Description
First discussion post:
Venturing into any start-up business necessitates the execution of a business plan adequately to ensure the plan's efficiency is steadily improving its financial growth. Expectations placed on the enterprise while starting up should be established to aim at incremental change (Robbins, n. d.). It is advantageous for the business to focus on developing a particular asset then diversifying after it has been well established (Seseri, 2014). A company based on a singular, massive growth from the get-go risks bypassing growth opportunities and the growth trend and can be overwhelmed quickly (Robbins, n. d.).
At the start of the hair care product business, the business primarily captures the local market through retail shops before global sales progress. This regional market is expected to be above 300,000 specific customers by the second year of business. The first year of business growth will be moderate, but sales will provide a company to attain more development. Subsequent diversification of the product manufactured is aimed to add revenue income from sales. This allows for improvement of the quality of profit ratio hence high returns on net assets by the third year. The growth of the business into the global market will offer more revenue. The worldwide market is expected to be positively influenced by the local customer response to our products.
The sale of particular hair care products will be a primary source of revenue for the business. The customers can purchase specific hair care products from retail shops or our online platform. The products will be sold at a cost-effective yet profitable rate to ensure more customers are captured. Also, offering the customers the chance to request ingredient-specific products provides an avenue for making a profit. The customers will be given an option of a periodical subscription based on their particular request for hair care products made from specific ingredients they prefer. Such products manufacture will require purchasing specific surplus components, manufacturing process in particular, and proper testing for human use. Therefore, the customers will pay a subscription fee of $850 a month for one specific manufacture order of a hair care product. After integrating more hair care products, we will offer a $27,000 subscription fee for a year to the customers for up to three hair product orders that require extended periods for production and testing.
Statistically, the production of a singular customer-specific product will amount to $500 inclusive of even the paid labor. This shows that the business will earn a $350 profit from a product manufacture order for every customer. Therefore, the monthly subscription for special product manufacture orders will have compound to $105,000,000 in sales in the first two-year period. This number is expected to rise considerably, with product orders per customer expected to be more than one in that same period. The yearly subscription will be an incentive to attract more customers as it offers a discount on the three particular hair care products.
The revenue realized from the two primary products will provide capital for integrating more hair care products. This will scale up sales, and it opens up the business to more avenues of making profit through those sales. Diversifying our products will help shift sales focus; by getting our current employees to buy these additional products (Ward, 2019). Instead of attracting more customers to sell to the new products, we use the current customers because they are already converted prospects and know our company and products very well (Ward, 2019).
Also, to ensure efficient expenditure, we aim to partner with various companies that sell the required ingredients for hair care products manufacture by the third year in business. This will help cut this ingredient's cost since, with a partnership, the companies will offer us the particular elements at a subsidized price. With the realization of the projected growth rate, the business will also have the capital to produce the ingredients in-house hence cutting expenses. The business can also sell the surplus components produced in-house to other companies or individuals, thus another avenue for the industry to make a profit.
References
Robbins, T. (n. d.). How to Make Profit. Retrieved from Tony Robbins: https://www.tonyrobbins.com/career-business/make-a...
Ward, S. (2019, September 27). How to Get Your New Small Business to Make Money. Retrieved from The Balance Small Business: https://www.thebalancesmb.com/the-two-main-problem...
Seseri, R. (2014, December 15). Harvard I-lab | How Are You Going to Make Money. Retrieved from YouTube:
Second discussion post:
Marketing research is essential to a start-up business visualizing its intended place in the market and the specific niches to trade in (Edmonds, 2012). Market research ensures effective tracking of a business's products and services and trends in the particular business industry (Edmonds, 2012). Marketing data should assist in understanding the competitive advantage a company has in a market.
The source of marketing data in our hair care business was the hair products’ sales in the market. Product research provides information on what the company is selling and how it compares to other niches in the market (Edmonds, 2012). The hair care product business's product research was aimed at understanding what consumers want. In this research, we tested our product with customers to examine customer satisfaction through interviews and surveys. We assumed that ingredient-specific hair care products would fit the range of all the consumers. However, from the surveys and interviews, we received complaints about the uncertainty of the quality of our products. It is because the products are new in the market.
Consumers were another source of marketing data in our business. We employed consumer research to examine who our consumers were and how many would buy our products through our interviews and surveys. The consumer research assisted in identification customer attitudes, motivations, preferences, and buying behavior. Therefore, the data obtained helped create a market plan to target a particular consumer segment or buyer persona. Our assumption that our products would fit a wide range of consumers was well satisfied by this research. Our ingredient-specific production policy was deemed a good fit to influence consumer loyalty to our products. However, we received further complaints on the uncertainty of our product's quality.
Pricing research is a quantitative research method used to measure our product price impact on the market and product demand. A business has to be competitive yet profitable (Edmonds, 2012). Focus group discussions on the pricing of our product provided an additional source of marketing data. Therefore, the price of our products had to be set in consideration to competitors' price. Competitors had been in the market for longer than our business hence had already cemented their product pricing rate (Edmonds, 2012). Pricing is significant since overpricing would discourage consumers from using our products, and underpricing would lead to the business's slow growth and losses. Therefore, we settled for a price that was effective in attracting consumers and making profits. The discussions also realized that we had to institute competitive discounts to calm consumer loyalty bonuses complaints.
Another source of marketing data was other companies doing similar business. It helped in learning about the promotion strategies that worked for them. A promotional analysis will explain how much a business will spend while promoting its products (Edmonds, 2012). Our focus group discussions on promotions compared our competitors' methods to promote their products to what we planned to do. The marketing data obtained from this discussion led us to assume that mass media such as outdoor Ads, sales promotions such as discounts and coupons, public relations events, and digital markets offered the best product promotional methods. However, the discussion did find out that consumers raise complaints if promotions are minimal.
Reference
Edmonds, J. (2012, September 5). Video 024: - How to Do Basic Market Research. Retrieved from YouTube:
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Halo,
thank you for such a well-written and thoughtful post. I found your arguments
incredibly appealing, thought-provoking, and elaborate. I agree with you that before venturing
into any startup business, it is proper to execute the business plan to ensure that the plan is
efficient enough to facilitate financial growth. Without a doubt, every expectation put on
businesses while starting up should be aimed at facilitating incremental change (Robbins, n.d).
Like you, I agree with Seseri’s (2014) sentiments that businesses need to focus more on
developing a single asset than afterward focusi...
