The first impression one might have of Crocs products is that they are basically plastic looking, comfortable and easily available shoes. Customers familiar with this product boast, as on the company's website, about the company's "patented closed-cell resin, Croslite™, a technology that gives each pair of shoes the soft, comfortable, lightweight, non-marking and odor resistant" (Company.crocs.com, 2011). There are also several comments about how the material does not slip when exposed to water and the popularity of the shoes since their "first sale in 2003" (Hoyt & Silverman, 2008, p.13). Over the past few years, the popularity of shoes has declined and the purpose of this study is to present an analysis of the company's value chain and determine which changes to incorporate and why. Company Value Chain Analysis To get started, we First need to understand what Crocs' value chain is and how that process plays a role in the strategic direction of the company. The authors of our text see the value chain as "the entire series of organizational work activities that add value at every stage, from raw materials to the finished product. In its entirety, the value chain can include from the supplier's suppliers to customers of the customer" ( Robbins & Coulter, 2009, p.430). In Crocs, the organization's entire set of work activities can be further broken down using Porter's value chain model which views primary and secondary production (or service) activities as a "system composed of subsystems, each with inputs , transformation processes and output". ” (Ifm.eng.cam.ac.uk, 2011). Below is a diagram, complimented by Porter (1985): The diagram covers the primary activities (Inb...... half of the document.... ..38021). Helm, C., & Jones, R. (2010). Extending the value chain – A conceptual framework for managing co-created brand value governance. Journal of brand management, 17(8 ), 579-589. doi:10.1057/bm.2010.19Hoyt, D. and Silverman, A. (2008). Graduate School of Business.Ifm.eng.cam.ac.uk (2011). Porter's Value Chain. Retrieved from http://www.ifm.eng.cam.ac.uk/dstools/paradigm/valuch. htmlPorter, M.E., (1985).Diagram. The Free Press.Robbins, M.E. (2009). , D.. (2010). Duerden and McCarvel lead Crocs' powerful turnaround. Boulder County Business Report, 29(27), 6A. Extracted from ABI/INFORM Dateline. (Document ID: 2241230841).