Technology Management - Case Study - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 7 Words: 2140 Downloads: 3 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Management Essay Type Argumentative essay Did you like this example? Technology Management (Case Study) Contents Case Study 1: Q.1: How do you think the changes that LEGO made will reshape the firm for the long term? Q.2: What suggestions would you have for LEGOà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s competitors in the declining toy industry? What should they be watching for? Case Study 3: Q.1: How did Corning address the issues presented in this chapter? Q.2: What advice would you give to Corning about planning for innovation? Q.3: If you were a Corning competitor, what would worry you most? How would you compete with them? Case Study 6: Q.1: Do you think United Technologies was wise to focus only on subcontractors in India and the United States? Q.2: The Otis unit of United Technologies illustrates differences that occur in a worldwide firm as it manages alliances. What are some of the other differences illustrated? What other issues should be considered? Case Study 7: Q.1: What do you see as the primary integr ation issues facing the new acquired units? How did IBM address the issues? What should they do next? Q.2: This Global Systems unit is the largest in the company. How does the expectation for the unit affect the management of the unit? What possible problems emerge because of the expectations? What possible advantages? . Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Technology Management Case Study" essay for you Create order Case Study 1: Q.1: How do you think the changes that LEGO made will reshape the firm for the long term? Answer: After LEGO met with failure in its innovative toys and diversification into other areas like theme parks, action figures like à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"Galidorà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ and craft sets known as à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"Clikitsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢, it had to come up with an innovative strategy that will help the company to rise from the abyss. The company developed a new creative structure for its operations. A cross-functional team was being engaged in order to bring control and coordination in the innovative activities. The team divided the innovation processes into eight categories as follows: Core Processes- they consist of the operations, financial planning and the sales and marketing. Offerings- they consist of the presentation of the product and the packaging. Messaging- These processes include the developing of the website and the advertising. Enabling Methods- These consist of the market forecasting and planning. Interaction with customers- services to customers, linkages with customers. Platforms- here the design and the usage of the building blocks have been modified. Model of Business- it deals with the pricing and the revenues. Channel of distribution- it consists of the several distributing channels like the direct marketers, retailers and others. LEGO innovation is a new line of product known as the à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"LEGO Board Gamesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ by implementing the new framework of innovation. This game enables the players to build new structures each time they play the game. It was launched in 2009 in the UK and Germany and in 2010 it was launched all across the world. It is expected that the new innovation strategy implemented by the company and with the manufacturing of new product lines like the board game, LEGO will be successful to regain its dominant position in the toy market and will be able to grow and attain sustainability in the global toy industry. Q.2: What suggestions would you have for LEGOà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s competitors in the declining toy industry? What should they be watching for? Answer: The suggestions to the competitors of LEGO in the declining toy industry can be enumerated as follows: In this extremely competitive toy industry in the world, there is need for constant innovation to compete with each other. LEGO is the leading toy brand and the rivals need to bring in innovative strategies to bring change in the toy market. The other step which the rivals should take is to bring in diversification in the toy products to suit the different age groups of the children. Keeping the prices competitive is another major step which the rivals should take to compete with LEGO. If the prices are too high then the competitors will face even more difficulty to fight with LEGO. The competitors should take a cue from the innovative Change Management Strategies that LEGO has undertaken to rise to the top once again, after it met with a huge failure in the toy market. They should emulate the several steps which the company has successfully taken with the help of a very efficient management at the helm of the organization. Case Study 3: Q.1: How did Corning address the issues presented in this chapter? Answer: Corning has implemented an innovative strategy to bring in diversification in the product lines apart from manufacturing glass. The company has an extremely competent RD Department who are engaged in extensive research work on how to bring in innovation and diversification to sustain and grow in the industry. The company holds offsite meetings with the top level and the technical managers regularly at intervals of four to six weeks. It also believes in taking customer feedbacks and suggestions regularly in order to design products and services as per their tastes and preferences. Corning has also a cross-functional team which has members from different departments like operations, engineers, sales and marketing specialists and scientists who work together in designing the innovative strategies for the company. This is the process by which the company handles the several issues related to innovation in services. Q.2: What advice would you give to Corning about planning for innovation? Answer: Corning has a very effective cross-functional team which takes care of the innovation strategies by working in coordination with each other. This is the reason why the company has been successfully running for more than 150 years. But, it is often seen that the company sometimes plan too many innovative things which might not be suitable for the organization at the current moment. This involves some outflow of funds also, as extensive research work comes at a significant cost. This is the area which I would suggest the company to take care of, not to overdo the innovative research. It should be done at