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Essay Instructions: DOING WELL "MEMO"


This task challenges you to do a lot in a short memo. This is memo format, so no title page is necessary. If you need a reference page you can add one. While the task asks you to do it in three pages I would like to challenge you to do it in no more than two double spaced pages. Choose your words carefully. As you know, in today's business world the ability to communciate quickly and concisely is important. Sometimes (often) it is more difficult to write a short piece than a long one.

Essay Instructions: Economics And The Business World
Course Work Assessment

Spotify achieved a major milestone in March 2011 having reached their 1 millionth paying customer and 6 million signed up for their free services firmly establishing them as one of the largest online music services in the world. The latest news has revealed a new partnership with virgin media whereby the Spotify services will be bundled with Virgin?s 30Mbps broadband package and a separately a proposed partnership with facebook. (see news articles attached).

Sean Parker, the co-founder of Napster and facebook former president, is a venture capitalist and an investor in Spotify who has already invested $30 million into the company. Sean is considering further investment and relies on a team of analysts to support him in keeping pace with developments that could affect his investments. As part of the team you have been given several specific tasks:

1. Conduct a PESTLE analysis that will identify the main environmental forces that are affecting Spotify. Within your analysis you should emphasize the forces that will be particular drivers for change in the future of the company and provide justification for your choice.

2. Analyse the nature of competition in the industry that Spotify faces using Porter?s Five Forces framework. (This requires you to do more than just list the forces. Determine the structure of the industry, whether Spotify have any influence on the forces and if all competitors are equally affected).

3. "Telecoms companies moving into the music space increases revenue streams to the music industry and provides benefits for fans and artists alike," said Andreas Liffgarden, Spotify's global head of telecom business development.
? What is the strategic rationale for the partnership between Spotify and Virgin Media? And
? Do you agree or disagree with Liffgarden?s statement? Give your reasons why, reflecting on the perspectives of both music fans and artists.

Essay Instructions: • Discuss the statement “Organisations categorised as “creative” are assumed to exhibit characteristics leading to effective responses to environmental demands in order to compete and retain competitive advantages”. Use a company of your choice as an example to illustrate and support this statement.
• How are the concepts of creativity and innovation relevant to the contemporary business world? Use examples to illustrate your points.
• What motivates businesses to foster creativity and innovation?
• How do you think the organizational culture can foster creativity/innovation in the workplace? Have you identified any particular organizational values that help achieve this?
• There is a popular belief that “Change is the only constant”. Does the change get activated by internal or external triggers? Please provide examples to illustrate your point.
• What are the biggest challenges that companies are facing to maintain a competitive edge?




Sections of the report should demonstrate an understanding of relevant theoretical frameworks. You should be able to display your understanding of appropriate models and theories on creativity, innovation and change. Your report should draw upon a wide range of sources from textbooks (in addition to those in the recommended reading list), companies’ websites and other relevant websites, to academic journal articles and business magazines (such as Business Week, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times and Management Today).


Some useful guidelines:
• Specify your sources clearly in the report. Refer to the Students’ Handbook for information about proper referencing. Any tables in appendices should be properly referenced in the main body of the assignment.
• I recommend that you segment the report by using meaningful headings and sub-headings in relation to the aforementioned areas.
• Be as specific and clear as possible in providing evidence of creativity/innovation in the organization under study. Use concrete examples, well-chosen quotes, data, and so on, as appropriate.
• Your report should include both a description and an analysis/interpretation, with emphasis on the latter. The linkage to course concepts should be explicit. Although you need not explain or describe the course concepts in great depth, you should describe them briefly and provide references/citations to their sources. Explicitly mention (and reference) course materials that are directly relevant to your analysis. The best way for you to demonstrate your mastery of course concepts is to apply them appropriately in your analysis, explaining their relevance.


Criteria for assessing the Individual Report include:

Your report will be marked on both description and analysis:
• Clear demonstration of your understanding of the concepts of creativity/innovation in business context. Good demonstration of the fact that adapting to the ever-changing external environment is necessary for the success of the organization. Evidence of an appropriate application of the conceptual frameworks, academic studies, tools, and specific lessons learnt in your analysis of the company.
• Logical report structure.
• Writing quality (clarity, conciseness, and organization of the writing).

There are faxes for this order.

Essay Instructions: I want the essay in harvard style with a bibliography.

Everything below is related to the business world.

The four generic approaches to strategy is in the book: Whittington R (2nd ed) (2001), What is Strategy-and does it matter? Padstow: Thomson Learning.

>Describe Whittington?s Four generic approaches to STRATEGY which are:

1) CLASICAL ? Rational planning.
2) EVOLUTIONARY- Survival of the fittest as Darwin would say.
3) PROCESSUALISTS- Imperfect processes in organisations and markets mean that strategy must be imperfect and contingent. Long term planning is futile-people are just not like that.
4) SYSTEMIC: Strategy cannot be divorced from national and local culture.

Outcomes
Profit Maximisation

CLASSICAL EVOLUTIONARY

Processes
Deliberate Emergent

SYSTEMIC PROCESSUAL
Plural

>After that Critically EVALUATE Whittington?s approaches to strategy.


>I then want you to talk about the PARADOXES described below
the paradoxes are from the book: DE WIT, B and Meyer, R (eds), STRATEGY, PROCESS, CONTENT, London: International Thomson Business Press.


DE WIT,B and MEYER, R argue that there are two ways of viewing all the issues that comprise strategy. Understanding strategy, therefore, is a way of synthesing competing and contradictory views.

THE PARDOXES ARE THE FOLLWING:

>Strategic thinking:
The paradox of logic and creativity. Intuition and creativity are needed for organisations to survive, so is formal, rational analysis.

>Strategy formation:
The paradox of deliberateness and emergence: the duality of wanrting intentioanlly to design the future while needing gradually to explore, learn and adapt to an unfolding reality.

>Strategic change:
The paradox of revolution and evolution: transformational change requires a clean break with the past, and yet continuity and progression is also needed.

>Business level strategy:
The paradox of markets and resources: successful strategy demands a good fit between internal resources and external needs and opportunities. Yet these often pull in different directions.

>Corporate level strategy:
The paradox of responsiveness and synergy: business units need to be integrated to gain synergies yet this is at the cost of reduced responsiveness to market needs.

>Network level strategy:
The paradox of competition and co-operation: Firms are pulled by a need to work with others while at the same time pursuing their own interests.

>The industry context:
The paradox of compliance and choice: tension between wanting to change the rules for the industry (trying something new) and complying to existing patterns (aligning the organisation to the rules of competition within the industry).

>The organisational context:
The paradox of control and chaos: control of the organisation is necessary, but so is freedom and autonomy - the desirability of experimenting and trying new things.

>The international context:
The paradox of globalization and localization: the tension between international standardisation and local adaptation.

>Organisational purpose:
The paradox of profitability and responsibility: tension between profit maximisation and social responsibility.