1. Apply the five steps of the Planning Process to Uber’s development of it’s app-driven online cab service.
2. Outline the Strategic, Tactical and Functional plans Uber has concerning its new self-driving car program. Show at least one plus and one minus within each of the plans.
3. Plans rarely absolutely go to plan! It is impossible as variables in the environment keep changing and impact the company in different ways. What planning tools might Uber use to deal with some of the unexpected issues Uber has faced with its online cab business model.
4. How might Uber use Management by Objectives to work with municipalities and provinces to create the infrastructure and legislation needed to achieve its self-driving car goals?
MGMT1120 – INDIVIDUAL CASE ASSIGNMENTS 2021-2022 (20% = 2 x 10%)
The objective of the course is to learn about the management process while at the same time, hone your skills in the ten key areas stated in the syllabus. The cases are from your
textbook, but the questions you answer are on this document
.
The assignments are
INDIVIDUAL not group assignments
.
Each week several students will submit a case assignment.
Students are responsible for submitting TWO cases – one from the
first half of the course and one from the
second half. They will choose their case via the Choose function on Moodle and submit the case via the drop box on Moodle. The students will choose their cases during the first week of class.
The topics and due dates of each case will be stated on the Course Calendar.
Note: this is an individual assignment, not a group assignment. You do not work in groups on an
individual
case assignment.
How do you know when it is your turn to hand in the case assignment? You will choose when to hand in your TWO cases via the Choose function on Moodle –
the submission dates are on your course calendar.
There are limited numbers of submission slots per week, so choose your week carefully.
Once the submission slots are full, THAT’S IT.
Assignments will be graded and returned to you. If you have any questions regarding your assignment, you will give me the assignment for review with your written notes and reasons why you believe additional grades are merited. Do not ask me to simply review the assignment without your notes.
The Individual Case Studies are to be uploaded by 4:30pm on the day they are due –
which is shown in your course calendar.
Once the drop box on Moodle closes, the assignment is ineligible for submission.
LATE CASES ARE NOT ACCEPTED.
PLAGIARISM:
Plagiarism is a violation of the JR Shaw School of Business student code of conduct and a serious academic offense. You may paraphrase but you cannot represent another person’s ideas or writings as your own. Plagiarism can result in no grades assigned for the course. Your work will be held to the highest levels of accepted academic standards. Please refer to NAIT’s Academic Honesty and Plagiarism Policy here:
http://www.nait.ca/docs/Academic_Regulations(1)
READ THIS BEFORE HANDING IN YOUR FIRST CASE STUDY!
Specific Guidelines:
1. Answer the questions in a concise and relevant way. Use information from the case to showcase the concepts addressed in each chapter – and stated in the questions.
2. You must submit all assignments / projects using APA format
,
IN MS WORD,
which includes:
a. 1-inch margins on all sides
b. 12-point Times New Roman font
c. Double spacing
d. Indented paragraph style
e. All outside sources – whether quoted, paraphrased, or summarized – must be cited using both in-text citations and a reference page.
f. Word formatted headings are to be used, where appropriate.
g. Page numbers
3. Appropriate parts of a report include:
a.
Title Page, including full name of student submitting the report, name of the assignment / case, date of submission, instructor’s name, course name and section number;
b.
Table of Contents;
c.
Introduction and Conclusion;
d.
Headings and Subheadings throughout the body of the report; and a
e.
References page.
f.
Any exceptions to this guideline will result marks being deducted.
4. No point form or “bullet” statements. Use proper paragraph format. However, do not create paragraphs that go on forever!
Individual Case Studies are due be uploaded by 4:30pm on the day they are due. Once the dropbox on Moodle closes, the assignment is ineligible for submission.
LATE CASES ARE NOT ACCEPTED.
NOTE: The schedule is flexible and may be changed. There may also be changes to cases depending on up-dates. Please refer to the Course Calendar on Moodle for any changes to the existing schedule.
CASE ASSIGNMENT QUESTIONS:
Read the case from the text, then answer the questions below. You will submit ONE case from the Red Cases, and ONE from the Blue Cases.
Chapter 1 Case: Vancity: On Top of Its Game – For Class Discussion Only
1. Vancity is a very successful organization as defined by several business criteria. Apply the principles stated in “Working Today” pp. 2-7 to describe why Vancity has achieved this distinction.