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Are they consistent with the corporation’s mission, objectives, strategies, and policies and with internal and external environments?b. What are the type and extent of operations capabilities of the corporation? How much is done domestically versus internationally? Is the amount of outsourcing appropriate to be competitive? Is purchasing being handled appropriately? Are suppliers and distributors operating in an environmentally sustainable manner? Which products have the highest and lowest profit margins?i. If the corporation is product-oriented, consider plant facilities, type of manufacturing system (continuous mass production, intermittent job shop, or flexible manufacturing), age and type of equipment, degree and role of automation and/or robots, plant capacities and utilization, productivity ratings, and availability and type of transportation.ii. If the corporation is service-oriented, consider service facilities (hospital, theater, or school buildings), type of operations systems (continuous service over time to the same clientele or intermittent service over time to varied clientele), age and type of supporting equipment, degree and role of automation and use of mass communication devices (diagnostic machinery, video machines), facility capacities and utilization rates, efficiency ratings of professional and service personnel, and availability and type of transportation to bring service staff and clientele together.c. Are manufacturing or service facilities vulnerable to natural disasters, local or national strikes, reduction or limitation of resources from suppliers, substantial cost increases of materials, or nationalization by governments?d. Is there an appropriate mix of people and machines (in manufacturing firms) or of support staff to professionals (in service firms)?e. How well does the corporation perform relative to the competition? Is it balancing inventory costs (warehousing) with logistical costs (just-in-time)? Consider costs per unit of labor, material, and overhead; downtime; inventory control management and scheduling of service staff; production ratings; facility utilization percentages; and number of clients successfully treated by category (if service firm) or percentage of orders shipped on time (if product firm).i. What trends emerge from this analysis?ii. What impact have these trends had on past performance and how might these trends affect future performance?iii. Does this analysis support the corporation’s past and pending strategic decisions?iv. Does operations provide the company with a competitive advantage?f. Are operations managers using appropriate concepts and techniques to evaluate and improve current performance? 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Consider turnover, grievances, strikes, layoffs, employee training, and quality of work life.i. What trends emerge from this analysis?ii. What impact have these trends had on past performance and how might these trends affect future performance?iii. Does this analysis support the corporation’s past and pending strategic decisions?iv. Does HRM provide the company with a competitive advantage?c. How does this corporation’s HRM performance compare with that of similar corporations?d. Are HRM managers using appropriate concepts and techniques to evaluate and improve corporate performance? Consider the job analysis program, performance appraisal system, up-to-date job descriptions, training and development programs, attitude surveys, job design programs, quality of relationships with unions, and use of autonomous work teams.e. How well is the company managing the diversity of its workforce? What is the company’s record on human rights? Does the company monitor the human rights record of key suppliers and distributors?f. Does HRM adjust to the conditions in each country in which the company operates? Does the company have a code of conduct for HRM for itself and key suppliers in developing nations? Are employees receiving international assignments to prepare them for managerial positions?g. What is the role of outsourcing in HRM planning?h. What is the role of the HRM manager in the strategic management process?6. Information Technology (IT)a. What are the corporation’s current IT objectives, strategies, policies, and programs?i. Are they clearly stated or merely implied from performance and/or budgets?ii. Are they consistent with the corporation’s mission, objectives, strategies, and policies and with internal and external environments?b. How well is the corporation’s IT performing in terms of providing a useful database, automating routine clerical operations, assisting managers in making routine decisions, and providing information necessary for strategic decisions?i. What trends emerge from this analysis?ii. What impact have these trends had on past performance and how might these trends affect future performance?iii. Does this analysis support the corporation’s past and pending strategic decisions?iv. Does IT provide the company with a competitive advantage?c. How does this corporation’s IT performance and stage of development compare with that of similar corporations? Is it appropriately using the Internet, intranet, and extranets?d. Are IT managers using appropriate concepts and techniques to evaluate and improve corporate performance? Do they know how to build and manage a complex database, establish Web sites with firewalls and virus protection, conduct system analyses, and implement interactive decision-support systems?e. Does the company have a global IT and Internet presence? Does it have difficulty with getting data across national boundaries?f. What is the role of the IT manager in the strategic management process?D. Summary of Internal Factors (List in the IFAS Table 5–2, p. 154) Which of these factors are core competencies? Which, if any, are distinctive competencies? Which of these factors are the most important to the corporation and to the industries in which it competes at the present time? Which might be important in the future? Which functions or activities are candidates for outsourcing? V. Analysis of Strategic Factors (SWOT) A. Situational Analysis (List in SFAS Matrix, Figure 6–1, pp. 166–167) Of the external (EFAS) and internal (IFAS) factors listed in III.D and IV.D, which are the strategic (most important) factors that strongly affect the corporation’s present and future performance?B. Review of Mission and Objectives1. Are the current mission and objectives appropriate in light of the key strategic factors and problems?2. Should the mission and objectives be changed? If so, how?3. If they are changed, what will be the effects on the firm? VI. Strategic Alternatives and Recommended Strategy A. Strategic AlternativesB. Recommended Strategy1. Specify which of the strategic alternatives you are recommending for the corporate, business, and functional levels of the corporation. Do you recommend different business or functional strategies for different units of the corporation?2. Justify your recommendation in terms of its ability to resolve both long- and short-term problems and effectively deal with the strategic factors.3. What policies should be developed or revised to guide effective implementation?4. What is the impact of your recommended strategy on the company’s core and distinctive competencies? VII. Implementation A. What Kinds of Programs or Tactics (for Example, Restructuring the Corporation or Instituting TQM) Should Be Developed to Implement the Recommended Strategy?B. Are the Programs/Tactics Financially Feasible? Can Pro Forma Budgets Be Developed and Agreed On? Are Priorities and Timetables Appropriate to Individual Programs/Tactics?C. Will New Standard Operating Procedures Need to Be Developed? VIII. Evaluation and Control A. Is the Current Information System Capable of Providing Sufficient Feedback on Implementation Activities and Performance? Can It Measure Strategic Factors?1. Can performance results be pinpointed by area, unit, project, or function?2. Is the information timely?3. Is the corporation using benchmarking to evaluate its functions and activities?B. Are Adequate Control Measures in Place to Ensure Conformance with the Recommended Strategic Plan?1. Are appropriate standards and measures being used?2. Are reward systems capable of recognizing and rewarding good performan
MGT 3501 Georgia Institute of Technology Information Risk Question
Think of an example of a real option for managing information risk that you observed in practice or your own life. Rememb ...
MGT 3501 Georgia Institute of Technology Information Risk Question
Think of an example of a real option for managing information risk that you observed in practice or your own life. Remember that real options are designed to protect against the negative impacts of some information risk. Please answer the questions below.
Please describe what the option is, what information risk it is mitigating, who can use the option, and who offers it. For example, Essmart customers have the option to return products they dislike. This option is offered by Essmart and mitigates the risk customers have regarding product quality and usefulness.
How does this option address the information risk you mentioned above? Is the risk shifted to someone else, or does it simply disappear? For example, when Essmart offers customers a return option, the quality and fit-risk are transferred from the customer to Essmart. Conversely, the option to put the Circored plant on "standby" eliminates the downside of price risk.
What are the operating expenses and assets associated with this option? For example, in Essmart's case, offering customers a return option has costs and assets associated with reversing logistics and refurbishing the returned product.
