Posted: June 10th, 2015

Reynolds American, Inc.

Reynolds American, Inc.

Deliverables:
1.    Write five questions to which you believe the answers are necessary in order to create a thoughtful strategic position for the company.  These questions should address information gaps in the case for the general, industry/competitive, and/or internal environments.  What important information was left out of the case?  Questions that contain the words “is”, “are”, or “does” might be good candidates for information gap questions.
2.    One thoughtful discussion question for each section (see headings below) that you develop after reading and thinking about the material contained in the section.  The answers to these questions should NOT be ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ or ones that can be answered from data presented in the case.  For the discussion questions you should challenge assumptions, speculate about actions/decisions, or figure out how to elicit a deeper discussion of issues/information/actions presented in the case.  DO NOT provide the answer to these questions in the case brief.  Questions that begin with:  “What should…..”; “What could……”; “Why do you think…..”; “How could….” are all good candidates for thoughtful discussion questions.  For this section of the case brief you will write three questions, one for each of the major headings identified below.  Please note that each major heading (identified by H1 in my printed copy of the case) may contain multiple secondary and lower-order headings under it.  You may write a question related to any of these lower-order headings under the major heading.
Major Headings for Discussion Questions
1.    Introduction
2.    Company History (Mid 2000s to Current)
3.    Getting to the Top
3.    Answer to the case/strategic position.  Outline what the company should do to address key strategic issues (and deliver customer value) and the reasons why you recommend what you do.  These actions should be based on thoughtful consideration of information contained in the case (for the internal, industry/competitive, and general environments) or other information that you might have from any other source (including personal knowledge).  I want to see what you think the company should do and the thought process behind your recommendations.  The answer to the case SHOULD NOT restate the objective (increase sales, lower costs, increase profit) but rather should be based on WHY you think the action will achieve the objective.  After reading the case you should realize that neither the company nor its products are well-liked.  Put yourself in the position of the CEO and determine (and support) actions that would benefit the company by improving its strategic position (who, what, and/or how).
FORMAT REQUIREMENTS   In the last section, begin each separate recommendation (WHAT they should do) with a bullet point.  Underneath the bullet-pointed recommendation, on the left hand margin, type the word ‘BECAUSE’ and then list the reasons WHY you believe Reynolds should implement the recommendation.  Number each supporting reason for the recommendation (see preceding instructions for 3) above).  If space is an issue you can end one reason and begin discussing the next within the same line of text.  This section should take up approximately 2/3 of the case brief.  Case brief page limit is one side of one page (max.).  Case brief should be typed (not written by hand).  Use line spacing of at least 1.15 but use any font/margin size that you want.  The online quiz for the case must be completed before the beginning of class.  To receive full credit for the case brief it must be turned in at the beginning of class and you must be in class for the case discussion.

Reynolds American, Inc.