The Under Armour case is an individual, case. The case will build on previous work in the course so your report will include:

• Analyzing the external environment (Chapter 3)
• Analyzing the internal environment (Chapter 4) and a few more considerations from the later chapters.
• More comprehensive examination of the financial situation of the company (Chapter 4)
• Consideration of other strategy choices (Chapter 6), or competing internationally (Chapter 7) or adding a diversification strategy (Chapter 8).

With your knowledge of these later chapters, your strategic recommendation for Under Armour can be more sophisticated than the basic five generic business strategies. Use the material in Chapters 6 -9 to develop strategic solutions that can involve global expansion, mergers and acquisitions, alliances, backward or forward integration.

For the financial analysis:

Present one or more ratios to represent each of the four areas of financial analysis:

Profitability (more than Gross Profit Margin)

Liquidity

Leverage (what I call Risk)

Activity (what I call Efficiency)

Then, present a minimum ½ page discussion of the company’s financial situation, using ratios to evaluate the company’s profitability, liquidity, leverage and activity.

Of course, most of these ratios are meaningless by themselves; they only have meaning as a comparison. You must therefore compare the Under Armour ratios to one of three choices:

• Where the company is now versus where it has been over time (last two years), or
• The industry averages for the ratios, or
• A significant rival’s ratios

The ratios and financial information should be placed in Appendix 4. The financial analysis should be a significant part of your internal analysis – and some of your financial findings could appear in Appendix 5 as strengths or weaknesses of Under Armour.

You are a consultant hired by the executive leadership of Under Armour. Based on your analysis, you recommend to the company’s leadership what they should do strategically. Then, support your strategic recommendation. Why is it the best solution to the significant problem you have identified? Your recommendation in Appendix 7 (as well as each of the three strategic alternatives in Appendix 6) should have as foundation at least 1-2 internal factors and at least 1 -2 external factors. You can mix and match – what strengths should Under Armour use to take advantage of an opportunity; or what opportunity should they take to solve one of its weaknesses. What strengths could the company use to mitigate a threat; or what weaknesses must the company address so they do not fall victim to the threats facing the industry?

Yes – this is a SWOT analysis. And the true payoff of SWOT analysis is learning enough to develop a strong strategic approach to gaining competitive advantage.

Please see the files for instructions regarding Case Studies in this class. Remember: your analysis is based on where the company and the industry are now!

The Under Armour case study from the BSG site is a good start. But you must also use outside, related material;