Part 2 -Covid and Queues (30 points)
Question 1
In the Atlanta Metropolitan Area (which, for this question, we assume has 5 million people), 0.5% of the population are tested every day for Covid-19.
For 80% of patients, the test is negative (i.e., they do not have the virus).
For the remaining 20% of patients who do have the virus:
60% do not need to be hospitalized and recover from their symptoms at home.
40% of patients are admitted to the hospital.
Of the 40% of patients who are hospitalized:
90% do not need to be admitted to intensive care (ICU) and recover in a regular hospital bed.
10% of patients will require ICU admission after first spending 4 days, on average, in a regular hospital bed.
If a patient is admitted to the hospital but not to the ICU, they spend 14 days in the hospital on average.
If a patient is admitted to the ICU, they then spend 7 days there on average. 50% of patients recover in the ICU, while another 50% do not survive.
Those who survive then return to a hospital bed to recover, where they spend a further 5 days on average.
On average, how many Covid-19 patients will be occupying (i) hospital beds and (ii) ICU beds in Atlanta?
Question 2
Assume that those hospitalized above arrive randomly to one of 20 hospitals in the Atlanta Metropolitan Area (i.e., the allocation decision is not made based on how busy each hospital is, but instead it is the result of a “flip of the coin”).
The ICUs at each hospital are all equally sized and have 56 beds each. Assume that the ICUs are only treating Covid-19 patients. The coefficient of variation of arrival times and service times (i.e., CVa and CVs) are both equal to 1.
On average, how long will a patient have to wait before they are admitted to the ICU?
Question 3
The government is very unhappy with the answer to Question 2. It takes two immediate measures. The first measure is expanding ICU capacity. The government works with hospitals to increase the number of ICU beds from 56 to 75 beds in each hospital.
The second measure is to ensure that patients should not have to wait more than 6 hours before being admitted to an ICU bed in a regular hospital if they need to be. To achieve this, the government has mandated a policy under which patients can be transferred between hospitals whenever the next available bed becomes available. This is a “first-in-first-out” policy: whichever patient has been waiting in the queue, the longer will be moved to the next available ICU bed, regardless of which hospital this is in.
To simplify this process and reduce the need to transfer patients across large distances over the city, the government is looking to separate the hospitals into groups (of 2, 3, 4, or 5 hospitals), so that patient transfers only occur within that group. For example, suppose there were only 4 hospitals, Hospitals A, B, C, and D, and these were formed into 2 groups of 2 such that Hospitals A and B are in one group, and Hospitals C and D in the other group. A patient requiring an ICU bed at Hospital A could be transferred to Hospital B, but not to Hospital C or D.
a) What is the smallest number of hospitals in each group that will ensure that, on average, patients should not have to wait more than 6 hours before being admitted to an ICU bed at a regular hospital if they need to?
b) On average, how many patients will be either waiting for or occupying an ICU bed at each regular hospital under this system?
Part 3 - Uncle George's Parka Company (20 points)
After you graduated from Georgia Tech, your uncle George P. Burdell hired you to help him with his company that makes Parkas in China. Competition in this market is growing, and to maintain the current market position, your company must be able to reduce its lead-time as much as possible (lead-time is the time it takes between placing an order to a supplier and the order being delivered to you). After looking at a few numbers, you discover that the biggest contributor to your goods' lead-time is the customs department at the ports in China. You carry out some analysis and narrow down your choice of the port to either Ningbo Port or Shanghai Port. You find that the costs of using either of the ports are similar, and so is the delivery time of getting your shipment to the two ports. Further, you also find that once your shipment clears customs, the cost and time to deliver to the USA are the same from the two ports. Therefore, the only criterion of selection is how fast your shipment can pass through customs at the two ports. Here are some useful data:
All the containers have to pass through customs. At customs, the only time-consuming process is passing each container through an x-ray machine. According to the available data, both ports have one x-ray machine each. The Shanghai port can process about 2 million containers per month, whereas the Ningbo port can process 1 million containers per month. However, the x-ray machines' utilization at both of the ports is 0.66 (the two ports use different types of x-ray machines). Further, you have credible information that the average number of containers waiting in the container yard to be x-rayed is the same in both ports.
Question 1
Given this information, your uncle George says that since both the ports have the same average queue size, it would not matter which port you choose. Do you agree with your uncle? Use the data provided above and justify your answer. Additionally, you may assume that the coefficient of variation of the time between arrivals for containers (CVa) and the coefficient of variation of the service time of the x-ray machine (CVS) are both equal to 1. More specifically, you may assume that the arrivals follow a Poisson distribution, and the service time follows an exponential distribution.
Question 2
The export business in China is growing. Uncle George, who has just returned from a trade expo in Shanghai, has informed you that the port authority of Ningbo expects the demand to reach the same level as Shanghai. The port authority of Ningbo is now deciding how to change its system to accommodate this surge in demand. They have two options, (a) to retire their existing x-ray machine and buy an x-ray machine similar to the one used by the Shanghai port, or (b) to buy another x-ray machine similar to the one they already own and therefore operate the system with two similar machines. Both the options will cost the port authority of Ningbo the same.
Purely from the perspective of reducing lead-time, is (a) or (b) better for you? Please show your detailed analysis.
Part 4 - BlaBlaCar (30 points + 10 bonus points)
Scratching your post-pandemic itch to travel, you decide to accept an internship offer at the Paris headquarters of BlaBlaCar (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BlaBlaCar (Links to an external site.) and https://www.blablacar.com/) (Links to an external site.), an online marketplace for carpooling with 70 million active users. BlaBlaCar matches people that want to go from (near) A to (near) B at a given time (for example, from The Hague to Rotterdam between 7 am and 8 am on some Friday) with drivers that are driving from A to B around that day and time.
Unlike other ridesharing platforms, most BlaBlaCar drivers use the platform to cover travel expenses and not as a source of income. Drivers post their ride trajectories some time in advance, and interested riders contact the drivers to arrange pickup details. BlaBlaCar algorithms suggest prices to drivers (usually enough to cover travel costs), and BlaBlaCar makes money by charging drivers 15% of the fare.
One of your first tasks is to estimate the number of drivers and passengers needed to make BlaBlaCar's market "thick." To do so, you devise a simple stylized model of this platform to gain some intuition. To simplify things, in this “first cut” model, you make a few assumptions:
A day is divided into 24 slots, each one hour in length;
You consider only one route on one specific day (for example, The Hague to Rotterdam and the 24 1-hour slots on February 27th);
You assume that, at some point before the specific day you are analyzing, drivers and riders arrive simultaneously on the platform. Furthermore, each rider and driver choose only one slot on that day.
The platform matching mechanics are as follows: (a) riders and drivers enter the platform and choose specific slots. (b) In each slot, drivers and riders are matched at random. (c) unmatched rivers and riders leave the platform. For example, if there are 5 riders and 7 drivers in a given slot, there will be 5 matches, and 2 drivers will be unmatched and will leave the platform. Similarly, if there are 1 rider and 0 drivers, the rider will not be matched (and will not change time slots) and leave.
