If the 16th unit cost £100, what did the first unit cost? What will be the average cost per unit at the point at which Hendrix have produced a total 250,000 units of the component?

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Marketing Management and Strategy

Q1 part 1 (55 marks)
Explain why a product or service’s contribution (selling price minus variable cost) is an important element in developing a marketing strategy, giving examples to illustrate your answer. You can use any example including those covered in the module such as the Strategist Simulation or any of the other case studies examined.

Q1 part 2. (45 marks)
Imogen, the brand manager for ‘Skinsoft’, was reviewing price and promotion alternatives for her brand. She wanted to increase market share, but was unsure whether she should ask for an increase in advertising budget or consider a price promotion.
The current volume, price, and cost summary for ‘Skinsoft’ follows:
Imogen thought she might be able to negotiate with her boss and secure either a temporary 10 percent price reduction, or an investment of an incremental £150,000 in advertising.

a. What absolute increase in unit sales and revenue would be necessary to recoup the incremental increase in advertising expenditure?
b. What increase in absolute unit sales and revenue would be necessary to maintain the
level of total contribution if the price is reduced by 10 percent?
c. Which alternative would you recommend to Imogen? Explain your choice.

Q2 Part 1 (40 marks).
Explain the difference between Exis3ng, Latent and Incipient Demand, giving real examples in each
case. (40 marks)

Q2 Part 2 (60 marks).
What role does market research play in helping companies beDer sa3sfy each form of demand. Give
examples to illustrate your answer. (60 marks)

Q3.
Hendrix Ltd have just developed a new component, an ‘axis’ for use in large capacity flash drives. The
current component with which it would compete, costs £4 and its price in real terms has been
dropping at 7% per annum over the past three years.

Skinsoft
Unit Price £2.00
Unit Variable Cost £1.40
Unit Volume 1,000,000

Hendrix would be only the second supplier of these components to the market where demand is
es3mated to be as follows:
current year 0.5 million units
next year 1 million units
year 3 1.5 million units
year 4 2 million units
Hendrix have been test manufacturing the ‘axis’ and they calculate that the 16th unit off the final produc3on line cost £100 and the company have es3mated they will be opera3ng on an 80%
experience curve.

Part a. (50 marks)
Assuming the 80% experience curve holds for the manufacture of the components you are asked to
calculate the following:
i) If the 16th unit cost £100, what did the first unit cost?
ii) What will be the average cost per unit at the point at which Hendrix have produced a total
250,000 units of the component?
iii) What will be the average cost per unit at the point at which Hendrix have produced a cumula3ve
total of 2 million units?

Part b. (50 marks)
Based on the experience curve, recommend a pricing strategy to Noel Redding, the marke3ng manager of Hendrix Ltd. poin3ng out any other issues which you feel he should consider.

Q4 Part 1. (50 marks)
The following Product portfolio analyses were competed by two different analysts on the same company Apple Inc.
Evaluate the two portfolios and make recommendations for the different Apple products, in each case using the model developed by the Boston Consulting Group.
Portfolio produced by Analyst A
Portfolio produced by Analyst B

Q4 Part 2. (50 marks)
How do you explain the differences between the two analyses and what are the implications of using the BCG matrix in practice?

Write an evaluation of the company’s environmental performance i.e. the implementation of their strategy over the last 3-5 years, in two or more of the following areas: marketing; operations and supply chain management.

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IBM’s Environmental Sustainability

1. An introduction that summarises key information about IBM (International Business Machines Corporation) and its environmental impacts from your first assignment (no more than 200 words).

2. A critical evaluation of the environmental sustainability strategy and performance of IBM . Your evaluation should include at least the following:

  • A summary of your understanding of the sustainability strategy of IBM.
  • An evaluation of the company’s approach to their sustainability strategy using a variety of theoretical and policy (e.g. COP26) frameworks
  • An explanation of your company’s approach to Environmental Management Systems, and what this says about their commitment to their strategy
  • An evaluation of the company’s environmental performance i.e. the implementation of their strategy over the last 3-5 years, in two or more of the following areas: marketing; operations and supply chain management
  • The incorporation of relevant concepts, frameworks and theories (including but not restricted to the principles of resource savings (the 5Rs) into the performance evaluation
  • An explanation and evaluation of how comprehensive and transparent their sustainability reporting is, using relevant frameworks to support this evaluation.

