THE EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT, INTERNAL PROFILE, AND SWOT
SCENARIO CONTINUATION
It is New Year's Day, 2016. You have finished analyzing the performance of Clipboard Tablet Co., and you have submitted the report requested by your CEO, Sally Smothers. You are ready to move forward to 2016, but.....
....as you turn on the TV, you notice something very strange. You recognize that the date is January 1, 2012, and that you get to make the decisions for the Clipboard Tablet Co. for the 4-year period beginning with 2012. Your challenge is to do better than Joe Thomas.
At the beginning of each year (2012-2015), you will determine your pricing, your R&D allocations, and whether or not to discontinue any products. You are required to make your decisions for each year, and to report your results to see what happened. You must keep track of your decisions, making specific notes supporting each of your decisions.
Run the Clipboard Tablet Co. simulation through the end of 2015. When you are finished, the date will be December 31, 2015. What is your total Score? Did you do better than Joe Thomas?
You organize your notes about your decisions, your analysis, and your reasoning into a well-written report.
Session Long Project
Run the Clipboard Tablet Co. simulation with your strategy, making decisions year by year for prices and R&D allocations. Write a 6-7 page paper, not including cover and reference pages, in which you discuss the decisions and the results for each year. Discuss why you did better (or worse) than Joe Thomas.
KEYS TO THE ASSIGNMENT
The key aspects of this assignment that should be covered and taken into account in preparing your paper include:
- As you run the simulation, keep track of your decisions and the results - both financial and marketing. Copy and paste the results into Excel or into a Word document. You will also want to record the information that you get from the Advisor. Make a note of your Final Total Score.
- Include your Final Total Score, some tables, and/or graphs showing key results. Using sound logic, be sure to clearly explain the differences from Joe.
- Remember that the key here is quality ofanalysis.
- Time Line Summary:
SLP1
- 2015: You are hired on December 15th.
- Turned in first report to Sally on December 30th.
SLP2
- You find yourself in a Time Warp that takes you back to January 1, 2012.
- You recognize that you can now revise the decisions made by Joe for 2012 - 2015.
- January 2, 2012 - input decisions for 2012.
- January 2, 2013 - input decisions for 2013.
- January 2, 2014 - input decisions for 2014.
- January 2, 2015 - input decisions for 2015.
- December 31, 2015 - You have gone through all four years, and you write your report to summarize how you did.
TIPS AND SUGGESTIONS
Please note the following tips and suggestions:
- Include a cover page and reference page, in addition to the 6-7pages of analysis described above.
o Use section headings as appropriate. Use graphs, charts, or figures strategically - but do not use these as "space fillers." Include large graphs, etc. as an Appendix instead.
o Cite and reference all sources that you use in your work, including those that you paraphrase. This means include citations and quotation marks for direct quotes, and citations for that information which you have "borrowed" or paraphrased from other sources.