Each driver can only take one passenger. For example, if there are two drivers in one slot and only one passenger, or two passengers in a slot and only one driver, only one ride occurs.
Drivers and passengers choose slots with the same probability - all slots in a day are equally likely to be selected (they are selected uniformly at random).
Question 1 (10 points)
If a single passenger arrives on the platform and is looking for a ride on a specific slot on a given day, what is the minimum number of drivers that should be in the system so that they find a ride with a probability of at least 80%?
Question 2 (20 points)
Note: This question is more advanced, and I suggest using Excel, R, Python, Matlab (or your preferred programming language) to solve it.
Note that the scenario in Question 1 is great for the passenger but terrible for the drivers. A well-managed platform with many matches depends not only on the number of drivers and passengers but also on the balance between them. A liquid platform is one where many matches occur, and a small number of people are unmatched. This concept is also known as market thickness. Thus, with the same assumptions as before, what is the minimum number of drivers and passengers that must arrive at the platform such that at least 80% of passengers and 80% of drivers find a match?
Question 3 (10 points)
Of course, this model is somewhat unrealistic. However, do you think it provides an upper bound or lower bound on the actual number of drivers needed?
Question 4 (10 points)
How could you make this model more realistic? What other data would you need? How would you collect it?
3 pages
Informational Interview
I chose to interview Doctor Michelle Brown. She has been a doctor for seven years and likes her profession because it is a ...
Informational Interview
I chose to interview Doctor Michelle Brown. She has been a doctor for seven years and likes her profession because it is an opportunity she had been ...
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Management at Work Not so Smart Phone Company Case Summary
Management at WorkThe Not-So-Smart Phone Company“We would say, ‘We know better, and they’ll eventually figure it out ...
Management at Work Not so Smart Phone Company Case Summary
Management at WorkThe Not-So-Smart Phone Company“We would say, ‘We know better, and they’ll eventually figure it out.’”—Former BlackBerry executive on customer relations at RIMDuring the run up to his first inauguration, in 2009, president-elect Barack Obama was informed by security advisors that his beloved BlackBerry smartphone was a potential security risk. Hackers and spy agencies, they warned him, might figure out how to get into his e-mail. “They’re going to pry it out of my hands,” joked Obama, but he was adamant about his phone privileges, and security officials ultimately gave in. For one thing, BlackBerry was already known for such features as Secure Work Space and was the phone of choice for business leaders in security-sensitive positions. In addition, it was possible to modify the BlackBerry with enhanced encryption, and Obama soon became the first president to be connected by e-mail.In 2014, however, the White House Communications Agency announced that it was testing smartphones from Samsung and LG for future use by administration officials. President Obama would be holding on to his BlackBerry, but the announcement was bad news for the Canadian maker of Blackberrys, especially coming on the heels of a $423 million loss for the quarter ending on March 1. The company’s U.S. market share had also plunged to 3 percent—down from 43 percent just four years earlier. What had happened to the corporate inventor of the smartphone and one of the world’s most influential technology companies?Arguably, bad decision making.In 1999, Research in Motion (RIM), as the company was originally known, released the first version of its mobile e-mail device. The RIM 5810, with a tactile keyboard and preinstalled app for e-mail, became an instant hit—indeed, a cultural icon—and in the next decade, RIM would become the global leader in mobile e-mail communications. The BlackBerry was designed for and marketed to business customers—the executives who ran corporate IT programs and selected devices for use by all of the company’s employees who needed to stay in constant touch. RIM management assumed that mobile e-mail adoption would follow the same pattern as so much previous technology: Like the typewriter and the computer, the BlackBerry would win over business users and then extend its reach to individual consumers.Unfortunately, the world was on the verge of a revolution in technological diffusion: It’s commonly called the consumerization of IT, and it means that the adoption process started to flow in the opposite direction—from consumers to corporate buyers. New products like the iPhone (which was introduced in 2007) and Androids (2008) caught on with consumers, and although they came with a lot of extraneous apps, businesses began to consider them because employees were so attached to them.When it was first introduced, RIM co-CEOs Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie publicly dismissed the iPhone as a potential threat to their product line. Said Balsillie: “It’s kind of one more entrant into an already busy space with lots of choice for consumers. … But in terms of a sea-change for BlackBerry, I think that’s overstating it.” According to some insiders, BlackBerry management suspected that iPhone technology was superior, but Lazaridis and Balsillie continued to express confidence in the BlackBerry’s security features and, especially, its tactile QWERTY keyboard: “Try typing a web key on an iPhone touchscreen,” suggested Lazaridis. “It’s a real challenge—you can’t see what you type.” As late as 2012, Lazaridis would hold up a BlackBerry for his board to see: “I get this,” he’d say. “It’s clearly differentiated.” Then he’d hold up a touchscreen phone: “I don’t get this,” he would declare. Lazaridis saw no reason to abandon RIM’s core corporate customers in order to cater to the perceived needs of consumers in a rapidly crowding market.It’s important to point out that the Apple iPhone had been developed in collaboration with Internet provider AT&T. Its touchscreen was more responsive, its browser was faster, and it was loaded with more apps, and it wasn’t long before it was being touted as a “BlackBerry killer.” As early as July 2007, RIM had been approached by AT&T competitor Verizon with a plan to develop an “iPhone killer” (which would feature a touchscreen and no keyboard). When the BlackBerry Storm was released in November 2008, however, customers didn’t like it. The touchscreen was awkward and the processor was slow. “The technology,” admitted one RIM executive, “was cobbled together quickly and wasn’t quite ready.” RIM abandoned the Storm, and Verizon turned to Motorola, which succeeded in adapting Google’s new Android operating system to its Droid phone, which came out in 2009 with a user-friendly interface.Not only was the Droid itself immensely successful, but Android quickly became the most popular mobile OS, with Android devices now outselling those with Windows, iOS, and Mac OS combined. Within 14 months, Android’s market share had climbed from 5.2 percent to 23.5 percent, while RIM’s share dropped 10 points, to 31.6 percent. A year later, Android commanded a 47.3 percent share and RIM a mere 16 percent.Back in 2007, when he first opened up an iPhone to have a look inside, Lazaridis, an engineer who’d founded RIM in 1984, was surprised to find that the device broke most of the rules that he’d helped to write. For one thing, the iPhone had a fully Internet capable browser—one of two—and its Android OS took up 700 megabytes. RIM’s OS, which had been designed in the 1990s, ran on one processor and used 32 megabytes. “I said, ‘How did they get AT&T to allow that?’” Lazaridis later recalled. He was certain that the iPhone would overstrain the network of its wireless partner. AT&T, however, was preparing to ride the consumerization wave. “There was a time,” says former RIM executive VP Patrick Spence, “when wireless carriers tried to keep data usage predictable. Then, when the iPhone became compelling, they shifted to. … trying to drive much more usage in different packages.”BlackBerry users told RIM that they wanted features like those on the iPhone, but RIM held on to the business rationale that it had pioneered—the one which operated on the assumption that the value of a smartphone lay in its hardware rather than in its software applications. Says a former company insider:We believed we knew better what customers needed long term than they did. Consumers would say, “I want a faster browser.” We might say, “You might think you want a faster browser, but you don’t want to pay overage on your bill.” “Well, I want a super-big very responsive touchscreen.” “Well, you might think you want that, but you don’t want your phone to die at 2 p.m.” We would say, “We know better, and they’ll eventually figure it out.”Case QuestionsOnce the iPhone and Androids had penetrated the market, RIM faced a serious challenge: It had two distinct groups of customers to which it had to market its products. What were those two groups, and why were their needs and wants incompatible? Explain how this situation put RIM in a state of uncertainty. What risks did it face in making decisions to respond to this situation?When RIM decided to incorporate personal apps into the BlackBerry, developers were required to use the company’s Java-based operating system, which had been created in the 1990s. In addition, they were required to submit apps for prior approval. Several apps—including Instagram and Tumblr—went elsewhere. Explain this problem as a problem in bounded rationality. Judging from what you know about RIM from the case, in what other ways would you say that RIM decision makers were hampered by bounded rationality?Hersh Schefrin, a pioneer in the behavioral aspects of financial decision making, studies how a specific set of psychological traps snare decision makers, causing them to make inferior decisions. [Two] of the most common are excessive optimism [and] overconfidence. … People learn to be excessively optimistic and overconfident. This means that successful people over-estimate their past successes, which feeds these biases. Judging from the details of the case, show how these two forms of “bias” affected decision making at RIM. How might RIM’s “inferior decisions” have been avoided if executives like Lazaridis and Balsillie had applied the steps in rational decision making?
