We worked on the Disney case study and talked about our findings and suggestions including expanding their ethnic offerings in international markets, expanding licensing agreements in resorts, hotels, cruise ships, and traveling shows like Disney On Ice, expanding sports offerings. There is also no excuse for Disney to do so poorly in the gaming sector when they have so many brands that fit kids' interests.

We did read and did research on the Walt Disney Company: Diversification Strategy case study.

We completed his discussion post for this week, as well as research for his weekly writing assignment.

Brandon did his evaluations of the other students in his study group, then worked on his Glo-Bus project.

We completed his discussion post for this week, as well as his first weekly writing assignment.

This is the course that we will be working on together. He thought the course started today, but it starts next week. So, we went over his grades, and Business Strategy project and then left early.

We worked on his discussion about Etihad Airlines of Abu Dhabi and looked at its strategy in the competitive airline business. Etihad has regional competitors such and Emirates Airlines and Qatar Airlines, but also competes against large international airline companies such as Delta Airlines, British Airways, etc. Etihad has chosen the strategy of buying stakes in other failing airlines that funnel passengers into its seats.

We worked on his weekly discussion to analyze a case study involving Etihad Airways of Abu Dhabi. This included the company acquiring stakes in other airlines, code sharing (selling tickets of similar airlines and vice versa), the deep pockets of the owner/rulers, the lack of control associated with only being allowed to buy non-controlling interests in their competitors, and regulatory problems in the European regulatory commission. Brandon also tweaked his Glo-Bus project numbers.

We invested the entire time talking about how what Brandon has learned in class apply to his coffee business including product mix, pricing, marketing, dealing with corporate, buying and selling stores and the competition and strategy for such, etc.

We talked about his Glo-Bus project results from last week. Brandon's team went from 4th place to 1st place in one week. We analyzed the results of the other teams and compared performance numbers to determine how he should act this week to maintain his lead. Last week, he increased employee compensation, manufacturing investment, the R&D budget, the marketing and advertising budgets, expenditures on vendor support, warranties, etc. to earn the highest Earnings per Share (EPS) and Return on Equity (ROE).