screen and entering a search express service, selecting SU Subject terms from the drop down menu. At the time of writing we had 1509 hits, but these date back for many years, so just browsing a few pages of results should lead to some interesting recent articles. For a subject such as this one, both academic journals and the trade journals that BSC contains should be helpful.
• Enter FedEx as a search and specify CO Company Entity from the drop-down menu.
• Some of the results are the Datamonitor reports on express logistics, so refresh the Advanced Search screen and enter this as a search term, but scroll down to the box labelled Publication Type and specify Industry Profile.
• Next try the Investext database available on the Thomson One Banker  platform for analysts reports on companies and on the industry. See the Powerpoint presentation for instructions on how to search for companies (off campus users will have to enter their username and password): https//www2.brookes.ac.uk/library/resources/thomsonpowerpoint.ppt
• As described, click on the Research option in the left margin to obtain reports. Make certain that you extensively browse the lists of reports that you find. There is a great deal of luck involved in finding useful reports! There is no standard format. All give advice on whether to buy or sell shares, but vary from one page of insignificant news to reams of financial data. But there are some nuggets in there if you search; it is possible to find wide-ranging reports on the performance of the company, the factors influencing it and the competitive landscape of the industry. Particularly try to find the longer reports. We particularly like reports from JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank, but try others too.
• It is also possible to find reports on the industry. Under the Research option in the left margin that you have to use to find the Company reports, you will see the option Conduct Research Report Search. The Powerpoint explains how to use it. Enter express delivery in the text search box. Then select Last 2 years from the Report Date drop down menu. Finally scroll down to the box headed Criteria and click on the Include button to insert your search terms into the search Criteria box. Then, click on Search.
• The results include reports on many leading companies. Look for the reports of 21 September 2010 by Datamonitor Global Road Freight-Competitive Landscape. This includes much of the company information given in the Datamonitor reports mentioned above, but also includes a five forces analysis of the industry.
• Next, look at the Factiva news database. Look at the Powerpoint on using Factiva (off campus users will have to enter their username and password): https://www2.brookes.ac.uk/library/resources/factivapowerpoint.ppt
•  There are endless search strategies you could use. Search for companies in which you are interested:
• 1  Click on the Company index option in the left margin. When it opens up enter e.g. FedEx in the search box and click on the search symbol to the right. When the list of companies appears, click on FedEx Corp and it turns pink and is saved as a search option in pink at the top of the section (click on it again to turn it off).
• 2  Then click on the Subject index option in the left margin and in the list that opens click on the + next to Corporate/Industrial News, then scroll down the list of subject sand click on Plans/Strategy to turn this heading pink and save in the search.
• 3  Run the search. At the time of writing 943 articles are found. This sounds like too much , but they are given in reverse chronological order back to c1989, so there are not so many for recent years.
• 4  If you think there are too many go back to the search screen (click on Modify Search at the top right). At the top of the search screen in the Free text search box , add wc>600, which means word count over 600 (it can be any number you want). You retrieve only larger articles with over 600 words, at the time of writing only 216 articles. Much more manageable.
• Last of all, this is a blog. There are many articles that you might stumble across in these databases. Feel free to share what you find by posting up an entry. Good luck with your assignment!

U51062 Semester 1 2010 Strategic Management

A variety of books on the car industry have been placed on Short Loan (the red section near the entrance) in Wheatley Library. They can be borrowed for 4 hours only and cannot be taken from the Library. We are not attempting to recommend any, but everything on the car industry would soon be heavily reserved, so at least everyone has a better opportunity to see them. You could, perhaps, blog your opinions about titles. Full citations can be taken from the books. Scroll further down for advice on using databases:

338.292095195 STE  Steers, Richard M. (1999) Made in Korea: Chung Ju Hu and the rise of Hyundai.

338.47629222 BEC  Becker, Helmut  (2006) High noon in the automotive industry.

338.4762920973  STU   Studer-Noguez, Isabel (2002) Ford and the global strategies of multinationals: the North American auto industry.