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Privacy Laws.edited
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Privacy Laws.edited
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University of the Pacific Leadership and Professional Ethics Reflection Paper
This reflection activity is comprised of two sections, collectively totaling a minimum of 500 words. Complete your reflect ...
University of the Pacific Leadership and Professional Ethics Reflection Paper
This reflection activity is comprised of two sections, collectively totaling a minimum of 500 words. Complete your reflections by responding to all prompts.Leadership Styles in Action: Review the reading “A Case of Servant, Participative, and Situational Leadership” in Chapter 8. Compare the servant leadership style to that of the participative and situational leadership styles. Think about a leader you know who embodies one of these leadership styles. Consider his or her actions and impact on people.How is this leadership style reflected in your leadership assessment?How could you, as a leader, fulfill this role? What leadership qualities do you need to develop?High Performance: Recall an experience you’ve had as a member of a high-performing team in the workplace.What steps did that team, or its leadership, take to ensure the team performed well?Could the team have used any of the strategies discussed in this module’s reading to help improve its performance even more?Can you think of an experience with a team that did not perform well and what strategies it could have used to help improve its success?Please read all the instructions if you need any additional information just let me know I will do my best to get it to you.
Research paper
A strategic audit of Panera Bread Company. "A strategic audit provides a checklist of questions by area or issue, that en ...
Research paper
A strategic audit of Panera Bread Company. "A strategic audit provides a checklist of questions by area or issue, that enables a systematic analysis to be made of various corporate functions and activities". I. Current Situation A. Current Performance How did the corporation perform in the past year overall in terms of return on investment, market share, and profitability?B. Strategic Posture What are the corporation’s current mission, objectives, strategies, and policies?1. Are they clearly stated, or are they merely implied from performance?2. Mission: What business(es) is the corporation in? Why?3. Objectives: What are the corporate, business, and functional objectives? Are they consistent with each other, with the mission, and with the internal and external environments?4. Strategies: What strategy or mix of strategies is the corporation following? Are they consistent with each other, with the mission and objectives, and with the internal and external environments?5. Policies: What are the corporation’s policies? Are they consistent with each other, with the mission, objectives, and strategies, and with the internal and external environments?6. Do the current mission, objectives, strategies, and policies reflect the corporation’s international operations, whether global or multidomestic? SOURCE: T. L. Wheelen and J. D. Hunger, Strategic Audit of a Corporation, Copyright © 1982 and 2005 by Wheelen and Hunger Associates. Thomas L. Wheelen, “A Strategic Audit,” paper presented to Society for Advancement of Management (SAM). Presented by J. D. Hunger and T. L. Wheelen in “The Strategic Audit: An Integrative Approach to Teaching Business Policy,” Academy of Management (August 1983). Published in “Using the Strategic Audit,” by T. L. Wheelen and J. D. Hunger in SAM Advanced Management Journal (Winter 1987), pp. 4–12. Reprinted by permission of the copyright holders. Revised 1988, 1994, 1997, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2009, and 2013. II. Corporate Governance A. Board of DirectorsB. Top Management1. What person or group constitutes top management?2. What are top management’s chief characteristics in terms of knowledge, skills, background, and style? If the corporation has international operations, does top management have international experience? Are executives from acquired companies considered part of the top management team?3. Has top management been responsible for the corporation’s performance over the past few years? How many managers have been in their current position for less than three years? Were they promoted internally or externally hired?4. Has top management established a systematic approach to strategic management?5. What is top management’s level of involvement in the strategic management process?6. How well does top management interact with lower-level managers and with the board of directors?7. Are strategic decisions made ethically in a socially responsible manner?8. Are strategic decisions made in an environmentally sustainable manner?9. Do top executives own significant amounts of stock in the corporation?10. Is top management sufficiently skilled to cope with likely future challenges? III. External Environment: Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) A. Natural Physical Environment: Sustainability IssuesB. Societal Environment1. What general environmental forces are currently affecting both the corporation and the industries in which it competes? Which present current or future threats? Opportunities?a. Economicb. Technologicalc. Political-legald. Sociocultural2. Are these forces different in other regions of the world?C. Task Environment1. What forces drive industry competition? Are these forces the same globally or do they vary from country to country? Rate each force as high, medium, or low.a. Threat of new entrantsb. Bargaining power of buyersc. Threat of substitute products or servicesd. Bargaining power of supplierse. Rivalry among competing firmsf. Relative power of unions, governments, special interest groups, etc.2. What key factors in the immediate environment (that is, customers, competitors, suppliers, creditors, labor unions, governments, trade associations, interest groups, local communities, and shareholders) are currently affecting the corporation? Which are current or future threats? Opportunities?D. Summary of External Factors (List in the EFAS Table 4–5, p. 121) Which of these forces and factors are the most important to the corporation and to the industries in which it competes at the present time? Which will be important in the future? IV. Internal Environment: Strengths and Weaknesses (SWOT) A. Corporate Structure1. How is the corporation structured at present?a. Is the decision-making authority centralized around one group or decentralized to many units?b. Is the corporation organized on the basis of functions, projects, geography, or some combination of these?2. Is the structure clearly understood by everyone in the corporation?3. Is the present structure consistent with current corporate objectives, strategies, policies, and programs, as well as with the firm’s international operations?4. In what ways does this structure compare with those of similar corporations?B. Corporate Culture1. Is there a well-defined or emerging culture composed of shared beliefs, expectations, and values?2. Is the culture consistent with the current objectives, strategies, policies, and programs?3. What is the culture’s position on environmental sustainability?4. What is the culture’s position on other important issues facing the corporation (that is, on productivity, quality of performance, adaptability to changing conditions, and internationalization)?5. Is the culture compatible with the employees’ diversity of backgrounds?6. Does the company take into consideration the values of the culture of each nation in which the firm operates?C. Corporate Resources1. Marketinga. What are the corporation’s current marketing objectives, strategies, policies, and programs?i. Are they clearly stated or merely implied from performance and/or budgets?ii. Are they consistent with the corporation’s mission, objectives, strategies, and policies and with internal and external environments?b. How well is the corporation performing in terms of analysis of market position and marketing mix (that is, product, price, place, and promotion) in both domestic and international markets? How dependent is the