some intervals and after watching the customer responses to a newly launched product. But, it cannot be denied that the company has earned more than 50% of its revenues during the last 10 years from selling products which are not even 5 years old. Q.3: If you were a Corning competitor, what would worry you most? How would you compete with them? Answer: If I was a competitor of Corning, I would be extremely worried about the fast changes in product lines that the company is making which is making it difficult for the competitors to sustain in the industry. As a rival company the main effort will be into developing a sound and efficient system of RD which will enable the company to foresee a lot of events relating to the industry. An extensive research will ensure that the company has understood the tastes, preferences and the demands of the customers. The most emphasis will go into the product diversification which will enable the company to capture the changing demands of the customers and also to increase the diversity of products and services. Case Study 6: Q.1: Do you think United Technologies was wise to focus only on subcontractors in India and the United States? Answer: It can be said that the decision taken by United Technologies to subcontract the Information Systems process to India and US was the right one. This is because in both the countries there is cheap availability of subcontractors who are already established and there is plenty of support system available, which has helped the company to achieve reduced costs of transaction. Also, the company had made annual savings of $50 million by subcontracting the processes to India and US. Q.2: The Otis unit of United Technologies illustrates differences that occur in a worldwide firm as it manages alliances. What are some of the other differences illustrated? What other issues should be considered? Answer: In case of OTIS, one of the subsidiaries of United Technologies, it was observed that the move by United Technologies to subcontract the process to India had some initial difficulties although the project was successful. The subcontract brought thirty applications to India. OTIS saved around $5, 00,000. But the company was facing trouble in coordinating the different projects in different locations. Hence, OTIS opened a dedicated center which was run by Wipro in Bangalore. This helped the company to bring back consistency of services and coordination in the different OTIS projects which were then under once center. It has been seen that there are certain inherent disadvantages which a company faces when it subcontracts its process to a different country. The major problem arises when the company is into multiple projects. This creates a lack of coordination and control in the foreign country, It is better in such cases for the company to hand over the services to a singl e organization who will be running all the projects on behalf of the company. These issues are to be considered by any company who is trying to subcontract to some other country. Case Study 7: Q.1: What do you see as the primary integration issues facing the new acquired units? How did IBM address the issues? What should they do next? Answer: In 2002 IBM took over PwC as a merger.IBM is a technological firm whereas PwC is a consulting firm. Hence, the merger created some initial troubles for the employees of both the organizations. IBM was looking to adopt the consulting services of PwC on how to implement different technologies like ERP, CRM and SCM services. The merger combined 30,000 employees from consulting unit of PwC with 50,000 employees from the IBM consulting unit. IBM was operating as a specific corporation whereas PwC is a partnership firm. Hence, it was an area of concern. IBM was dealing with the issues related to infrastructure and PwC dealt with providing consulting services and solutions to the clients. The cultures were also different. It happened that the clients of PwC were beginning to feel concerned that they might be forced to purchase the IBM products as the result of the merger. These were the major issues. IBM developed a three stage process to deal with the issues. Firstly, it cance lled the deal, and gave back the initial operating model to the unit. It declared the President for the unit. IBM offered lucrative incentive packages to retain the employees. In the second stage, a new operating model was created to incorporate several main factors of the business. These happened in 2002. The last phase happened in 2003. In this stage the IT processes and systems of both the companies were incorporated and the true integration of the companies took place. IBM also laid-off 5,000 of its employees in order to make way for PwC employees. In the end, the IBM Global Systems unit was formed and the company should take care of the values of the employees from both the companies and to take care of their interests and recognize the difference in cultures and provide time to them to mix with each other and adopt the IBM culture. Q.2: This Global Systems unit is the largest in the company. How does the expectation for the unit affect the management of the unit? What possible problems emerge because of the expectations? What possible advantages? Answer: The IBM Global Systems is the largest IT services provider in the world. There is huge expectation of the customers on the merger of the two global giants. The management of the unit has to take care of their responsibilities so that they can live up to the expectations of the clients. The objective should be to provide the highest quality of IT and consulting services to the customers all across the globe. There could be few problems which might emerge because of the high expectations. This can be in the form that the clients all across the globe can think of or expect of services which can sometimes be illogical or unprofitable for the organization. They will think that the company will be providing the products and services of the highest quality but with the minimum price. This is not possible as the company has to undergo huge investments at every stage in order to keep alive its brand image and the quality of services. The advantages can be many. The clients wil l trust quality of products and services because of the big brand name. This will help the company to automatically retain the goodwill formed out of the two of the most renowned brands of the world. The company will not find it difficult to promote the products and services in order to gain competitive advantage, as the clients are already aware of the products and services of both the companies which are integrated into one. This is a huge advantage for the company as it has already been provided with a pool of happy and loyal customers. 1