338.47629222 MAS  Gottschalk, B. and Kalmbach, R. (2007) Mastering automotive challenges.

338.4672922 MAX  Maxton, G.P. and Wormald, J.  (1995) Driving over a cliff?: business lessons from the world’s car industry.

338.47629222 MIK  Mikler, John (2009) Greening the car industry: varieties of capitalism and climate change.

338.47629222 SEC  Freyssenet, Michael ed. (2009) The second automobile revolution.

338.476292222 ROS  Rosengarten, P.G. and Stuermer, C.B. (2006) Premium power: the secret of success of Mercedes Benz, BMW, Porsche and Audi

338.47629222094 EUR  Heneric, Oliver etc. (2005) Europe’s automotive industry on the move: competitiveness in a changing world.

338.47629222094 GLO  Freyssenet, Michael etc. eds. (2003) Globalization or regionalization of the European car industry?

338.762922220943 KIL  Kiley, D. (2004) Driven: inside BMW, the most admired car company in the world.

338.476292220947 SIE  Siegelbaum , Lewis H. (2008) Cars for comrades: the life of the Soviet automobile.

338.47629222095 GLO  Freyssenet, Michael etc. eds. (2003) Globalization or regionalization of the American and Asian Car Industry?

338.476292220951 CHI  Chin, Gregory T.  (2010) China’s automotive modernization: the party-state and the multinational corporations.

338.4796292220951 GAL  Gallagher, Kelly Sims (2006) China shifts gears: automakers, oil, pollution, and development.

338.476292220952 MEH  Mehri, Darius (2005) Notes from Toyota-land: an American engineer in Japan.

338.47662920952 OSO  Osono, Emi etc. (2008) Extreme Toyota: radical contradictions that drive success at the world’s best manufacturer.

338.476292220952 SHI  Shimokawa, Koichi (2010) Japan and the global automotive industry.

338.476292220952 SHI  Shimokawa, Koichi (1994) The Japanese automobile industry: a business history.

338.476292220954 BEC  Becker-Ritterspach, F.A.A.  (2009) Hybridization of MNE subsidiaries: the automotive sector in India.

338.476292220973 HAS  Hasegawa, Yozo  (2008) Clean car wars: how Honda and Toyota are winning the battle of the eco-friendly autos.

338.476292220973 ING  Ingrassia, Paul (2010) Crash course: the American automobile industry’s road from glory to disaster.

338.476292220973 TAY  Taylor, Alex (2010) Sixty to zero: an inside look at the collapse of General Motors – and the Detroit auto industry.

 

Look at the EBSCOhost database guide and connect to the Business Source Complete database. Enter automobile industry as a search and from the drop down menu select SU Subject Term (we clicked on the Thesaurus button and entered the search automobile and found that the subject index term used is automobile industry & trade). This retrieves well over 99,000 articles. It is possible to browse recent ones (have a look at the first batch of results,- there are some good articles in there!), but not all. So…

Scroll down to see more of the left margin. Under Source Types click on Show More, tick the Industry Profiles box and click on Update at the bottom .   This provides industry profiles, but still too many!

Go back to the search boxes and add global on the second line down.  You will have to repeat the process of selecting Industry profiles as above.

Only profiles with global in the title are retrieved and you should find the Datamonitor global profiles not very far down. These give a broad view of the global industry.

Note the company names in this report and, later, look for them amongst the Datamonitor Company Profiles by clicking on the More tab in the toolbar at the top and then on Company Profiles in the toolbar. The SWOT analyses provided will be helpful. Particularly, try Bayerische Motoren Werke as BMW will not work. Later, enter the company names in a new search screen by themselves to retrieve company news from all of the trade journals.

Next, refresh the search screen by clicking on the New Search tab. Enter automobile industry as a search and from the drop down menu select SU Subject Term again. Then enter Economist on the second line down and click on SO Publication name in the drop down menu. This retrieves 636 (at the time of writing) articles from the Economist, which is a journal that tries to look at the bigger picture. The articles will start with the most recent and you will soon be able to browse articles from the last two years.

