...1. Regarding industry analysis Competitive Forces Industry analysis is an important aspect to understanding RIM’s strategy. Porter’s five forces can be used to identify the sources of competition in a particular industry. At first, RIM was a leader in producing smartphones to the business class, but many companies realized that there was a large market potential for phones that can integrate functions ranging from email to social networking. The threat of new entrants was highest. Once Apple introduced the IPhone, the target market for RIM started drifting away from the Blackberry models since the IPhone had become the latest and greatest innovation. Many other companies started moving into the smartphone market and were slowly taking away from the market share of Blackberry. The threat of new entrants was still relatively low during the first few years following 2007, but a few firms in related industries had the proprietary knowledge and the capital required to successfully enter the smartphone market. Also, new brands lacked the reputation needed to succeed in the smartphone industry. The threat of substitute products was considered low since everyone feels that they need a cell phone to live their daily lives. In fact, substitute products such as the home phones and beepers are now obsolete. Some people tried to claim that substitute products are high, but differentiated products are not substitutes since they are within the same industry. The bargaining power...
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...INTRODUCTION Globalization and instant access to information, products and services have changed. Today’s competitive environment leaves no room for error. Companies must delight the customers and relentlessly look for new ways to exceed their expectations. This is why Six Sigma Quality has become a part of our culture. WHAT IS SIX SIGMA? Sigma at many organizations simply means a measure of quality that strives for near perfection. Six Sigma is a disciplined, data-driven approach and methodology for eliminating defects (driving toward six standard deviations between the mean and the nearest specification limit) in any process – from manufacturing to transactional and from product to service. A method that provides organizations tools to improve the capability of their business processes. This increase in performance and decrease in process variation lead to defect reduction and improvement in profits, employee morale, and quality of products or services. Six Sigma quality is a term generally used to indicate a process is well controlled (within process limits ±3s from the center line in a control chart, and requirements/tolerance limits ±6s from the center line). WHY SIX SIGMA? The statistical representation of Six Sigma describes quantitatively how a process is performing. To achieve Six Sigma, a process must not produce more than 3.4 defects per million opportunities. A Six Sigma defect is defined as anything outside of customer specifications. A Six Sigma opportunity...
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...Incremental Innovation in Technology, Advantages and Disadvantages. Introduction: The objective of this paper is to examine the techniques related to incremental technological innovation in light of its advantages and disadvantages. Many studies focus on techniques of speeding up the cycle of product design. However, the fastest and most effective way to speed up the introduction of a product is to execute an incremental improvement – to an existing produce - that could serve a new and particular need. On the other side of the spectrum, there is what is called the megaproject. A project that starts out with over-the-top ambitious objectives, it requires almost extraordinary effort to accomplish, it demands enormous financial budgets, it typically runs over time and misses many deadlines, and at the end, few examples make a splash and many are written as “tax deductions”. While these heroic projects make good news stories, they do not always make money. They can fail very dramatically and expensively. Since these failures do not make such good new stories, we hear less about them, and overestimate the success rate of megaprojects. We underestimate the importance and value of incremental programs and mislead ourselves about the true risk of the megaproject. We need to look more carefully at these two approaches. Therefore, the opinion expressed here is that the incremental innovators are in fact the unsung heroes of product development. In examining the advantages...
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...Question 1.1. (TCO E) Suggested reasons why many customer satisfaction efforts fail include all of the following EXCEPT: (Points : 5) using poor satisfaction measurement schemes @ failing to weight quality dimensions equally confusing loyalty with satisfaction failing to identify appropriate quality dimensions Question 2.2. (TCO D) Factors that should be considered when selecting Six Sigma projects include the following EXCEPT: (Points : 5) financial return. impacts on customers and organizational effectiveness. @ fit to existing government legislation(s) on quality. probability of success. Question 3.3. (TCO C) Lean production refers to approaches that originated at: (Points : 5) @ Ford. Xerox. Motorola. Toyota. Question 4.4. (TCO C) Which one of the following is NOT one of the three levels of mistake-proofing? (Points : 5) Designing potential errors out of the process. Identifying potential defects and stopping a process before the defect is produced. @ Training the workforce in implementing and monitoring the modified process. Finding defects that enter or leave a process. Question 5.5. (TCO B) _____ measures are generally tracked by senior leadership to gauge overall organizational performance. (Points : 5) @ Financial Customer Product Service Question 6.6. (TCO I) The cost associated...
