When you and your partner had opened your own firm after meeting in business school you had planned to put all that you had learned about business and strategy to work. In the beginning, you had hoped to break even (or at least come close to breaking even) and gain a few good clients. Knowing that many businesses fail in their first year, you had both worked extremely hard to position your new firm well against the competition – applying everything you had learned in your Walsh College classes.
Across the first years, you had collectively gained a reputation for serving many local businesses well and had even had a few big named clients seek you out for an engagement. You both also knew that while many large consulting companies would love to grab the business – and the headlines – you instead had tried to build a quiet but solid reputation for taking the job on without any preconceived notions or any personal hidden agendas … which was not always the case with the other firms, large and small.
The one very important thing that Walsh Strategic Consulting had become know for was the ability to tell the whole truth – no matter what that truth was – because you had never hesitated to share the ‘bad’ news along with the good.
You entered the conference room, with coffee as you had been directed, and for the first time that morning really looked at your partner … who you finally realized looked more than a little flustered.
“Ok – I have my coffee, and I’m here,” you said
… “what’s going on … I mean really going on?”
Your partner took a deep breath.
“I only got here about 10 minutes before you did – but the phone was ringing when I walked in.
It was a lawyer, from Hollywood, who said that he’s representing a consortium of individuals … well companies I guess rather than just individuals.
He didn’t want to say who all was involved – yet – but said that he had an engagement proposition for us to consider …
You know that the movie industry – both the movie studios and the movie theaters – have been impacted big time by the Coronavirus
and that really on both sides they are struggling to figure out the next steps forward … both with respect to the short and long term impact of the virus, but also because consumer’s viewing habits have already changed dramatically – even before the virus sent us all into lockdown.
People are – and have been for some time – cutting the cable cord and subscribing to specialized providers and streaming more of their content … even waiting to watch an entire series until they can binge watch the whole thing all at the same time.
We’ve been asked to prepare a comprehensive analysis – the details are in the packet of information he sent – that’s why I wanted to do this in the conference room, so we could both really analyze the request.
He’s asked us to accept – or decline – the invitation by the end of the day … but really hopes we’ll do this.
Based on the results of this report, he’ll likely have a second, follow-up assignment for us in a few weeks.
As you sat there, you looked over the list of information that had been sent. Some were articles on the movie industry and some were articles on the movie theaters
Movie Industry Information Movie Theater Information
Will Movie Theaters Survive When Audiences Can Stream New Releases?
AMC Theaters and Universal Brawl After ‘Trolls World Tour’ Is Online
The pandemic will make movies and TV shows look like nothing we’ve seen before/
What the Future Holds for the Film Industry in a Post-COVID World
Streaming Was Already Up 13% Last Weekend. Can Movie Theaters Survive COVID-19?
Movie Theater Information
Hollywood Is Preparing to Sacrifice Movie Theaters
Can Movie Theaters Survive the COVID-19 Pandemic?
Movie theaters in jeopardy as studios move blockbusters to 2021, audiences stay home
Can there be a fairy-tale ending for Hollywood after COVID-19?
The Impact of COVID-19 On Movie Theaters
Hollywood Is Preparing to Sacrifice Movie Theaters
Can Movie Theaters Survive the COVID-19 Pandemic?
Movie theaters in jeopardy as studios move blockbusters to 2021, audiences stay home
Can there be a fairy-tale ending for Hollywood after COVID-19?
The Impact of COVID-19 On Movie Theaters
Now it was your turn to look a little flustered. You knew that this was a tall order – but that this request was one that you both clearly has the skill to undertake. As Walsh grads, you both always kept up with what was going on in the business world and were aware of many of the general issues facing the movie industry.
In your management studies, you’d also been taught to be extremely aware of the competitive and environmental factors – in addition to what seemed to be going on in any one company – and therefore knew that the Hollywood lawyer’s request for a broad industry analysis and overview was truly the best place to start – no matter who this phantom client turned out to be.
As a result, you both knew that there likely was the need to rethink what “the movie business” meant at a fundamental level, and that the future of the industry overall was probably going to be different than it had ever been. Studios who had delayed movie production when the virus first hit (Hollywood Prepares to Delay Another Slew of Blockbusters) were now delaying the releases again (Your Movie Is About to Be…Delayed, Again).
Your training in systems thinking allowed you to see the impact that those decisions and delays would have on the theaters who had been hit hard with the lockdowns – so hard that in many cases bankruptcies and worse faced many.
As a result, it took you and your partner very little time to decide that you would definitely undertake the assignment. You next organized your analysis into major categories to make sure that you not only considered the entire system, but also so that you could propose some specific recommendations that addressed the issues identified. It was clear that there were going to need to be some shorter term and more immediate decisions made to help reset the system, and recover from the impact of the Coronavirus to understand and navigate the new competitive landscape and gain a competitive advantage … but it was also clear that the future of the movie studios and movie theater industries were never going to be the same as they were … with studio’s planning for huge film releases in jam-packed theaters, likely even after widescale vaccination was in effect. As a result, the need to explore some Blue Ocean space to provide the long-term, above-average rates of return achieved in the past was going to be necessary as part of the project eventually as well.