2. Describe how Vancity creates value for the customer using Figure 1.1. Follow one aspect of Vancity’s service to the customer through this model.
3. Figure 1.2 helps to determine a company’s productivity using the criteria of effectiveness and efficiency. Describe Vancity’s productivity using this model.
4. Discuss the management roles at Vancity by applying Figure 1.7. Give two examples of each role from the case
Chapter 2 Case: Zara International: Fashion at the Speed of Light – For Class Discussion Only
1. How would you describe Zara as a network of systems as illustrated by Figure 2.5?
2. Discuss how Contingency Thinking will help Zara adjust to environmental problems in the future.
3. Would you describe Zara as a Learning Organization? How would being a learning organization provide for a competitive advantage for Zara?
4. How does the principle of Evidence-Based Management apply at Zara? Give examples from the case.
Chapter 4 Case: Patagonia – Leading a Green Revolution
1. Perform an external environment (CREST) analysis of Patagonia. Which environment provides the most immediate challenge for Patagonia?
2. Stakeholder needs define what the organization must do to meet these needs. Apply Figure 4.2 to illustrate each of Patagonia’s stakeholder’s needs. Do we need to satisfy all stakeholders’ needs at the time? What issues could this present for Patagonia?
3. Come up with an innovation Patagonia could create that would give it a competitive advantage. Take that innovation through the steps of the innovation process.
4. How has the Covid-19 pandemic affected Patagonia’s strong commitment to sustainability?
Chapter 7 Case: Amazon.com: One E-store to Rule Them All
1. Identify and define three possible problems Amazon will have to face in the next five (5) years.
2. Choose one of the problems you outlined in question 1 and generate and evaluate three possible solutions to that problem.
3. Decisions are made based on changes in the business environment. Choose your best alternative in question 2 and explain why that would be the best direction for Amazon to take. Consider the type of environment where Amazon has operated in the past, currently and in the future. Consider the risk of failure and the type of decisions it has made / will make in the future.
4. Amazon needs to grow. However, there is more competition now than in the past. Apply Figure 7.6 to identify the steps that Bezos may undertake next to grow his company. Use all parts of this model.
Chapter 3 Case: Tentree International: A Canadian Firm Dedicated to Protecting the Planet
1. Apply Figure 3.1 to Tentree to determine its view of ethics. Is it in only one of the quadrants, or is it in more than one? Explain.
2. Describe how Tentree has considered the Triple Bottom Line when exercising stewardship decisions for Tentree.
3. In which Corporate Social Responsibility perspective would you place Tentree? Explain.
4. Apply Figure 3.8 to illustrate Tentree’s commitment to corporate social responsibility.
Chapter 6 Case: Shopify: Making Commerce Better
1. Describe Lutke’s entrepreneurial characteristics by applying Figure 6.1. Using a scale of 1 to 10 with 1 being the weakest, rate Lutke on each characteristic and determine an overall rating for him.
2. Two years after Shopify was launched, the economy tanked. Apply each of the criteria in Figure 6.2 to determine the reasons why Shopify did NOT fail.
3. Describe in as much detail as possible, the stages in the life cycle of Shopify. Apply Figure 6.3 to conduct this analysis and use data from the case and elsewhere to back up your answer.
4. It appears from the case data, that Shopify has financed the company on several occasions in keeping with its growth options. Discuss the financing used at each step of the life cycle.
Chapter 8 Case: Uber – Riding the Gig Economy
1. Apply the five steps of the Planning Process to Uber’s development of it’s app-driven online cab service.
2. Outline the Strategic, Tactical and Functional plans Uber has concerning its new self-driving car program. Show at least one plus and one minus within each of the plans.
3. Plans rarely absolutely go to plan! It is impossible as variables in the environment keep changing and impact the company in different ways. What planning tools might Uber use to deal with some of the unexpected issues Uber has faced with its online cab business model.
4. How might Uber use Management by Objectives to work with municipalities and provinces to create the infrastructure and legislation needed to achieve its self-driving car goals?
Chapter 10 Case: HBC: From Fur to Fendi– For Class Discussion Only
1. Apply figure 10.3 to discuss the relationship between HBC’s mission and its stakeholders. Identify HBC’s primary stakeholders and their specific demands.
