The Acme Widget Company has generally followed a relativeconservative business model and has done well. Their sales havebeen relatively stable over the past decade and represent about 40%of the powered widget market, with widgets operating onconventional fossil fuels – gasoline, diesel, and propane. One ofthe founders of the company recently passed on his voting stock tohis son, who advocates moving the company in a new direction. Hewants the company to pursue a new business opportunity with thedesign and manufacture of widgets that employ alternative energysources. You have been hired as a consulting engineer by thecompany to help them decide if they should go forward. While youknow next to nothing about powered widgets, they believe you canhelp them perform an objective RWW analysis.  

Describe in some detail how you would go about leading thisanalysis: what questions would you have for the company personnel,what other sources of data might you want to use and whatinformation would you attempt to gather from these sources?Incorporate as many of the tools we have explored this semester asyou feel apply. For example: Is the Design for X Spiderweb graphicrelevant for this analysis? What role might forecasting techniquesplay? How important is it to be able to quantify various factors ateach stage of the analysis?