3. A conclusions section that sums up your evaluation and makes relevant recommendations for future improvements to their strategy and performance.

 Is the problem contextualized with statistics?  What evidence can you base your idea on?  How specific is the value proposition and does it relate to a direct need?  How does the solution/innovation work with and for local people?

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Assignment brief for Assessment 2: Developing a Social Enterprise

Part C – A detailed project/ business plan (Summative: 30%TMM)

Objective
Creating, delivering and capturing value is what social entrepreneurs do, and to do so they need a ‘business model’ to lay the foundation for sustained earned revenue. Based on your initial pitch, you will apply your entrepreneurial skills to revise, refine and develop your social enterprise ‘business model’ and ensure its potential for both profit and social impact.
Using the business model of a social enterprise can have two key benefits:

  1. To help understand, design, articulate and discuss the ‘nuts and bolts’ of your business concept;
  2. To test and develop a prototype so that you can see if what you passionately believe about your impact and your business actually ‘stacks up’ in practice.

For social enterprises, the business model canvas should provide an opportunity to see not just the business, but also to identify the social impact.

Task
For this third part of the assignment ‘Developing a Social Enterprise’ you will research and develop a detailed project/ business plan for the implementation of a social enterprise based on your pitch (part A), for a social enterprise alongside the feedback (part B) gained from your peers and tutor..

1.Revise your feedback from the pitch and check:

  1.  Is it driven by a social mission?
  2.  Does it generate positive impact/ change for society?
  3.  Is it entrepreneurial as initiative?
  4.  Can it achieve competitiveness on markets through effective planning and management?
  5.  Is it scalable?

2. Test the proposal:

Aim to test your idea in the ‘real world’ by talking to, and getting feedback from your defined stakeholders (beneficiaries, customers, partners etc) on your value proposition.

When doing primary research make sure you are respectful of people’s time and opinions and do not make any promises, but seek out conversations a dialogue with stakeholders as a way to understand and learn more about the situation you are creating your social innovation for.

3. Check your information:

  •  Is the problem contextualized with statistics?
  •  What evidence can you base your idea on?
  •  How specific is the value proposition and does it relate to a direct need?
  •  How does the solution/innovation work with and for local people?
  •  How will you calculate the expected impact on beneficiaries who benefit from the
    solution?

Assignment brief for Assessment 2: Developing a Social Enterprise

1) Beneficiaries/ Customer: Who are you serving? What is your customer and what are his/her
needs and socio-economic circumstances? Their income? Their preferences, needs, behaviours, attitudes? There may be multiple beneficiaries. Be clear about the distinction between beneficiaries.

2) The value proposition: What problem is your customer facing and how exactly you are addressing it? How is the product or service you are providing meeting a real need for your beneficiaries (if there are several, specify how you create value for all)? What are the reasons for your customers/ beneficiaries not being able to overcome the issue or solve the problem themselves? Aim to identify the Product/Market Fit.

3) Deployment/ channel: How you are going to deliver that value to your customers. What will it
take to deploy/ channel the product/service to widespread use among people who need it? E.g. will there be a storefront, partner with existing stores, or will you sell the goods and services online? Or what other access routes are there to reach your beneficiaries.

4) Buy-In/Support (Customer relationships): How do you interact with your clients/
customers? How do you get buy-in and support? How do you build trusting and loyal relationships
and communicate to help sustain the enterprise over time?

5) Mission Achievement/ revenue streams: What is the value you are creating for the sum of all
of the beneficiaries/the greater good, i.e. the social and/or environmental impact? And what is the value created for both the individual and society at large – the enterprise’s social impact?

6) Key partnerships: highlight the relationships that are crucial to your business’ success

7) Key activities: What is your main job to run this business successfully? E.g. Are you developing a technological solution? Are you selling fair-trade goods, training ex-convicts in job skills?

8) Key resources are a breakdown of what inputs you will need to deliver your product or service:
physical, human, intellectual, legal, financial?