We don’t have time just now to check out any more likely journal titles, but try to find some of the automobile industry trade journal titles in the same way. Articles in the McKinsey Quarterly look promising.

 

• Next, move on to Thomson One Banker because the Investext database is now available on this platform. The new version of Investext is a little more tricky to use than the previous Thomson Gale version, so we have produced a powerpoint demo, which we hope is fairly painless to understand, to help you. Click on (if off campus you will need to enter your student number and password): https://www2.brookes.ac.uk/library/resources/thomsonpowerpoint.ppt
• Log  on to the database, enter company searches and try to find the larger reports (it is essential to look at the powerpoint). The Analysts reports in Investext give usually give opinions on share prices and therefore cover prices only. They vary from brief 1 page statements to a full scale analysis of a company’s operations with competitor and industry analysis, SWOT analysis etc… Do not bother with 1 page reports.
• Next, click on Research in the left menu and then click on the Conduct Research Report Search option. You really are going to have to look at the powerpoint presentation so that you know how to enter an industry search for automobile and then from the lists presented, select 336111 Automobile manufacturing. Remember to reset the date to Last 2 years and select the Report Type as Industry. You should be presented with over 3272 reports on the automobile  industry. The Global Automotive Outlook by CIBC World Markets dated 24 August 2010 is particulary useful and  is listed at number 43 (aty the time of writing) under the heading  Global Automotive Outlook – A Review of the Major Drivers for the Global Market.   Note that selecting the reports by ticking the boxes next to the titles allows you in the next stage to look at the contents lists before actually downloading the report.

• Finally, look at the Factiva database which contains 10000 news sources in 22 languages. Again, you will need to look at the powerpoint presentation to really understand how it works if you want to follow the instructions below. Click on (if off campus you will need to enter your student number and password): https://www2.brookes.ac.uk/library/resources/factivapowerpoint.ppt
• Log on to Factiva and click on Industry to go into the Industry index. Then click on + Automobiles.  The entry turns pink and remains at the top of this section as part of your search (click on it again to remove it).  Click on  Subject to go into the Subject index, then click on + Corporate/Industrial News and select  + performance and + plans/strategy from the list by clicking on them. These entries will also turn pink to show they have been included in your search. Now enter car industry in the free text search box and click the Run Search button.  Unfortunately, hitting the search button retrieves over 8,668 articles, so, as always, you are going to have to be selective about the sources you read in this huge database. Click on Modify Search in the top right corner to return to the Search screen.
• Click on Source to go into the Source index. Click on the + Group: UK newspapers and scroll down the list that appears to select the Financial Times by clicking on the title to make it turn pink and run search to  find the 849+ articles that you will find this time (you really are going to need to look at the powerpoint presentation).
• The Discovery Pane in the left hand margin of the results screen shows that of the 849 articles retrieved, 61 are specifically about BMW (Bayerische Motoren Werke).  Click on the name of your company to filter the results so you can look at these 61 articles.   
• Finally, click on Modify search to return to the search screen and remove the Financial Times from your search by clicking on its title.  Then return to the Source index, click on the drop-down arrow next to My source lists and select Publications by industry (note all the other listings of publications). Scroll down to Automobiles and click on it to turn it pink and add all Automobile industry to your search (click on the + to list all of the trade journals on the automobile industry) and click on Run Search to see the 640 articles retrieved.  

 

• Last of all, this is a blog. If you find something interesting, send a message and we shall add it below.

