BUS 580 Leaders Tools and Tech

Midterm Questions:

1. Explain what is Competitive Advantage and provide an example.

Doing something better than any other organization, doing something that other organizations can not do. This advantage is usually short-term and belongs to the first movers. Examples are United Airlines frequent flyers discounts, Sony mobile music players. One example of a standing competetive advantage is Microsoft Operating sytems that still continue to hold the greatest market share.

2. Strategy formulation pertains to decisions made about your competition, product, market choices and strategy implementation pertains to choices that help to execute your product-market decisions. Give an example that explains strategy formulation and strategy implementation. The example can be real or hypothetical.

Apple Computer used strategy formulation to get into the music industry and chose to implement that strategy by creating the iPOD.

3. List and briefly explain the three views of strategic management--the three ways that companies strategize about creating or maintaining a competitive advantage.

Three views: The I/O view examines external forces. The Resouce view examines internal forces. The Guerilla view examines the competive environment. The I/O view uses comparitive analysis....how do we stand in the industry. The Resource view uses analysis of how internally efficient and effective we are as an organization. The Guerilla view is an analysis on how we adapt to the environment and how quickly and effectively we can keep our competetors off balance.

4. In terms of I.T., what are the 3 characteristics of a well aligned company?

The 3 charracteristics of a well alligned company are

1. Executive agreement on the role of IT- where and how IT adds value
2. Executive agreement onf the priorities and focus areas for IT
3. Executive agreement on the follow through and delivery of IT expectations.

5. The strategic alignment model is a tool that leaders can use to ensure that their Business domains and their IT domains are in agreement. What are the four domains of the model?

The four domains are part of a model which looks at strategic fit and functional integration. The model also accesses infrastructure which is defined as internal to the business and strategy which is defined as external.

Strategy (External) for the Business includes the areas of Business, Scope, Competencies, and Governance.

Strategy (External) for Informational Technology for the IT includes IT, Scope, Competences, and Governance.

Infrastructure (Internal) for the Business includes Business, Structure, Processes, ans Skills.

Infrastructure (Internal) for IT includes IT, Infrastructure, Processes, and Skills.

6. According to the strategic alignment model, I.T.'s operational goals should agree with _corporate business _ goals, and IT spending should agree with corporate priorities in spending.

7. What is the Internet paradox?

It's benefits make it more difficult to capture those benefits as profits.

8. Porter's principles for Internet Strategy can be applied to general I.T. strategy. One of Porter's points is that companies should "Maintain continuity of direction". Briefly explain, this point.

Frequent corporate “reinvention” is usually a sign of poor strategic thinking and a route to mediocrity. Continuous improvement is a necessity, but it must always be guided by a strategic direction.

9. Communities of Practice are considered what type of leadership?

Collaborative form of leadership

10. Ubiquitious technology has revolutionized business and transformed our social environments. What impact has technology had on the business and social environments?

Employees can input ideas and information any time. Organizations become interdependant and require information from others within the organization to operate.

11. The three categories of I.T. are FIT, NIT, EIT. Briefly explain and provide one example of each.

Function IT allows stand along technologies to be more efficient such as word processors or CAD programs to improve the way work is completed with greater precision and capacity. Network IT provides ways for people to communicate with each other instantly and at any location for example email, blogs, or a wiki. Enterprise IT allows companies to have data interchange that automates communications between companies for example Customer Relations Management (CRM) or electronic data interchange.

12. The three stages of I.T. management are Selection, Adoption, and Exploitation. What is the optimal approach in the selection stage?

The optimal approach is the inside out approach.

13. What is SOA? What are its advantages?

Service Oriented Architechture allows for modules to be manipulated into new applications at a diminshing future cost. Allow for more flexibility, can use selective standardization, and can be considerably cheaper than a time tested monolithic system. SOA allows an organization to try out a product on a limited scale and only move forward in small steps to keep the risks slower.

14. I.T. changes the way companies compete. I.T. can build barriers to entry or it can build in switching costs. Give examples for each of these competitive advantages.

Can build an entry barrier that is highly complicated and virtually impossible to replicate. Not only does a company create a product that adds appeal to the customer, the company benefits because the harder it is for competitors to emulate a product the higher the barrier is and the customers become more "hooked" and less willing to change services. A good example is with a bank that offers direct deposit. Because the bank is already recieving the person's paycheck that will persuade the person from changing banks because they will not want to go through the process.

15. Brett Caine mentioned several guiding principles: process, accountability, leadership and alignment. According to Caine, process enables the ability to plan; accountability enables people to do their jobs well. What does alignment enable?