9) Mission Budget/ Cost: What are the costs in terms of fix versus variable costs? What are the economies of scale? (e.g. cost per unit decreases with more units produced) or scope (can you produce similar products or services while banking on shared machines, packaging, etc.?).

For more information see:
http://cscuk.dfid.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/BMC-for-Social-Enterprise.pdf
https://www.tbd.community/en/a/business-model-canvas-social-entrepreneurs
https://blog.strategyzer.com/posts/2016/2/24/the-mission-model-canvas-an-adapted-
business-model-canvas-for-mission-driven-organizations

Online retail is increasingly taking over from high street “bricks-and mortar” retail. For a case study company of your choice, how would you analyse the market opportunities for transferring retail activities online?

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Essay question:

Online retail is increasingly taking over from high street “bricks-and mortar” retail. For a case study company of your choice, how would you analyse the market opportunities for transferring retail activities online?

What are the three basic causes of workplace accidents? Discuss OSHA’s role in workplace accidents.

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Fundamentals of Human Resource Management

What are the three basic causes of workplace accidents? Discuss OSHA’s role in workplace accidents.

What is this idea? How will you implement this strategy into your daily business? What are the costs associated in implementing this idea?

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Auto Industry, Sector is Tow Truck Co. & Growing a Competitive Advantage

You are to write a two-page paper assuming you are the small business owner of a Tow Truck company in ANYWHERE, USA. You are to develop a thought process that discusses your current competitive advantage over other tow truck companies near you, and then develop ONE single new idea that will give you a competitive advantage for years to come with your business. The idea will become so revolutionary, that you will be invited to speak at National Conventions and you will share it with the world with limited fear of this idea being implemented elsewhere. What is this idea? How will you implement this strategy into your daily business? What are the costs associated in implementing this idea?

Describe the current organizational structure’s impact on innovation. How does your company’s organizational structure support innovation? How effective is the current structure in addressing changes in market demand?

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MBA 580 – Capstone Project

I. Innovation Approach Presentation
– PowerPoint presentation with detailed speaker notes that highlight the important points you want to emphasize to senior management on your recommendation for an innovation approach.

II. Strategic Plan Report
– Devote 1 page to each critical element described in the rubric along with an introduction and a short executive summary.

III. Organizational Structure and Culture Report :
-Based on your analysis of the organization’s structure and culture, share recommendations for changing its structure and culture to be more conducive to innovation.

1 – Describe the current organizational structure’s impact on innovation.
-How does your company’s organizational structure support innovation?
-How effective is the current structure in addressing changes in market demand?

2 – Recommend changes to the current organizational structure.
-How does the new structure support innovation?
-How will your recommended changes make the enterprise more responsive to market demand?

3 – Explain how organizational changes support a culture of innovation.
-In what ways does the current culture work against innovation?
-How does the new structure support a culture of innovation?

Identify a historic person you find interesting and research its history. Link this person’s actions to the CVF: What actions has this person engaged in that show behaviours related to the four approaches?

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CVF- Princess Diana- Rational Goal Model

This assignment is based on a group presentation

Build a group of 3 to 4 students, identify a historic person you find interesting and research its history.

Link this person’s actions to the CVF: What actions has this person engaged in that show behaviours related to the four approaches?

Explain their definition and calculations. Explain the pros and cons for each criterion.

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Capital budgeting

The major capital budgeting criteria include Net Present Value, Internal Rate of Returns, Profitability Index, and Payback period.

Explain their definition and calculations.
Explain the pros and cons for each criterion.

The role of purchasing organizations has changed over the years. What has been the focus of the purchasing organization since 2000?

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Managing supply chain and operations

This assignment will require you to conduct research within the textbook and external research to help support your points. This is not an opinion based assignments – it is based on analysis of what you find in your research. Your points should be properly supported from the sources you used within your work and referenced at the end of your work.

1. The role of purchasing organizations has changed over the years. What has been the focus of the purchasing organization since 2000? (10 points)

2. Why has manufacturing moved from Japan to China to now Vietnam? Where does it moved to next? What are the major criteria for this shift in locations? (40 points)

3. What products and services are still centered in the United States and should they be considered very critical to keep in the United States? Identify THREE products or Services, describe what they are, and support your point either way as to if they should be considered critical to keep in the United States. (50 points)