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...EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This research paper acknowledges different quality management tools. It is about the evolution of different quality tools and defining the best practice Strategic model in IT organization in relation to achieving quality within their business processes and integrating business processes to achieve strategic goals. Previous research and study indicates the various quality system tools in order to achieve quality management objectives in the competitive business environment. This research paper investigates and finds out the evolution of different quality system tools and significance of various quality tools and then designing best practice strategic model for future in Information Technology organization. The importance of this proposed research is that currently IT companies are experiencing increased global competition and parameters like complexities of the product, different markets, customer focus, high quality of product, decision making and integration among various business units in the global environment and the environment in which the firm operates are the issues of concern. Traditional quality tool in IT systems are not capable of coping with these demands and still stay competitive. Changes are needed in order to achieve sustainable results and maintaining fitness and overcome the problems of traditional tools. Today industrial companies need stable position socially and economically...
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...is core to your firm's competitive competencies. Types of competitive collaboration 1. Joint Ventures 2. Outsourcing agreements 3. Product Licensing 4. Cooperative research The study of 15 mergers of three major types: four intra-European alliances, two EuropeanJapanese alliances, and seven U.S.-Japanese alliances found that collaboration is something often used by successful businesses. Alliances between Asian companies and Western rivals seem to work against the Western partner. Collaboration is competition in a different form. Companies have to enter collaborations knowing that competition still exists. They must have clear strategic objectives, and understand how their partners’ objectives will affect their success. Harmony is not the most important measure of success. Most successful alliances do not always have win-win scenarios. As competitive competencies develop, conflict will arise between the partners over who has the right to the rewards of the partnership. Cooperation has...
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...originally developed by Motorola in 1981.[1][2] Six Sigma became well known after Jack Welch made it a central focus of his business strategy at General Electric in 1995,[3] and today it is used in different sectors of industry.[4] Six Sigma seeks to improve the quality of process outputs by identifying and removing the causes of defects (errors) and minimizing variability in manufacturing and business processes.[5] It uses a set of quality management methods, including statistical methods, and creates a special infrastructure of people within the organization ("Champions", "Black Belts", "Green Belts", "Yellow Belts", etc.) who are experts in the methods.[5] Each Six Sigma project carried out within an organization follows a defined sequence of steps and has quantified value targets, for example; process cycle time reduction, customer satisfaction, reduction in pollution, cost reduction and/or profit increase.[5] The term Six Sigma originated from terminology associated with manufacturing, specifically terms associated with statistical modeling of manufacturing processes. The maturity of a manufacturing process can be described by a sigma rating indicating its yield or the percentage of defect-free products it creates. A six sigma process is one in which 99.99966% of the products manufactured are statistically expected to be free of defects (3.4 defects per million), although, as discussed below, this defect level corresponds to only a 4.5 sigma level. Motorola set a goal of "six...
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...the mean and the nearest specification limit) in any process – from manufacturing to transactional and from product to service. The fundamental objective of the Six Sigma methodology is the implementation of a measurement-based strategy that focuses on process improvement and variation reduction through the application of Six Sigma improvement projects. This is accomplished through the use of two Six Sigma sub-methodologies: DMAIC and DMADV. The Six Sigma DMAIC process (define, measure, analyze, improve, control) is an improvement system for existing processes falling below specification and looking for incremental improvement. The Six Sigma DMADV process (define, measure, analyze, design, verify) is an improvement system used to develop new processes or products at Six Sigma quality levels. It can also be employed if a current process requires more than just incremental improvement. Both Six Sigma processes are executed by Six Sigma Green Belts and Six Sigma Black Belts, and are overseen by Six Sigma Master Black Belts. Over the past two decades Six Sigma has evolved from a focus on metric to the Methodology level and finally to the design and development of entire Management Systems. As a Metric, when a process is operating at Six Sigma level, it will produce nonconformance (i.e.,defects or errors) at a rate of not more than 3.4 defects per one million opportunities....