2. Using the information in the case (and your own knowledge of HBC from visits) conduct a
current SWOT analysis for HBC.
3. Porter’s Five Forces Model is used to analyze the intensity of competition in an industry. Conduct a Porter’s Five Forces Analysis using figure 10.5. Rank the forces as weak, moderate, or strong. Provide a conclusion on the level of rivalry in the industry.
4. Using figures 10.6 and 10.7, identify and explain the corporate and business level strategies HBC is using currently.
Chapter 11 Case: Nike – Spreading Out to Win the Race
1. What type of organizational structure would work the best for Nike? Explain your answer thoroughly.
2. Draw (yes, draw a picture) the organizational structure you have chosen for question #1 – be as complete as possible. What improvements could be made to this structure? Explain your choices.
3. Which type of organizational design would be the best for Nike? Why?
4. Is Nike on the leading edge of trends in organizational design? Apply the concepts in section11.4 to determine leads or lags in implementing new trends in design at Nike.
Chapter 12 Case: Gamification – Finding Legitimacy in the New Corporate Culture
1. Would a company need to take a top down, bottom up or integrated view to achieve gamification in an organization? Justify your choice.
2. Considering the Organizational Change Pyramid in Figure 12.6, Outline how either a transformational or incremental change would be used to implement gamification in an organization.
3. Which of the three types of Change Strategies would be the most appropriate for implementing gamification in an organization? Be specific and give examples from the case.
4. Use Lewin’s Three Phases of Change to show how implementing gamification would be implemented successfully in an organization.
Chapter 13 Case: RealRecruit – Protecting Student Athletes
1. What impact can the presence of a company like RealRecruit have on the culture and operational activities of athletics departments at universities? Which parts of an organization’s legal environment will the use of RealRecruit affect the most?
2. How would the use of RealRecruit affect both the external recruitment of athletes and sports management personnel (coaches, trainers, etc)?
3. Post-secondary sports must maintain safe working conditions for both its staff and students. How has RealRecruit helped and hindered the development and maintenance of staff and students in post-secondaries that use RealRecruit?
4. What challenges does anonymity present to a data-driven tool like RealRecruit? What are the possible advantages and drawbacks of using anonymous surveys in the workplace?
Chapter 14 Case: Broadband TV – Shahrzad Rafati’s “Rapid-Fire” Drive
1. Considering the leadership behaviours in 14.1, which type(s) of leadership would you attribute to Shahrzad Rafati? Explain your reasons.
2. Using the concepts in 14.2, what leadership traits describe Shahrzad Rafati best? Why?
3. Apply Figure 14.4 placing Shahrzad Rafati on the Classic Leadership Styles grid. Which quadrant(s) did you place her? Why? Note: the two variables.
4. Shahrzad Rafati has sold 51% of her company to another group. Is her leadership approach something that could be replicated by her successors, or do you think it is only something only Shahrzad Rafati could present at Broadband TV specifically? Explain your reasons.
Chapter 9 Case: Electronic Arts – Inside Fantasy Sports
1. Describe in detail how Electronic Arts (EA) could strengthen its feedforward controls to improve performance at the leading edge of this industry.
2. Describe in detail how EA can use concurrent controls to improve the process of game development and sales.
3. Develop some feedback controls that will give EA immediate information on how the company is performing relative to its competitors.
4. Consider the four steps of the control process in section 9.2.
Go through the four steps of the control process
with one of the processes shown in the case.
MARKING RUBRIC FOR INDIVIDUAL CASE STUDY ASSIGNMENTS
Content
· All questions are completed thoroughly
· Answers are presented in a clear, easy-to-understand way
· Important issues have been identified and addressed
· Clear evidence of critical analysis, recommendations and argument-building
· Contains introduction and conclusion, table of contents.
Total /7
Formatting
· 1” margins, double-spaced, 12-pt Times New Roman font, indented paragraph style, consistent headings and subheadings, page numbers
· Title page, full name of student submitting the report, name of the assignment / case, date of submission, instructor’s name, course name and section number
· Reference page.
Total /1
Written Expression
· Attention has been paid to grammar, sentence structure, spelling, and punctuation
· Content is presented professionally; there is evidence of proofreading.
· No plagiarism
Total /2
TOTAL
/10
4
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