Week 9 Discussion — Managing A New Company

Chapter Twelve “Organizing and Planning for Effective Implementation”

Strategic fit is the issue of organizational fit; the fit between a business’s competitive and marketing strategies which would involve the organizational structures, policies, processes, and plans.

Within a given business unit — when it is a part of a larger corporation — what organizational structures and coordination mechanisms are most appropriate? To answer this question, managers must look at following three factors: (1) level of technical competence of the various functional departments within the business, (2) how resources are allocated across those functions, and (3) how to coordinate and resolve conflicts among the departments.

 This class expects you to contribute three times:

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Your contribution one — answer one question only out of three questions below —

Question #1

Suppose you have been offered the job of developing and managing a new medical products unit for a major electronics manufacturer. The purpose of the new SBU will be to adapt technology from other parts of the company for medical applications (diagnostic equipment such as CAT scanners, surgical lasers, etc.) and to identify and build markets for the new products the unit develops. The new unit’s performance over the next several years will be judged primarily on its success at developing a variety of new products and its rate of growth in sales volume and market share. Before accepting the job, what assurances would you seek from the company’s CEO concerning the administrative relationships to be established between the new SBU and corporate headquarters? Why?

Question #2

Now that you have accepted the job described in question 1, you have been given a $50 million operating budget for the first year. Your first task is to staff the new unit and to allocate your bud- get across its various functional departments. Although you obviously want to hire good people for every position, which departments require the most competent and experienced personnel, and which departments should receive relatively large shares of the available budget? Why?

Question #3

As general manager, what type of organizational design would you select for the new SBU de- scribed in question 1? Justify your choice in terms of its ability to help the SBU implement its strategy and accomplish its primary objectives. What potential disadvantages—if any—might be associated with your chosen organizational structure?

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You do not need to answer all three (3) questions above:

Question #1 needs student X1 and X2 to answer it (Question 1 must be listed first)

Question #2 needs student X3 and X4 to answer it (Question 2 must be listed first)

Question #3 needs student X5 and X6 to answer it (Question 3 must be listed first)

You will earn maximum 2 points from your completed contribution one, if —

• your answer does not repeat to a same question that has already been answered by 2 classmates both did his/her work before you get here.
• if you do not totally agree with these 2 classmates’ contribution one, or you think there are some aspects missed out by these 2 classmates, you could explain why you disagree or why some other aspects should be included in your contribution two.  
• your answer is relevant to the question you selected to address.

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Your contribution two — comment on two (yes two, not one) of your classmates’ postings about his/her contribution one.

You will earn maximum 2 points from your completed two comments, if —

• your each comment starts with a classmate’s name – making it clear that his/her contribution one that you would like to critique on or discuss with.
• your each comment has minimum 50 words.

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Please

→ study chapters 12 thoroughly before you write up your response either for contribution one or contribution two.

→ review chapter 12 PowerPoint slides thoroughly (you can find them in “Files” at Canvas).

→ Unicheck before posting your contribution one and contribution two.