A) First, pick an industry of your interest that has several similar companies that have developed online e-businesses that include public B2C (business to consumer) websites.
In order to find industries- some resources:
International Labor Organization:
https://www.ilo.org/global/industries-and-sectors/lang–en/index.htm (Links to an external site.)
Fidelity Financial:
https://eresearch.fidelity.com/eresearch/markets_sectors/sectors/sectors_in_market.jhtml (Links to an external site.)
Deloitte Consulting:
https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/industries/all-industries-sectors.html (Links to an external site.)
North American Industry Classification (NAICs):
https://www.naics.com/search/ (Links to an external site.)
MSCI- Global Industry Classification System:
https://www.msci.com/gics (Links to an external site.)
Only after you have done this exercise, will you be more comfortable to start this project. Remember starting well is half the battle won!!
B) Secondly, become extremely familiar with the 7cs framework (a complete book chapter PDF is in the Folder “Projects” under Files. Quick link-
4. This is what you do SECOND, for the Excel Spreadsheet:
Create and excel spreadsheet EXACTLY AS THE SAMPLES ( the sample is in the Project Folder, you may choose vertical or horizontal format) where you will list 10 companies that you find in your industry segment (if you find an industry that does not have the required 10 companies, then drop that industry and find another one). The companies can be either, “bricks or clicks” or even just pure “clicks” (online only). Give them a score ranging from 1- (low) to 5 (high), across each of the elements corresponding to the 7 Cs. So that you are able to generate an average score in the last column.
After that add the points and arrive and identify the companies:
a) With the highest average score,
b) With the lowest average score,
c) With the average middle score (the closes to the middle score).
This way you would have picked only the 3 companies, through your excel without “guess work”, “personal feelings”, and “force fitting”. This is a great achievement!!
After you have looked at several public Web sites for companies in this industry, and arrived at the 3 companies as outlined above, you will now have an interesting comparison about how companies are (successfully?) leveraging the Internet today.
5. This is what you do THIRD -your Report:
Analyze the 3 companies that you identified as High, Medium, Low from your excel scoring. Evaluate their Web in terms of the overall “look-and-feel” of the website, and more importantly: how well each Web site has addressed the 7Cs in the framework by Rayport and Jaworski.
Feel free to also use outside resources to provide current statistics and forecasts for the industry you selected, as well as any information about B2B applications that the companies may be using. Be sure to provide full citations to all third-party sources, including a “last date accessed” for all references to a URL.
REPORT STRUCTURE FOR YOU TO FOLLOW:
Write up your findings using proper section/ paragraph headings and table of contents. Prepare a report (Times New Roman, 12 pitch font, double spaced), including the following content:
Introduce the industry you selected and the Web sites you selected (1 page)
The reasons why you chose this industry and these particular companies, and include the URL for each site (2 pages)
Only the 3 selected companies: Describe and also compare the ways that these particular Websites are addressing the 7Cs and any other characteristics you wish to emphasize. (For example, how easy was it to identify the content or services available? How easy was it to navigate between pages? Did the site download easily? Was the usage of graphics and animation appropriate for the target audience? Were linking capabilities of the Web exploited? Was a privacy policy available and easy to find?) ( 1 Page for each of the three company) [your excel spreadsheet is a useful here]
Based on your analyses, provide some recommendations for the company whose Web site you considered to be average and for the company whose website you consider to the weakest. Be sure your ideas are appropriate for the industry you selected, and take into account whether companies in this industry traditionally have sold directly to end-consumers or not and using what channels (e.g., catalog, physical store, or via an intermediary channel). (1 page for each company)