Strategic Management and Personal Media Players

apple, Inc. in 2010 engagement Questions 1. What be the chief elements of apples overall warlike dodging? How substantially do the pieces fit together? Is the system evolving? 2. What are the tombstone elements of apples system in computers, personalised media players, and smartphones? Have its strategies in its core assembly linees yielded supremacy? Explain. 3. What does a competitive strength assessment snitch intimately Apples computer business, as compared to the leaders in the personal computer diligence? Use the methodology in control board 4. to support your answer. Does it appear that the confederations competitive positions in personal media players and smartphones or stronger or weaker than its position in computers? 4. Does it make good strategical sense for Apple to be a competitor in the computer, personal media player, smartphone, and lozenge computer industries? Are the value chain activities that Apple performs in computers, personal media player s, tablet computers and smartphones very similar and compatible or are there very important differences from product to product?Which of the four products linescomputers, tablet computers, personal media players, or smartphonesdo you see is most important to Apples future growth and lucrativeness? Why? 5. What is your assessment of Apple Computers pecuniary performance the past three years? (Use the fiscal ratios in Table 4. 1 on pages 94-96 of the text as a require in doing your pecuniary analysis. ) 6. What recommendations would you make to allow Apple to strengthen its position in its most important markets? What steps should it bear off to ensure that the iPad becomes a victor in the marketplace and a major(ip) contributor to the companys overall performance?Googles scheme in 2010* Assignment Questions 1. Discuss competition in the chase attention. Which of the louvre competitive forces seem strongest? weakest? What is your assessment of overall industry attractivene ss? 2. How is the search industry changing? What forces seem most likely to bring about major alter to the industry within the next three to vanadium years? 3. What are the hear factors that define success in the industry? What are the key competencies, capabilities, and resources of successful search engine companies? 4. Describe Googles customer value roposition and profit formula linked to its business model. What strategies has Google relied upon to make competitive advantage in the industry? 5. Have Googles business model and strategy proven to be successful? Should investors be move with the companys financial performance? How does the companys financial performance compare to that of Microsoft and Yahoo? Please conduct a financial analysis to support your positionyou may wish to use the financial ratios presented in the Table 4. 1 of the text as a guide in doing your financial analysis of the company. . What are the companys key resources and competitive capabilities? Wh at competitive liabilities and resource weaknesses does it acquire? What opportunities exist? What threats to its continued success are present? 7. What recommendations would you make to Googles top- counseling team to sustain its competitive advantage in the search industry? How should it best capitalize on its strategic initiatives in mobile phones, cloud computing, emerging markets, and other ventures? south-west Airlines in 2010 Culture, Values, and Operating Practices Assignment Questions . Is there anything that you find particularly lofty about southwesterly Airlines? 2. What grade would you give Southwest management for the rail line it has done in crafting the companys strategy? What is it that you like or dislike about the strategy? Does Southwest have a taking strategy? 3. What are the key policies, procedures, operating practices, and core values inherent Southwests efforts to implement and execute its low-cost/no frills strategy? 4. What are the key elements of So uthwests culture? Is Southwest a strong culture company? Why or why non?What problems do you foresee that Gary Kelly has in sustaining the culture now that Herb Kelleher, the companys spiritual leader, has departed? 5. What grade would you give Southwest management for the job it has done in implementing and executing the companys strategy? Which of Southwests strategy execution approaches and operating practices do you remember have been most crucial in accounting for the success that Southwest has enjoyed in executing its strategy? Are the any policies, procedures, and operating approaches at Southwest that you disapprove of or that are not working well? 6.What weaknesses or problems do you see at Southwest Airlines as of mid-2010? 7. Does the AirTran erudition make good strategic sense for Southwest? 8. What strategic issues and problems do Gary Kelly and Southwest executives need to address as they proceed to close the brood with the AirTran acquisition and contemplate how b est to integrate AirTrans operations and AirTrans employees into Southwest? 9. What recommendations would you make to Gary Kelly and Southwest executives as the company heads into 2011? Competition in Energy Drinks, Sports Drinks and Vitamin-Enhanced Beverages Assignment Questions 1.What are the strategically relevant components of the world(a) and U. S. drink industry macro-environment? How do the economic characteristics of the choice beverage segment of the industry differ from that of other beverage categories? Explain. 2. What is competition like in the alternative beverage industry? Which of the five competitive forces is strongest? Which is weakest? What competitive forces seem to have the greatest effect on industry attractiveness and the potential profitability of new entrants? 3. How is the market for goose egg drinks, sports drinks and vitamin-enhanced beverages changing?What are the underlying drivers of change and how might those forces individually or collectively ma ke the industry much or less attractive? 4. What does your strategic group map of the energy drink, sports drink, and vitamin-enhanced beverage industry look like? Which strategic groups do you think are in the best positions? The worst positions? 5. What key factors determine the success of alternative beverage producers? 6. What recommendations would you make to Coca-Cola to improve its competitiveness in the global alternative beverage industry? to PepsiCo? to Red Bull GmbH?