corporation on a few customers? How big is its market? Where is it gaining or losing market share? What percentage of sales comes from developed versus developing regions? Where are current products in the product life cycle?i. What trends emerge from this analysis?ii. What impact have these trends had on past performance and how might these trends affect future performance?iii. Does this analysis support the corporation’s past and pending strategic decisions?iv. Does marketing provide the company with a competitive advantage?c. How well does the corporation’s marketing performance compare with that of similar corporations?d. Are marketing managers using accepted marketing concepts and techniques to evaluate and improve product performance? (Consider product life cycle, market segmentation, market research, and product portfolios.)e. Does marketing adjust to the conditions in each country in which it operates?f. Does marketing consider environmental sustainability when making decisions?g. What is the role of the marketing manager in the strategic management process?2. Financea. What are the corporation’s current financial objectives, strategies, and policies and programs?i. Are they clearly stated or merely implied from performance and/or budgets?ii. Are they consistent with the corporation’s mission, objectives, strategies, and policies and with internal and external environments?b. How well is the corporation performing in terms of financial analysis? (Consider ratio analysis, common size statements, and capitalization structure.) How balanced, in terms of cash flow, is the company’s portfolio of products and businesses? What are investor expectations in terms of share price?i. What trends emerge from this analysis?ii. Are there any significant differences when statements are calculated in constant versus reported dollars?iii. What impact have these trends had on past performance and how might these trends affect future performance?iv. Does this analysis support the corporation’s past and pending strategic decisions?v. Does finance provide the company with a competitive advantage?c. How well does the corporation’s financial performance compare with that of similar corporations?d. Are financial managers using accepted financial concepts and techniques to evaluate and improve current corporate and divisional performance? (Consider financial leverage, capital budgeting, ratio analysis, and managing foreign currencies.)e. Does finance adjust to the conditions in each country in which the company operates?f. Does finance cope with global financial issues?g. What is the role of the financial manager in the strategic management process?3. Research and Development (R&D)a. What are the corporation’s current R&D objectives, strategies, policies, and programs?i. Are they clearly stated or merely implied from performance or budgets?ii. Are they consistent with the corporation’s mission, objectives, strategies and policies, and with internal and external environments?iii. What is the role of technology in corporate performance?iv. Is the mix of basic, applied, and engineering research appropriate given the corporate mission and strategies?v. Does R&D provide the company with a competitive advantage?b. What return is the corporation receiving from its investment in R&D?c. Is the corporation competent in technology transfer? Does it use concurrent engineering and cross-functional work teams in product and process design?d. What role does technological discontinuity play in the company’s products?e. How well does the corporation’s investment in R&D compare with the investments of similar corporations? How much R&D is being outsourced? Is the corporation using value-chain alliances appropriately for innovation and competitive advantage?f. Does R&D adjust to the conditions in each country in which the company operates?g. Does R&D consider environmental sustainability in product development and packaging?h. What is the role of the R&D manager in the strategic management process?4. Operations and Logisticsa. What are the corporation’s current manufacturing/service objectives, strategies, policies, and programs?i. Are they clearly stated or merely implied from performance or budgets?ii. Are they consistent with the corporation’s mission, objectives, strategies, and policies and with internal and external environments?b. What are the type and extent of operations capabilities of the corporation? How much is done domestically versus internationally? Is the amount of outsourcing appropriate to be competitive? Is purchasing being handled appropriately? Are suppliers and distributors operating in an environmentally sustainable manner? Which products have the highest and lowest profit margins?i. If the corporation is product-oriented, consider plant facilities, type of manufacturing system (continuous mass production, intermittent job shop, or flexible manufacturing), age and type of equipment, degree and role of automation and/or robots, plant capacities and utilization, productivity ratings, and availability and type of transportation.ii. If the corporation is service-oriented, consider service facilities (hospital, theater, or school buildings), type of operations systems (continuous service over time to the same clientele or intermittent service over time to varied clientele), age and type of supporting equipment, degree and role of automation and use of mass communication devices (diagnostic machinery, video machines), facility capacities and utilization rates, efficiency ratings of professional and service personnel, and availability and type of transportation to bring service staff and clientele together.c. Are manufacturing or service facilities vulnerable to natural disasters, local or national strikes, reduction or limitation of resources from suppliers, substantial cost increases of materials, or nationalization by governments?d. Is there an appropriate mix of people and machines (in manufacturing firms) or of support staff to professionals (in service firms)?e. How well does the corporation perform relative to the competition? Is it balancing inventory costs (warehousing) with logistical costs (just-in-time)? Consider costs per unit of labor, material, and overhead; downtime; inventory control management and scheduling of service staff; production ratings; facility utilization percentages; and number of clients successfully treated by category (if service firm) or percentage of orders shipped on time (if product firm).i. What trends emerge from this analysis?ii. What impact have these trends had on past performance and how might these trends affect future performance?iii. Does this analysis support the corporation’s past and pending strategic decisions?iv. Does operations provide the company with a competitive advantage?f. Are operations managers using appropriate concepts and techniques to evaluate and improve current performance? Consider cost systems, quality control and reliability systems, inventory control management, personnel scheduling, TQM, learning curves, safety programs, and engineering programs that can improve efficiency of manufacturing or of service.g. Do operations adjust to the conditions in each country in which it has facilities?h. Do operations consider environmental sustainability when making decisions?i. What is the role of the operations manager in the strategic management process?5. Human Resources Management (HRM)a. What are the corporation’s current HRM objectives, strategies, policies, and programs?i. Are they clearly stated or merely implied from performance and/or budgets?ii. Are they consistent with the corporation’s mission, objectives, strategies, and policies and with internal and external environments?b. How well is the corporation’s HRM performing in terms of improving the fit between the individual employee and the job? Consider turnover, grievances, strikes, layoffs, employee training, and quality of work life.i. What trends emerge from this analysis?ii. What impact have these trends had on past performance and how might these trends affect future performance?iii. Does this analysis support the corporation’s past and pending strategic decisions?iv. Does HRM provide the company with a competitive advantage?c. How does this corporation’s HRM performance compare with