Final Exam Study Guide Flashcards
Management
is about getting the right work done well by (1)implementing processes and practices to develop and deliver competitive advantage and superior performance in innovative and socially responsible organizations and (2) developing and using the critical skills that individuals need to know and have in order to: work more effectively with others in organizations, to work well in teams, and to lead teams and organizations successfully.
Strategy
is a company’s action plan for outperforming its competitors and achieving superior profitability.
Competitive Advantage
meeting customer needs more effectively, with products or services that customers value more highly, or more efficiently, at lower cost.
Sustainable Competitive Advantage
is giving customers lasting reasons to prefer a firm’s products or services over those of its competitors.
Core Values
are the beliefs, traits, and behavioral norms that employees are expected to display in conducting the firm’s business and in pursuing its strategic vision and mission.
Organizational Structure
- A formal system of task and reporting relationships that coordinates and motivates organizational members so they work together to achieve organizational goals.
Invention
the creation of a product or process that has not previously been recognized.
Creativity
the ability to produce a novel AND useful idea.
Innovation
implementing those novel and useful ideas into some new device or process.
Rogers’ Five Factors
that influence an individual’s decision to adopt or reject an innovation:
Relative Advantage: How improved an innovation is over the previous generation.
Compatibility: The level of compatibility that an innovation has to be assimilated into an individual’s life.
Complexity or Simplicity: If the innovation is perceived as complicated or difficult to use, an individual is unlikely to adopt it.
Trialability: How easily an innovation may be experimented. If a user is able to test an innovation, the individual will be more likely to adopt it.
Observability: The extent that an innovation is visible to others. An innovation that is more visible will drive communication among the individual’s peers and personal networks and will in turn create more positive or negative reactions.
Innovation Strategy Types
First mover, innovation culture, able to create and then dominate the market against fast followers:
Fast follower, firm must very good with innovation and have strong R&D, and good at figuring out why the first mover was not so hot so you can jump in fast and grab the market.
Niche strategy, focus on specific niche market, requires a close connection to customers on what they want as far as product differentiation.
Reactive, firms that are followers and have a focus on operations, have a wait and see approach and look for low risk opportunities, will copy proven innovation.
Development cycle time
The time elapsed from project initiation to product launch, usually measured in months or years.
Partly parallel development processes
A development process in which some (or all) of the development activities at least partially overlap. That is, if activity A would precede activity B in a partly parallel development process, activity B might commence before activity A is completed.
Lead users
Customers who face the same general needs of the marketplace but are likely to experience them months or years earlier than the rest of the market and stand to benefit disproportionately from solutions to those needs.
Stage-gate process developed by Robert G. Cooper
The stage-gate process provides a blueprint for moving projects through different stages of development. At each stage, a cross-functional team of people (led by a project team leader) undertakes parallel activities designed to drive down the risk of a development project. At each stage of the process, the team is required to gather vital technical, market, and financial information to use in the decision to move the project forward (go), abandon the project (kill), hold, or recycle the project. In Stage 1, the team does a quick investigation and conceptualization of the project. In Stage 2, the team builds a business case that includes a defined product, its business justification, and a detailed plan of action for the next stages. In Stage 3, the team begins the actual design and development of the product, including mapping out the manufacturing process, the market launch, and operating plans. In this stage, the team also defines the test plans utilized in the next stage. In Stage 4, the team conducts the verification and validation process for the proposed new product, and its marketing and production. At Stage 5, the product is ready for launch, and full commercial production and selling commence.
go/kill decision points (Stage-gate process)
decision points in the development process where managers must evaluate whether or not to kill the project or allow it to proceed.
Entrepreneurial opportunities
Those situations in which new goods, services, raw materials, and organizing methods can be introduced and sold at greater than their cost of production.
Entrepreneurial action
Action through the creation of new products/processes and/or the entry into new markets, which may occur through a newly created organization or within an established organization.
Entrepreneurial mind-set
Involves the ability to rapidly sense, act, and mobilize, even under uncertain conditions.
Corporate entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurial action within an established organization.
Entrepreneurial philosophy toward rewards
One that compensates employees based on their contribution toward the discovery/generation and exploitation of opportunity .
Entrepreneurial orientation toward culture
A focus on encouraging employees to generate ideas, experiment, and engage in other tasks that might produce opportunities.
Penetration strategy
Encouraging existing customers to buy more of the firm’s current products. Relies on taking market share from competitors and/or expanding the size of the existing market.
Product development strategy
Developing and selling new products to people already purchasing the firm’s existing products. Capitalizes on existing distribution systems and on the corporate reputation of the firm.
Market development strategy
Selling the firm’s existing products to new groups of customers. New geographical market - Selling in new locations. New demographic market - Selling to a different demographic group. New product use - Selling an existing product, which may have a new use, to new groups of buyers.
Diversification strategies
Selling a new product to a new market.
Backward integration
A step back (up) in the value-added chain toward the raw materials.
Forward integration
A step forward (down) in the value-added chain toward the customers.
Horizontal integration
Involves a different, but complementary, value-added chain diversification strategy.
Participative management style
Manager involves others in decision making.
Time management
Process of improving an individual’s productivity through more efficient use of time.
Task environment
the set of forces and conditions that originate with global suppliers, distributors, customers, and competitors; these forces and conditions affect an organization’s ability to obtain inputs and dispose of its outputs.
General environment
includes the wide-ranging global, economic, technological, sociocultural, demographic, political, and legal forces that affect the organization and its task environment. For the individual manager, opportunities and threats resulting from changes in the general environment are often more difficult to identify and respond to than are events in the task environment.
Economies of scale
are the cost advantages associated with large operations. They result from factors such as manufacturing products in very large quantities, buying inputs in bulk, or making more effective use of organizational resources than do competitors by fully utilizing employees’ skills and knowledge.
Social structure
the traditional system of relationships established between people and groups in a society. Societies differ substantially in social structure.
National culture
the set of values that a society considers important and the norms of behavior that are approved or sanctioned in that society. Societies differ substantially in the values and norms they emphasize.
Globalization
the shift toward a more integrated and interdependent world economy.