U51062 Semester 2 2009 Strategic Management oil exploration assignment

• A variety of books on the oil industry have been placed on Short Loan (the red section near the entrance) in Wheatley Library. We are not attempting to recommend any, but everything on oil would soon be heavily reserved, so at least everyone has a better opportunity to see them. Full citations can be taken from the books. Scroll down for advice on using databases:
• 338.2728 SHE  Shelley. Oil: politics, poverty and the planet
• 338.2728 ROB  Roberts. The end of oil: the decline of the petroleum economy and the rise of a new energy order
• 338.27092247  FOR  Fortescue. Russia’s oil barons and metal magnates: oligarchs and the state in transition
• 338.27209538  SIM Simmons. Twilight in the desert: the coming Saudi oil shock and the world economy
• 338.27282 CHA  Davis (ed). The changing world of oil: an analysis of corporate change and adaptation
• 338.27282 NEW  Mitchell (et al eds). The new economy of oil: impacts on business, geoplolitics and society
• 338.27282 TER  Tertzakian. A thousand barrels a second: the coming oil break point and the challenges facing an energy dependent world
• 338.27282 YEO Yeo. Oil: a concise guide to the most important product in the world
• 338.272820941 OPT  Upton. Waves of Fortune: the past present and future of the United Kingdom offshore oil and gas industries
• 338.27280947 CON  Considine & Kerr. The Russian oil economy
• 338.272820947 GRA  Grace. Russian oil supply: performance and prospects
• 338.27280947 RUS  Ellman. Russia’s oil and natural gas: boanza or curse?
• 338.272809475 ECO  Najman etc. eds. The economics of oil revenues in Azerbaijan and Central Asia: the redistribution of oil revenues in Azerbaijan and Central Asia
• 338.272809475 KAL  Kalyuzhnova. Economics of the Caspian oil and gas wealth: companies, governments, policies
• 338.272809474 LEE  Leeuw. Oil and gas in the Caucasus and Caspian: a history
• 338.272809669 ARI  Ariweriokuma. The political economy of oil and gas in Africa
• 338.27282 CLA  Clarke. Empires of oil: corporate oil in Barbarian worlds
• 338.27282 COR  Black gold stranglehold: the myth of scarcity and the politics of oil
• 338.27282 HOR  Horsnell & Mabro. Oil markets and prices: the brent Market and the formation of world oil prices
• 338.27282 MAU  Maugeri. The age of oil: the mythology, history, and future of the world’s most controversial resource
• 338.27282 NOR  Noreng. Crude power: politics and the oil market
• 338.27282 NOR  Norman. The oil card: global economic warfare in the 21st century
• 338.27282 OIL  Mabro ed. Oil in the 21st century: issues, challenges and opportunities
• 338.27282 OIL  Kaldor etc eds. Oil wars
• 338.27282 PAU  Paul. Future energy: how the new oil industry will change people, politics, and portfolios
• 338.27282 SHA  Crude: the story of oil
• 338.272820941 WOO  Paying for the piper: capital and labour in Britain’s offshore oil industry
• 338.272820947 DIX  Dixon. Organisational transformation in the Russian oil industry
• 338.272820947 SIM  Sim. The rise and fall of privarization in the Russian oil industry
• 338.272820956 COR  Cordesman & Al-Rhodhan. The changing dynamics of energy in the Middle East Volume 1 & 2
• 338.27282096 GHA  Ghazvinian. Untapped: the scramble for Africa’s oil
• 338.27282096 SHA  Shaxson. Poisoned wells: the dirty politics of African oil
• 338.272820973 DUF  Duffield. Over a barrel: the costs of US foreign oil dependence
• 338.272820973 JUH  Juhasz. The world’s most powerful industry – and what we must do to stop it
• 338.272820973 RUT  Rutledge. Addicted to oil: America’s relentless drive for energy security
• 338.272820973 STA Standlea. Oil, globalization, and the war for the arctic refuge
• 338.27285 STE Stern. The future of Russian gas and Gazprom
• 338.27285 WRI  Wright. Gas prices in the UK: markets and insecurity of supply
• 338.27285094 NAT  Arentsen & Kunneke. National reforms in European gas
• Look at the EBSCOhost database guide and connect to the Business Source Complete database. Enter petroleum prospecting as a search and from the drop down menu select SU Subject Term (we clicked on the Thesaurus button and entered the search oil and found that the subject index term used is petroleum prospecting). This retrieves over 4700 articles. It is possible to browse recent ones, but not all. So…
• Click on the Industry Profiles link in the left margin. This retrieves the Oil & Gas Exploration & Production Industry Profile: Global, published by Datamonitor in April 2008. This gives a broad view of the global industry. Note the company names in this report and, later, look for them amongst the Datamonitor Company Profiles by clicking on the More tab and then on Company Profiles in the toolbar. The SWOT analyses provided will be helpful.