that of similar corporations?d. Are HRM managers using appropriate concepts and techniques to evaluate and improve corporate performance? Consider the job analysis program, performance appraisal system, up-to-date job descriptions, training and development programs, attitude surveys, job design programs, quality of relationships with unions, and use of autonomous work teams.e. How well is the company managing the diversity of its workforce? What is the company’s record on human rights? Does the company monitor the human rights record of key suppliers and distributors?f. Does HRM adjust to the conditions in each country in which the company operates? Does the company have a code of conduct for HRM for itself and key suppliers in developing nations? Are employees receiving international assignments to prepare them for managerial positions?g. What is the role of outsourcing in HRM planning?h. What is the role of the HRM manager in the strategic management process?6. Information Technology (IT)a. What are the corporation’s current IT objectives, strategies, policies, and programs?i. Are they clearly stated or merely implied from performance and/or budgets?ii. Are they consistent with the corporation’s mission, objectives, strategies, and policies and with internal and external environments?b. How well is the corporation’s IT performing in terms of providing a useful database, automating routine clerical operations, assisting managers in making routine decisions, and providing information necessary for strategic decisions?i. What trends emerge from this analysis?ii. What impact have these trends had on past performance and how might these trends affect future performance?iii. Does this analysis support the corporation’s past and pending strategic decisions?iv. Does IT provide the company with a competitive advantage?c. How does this corporation’s IT performance and stage of development compare with that of similar corporations? Is it appropriately using the Internet, intranet, and extranets?d. Are IT managers using appropriate concepts and techniques to evaluate and improve corporate performance? Do they know how to build and manage a complex database, establish Web sites with firewalls and virus protection, conduct system analyses, and implement interactive decision-support systems?e. Does the company have a global IT and Internet presence? Does it have difficulty with getting data across national boundaries?f. What is the role of the IT manager in the strategic management process?D. Summary of Internal Factors (List in the IFAS Table 5–2, p. 154) Which of these factors are core competencies? Which, if any, are distinctive competencies? Which of these factors are the most important to the corporation and to the industries in which it competes at the present time? Which might be important in the future? Which functions or activities are candidates for outsourcing? V. Analysis of Strategic Factors (SWOT) A. Situational Analysis (List in SFAS Matrix, Figure 6–1, pp. 166–167) Of the external (EFAS) and internal (IFAS) factors listed in III.D and IV.D, which are the strategic (most important) factors that strongly affect the corporation’s present and future performance?B. Review of Mission and Objectives1. Are the current mission and objectives appropriate in light of the key strategic factors and problems?2. Should the mission and objectives be changed? If so, how?3. If they are changed, what will be the effects on the firm? VI. Strategic Alternatives and Recommended Strategy A. Strategic AlternativesB. Recommended Strategy1. Specify which of the strategic alternatives you are recommending for the corporate, business, and functional levels of the corporation. Do you recommend different business or functional strategies for different units of the corporation?2. Justify your recommendation in terms of its ability to resolve both long- and short-term problems and effectively deal with the strategic factors.3. What policies should be developed or revised to guide effective implementation?4. What is the impact of your recommended strategy on the company’s core and distinctive competencies? VII. Implementation A. What Kinds of Programs or Tactics (for Example, Restructuring the Corporation or Instituting TQM) Should Be Developed to Implement the Recommended Strategy?B. Are the Programs/Tactics Financially Feasible? Can Pro Forma Budgets Be Developed and Agreed On? Are Priorities and Timetables Appropriate to Individual Programs/Tactics?C. Will New Standard Operating Procedures Need to Be Developed? VIII. Evaluation and Control A. Is the Current Information System Capable of Providing Sufficient Feedback on Implementation Activities and Performance? Can It Measure Strategic Factors?1. Can performance results be pinpointed by area, unit, project, or function?2. Is the information timely?3. Is the corporation using benchmarking to evaluate its functions and activities?B. Are Adequate Control Measures in Place to Ensure Conformance with the Recommended Strategic Plan?1. Are appropriate standards and measures being used?2. Are reward systems capable of recognizing and rewarding good performan
MGT 3501 Georgia Institute of Technology Information Risk Question
Think of an example of a real option for managing information risk that you observed in practice or your own life. Rememb ...
MGT 3501 Georgia Institute of Technology Information Risk Question
Think of an example of a real option for managing information risk that you observed in practice or your own life. Remember that real options are designed to protect against the negative impacts of some information risk. Please answer the questions below.
Please describe what the option is, what information risk it is mitigating, who can use the option, and who offers it. For example, Essmart customers have the option to return products they dislike. This option is offered by Essmart and mitigates the risk customers have regarding product quality and usefulness.
How does this option address the information risk you mentioned above? Is the risk shifted to someone else, or does it simply disappear? For example, when Essmart offers customers a return option, the quality and fit-risk are transferred from the customer to Essmart. Conversely, the option to put the Circored plant on "standby" eliminates the downside of price risk.
What are the operating expenses and assets associated with this option? For example, in Essmart's case, offering customers a return option has costs and assets associated with reversing logistics and refurbishing the returned product.
Part 2 -Covid and Queues (30 points)
Question 1
In the Atlanta Metropolitan Area (which, for this question, we assume has 5 million people), 0.5% of the population are tested every day for Covid-19.
For 80% of patients, the test is negative (i.e., they do not have the virus).
For the remaining 20% of patients who do have the virus:
60% do not need to be hospitalized and recover from their symptoms at home.
40% of patients are admitted to the hospital.
Of the 40% of patients who are hospitalized:
90% do not need to be admitted to intensive care (ICU) and recover in a regular hospital bed.
10% of patients will require ICU admission after first spending 4 days, on average, in a regular hospital bed.
If a patient is admitted to the hospital but not to the ICU, they spend 14 days in the hospital on average.
If a patient is admitted to the ICU, they then spend 7 days there on average. 50% of patients recover in the ICU, while another 50% do not survive.
Those who survive then return to a hospital bed to recover, where they spend a further 5 days on average.
On average, how many Covid-19 patients will be occupying (i) hospital beds and (ii) ICU beds in Atlanta?
Question 2
Assume that those hospitalized above arrive randomly to one of 20 hospitals in the Atlanta Metropolitan Area (i.e., the allocation decision is not made based on how busy each hospital is, but instead it is the result of a “flip of the coin”).
The ICUs at each hospital are all equally sized and have 56 beds each. Assume that the ICUs are only treating Covid-19 patients. The coefficient of variation of arrival times and service times (i.e., CVa and CVs) are both equal to 1.
On average, how long will a patient have to wait before they are admitted to the ICU?
