Question: Identifying Excellence
Break up into groups of three to five people and appoint one group member as a spokesperson who will communicate your findings to the class. You are the management team of a start-up company that will produce hard disc drives for the personal computer industry. You will sell your product to manufacturers of personal computers (original equipment manufacturers). The disk drive market is characterized by rapid technological change, product life cycles of only six to nine months, intense price competition, high fixed costs for manufacturing equipment, and substantial manufacturing economies of scale. Your customers, the original equipment manufacturers, issue very demanding technological specifications that your product has to comply with. They also pressure you to deliver your product on time so that it fits in with their own product introduction schedule.
1. In this industry, what functional competencies are the most important for you to build?
2. How will you design your internal processes to ensure that those competencies are built within the company?
Article File 4
Choose a company that is widely regarded as excellent. Identify the source of its excellence and relate it to the material discussed in this chapter. Pay particular attention to the role played by the various functions in building excellence.
Strategic Management Project: Module 4
This module deals with the ability of your company to achieve superior efficiency, quality, innovation, and responsiveness to customers. With the information you have at your disposal, answer the following questions and perform the tasks listed:
1. Is your company pursuing any of the efficiency enhancing practices discussed in this chapter?
2. Is your company pursuing any of the quality enhancing practices discussed in this chapter?
3. Is your company pursuing any of the practices designed to enhance innovation discussed in this chapter?
4. Is your company pursuing any of the practices designed to increase responsiveness to customers discussed in this chapter?
5. Evaluate the competitive position of your company in the light of your answers to questions 1-4. Explain what, if anything, the company needs to do to improve its competitive position.