Questions and Answers of Management A Practical Introduction

Which of the following approaches can help groups avoid groupthink in situations where there is a very strong leader?a. Have the leader stay absent from some team meetings.b. Be sure to make
List two symptoms that would alert a manager that a team is suffering from groupthink. What could this manager do to counteract each of these symptoms?
Why is innovation so important to society?
What is multi-factor productivity, and what does it tell us about innovation?
What general indicators can we use to assess national-level innovation? What are the advantages and problems with use of such indicators?
Name the different types of innovation that a firm may need to consider. Give an example of each from your own experience.
Explain Porter’s diamond framework using real-life examples, and explain the pros and cons of his model. In doing so, evaluate how good it is at explaining formation of regional clusters of
Select an example of innovation cluster. Examine how it came to be formed and define the challenges for it into the future.
Robert Bosch once came across a stray paperclip while wandering round one of his factories. He asked a nearby worker if he knew what it was. ‘A paperclip,’ the worker nervously suggested. ‘No 3
Why is creativity important over the entire spectrum of innovation activity? What problems are experienced by companies that use only the idea-generation phase of the product development process?
What are the key steps in the creative process?
What factors stop creativity happening in the workplace?
Is creativity simply personal and individual? Explain why or why not.
You can’t make people creative. They either have it or they don’t. Do you agree?
Why do organisations frequently fail to tap into the right-brain thinking of their workforce?
Dan Germain, Head of Creativity at Innocent Drinks argues that creativity must be maintained in the fast growing company. How could the company keep hold of its original spirit and keep on doing all
What key strategic questions need to be asked for innovation? What do these tell you about the nature of an innovative organisation?
Discuss the three basic orientations of innovation strategies. Highlight the relationship between the generic strategy archetypes in each of these categories.
Over the industry life cycle highlight when product innovation, process innovation and strategic innovation start to predominate. Explain why.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of a pioneering strategy over a follower strategy?
Identify the factors that you need to consider in deciding between which strategy to follow.
Discuss strategies that a pioneer can take to defend its innovation from attack.
What is dominant design? Why is it so important for a firm to win the battle in establishing a dominant design? Identify what actions/strategies could be used to swing the balance in favour of the
Describes two stages in the battle for supremacy in the use of software for the mobile phone market.If attack is the best form of defence, then the mobile phone companies are striking out to repel
Describe the main stages of the technology life cycle. What are sibling S-curves? Think of an example of sibling curves.
It takes determination to sustain a high-technology start-up in Greece, where the government has been slow to update labour and tax regulations and offers few incentives for entrepreneurs. Yet Alex
What are the six major stages through which innovation process management systems have evolved? Define the pros and cons for each approach.
What are the four basic components that constitute a generic NPD framework?
What are the advantages of implementing a structured product development (SDP) model? What are potential limitations or problems of this approach?
Explain the reasons behind the Japanese ability to parallel process new product development activities. Why do some western companies find it difficult to emulate this model? How have western
How do NPD frameworks differ between a product/service-focussed business, and one that is positioned as a network innovator or solutions provider?
Define the key organisational challenges in becoming a network innovator.
What dynamics are driving the shift towards network innovation generally, and toward solutions innovation specifically?
When Molton Brown chief executive Sara Halton wanted to inject fresh life into the 34-year-old brand, she didn’t just talk to the people in new product development. She set up an advisory board 3
Select 5 important characteristics that would influence the prioritisation of a product portfolio. Show how you would use these to provide an initial prioritised list for the senior management team
If you had five exhibits to present to the Review Board, providing an effective coverage of the company’s current product portfolio, which ones would you select, and why?
Based on the following information, build a risk/opportunity bubble chart, then discuss what issues the company is facing. Programme Strategic A B C D E F G H R&D investment allocated bucket ($m)
Based on the following information, calculate the ECV for the proposed opportunity, and position it in the available list explaining what recommendations you would make to the senior management team
Select two companies within a specific market, and explain how you would differentiate their portfolios using the models described in this chapter, with particular emphasis on strategic alignment.
Company A is an established player in the pharmaceutical market, specialising in analgesia (pain killers) possessing around 33 per cent of the available market share, which it shares equally with two
In what sense is measurement an important driver of business performance?
Identify the three stages of performance measurement, and state what are the perceived advantages and limitations of each.
What is the difference between Process measures and Outcome measures?
Briefly describe an example of one integrated performance framework and one measurement systems methodology.
Identify the three levels of innovation performance measurement. Provide an example of metrics to capture each of these.
