IntroductionThe Slade Company was a small but prosperous manufacturer of metal products designed for industrial applications. It was located in central Michigan with 500 employees. Slade's plating department had formed an informal team in which some employees engaged in dishonest behavior. In this document we will discuss Slade's external environment, core problem, alternatives, analysis and finally provide some recommendations. External Environment Competitive Market Slade's competitive market is the metal products market. It can be analyzed with Porter's five forces model: risk of entry of potential competitors, rivalry between established firms, bargaining power of buyers, bargaining power of suppliers and threat of substitute products. Appendix 1 shows a summary of the five forces. The risk of entry of potential competitors is high. The capital needs of small metalworking companies are not large, so building and establishing this type of company does not require many resources. Furthermore, the brand loyalty of current customers is not very strong, so new entrants are unable to compete to enter the market. Furthermore, competition among existing players in this industry is high. In 2005, there were approximately 619,000 metallurgical companies in the United States (IBISWorld, 2007). There are many companies on the market that produce different types of metal products. Furthermore, the bargaining power of buyers is high because the difference between products for buyers of metal products is small. It is not easy to differentiate the quality of one metal product from another. Additionally, the cost of switching for buyers is low. The number of substitutes for metal products is also large, so buyers have great bargaining power. Furthermore, the bargaining power of input sources is high. Switching costs from one supplier to another are high because there are not many substitutes for the particular input for metal products. Furthermore, the number of suppliers producing raw metals is small. The risk of substitution is high. There are many different types of substitutes for the metal products company. These companies can also produce a wide variety of products like Slade Company. Therefore, the substitute is low for this market. Only companies that produce high quality cannot be replaced by others. Internal Environment Strategy The strategy to compete in the market was a broad differentiation strategy. It was broad because it produced a large variety of products such as clamps, inserts, knobs and similar items. Furthermore, it differs from other metallurgical companies by its good quality, good delivery and reasonable price.