Based on your work in the past, you knew that the best approach was to write a report that first provided a deep and solid analysis of the competitive environment, what trends and forces had propelled the industry to where it was now, and then where those trends might be taking the industry in the future.
As you reviewed your outline, you identified the following areas to write to ….
Company and Industry Analysis
Historical and Current Conditions
Knowing that the movie content producers and theaters are part of a larger and interconnected system, analyze both elements ‘independently’ but with an eye toward the systemic connections and dependencies present within that larger overall system
Movie Industry
A brief, high-level identification and discussion of the key historical events that shaped the current industry and its major players into who they are today (the traditional studios as well as the newer content producers including Amazon, Apple, and the other major but non-traditional content producers)
An assessment of the ‘placement’ of those players against each other (who is more/less successful than the others)?
support your analysis explaining why you see one player as more/less successful than another
An identification of the main stakeholders in the movie industry and the various ‘stake’ each holds?
Movie Theater Industry
A brief, high-level identification and discussion of the key historical events that shaped the current movie theater industry and its major players into who they are today (include the larger/traditional theaters as well as a brief look at the small/independent theater owners)
An assessment of the ‘placement’ of those players against each other (who is more/less successful than the others)?
support your analysis explaining why you see one player as more/less successful than another
An identification of the main stakeholders in the movie theater industry and the various ‘stake’ each holds?
External Environmental Analysis
Identify and discuss the external environmental variables impacting movie and theater industry’s current situation
What are the most important of the PESTEL/general environment forces
Identify who/what these elements are
Why each is important
What is the potential for these elements to change over time
What is the projected impact of these elements when/if they do change
Identify and discuss the Industry/Porter forces that impact both the movie industry and the theater industry
Explain clearly the impact of each of the forces
Market / Competitive Landscape Assessment
Analyze the competitive rivalry of the industry
What are the conditions of ‘rivalry’ at this point?
What are the drivers of competition?
What are the behaviors taken by the organizations?
What are (or are anticipated to be) the outcomes or results of these actions and behaviors?
Is this a fast or slow cycle market?
What type and level of threat do these competitors pose to the movie producers?
What type and level of threat do these competitors pose to the movie theaters?
Current Business-level Strategy Assessment
Identify and discuss the current business-level or positioning strategy, ensuring coverage of each of the following areas – again for both the movie content producers as well as the theaters:
Strategic Positioning Analysis of the System
Customers and customer relationships
Value chain activities that support the current strategy
Resources – tangible and intangible
Core competencies of the movie content producers
Core competencies of the movie theaters
SWOT Analysis
in YOUR OWN words/work – and using high-quality research for support
Movie Content Producers
Assess the internal strengths and weaknesses of the major players – using your own research from high-quality business publication sites
Be sure to properly cite each S/W element
Speculate on the external opportunities and threats facing the movie content producers – using your own research
Be sure to properly cite each O/T element
Movie Theaters
Assess the internal strengths and weaknesses of the major players – using your own research from high-quality business publication sites
Be sure to properly cite each S/W element
Speculate on the external opportunities and threats facing the movie content producers – using your own research
Be sure to properly cite each O/T element
Red Ocean Tactics
Identify and describe 2-3 Red Ocean strategies that would allow movie content producers to compete more effectively in their current system/situation
Identify and describe 2-3 Red Ocean strategies that would allow movie theaters to compete more effectively in their current system/situation
Your goal over the week is to research and assimilate information on the movie industry, make sense of it from a strategic perspective, and prepare a report that will allow your client to contemplate the next course of action. You know that doing a good job here could almost instantly catapult your company onto the national stage, so it is important to put your personal and professional best foot forward and leverage all the knowledge you gained studying strategic management in your time at Walsh College!
Knowing too that as a busy executive – busier now that these companies are under more scrutiny – your goal is to produce a clear, concise, and comprehensive summary that answers the questions posed. The format of your report, therefore – after it specifically addresses all of these essential questions – is of no real concern (but for a professional report such as this one you would NOT simply copy the questions in and insert answers). The key goal in preparing this report is a focus on the content of your answers – and the support for those answers – so that they can quickly and easily access the information provided.
Conduct additional research to both put the case in its historical context … and bring it forward to the present day and address the questions
the linked articles are intended to give you a good start – and are NOT intended to be everything you’ll need to prepare a complete assessment of the company
BE SURE to use high-quality sources – and NOT sources such as Wikipedia, the “Panmore Institute” or ‘StrategicManagementInsights.com’ – none of which are reputable
Remember your papers will be automatically uploaded through the Turn It In software
you may ‘pre-check’ your papers through Turn It In