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...concerning changes in the market (Ferrell, 2009). Spectrum Brands may use a matrix structure to leverage the success that others have experienced in the food transportation, aerospace, and extractives industries. In food transportation, businesses like Tree of Life have used this structure in supply chain to ensure that vice presidents of inventory management, transportation, and warehousing, individually partner with procurement specialists of different product lines to ensure maximum throughput from distribution centers (Casper, 2009). In aerospace and global extractive businesses like oil, gas, and mining, Matrix structures have been used to integrate dissimilar international business segments under a common goal by mobilizing highly skilled executive teams with global functional roles (Millar, 2008). Spectrum Brand relates to these industries in its mission to diversify the portfolio, requiring a myriad of vendors and a sophisticated supply chain in an international marketplace. 2) Explain how the firm could operate using a Multidivisional structure. A multidivisional structure organizes work groups into specialized divisions that departmentalizes on customers, regions, products, and functions. This structure provides clear line of authority, delegation of power, and enhanced customer focus (Ferrell, 2009). Traditionally large multinational companies like Motorola, have used...
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...PROJECT IN QUALITY Nikolas Bellosillo TC303 INTRODUCTION This book review is for our QUALITY subject with our professor Mr. R. Romero. The book is entitled Built to Last: Successful habits of Visionary companies By Jim Collins and Jerry Porras, published by HarperCollins Publishers. Built to Last is a blueprint for building organizations that will endure long into the twenty-first century. "This is not a book about charismatic visionary leaders. It is not about visionary product concepts or visionary products or visionary market insights. Nor is it about just having a corporate vision. This is a book about something far more important, enduring, and substantial. This is a book about visionary companies." So write Jim Collins and Jerry Porras in this groundbreaking book that shatters myths, provides new insights, and gives practical guidance to those who would like to build landmark companies that stand the test of time. Drawing upon a six-year research project at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, Collins and Porras took eighteen truly exceptional and long-lasting companies -- they have an average age of nearly one hundred years and have outperformed the general stock market by a factor of fifteen since 1926 -- and studied each company in direct comparison to one of its top competitors. They examined the companies from their very beginnings to the present day -- as start-ups, as midsize companies, and as large corporations...
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...VisionMobile Mobile Megatrends 2011 how telecoms business is transforming in the software era. updated 8 March 2011 Copyright VisionMobile 2011 Knowledge. Passion. Innovation. Andreas Constantinou Michael Vakulenko Matos Kapetanakis (c) VisionMobile 2011 Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0) You are free to Share or Remix any part of this work as long as you attribute this work to VisionMobile (www.visionmobile.com). Copyright VisionMobile 2011 VisionMobile research Distilling market noise into market sense Research competitive analysis, commissioned research, company due diligence Developer Economics 2010: Everything on mobile development Training open source economics, Android commercials, mobile industry dynamics Market maps Competitive landscape maps of the mobile industry Strategy definition strategy design, ecosystem positioning, product definition Active Idle Screen Who will own the screen? Open Source Chessboard business impacts of mobile open source, the competitive landscape and how to design your company strategy Mobile Industry Atlas, 3rd ed. 1,100+ companies, 69 market sectors Mobile Megatrends series Top-100 analyst blog GPLv2 vs GPLv3 White Paper The Android Game Plan the commercial mechanics behind Android and how Google runs the show 4,000+ subscribers 20,000+ monthly uniques 90% mobile industry insiders 100 million club tracking...
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...offering discounts, allowances, and other incentives to promote their product, Intermec fell behind in the market. The CEO came up with six different options to regain their market share and increase their profits. After analyzing the six alternatives, as well as additional options, Intermec needs to start offering the same trade promotions to their channel members as one of their main competitors, Motorola, offers in order to regain their competitive position and increase their sales. Introduction Since 1966, Intermec has become a leading manufacturer of mobile computerized devices that are used in the Automatic Identification and Data Capture (AIDC) Industry. Some of the devices the firm designs include mobile computers, barcode scanners, wireless barcode printers, and radio frequency identification products and it also sells after-sales repair services. Intermec is known as an innovator and has introduced many technological breakthroughs since they opened. However, they have numerous patents, copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets. Intermec’s top competitor is Motorola and both of them offer the broadest product mixes out of the other competitors as well as provide the most complete solutions for customer needs. Intermec’s revenues were trending up over the last few years until 2009 when the firm ran into some problems. Revenues declined by 26% from 2008 to 2009,...