Question 3
The government is very unhappy with the answer to Question 2. It takes two immediate measures. The first measure is expanding ICU capacity. The government works with hospitals to increase the number of ICU beds from 56 to 75 beds in each hospital.
The second measure is to ensure that patients should not have to wait more than 6 hours before being admitted to an ICU bed in a regular hospital if they need to be. To achieve this, the government has mandated a policy under which patients can be transferred between hospitals whenever the next available bed becomes available. This is a “first-in-first-out” policy: whichever patient has been waiting in the queue, the longer will be moved to the next available ICU bed, regardless of which hospital this is in.
To simplify this process and reduce the need to transfer patients across large distances over the city, the government is looking to separate the hospitals into groups (of 2, 3, 4, or 5 hospitals), so that patient transfers only occur within that group. For example, suppose there were only 4 hospitals, Hospitals A, B, C, and D, and these were formed into 2 groups of 2 such that Hospitals A and B are in one group, and Hospitals C and D in the other group. A patient requiring an ICU bed at Hospital A could be transferred to Hospital B, but not to Hospital C or D.
a) What is the smallest number of hospitals in each group that will ensure that, on average, patients should not have to wait more than 6 hours before being admitted to an ICU bed at a regular hospital if they need to?
b) On average, how many patients will be either waiting for or occupying an ICU bed at each regular hospital under this system?
Part 3 - Uncle George's Parka Company (20 points)
After you graduated from Georgia Tech, your uncle George P. Burdell hired you to help him with his company that makes Parkas in China. Competition in this market is growing, and to maintain the current market position, your company must be able to reduce its lead-time as much as possible (lead-time is the time it takes between placing an order to a supplier and the order being delivered to you). After looking at a few numbers, you discover that the biggest contributor to your goods' lead-time is the customs department at the ports in China. You carry out some analysis and narrow down your choice of the port to either Ningbo Port or Shanghai Port. You find that the costs of using either of the ports are similar, and so is the delivery time of getting your shipment to the two ports. Further, you also find that once your shipment clears customs, the cost and time to deliver to the USA are the same from the two ports. Therefore, the only criterion of selection is how fast your shipment can pass through customs at the two ports. Here are some useful data:
All the containers have to pass through customs. At customs, the only time-consuming process is passing each container through an x-ray machine. According to the available data, both ports have one x-ray machine each. The Shanghai port can process about 2 million containers per month, whereas the Ningbo port can process 1 million containers per month. However, the x-ray machines' utilization at both of the ports is 0.66 (the two ports use different types of x-ray machines). Further, you have credible information that the average number of containers waiting in the container yard to be x-rayed is the same in both ports.
Question 1
Given this information, your uncle George says that since both the ports have the same average queue size, it would not matter which port you choose. Do you agree with your uncle? Use the data provided above and justify your answer. Additionally, you may assume that the coefficient of variation of the time between arrivals for containers (CVa) and the coefficient of variation of the service time of the x-ray machine (CVS) are both equal to 1. More specifically, you may assume that the arrivals follow a Poisson distribution, and the service time follows an exponential distribution.
Question 2
The export business in China is growing. Uncle George, who has just returned from a trade expo in Shanghai, has informed you that the port authority of Ningbo expects the demand to reach the same level as Shanghai. The port authority of Ningbo is now deciding how to change its system to accommodate this surge in demand. They have two options, (a) to retire their existing x-ray machine and buy an x-ray machine similar to the one used by the Shanghai port, or (b) to buy another x-ray machine similar to the one they already own and therefore operate the system with two similar machines. Both the options will cost the port authority of Ningbo the same.
Purely from the perspective of reducing lead-time, is (a) or (b) better for you? Please show your detailed analysis.
Part 4 - BlaBlaCar (30 points + 10 bonus points)
Scratching your post-pandemic itch to travel, you decide to accept an internship offer at the Paris headquarters of BlaBlaCar (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BlaBlaCar (Links to an external site.) and https://www.blablacar.com/) (Links to an external site.), an online marketplace for carpooling with 70 million active users. BlaBlaCar matches people that want to go from (near) A to (near) B at a given time (for example, from The Hague to Rotterdam between 7 am and 8 am on some Friday) with drivers that are driving from A to B around that day and time.
Unlike other ridesharing platforms, most BlaBlaCar drivers use the platform to cover travel expenses and not as a source of income. Drivers post their ride trajectories some time in advance, and interested riders contact the drivers to arrange pickup details. BlaBlaCar algorithms suggest prices to drivers (usually enough to cover travel costs), and BlaBlaCar makes money by charging drivers 15% of the fare.
One of your first tasks is to estimate the number of drivers and passengers needed to make BlaBlaCar's market "thick." To do so, you devise a simple stylized model of this platform to gain some intuition. To simplify things, in this “first cut” model, you make a few assumptions:
A day is divided into 24 slots, each one hour in length;
You consider only one route on one specific day (for example, The Hague to Rotterdam and the 24 1-hour slots on February 27th);
You assume that, at some point before the specific day you are analyzing, drivers and riders arrive simultaneously on the platform. Furthermore, each rider and driver choose only one slot on that day.
The platform matching mechanics are as follows: (a) riders and drivers enter the platform and choose specific slots. (b) In each slot, drivers and riders are matched at random. (c) unmatched rivers and riders leave the platform. For example, if there are 5 riders and 7 drivers in a given slot, there will be 5 matches, and 2 drivers will be unmatched and will leave the platform. Similarly, if there are 1 rider and 0 drivers, the rider will not be matched (and will not change time slots) and leave.
Each driver can only take one passenger. For example, if there are two drivers in one slot and only one passenger, or two passengers in a slot and only one driver, only one ride occurs.
Drivers and passengers choose slots with the same probability - all slots in a day are equally likely to be selected (they are selected uniformly at random).
Question 1 (10 points)
If a single passenger arrives on the platform and is looking for a ride on a specific slot on a given day, what is the minimum number of drivers that should be in the system so that they find a ride with a probability of at least 80%?
Question 2 (20 points)
Note: This question is more advanced, and I suggest using Excel, R, Python, Matlab (or your preferred programming language) to solve it.
Note that the scenario in Question 1 is great for the passenger but terrible for the drivers. A well-managed platform with many matches depends not only on the number of drivers and passengers but also on the balance between them. A liquid platform is one where many matches occur, and a small number of people are unmatched. This concept is also known as market thickness. Thus, with the same assumptions as before, what is the minimum number of drivers and passengers that must arrive at the platform such that at least 80% of passengers and 80% of drivers find a match?
Question 3 (10 points)
Of course, this model is somewhat unrealistic. However, do you think it provides an upper bound or lower bound on the actual number of drivers needed?
Question 4 (10 points)
How could you make this model more realistic? What other data would you need? How would you collect it?
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Informational Interview
I chose to interview Doctor Michelle Brown. She has been a doctor for seven years and likes her profession because it is a ...
Informational Interview
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