The Issue of Homelessness Essays - 2064 Words

It is everywhere, yet it is unseen. Homelessness is a national epidemic which affects approximately 2% of the total population share of Michigan. Though this percentage is not as much as the 11% I used to see on the streets of my home state, New York, its effects are noticeable in the city of Ann Arbor, Michigan (United States, The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development 5). Over the course of three weeks, I have observed five regular and several wandering homeless people solely on State Street and East Liberty Street. However, homelessness is not a one-sided issue based only on affected individuals, it is also influenced by notions of the homeless from the non-homeless. There is an overwhelmingly negative connotation, a†¦show more content†¦In that time period, only one man approached the homeless man and that man was also homeless himself. The stares of onlookers were similar to those of the onlookers I observed earlier at Liberty Plaza on East Liberty Street. 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A good man is hard to find 2 Essay Example For Students

A good man is hard to find 2 Essay The short story A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery OConnor could be viewed as a comic strip about massacre and martyrdom. What stops it from becoming a solemn story is its intensity, ambition, and unfamiliarity. OConnor blends the line between humor and terror. She introduces her audience to the horror of self-love. The grandmother is thought of by the community as agood person and appears to be so on the surface, but she is also mean and narcissistic. She forces her family to abide by her wishes; she sees them as an extension of herself; and she seizes every opportunity to get what she wants. By manipulating her grandchildren, she gets her son to go back to the house with the secret panel, causing them to meet The Misfit, and ultimately sealing the entire familys death. OConnor makes the trite seem sweet, the humdrum seem tragic, and the ridiculous seem righteous. The reader can no longer use their textbook ways of interpreting fiction and human behavior because OConnor is constantly throwing our assumptions back at us. Through out A good man is hard to find OConnor reinforces the horror of self-love through her images. She contrasts the two houses, The Tower: the restaurant owned by Red Sammy, and the plantation house. The restaurant is a broken-down place- a long dark room with a tiny place to dance. At one time Red Sammy found pleasure from the restaurant but now he is afraid to leave the door unlatched. He has given in to the meanness of the world. In contrast to the horrible Tower is the grandmothers peaceful memories of the plantation house that is filled with wonderful treasures. However, the family never reach this house because this house does not even exist on the this dirt road or even in the same state. Because of the grandmothers pride she cannot admit that she has made a mistake. Its not much farther, the grandmother said and just as she said it, a horrible thought came to her. The thought was so embarrassing that she turned red in the face and her eyes dilated and her feet jumped up. (144). The grandmothers pride and self-centered wish to see the house causes the Misfit to discover and murder the family. Both houses are, in effect, ruins of the spirit. It is a comic view of the family that the reader receives in the first half of the story. The comedy is in the way OConnor has very matter of factly and nonchalantly reported the characters outlandish actions and appearances. OConnor has made this even more funny by not appearing to tell it in a funny way. The grandmother is the funniest and most colorful of the characters in the story; she is pushy, annoying, and at times an endearing grandmother. OConnor makes the grandmother a target for her satire right from the beginning by exposing her absurd wardrobe and old-fashioned mannerisms. The grandmother had on a navy blue straw sailor hat with a bunch of white violets on the brim and a navy blue dress with a small white dot in the print. Her collars and cuffs were white organdy trimmed with lace and at her neckline she had pinned a purple spray of cloth violets containing a sachet. In case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once thatshewas a lady. (138) The last line becomes ironically funny because ultimately this is where the grandmother ends up- in a ditch dead. As a reader one must then question the seriousness of the author towards her characters and should the reader have a sympathetic view towards these characters when they are being presented to an audience as comical figures and an elaborate joke. If more attention is paid to the storys self-conscious technique, then the reader can adjust their sympathies in a way that would coincide with the storys style. The first words uttered in the first pages of A good man is hard to find are directed to the reader almost as much as they are directed to Bailey: Now look here, .. Pornography In The Media Essay Now, she almost dreaded life because her beauty and youthfulness were gone. She would talk about her past because it would take her away from the misery of the present. One of the most important scenes in the story .

Stand and Deliver free essay sample

To begin, Jaime Escalante is a mathematics teacher in a school in a Hispanic neighborhood. He’s convinced that his students have potential. He adopts unconventional teaching methods. He helped his classroom, students which included gang members and no-hopers pass the rigorous Advanced Placement exam in calculus. Jaime Escalante believed that all his students were smart, not dumb like all the other staff thought. He knew his students had the potential of passing the Advanced Calculus Exam, and he never gave up on his students for he always motivated them to do better. In addition, the mathematics teacher Jaime Escalante accomplished such success by teaching his students to believe in themselves. He would encourage his students in every way possible. He always told his students not to give up no matter how hard the situation was. He was always there to hear and give advice to his students. Moreover, the self-fulfilling prophecy in the movie Stand and Deliver is that at first the students did not know as much. We will write a custom essay sample on Stand and Deliver or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The students would get lost when Jaime Escalante was trying to teach them. Staff at their school didn’t believe that Jaime Escalante’s students would be able to pass the calculus exam. However, Jaime Escalante predicted his students would pass the Advance calculus Exam, and would prove everyone wrong. Jaime succeeded into getting his students to perform at a high standard that enabled them to pass the AP calculus state exam. However, the role of Jaime Escalante expectations were that he strongly believed in his students. He knew that his students had the potential to pass the exam. In addition, he also wanted prove to the staff that his students had would it took to ace the exam. He never once doubted his students. Jaime had the best expectations on his students. To conclude, my view about teacher student relationship does matter because it is very important for children. Children spend approximately eight hours a day with a teacher for almost ten months. We ask ourselves what is considered a good teacher. All of us have gone through schooling, and if fortunate had a favorite teacher. A positive relationship between the student and the teacher is difficult to establish, but can be found for both individuals at either end. The qualities for a positive relationship can vary to set a learning experience approachable and inviting the students to learn. A teacher and student who have the qualities of good communications, respect in a classroom, and show interest in teaching from the point of view of the teacher and learning from a student will establish a positive relationship in the classroom.