1. What was your strategy going into the simulation? Market data analysis stressed two main facts: i) the promising potential of ultracapacitors and ii) surfacing mature market conditions for conventional NiMH batteries. The first piece of information implied that it would be critical to beat the competition and be the first company to offer customers the features and benefits they demanded in the new product. That would have allowed Back Bay to gain a competitive advantage and keep existing customers (that could easily switch from the company’s conventional batteries to the company’s ultracapacitors) as well as attract new ones. The second piece of information implied that demand for my core business products would soon start to decline …show more content…
Only later in the second year did I learn that self-discharge was also a very important feature (specifically to the Power Packs market). 2. Did that strategy work for you? Why or why not? My strategy seemed to work well for the first two years but then it became evident that I was losing market share in the NiMH business. I decided to cut down R&D in that division too early and that caused me to miss my sales targets. As I lost market share in my core business, the volume effect from my decision to lower NiMH prices did not compensate enough to allow that division to remain profitable. Suddenly, I had a very tight R&D budget to work with (as it was based on sales projections) and limited cash could be allocated to the improvement of the ultracapacitors business. I also reacted too late to the shift in customers’ demand for Power Packs products from Power Tools products, which caused late and lower-than-needed investments in other products’ features such as self-discharge (high priority for both NiMH and ultracapacitors). 3. After having run through the simulation, what elements of that strategy would you have changed and/or what strategy do you intend to pursue in the group simulation? I believe that the fundamentals and criteria of my strategic approach were pointing in the right direction. I assumed that the high growth potential market was for
Review of ABC Company and the directions it is targeting. The strategy of the company is to lift the expected sales in an aggressive fashion, with the expected end target being to triple the current levels. The plan is to push sales into the targeted range of $3 million within 3 years versus the current amount which sits at $1.2 million. We will identify the perceived risk factors that may impact this aggressive strategy and its successful execution. The following will be those risk factors:
b) Based on Schneider Foods’ recent history, I would reccomend the concentration growth strategy, which Maple Leaf Foods used by buying out Schneider Foods. This strategy will involve Schneider Foods introducing new products on a regular basis. I also reccomend using strategic alliance planning in order to eneter foreign markets, as Schenider Food desires to do.
I would say an excellent strategy to capture market opportunities, Cisco and its partners must continue to evolve, invest, lead and grow together.
Think about how many chargers you have in your home, including phone, laptop, and tablets chargers. Any chargers you have laying around. Include that they are most likely always plugged in. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week over a whole year! According to howtogeek.com, "there are 8760 hours in a year. That equates to 2.628 kilowatt hours (kWh)." That is a lot of time that it is plugged in and it's not always being used.
After analyzing the results from the previous quarter, it was determined that the prices set for each segment were not sufficient. Product sales priority were also not properly adjusted. With the R&D investments, sales priorities needed to be changed for the main focus to become the most profitable market segments. Prices were not competitive which in turned decreased revenue, market share, and profitability. To become more competitive we altered the prices in each market segment. The Workhorse product was the first to change, the price was lowered to $2500 in an attempt to increase sales; at this price Team 4 was still making a profit on this product, as well as making the price much more competitive. The Workhorse sales priority was also lowered to 3rd in Americas and 4th in APAC and EMEA. This product was not selling as well as we had hoped, and was no longer as profitable as it once was which led to this decision. Next, the Innovator product’s price was adjusted; this involved a price increase to $4100. This price was adjusted to include the new
Strategy formulation has been acknowledged as one of the most crucial factors of ensuring the long-term growth of the business. However, the manner in which strategy is formulated, and most importantly, the nature of the strategy chosen for the company determines its future position in the marketplace (Grant, 2005).
To begin, I adjusted the Research and Development investments to focus on recharge cycles and energy density. The provided information mentioned that these two areas were of great importance to customers and theses were high selling points. Overall, I spent $8 million of my $9 million budget on the first submission of my first trial. Upon submitting my decision, sales increased and I was not given any changing news. With this information, I maintained my current direction and increased investments to spend all of my now $11 million budget. Once I submitted my decision I was immediately told that management was concerned with my decision and that sales had decreased dramatically. I was also told that customers expected a price decrease in the products that were offered which was not an option considering my financial state. As a result, I submitted a decision to decrease unit prices by 50 cents each and altered my Research and Development spending. The simulation started in the year 2012 and I did not advance past 2008 during my first two
I would propose, that we also focus on strategically attracting businesses that not only meet the needs of today’s economy, but are anticipating the needs of the future. Therefore, it is important that we continually adjust our target industries strategy to create a diversified tax base that is sustainable.
The errors were made during the simulation including prioritising the personal goals over the team goals and the groupthink, that can be avoided in the future by taking several measures. I would put the team goals in the first place instead of the individual goals. The decision needs to be made based on whether it achieves an improving progress or a better result in completing the overall group tasks. Setting several subunit objectives will be helpful to reach the ultimate goal since the sub objects will specify the particular issue for each section or stage and it creates systematic manner to approach the final goal. Furthermore, after finishing each sub goals, the feeling of success would support to work further till the end. In addition, the groupthink may occur as the consequence of group dynamics and unfamiliar relationship among team members. Accordingly, the team need to encourage each member to present their ideas individually at first, after that, combining the thoughts and critically analysing them. Moreover, the team members ought to improve the cohesion by strengthen communication, which would be beneficial to enhance the quality of goals
Due to the growing competition and diminishing market share, companies are opting for different strategies to achieve their survival objectives as well as growth. Companies are thus executing grand strategies to provide their businesses with a clear direction for its strategic actions. These strategies, therefore, aim at both short term and long term sustainability and growth, and they include innovation, market development, product development, and concentration.
Cost leadership (Johnson et al., 2013, p194) strategy involves becoming the lowest-cost organisation in a domain of activity. In this case, NiMH battery prices were reduced to remain competitive in the market considering the fact that NiMH batteries represented the Cash Cow of the company.
Product Strategy - With the remaining 3 years left in our simulation, I would recommend what the
Discuss the strategic decisions that firms in this sector may be facing. What future strategies can firms pursue to try to secure their competitive advantage and long term survival?
Back Bay Battery is one of over 20 major manufacturers of NiMH batteries. The field is crowded,
Hence, it is hard for me to recover in that situation. I only reached the cumulative profit of -10.48M for the first time I played. Reasons contributed to the results are many. Firstly, I did not have clear position at first and did not stick to my long term plan; I managed to innovate in both the NiMH and also the UC technology. External environment changes also affect the sales and profit significantly. For example, the Lithium-ion battery producers made the price deduction influenced the price I offer to my customers. The other difficulty I faced is that customers preference changes are hard to predict. For instance, the customers’ increase of importance of recharge time has led to my investment in desired energy density not generating deserved customer preference. Even worse, the constant price reduction request made my company profit shrink. The challenge is that it is almost impossible for me to innovate in the two area to try to maximum my sales for all the customers. Clayton Christensen’s disruptive innovation theory also explains my failure experience, that is: every company that has tried to manage mainstream and disruptive business within a single organisation failed. The next time I play, I will nurture the disruptive UC technology in an separate entity and try sticking to a long term plan. I should manage the two technologies separately. Another important lessen learnt was that once decide a plan or a strategy, keep sticking to the strategy