Questions and Answers of Management A Practical Introduction

Describe the main stages of the technology life cycle. What are sibling S-curves? Think of an example of sibling curves.
It takes determination to sustain a high-technology start-up in Greece, where the government has been slow to update labour and tax regulations and offers few incentives for entrepreneurs. Yet Alex
What are the six major stages through which innovation process management systems have evolved? Define the pros and cons for each approach.
What are the four basic components that constitute a generic NPD framework?
What are the advantages of implementing a structured product development (SDP) model? What are potential limitations or problems of this approach?
Explain the reasons behind the Japanese ability to parallel process new product development activities. Why do some western companies find it difficult to emulate this model? How have western
How do NPD frameworks differ between a product/service-focussed business, and one that is positioned as a network innovator or solutions provider?
Define the key organisational challenges in becoming a network innovator.
What dynamics are driving the shift towards network innovation generally, and toward solutions innovation specifically?
When Molton Brown chief executive Sara Halton wanted to inject fresh life into the 34-year-old brand, she didn’t just talk to the people in new product development. She set up an advisory board 3
Select 5 important characteristics that would influence the prioritisation of a product portfolio. Show how you would use these to provide an initial prioritised list for the senior management team
If you had five exhibits to present to the Review Board, providing an effective coverage of the company’s current product portfolio, which ones would you select, and why?
Based on the following information, build a risk/opportunity bubble chart, then discuss what issues the company is facing. Programme Strategic A B C D E F G H R&D investment allocated bucket ($m)
Based on the following information, calculate the ECV for the proposed opportunity, and position it in the available list explaining what recommendations you would make to the senior management team
Select two companies within a specific market, and explain how you would differentiate their portfolios using the models described in this chapter, with particular emphasis on strategic alignment.
Company A is an established player in the pharmaceutical market, specialising in analgesia (pain killers) possessing around 33 per cent of the available market share, which it shares equally with two
In what sense is measurement an important driver of business performance?
Identify the three stages of performance measurement, and state what are the perceived advantages and limitations of each.
What is the difference between Process measures and Outcome measures?
Briefly describe an example of one integrated performance framework and one measurement systems methodology.
Identify the three levels of innovation performance measurement. Provide an example of metrics to capture each of these.
What are the characteristics of a good measurement system? What features would make it a useful system.
In a typical organisation, business units act independently of each other and make decisions based on information that is relevant to them. For example, the sales and marketing department might
Outline the characteristics that can be used to describe a company as innovative, citing examples in each case.
Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of applying different firm types to address innovation, and provide examples where possible.
In the context of organisational structures, show how you would address the challenges of cross-functional integration in innovation. What benefits would you expect to see as a result?
Describe the challenges an organisation might face when moving from traditional colocated innovation teams to ones that are global/virtual in nature.
Describe the role of the project champion in innovation. Discuss how this role is linked either to the traditional team leader role or that of the executive sponsor.
Indicate the factors that could lead to flawed innovation decision making. Suggest how you would correct these problems.
The number of new medicines has steadily dropped, while the cost of bringing each one to market has risen sharply to more than $1bn (£605m, c700m). The debate has never been more urgent.
Discuss why culture is so important in developing an innovative organisation.
What is the difference between organisational culture and climate?
How can you tell a strong culture from a weak culture?
Identify the basic characteristics associated with clan, hierarchy, market and adhocracy culture types.
Explain the cultural traits model. What insights does this provide about an innovative business culture?
How can leaders drive and shape an innovative culture? What must they do, and what must they not do?
Why is the individual so important for an innovative organisation? What individual factors and considerations should be taken into account when managing an organisation for innovation?
Discuss the design of systems and practices necessary to drive innovation.
From your experience, identify five organisational norms. Assess how each affects innovation.
Why are communications, actions, and rewards so important in an organisation?
The Huajian Group, a Sino-Taiwan shoe maker, is precisely the type of Chinese exporter that should be on its knees. Huajian exports 95 per cent of its output to the US, focus of the global financial
Identify the key drivers of globalisation. Discuss what are the implications of these for innovation.
List the different organisational configurations for global innovation. Examine the relative advantages and disadvantages of each. Is there a trend towards any one form?If so, state why.
Discuss what actions are necessary to make the integrated R&D network (or the transnational form) effective.
Why is the decision to conduct R&D in a particular location/subsidiary complex?What type of factors must be taken into account for this decision?
Discuss the different roles a subsidiary can play in the roll-out of an innovation.
What additional difficulties exist in managing global innovation team projects? What actions are needed to overcome these problems?
Define and discuss the different leadership responsibilities and roles in the management of global innovation projects.
Of all the business innovations explorer Marco Polo discovered in thirteenth century China, he was perhaps most surprised by the use of paper money. It was worth dozens of times the weight of the
What are the implications of continuous and discontinuous change for innovation?
What is an ambidextrous innovator, and why are these firms most capable of dealing with dislocational change?
What are the common causes of market blindness? Describe an organisational process for market learning, which is appropriate for fast-changing, complex and disruptive environments.
Highlight four conventional methods of market research, and define their strengths and weaknesses.
Why are new methods for market learning and understanding necessary? Identify the main types of development to improve market understanding and consequently innovation success.
