Organizational Strategy

Instructions: Answer the questions in a professional style with complete sentences. Please read each question very carefully and be sure that you have answered in the way I've asked you to.

Incorporate and apply appropriate topics and ideas from the course in every answer.

You can use your notes, readings, and other materials. You may NOT consult with any other student (or person). This is to be your individual work. You may not copy work from any source. There's no need to cite sources or do additional research.

The point of this assessment is to see your ability to understand and apply the concepts we've been studying. It is not to have you play back to me the concepts, so avoid describing the ideas we've covered, as you won't get any credit for that.

I've given you guidelines for how much to write. Make sure you answer the questions, but there's no need to write excessively. A "short essay" answer should be about 3-4 sentences. A "medium essay" answer should be about 4-6 sentences.

1. List one way each that (a) technology usage and one way that (b) "big data" usagein a firm can decrease a customer's "willingness to pay".

2. How can you reconcile the ideas in the ‘are you sure you have a strategy' article by Hambricht and Fredrickson and the ‘competing on the edge of chaos' article by Eisenhardt and Brown? How might they both be applicable to the same firm?

3. Over the past five years Microsoft's stock has underperformed many other tech firms. List one resource, capability, or core competence of Microsoft and why it is difficult to imitate or substitute for. Give one NEW strategic recommendation that leverages thisresource, capability, or core competence. (Note: do not discuss Xbox - it's a very small part of Microsoft's business.)

4. Sears and Kmart have struggled mightily in recent years. Describe their industry and it's challenges using three of Porter's Five Forces. Make one new strategic recommendation that can help them substantially improve their sales and/or profitability.

5. A recent report (http://heistmade.com/banks/ in case you want to peruse it, but you don't have to) asserts that 60% of (Canadian) millenials are open to banking with a non-bank financial institution. Discuss the switching costs incurred by customers switching from a traditional bank to an unconventional, non-bank financial institution.