For this assignment, you will respond to the address the efficacy of decisions made for your team Competition Round 1, the outcomes, and implications for Competition Round 2. This post is an in depth assessment of all decisions made. What have you identified as the key business issues that will impact your product as the result of Competition Round 1 outcomes? How do you plan to adjust the decisions for your product? Prepare to discuss your decisions with the other members of your team.
As the Vice President of your product please address these questions for the decisions you made in R&D:
- To what degree did your decisions regarding specification of the products serve to attract customer demand? What do you plan for round 2, based on the outcome?
- What level of quality and reliability-mean time between failure (MTBF) did you build into your products and why?
- How did you ensure that the perceived age of the product meets customer demand?
- What was the impact of your R&D decisions on materials cost? What other decisions were impacted by the increase or decrease?
As the Vice President of your product please address these questions for the decisions you made in Marketing:
- Explain your rationale for how you set the price of your products in the marketplace. How did your pricing compare to the competition at the close of the Round? How do you plan to respond in the next round?
- How well did you build customer awareness through promotion, relative to the competition?
- How effectively did you establish a sales force and distribution channels?
- What was your sales forecast strategy for your products and how did you calculate it?
- What was your rationale for your credit policies (accounts receivable and accounts payable)?
As the Vice President of your product please address these questions for the decisions you made in Production:
- Did you purchase machinery to automate your facilities? Why or why not?
- Did you buy or sell capacity of product lines?
- How did you establish your production schedule for each line?
- How well did you manage the majority of the company's fixed assets?
In conjunction with the COO final Finance decisions, address these questions for the Finance decisions related to your product:
- Did you acquire capital to fund capital expansions?
- Did you issue stock, short-term debt, or long-term bonds? If so, why?
- Did you issue a dividend to your shareholders? Explain your rationale whether your answer was yes or no.
- How well did you balance your debt portfolio? What was your strategy regarding the management of the pro forma statements?
- Given your analysis, what adjustments do you plan for Competition Round 2?