What are the different ways of classifying customer needs? Find an illustrative example of each.
Describe the basic diagram developed by Noriaki Kano. What are its implications for innovation?
What role does QFD play in the organisational market learning and innovation process?
When Todd Bradley was appointed to lead Hewlett-Packard’s $28bn personal computer division in 2005, the conventional wisdom was that PCs were a rapidly commoditising business that held little
Provide examples from your experience of good and bad design. State why they were good or bad.
Under what circumstances would you wish to adopt the spiral design methodology? What are the advantages and limitations of this relative to the waterfall methodology?
What are the common causes of design failure?
Explain the concept of ‘design latitude’ and how it can affect manufacturing efficiencies.
Describe the advantages and disadvantages a company may experience by adopting a concurrent engineering approach over traditional serial development methods.
Describe the concept of platforming and the benefits to be gained from its successful implementation.
Using an illustrative example, describe the four possible customisation strategies that a firm might adopt.
Using a company from the industry sector of your choice, explain what the most appropriate manufacturing strategies might be, and how these reinforce broader strategic goals.
Explain the activities involved in setting production target costs.
Describe the concepts, and inter-relationships, of product architecture, platforms and modular design. Explain what benefits can be gained from adopting these approaches.
Explain how process-led manufacturing customisations can enhance market strategies.
What is the role of TQM in innovation?
Describe some of the latest approaches that help drive greater flexibility in product development.
Electronics may be responsible for about 90 per cent of innovation in automobiles, but they also provide vehicle makers with their biggest challenge 3 keeping up with innovation in consumer
Describe the major components of a generic supply chain, and explain how they are connected using a real-life example.
Explain how a company may progressively move from one supply chain paradigm to another, stating how this will increasingly support innovation.
Choose an example, and use it to explain how supply chains can be used to support and extend innovation frameworks.
Describe how value nets may undermine traditional approaches to innovation.
Explain the critical role information technology plays in enabling supply chains, giving examples to illustrate your answer.
An efficient supply chain is a prize worth striving for. According to Accenture, the consultancy firm, ‘supply chain leadership’ can increase a company’s market capitalisation by between 7 and
Are knowledge and knowledge assets really a primary resource as suggested by Peter Drucker? Under what circumstance might this assertion not hold?
Identify the key elements of a knowledge system to manage innovation. How should they be organised?
What types of information would you keep in an innovation knowledge repository? List the types of items under each category. How would you organise and manage it to make it more effective?
Define the basic generic knowledge strategies? What dimensions underlie their definition/classification? Comment on how/why the evolutionary trajectory of the knowledge strategies may break down.
How can benchmarking be used for innovation? What are the advantages and disadvantages associated with each type? Give examples of the types of benchmarking in relation to specific innovation
Under what situations should you look to source knowledge externally and under what circumstances should it be created internally?
Identify the key challenges of collaborating for innovation. How can these be overcome and managed?
If the average age of the scientists in your company’s R&D department is 48, surely there is no need to worry yet about losing expertise if one of them retires? Wrong, says David DeLong: ‘I want
In 1969, a radical new children’s program appeared on television, one specifically designed to blend education with entertainment (characterproducts.com, 2004). Sesame Street, which has been on the
On average, how often did you watch educational television (for example, Sesame Street) or use educational media (e.g., computer games, apps) when you were a child? (circle one) Not at All | Very
Lisa, Steve, and Chen were feeling triumphant. Just 3 months ago, their company, Ryan Project Systems, had merged with Gierig Strategien AG, a consulting firm headquartered in Germany. At the time,
Two years out of college, Ashlee Mosteiller had recently joined the internal audit department of a large pharmaceutical company as a junior quality assurance analyst. As a team, these analysts
Jason was a man with a plan. Immediately after graduating from college, he created his own cleaning company.He started off cleaning houses doing all of the dirty work by himself, but over time, he
Historic Philadelphia is a booming travel destination. Among the many sites tourists visit while in one of the nation’s oldest cities is the Granovetter Church, a partially restored building nearly
Trina had always loved her job at the Columbus AIDS Confederation (CAC). She was part of a small nonprofit that served economically disadvantaged people who had been diagnosed with HIV/AIDS. As a
A new leader brought renewed enthusiasm to the Brunswick County Conference & Visitors Bureau (BCCVB), the official tourism promotion agency for Brunswick County, Pennsylvania. Under her leadership,
For more than 80 years, Hope Medical Center had serviced its local residents as a privately run, not-for-profitcommunity hospital. However, with the rapidly escalating cost of medical care, last
When the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board approved applications for the development of two casinos withinthe city limits of Philadelphia, controversy immediately ensued. Before the state had
Evelyn and Doug were active in their retirement. They both spent a lot of time working for their community theater group, organizing fund-raisers, building sets, and selling tickets. As full as their
Selena Framingham is a 24-year-old woman from the South. She was the first in her family to attend college, and she was very proud of the fact that she paid for her entire education by earning
What are the seven challenges of being a manager, and which one is the one I will probably most have to worry about during my lifetime?
You have been hired by a vice president of a national company to create an employee attitude survey, to administer it to all employees, and to interpret the results.You have known this vice president

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