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...Can Apple successfully defend its position as an innovative powerhouse while expanding its portfolio to include media and software as well as attract new consumers? Apple Computer, Inc. Case Study Sheila Attipoe Rosemary Oxford On April 1, 1976, Steve Jobs and Stephen Wozniak began the partnership that would eventually become Apple Computer in Cupertino, California. “Apple Computer, Inc. is an American multinational corporation that designs and sells consumer electronics, computer software, and personal computers. The company’s best-known hardware products are the Macintosh line of computers, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad. Its software includes the Mac OS X operating system; the iTunes media browser; the iLife suite of multimedia and creativity software; the iWork suite of productivity software; Aperture, a professional photography package; Final Cut Studio, a suite of professional audio and film-industry software products; Logic Studio, a suite of music production tools, the Safari web browser; and iOS, a mobile operating system” (Wikipedia). Some of Apple’s competitors include IBM, Dell, and HP. The first computer, the Apple I, was hand-built by Stephen Wozniak in the garage of Steve Jobs’s parents. It was known as the “kit computer” the original Apple consisted merely of a circuit board and did not even have an exterior casing. The Apple I did not sell well and this lead to the introduction of the Apple II on April 16, 1977. This helped increase the...
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...Is technological innovation the main source of all economic development and change? How might differing research and development systems influence the performance of major nations? Introduction Technological innovation has come to be regarded as a central factor upon which success is contingent (Dodgson and Bessant, 1996: 3; Schumpeter, 1943: 83). Not only has it been considered a promise for generating competitive advantage but it has also been prescribed as a remedy for a broad range of managerial problems such as intense competition, globalised marketplace and technology fusion (Eris & Saatcioglu, 2004). Since the middle of the 20th century many theorists have explored the issue of technological innovation and how it influences performance on the national, industry and firm level. This report will firstly, compare the R&D systems of the USA, UK, Germany, Japan and China and then analyse the automobile and semiconductor industries in relation to these systems to show that technological innovation is not the main source of economic development. Technological innovation Various definitions of technological innovation have been devised as part of existing theories. In addition, technology and innovation are often used interchangeably. Throughout this report, however, technological innovation will be regarded as the usage and knowledge of tools, techniques, crafts or methods in terms of new products and processes (Porter, 1990; Nelson, 1993). Further, a distinction...
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...9-710-429 REV: MAY 2, 2011 JUAN ALCÁCER TARUN KHANNA MARY FUREY RAKEEN MABUD Emerging Nokia? It was December of 2009 and D. Shivakumar, the Managing Director of Nokia India was catching up over coffee with Colin Giles, his counterpart in the China office, and Chris Braam, who was in charge of operations in the Middle East and Africa. The gathering was somewhat celebratory in nature: Giles had recently been promoted to global head of sales. Before Giles left his Greater China market role, his colleagues wanted to get his thoughts on Nokia’s future in the region. The three men had no doubt that Nokia’s strategy in emerging markets had been successful: Nokia was the market leader in India and China, with market shares of 60% and 40%, respectively.1 The company also had made inroads into Africa and South America. However, Nokia had lost ground in the developed world: the company only sold one in 10 handsets in the U.S. (compared to one in three in 2002),2 and it had recently pulled out of Japan after 20 years of operations. Nokia’s revenues in Europe declined by 15% in the fourth quarter of 2009.3 However, Nokia was famous for its ability to reinvent itself. From its beginnings as a paper mill turned rubber manufacturer turned electronics company, and finally, as the world’s largest producer of mobile phones, Nokia possessed an unmatched ability to face obstacles head on and come out on top. Said former CEO Jorma Ollila, “Finns live in a cold climate. We have...
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