Discussion 1: "Business-Level Strategy"
From the first e-Activity, assess your satisfaction with the company you researched and make recommendations about how that company could modify its business-level strategy to both increase your overall level of satisfaction and to attract new customers. Provide specific examples to support your response.
eActivities: Use the Internet or the Strayer Library to research a company with which you regularly do business or are a regular customer. Focus on how that company relates to their customers. Be prepared to discuss.
Use the Internet or the Strayer Library to research Apple's strategy for competing against other technology companies. Be prepared to discuss.
• Analyze the five business-level strategies discussed in Chapter 4 to determine which strategy the company you researched most likely applies. Determine how your experience with that company might change if it switched to one of the other four strategies (your choice). Explain your rationale.
The five business-¬level strategies include cost leadership, differentiation, focused cost leadership, focused differentiation, and integrated cost leadership/differentiation.
Discussion 2: "Protecting Your Intellectual Property"
• Construct a hypothetical product life cycle of a business you would propose to start. Analyze when you would obtain each of the following: a patent, a trademark, and a copyright based on your product idea. Support your analysis.
• From the e-Activity, create a plan for how to use the resources of the Small Business Administration (SBA) and the U.S. Patent Office in starting your small business. Prepare a schedule of when you would call on those resources during your start-up phase.
e-Activity: • Visit the government Website. Take a note on the resources offered for planning and starting a business. Visit the U.S. Patent Office Website located at http://www.uspto.gov. Be prepared to discuss.
Discussion 3: "Managing the Foundation"
• From the case study, a family was torn apart by its ownership in a small business. Suggest a method to initially structure a family business that would mitigate the risk of this kind of disruptive future problem. Support your response.
You can find case study The Crowne Inn: A Classic Case of a Family Business in Turmoil
• Evaluate the options to incentivize members of a small-business founding team. Debate the value of stock options, bonuses, and ownership compared to salary.