• Then go back to the original search results by clicking on All results in the left margin and enter (and) Economist in the search box below your original petroleum prospecting search and and select SO Publication Name from the drop down menu. The Economist is a prestigious journal that covers major strategic issues in the world economy such as the oil industry. Later check the Economist articles in Factiva (see below)
• When we browsed previously we found numbers of articles in a publication World oil, which looked relevant. Selecting one or two comprehensive, authoritative trade journals can be a good strategy when you are faced with huge numbers of articles in your results. So, delete the Economist in your search and substitute World oil, keeping the drop-down menu as SO Publication Name and browse the results.
• Next, move on to Thomson One Banker because the Investext database is now available on this platform. The new version of Investext is a little more tricky to use than the previous Thomson Gale version, so we have produced a powerpoint demo, which we hope is fairly painless to understand, to help you. Click on (if off campus you will need to enter your student number and password): https://www2.brookes.ac.uk/library/resources/thomsonpowerpoint.ppt
• Log  on to the database, enter company searches and try to find the larger reports (it is essential to look at the powerpoint). The  Analysts reports in Investext give usually give opinions on share prices and therefore cover plcs only. They vary from brief 1 page statements to a full scale analysis of a company’s operations with competitor and industry analysis, SWOT analysis etc.. Do not bother with 1 page reports.
• Next, click on Research report in the left menu and then click on  the Conduct Research Report Search option. You really are going to have to look at the powerpoint presentation so that you know how to enter an industry search for oil and then from the lists presented, select 211 oil and gas extraction and 213111 Drilling oil and gas wells. Remember to reset the date to Last 2 years. You should be presented with over 7000 reports on the oil exploration industry. Note that selecting the reports by ticking the boxes next to the titles allows you in the next stage to look at the contents lists before actually downloading the report.
• Finally, look at the Factiva database which contains 10000 news sources in 22 languages. Again, you will need to look at the powerpoint presentation to really understand how it works if you want to follow the instructions below. Click on (if off campus you will need to enter your student number and password): https://www2.brookes.ac.uk/library/resources/factivapowerpoint.ppt
• Log on to Factiva and click on the + next to Industry to go into the index. Then click on + Energy to list the various industry sectors and click on  + Crude Oil/Natural Gas, then click on Natural Gas/Oil Exploration. The entry turns pink and remains at the top of this section as part of your search (click on it again to remove it). Unfortunately, hitting the search button retrieves over 195000 articles, so, as always, you are going to have to be selective about the sources you read in this huge database. Click on Modify Search in the top right corner to return to the Search screen.
• Click on the + next to the Source index. Enter Financial Times in the search box and scroll down the list that appears to select the Financial Times by clicking on the title to make it turn pink and find the 900+ articles that you will find this time (you really are going to need to look at the powerpoint presentation).
• Next, remove the Financial Times and select the Economist.
• Finally, starting a New Search and returning to the Source index, click on the drop-down menu next to My source lists and select Publications by industry (note all the other listings of publications). Scroll down to Energy and click on the + to list all of the trade journals on the energy industry. There are many on the oil industry. Try to browse, for example, Oil and gas journal. Find it in the list and click on the triangular up arrow ^ next to the entry. This enters the code for the journal rst=OG into the free text search box at the top and when you click on search this retrieves all of the articles in reverse chronological order for browsing (if you clicked on the title to turn it pink you would have specify a search for a particular topic in addition, it would not retrieve all the articles for browsing). World oil is also available in Factiva, but note that Factiva times out quickly, so Businesss Source Complete is the more convenient source to  use.
• Last of all, this is a blog. If you find something interesting, send a message and we shall add it below.