What are the characteristics of a good measurement system? What features would make it a useful system.
In a typical organisation, business units act independently of each other and make decisions based on information that is relevant to them. For example, the sales and marketing department might
Outline the characteristics that can be used to describe a company as innovative, citing examples in each case.
Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of applying different firm types to address innovation, and provide examples where possible.
In the context of organisational structures, show how you would address the challenges of cross-functional integration in innovation. What benefits would you expect to see as a result?
Describe the challenges an organisation might face when moving from traditional colocated innovation teams to ones that are global/virtual in nature.
Describe the role of the project champion in innovation. Discuss how this role is linked either to the traditional team leader role or that of the executive sponsor.
Indicate the factors that could lead to flawed innovation decision making. Suggest how you would correct these problems.
The number of new medicines has steadily dropped, while the cost of bringing each one to market has risen sharply to more than $1bn (£605m, c700m). The debate has never been more urgent.
Discuss why culture is so important in developing an innovative organisation.
What is the difference between organisational culture and climate?
How can you tell a strong culture from a weak culture?
Identify the basic characteristics associated with clan, hierarchy, market and adhocracy culture types.
Explain the cultural traits model. What insights does this provide about an innovative business culture?
How can leaders drive and shape an innovative culture? What must they do, and what must they not do?
Why is the individual so important for an innovative organisation? What individual factors and considerations should be taken into account when managing an organisation for innovation?
Discuss the design of systems and practices necessary to drive innovation.
From your experience, identify five organisational norms. Assess how each affects innovation.
Why are communications, actions, and rewards so important in an organisation?
The Huajian Group, a Sino-Taiwan shoe maker, is precisely the type of Chinese exporter that should be on its knees. Huajian exports 95 per cent of its output to the US, focus of the global financial
Identify the key drivers of globalisation. Discuss what are the implications of these for innovation.
List the different organisational configurations for global innovation. Examine the relative advantages and disadvantages of each. Is there a trend towards any one form?If so, state why.
Discuss what actions are necessary to make the integrated R&D network (or the transnational form) effective.
Why is the decision to conduct R&D in a particular location/subsidiary complex?What type of factors must be taken into account for this decision?
Discuss the different roles a subsidiary can play in the roll-out of an innovation.
What additional difficulties exist in managing global innovation team projects? What actions are needed to overcome these problems?
Define and discuss the different leadership responsibilities and roles in the management of global innovation projects.
Of all the business innovations explorer Marco Polo discovered in thirteenth century China, he was perhaps most surprised by the use of paper money. It was worth dozens of times the weight of the
What are the implications of continuous and discontinuous change for innovation?
What is an ambidextrous innovator, and why are these firms most capable of dealing with dislocational change?
What are the common causes of market blindness? Describe an organisational process for market learning, which is appropriate for fast-changing, complex and disruptive environments.
Highlight four conventional methods of market research, and define their strengths and weaknesses.
Why are new methods for market learning and understanding necessary? Identify the main types of development to improve market understanding and consequently innovation success.
What are the different ways of classifying customer needs? Find an illustrative example of each.
Describe the basic diagram developed by Noriaki Kano. What are its implications for innovation?
What role does QFD play in the organisational market learning and innovation process?
When Todd Bradley was appointed to lead Hewlett-Packard’s $28bn personal computer division in 2005, the conventional wisdom was that PCs were a rapidly commoditising business that held little
Provide examples from your experience of good and bad design. State why they were good or bad.
Under what circumstances would you wish to adopt the spiral design methodology? What are the advantages and limitations of this relative to the waterfall methodology?
What are the common causes of design failure?
Explain the concept of ‘design latitude’ and how it can affect manufacturing efficiencies.
Describe the advantages and disadvantages a company may experience by adopting a concurrent engineering approach over traditional serial development methods.
Describe the concept of platforming and the benefits to be gained from its successful implementation.
Using an illustrative example, describe the four possible customisation strategies that a firm might adopt.
Using a company from the industry sector of your choice, explain what the most appropriate manufacturing strategies might be, and how these reinforce broader strategic goals.
Explain the activities involved in setting production target costs.
Describe the concepts, and inter-relationships, of product architecture, platforms and modular design. Explain what benefits can be gained from adopting these approaches.
Explain how process-led manufacturing customisations can enhance market strategies.
What is the role of TQM in innovation?
Describe some of the latest approaches that help drive greater flexibility in product development.
Electronics may be responsible for about 90 per cent of innovation in automobiles, but they also provide vehicle makers with their biggest challenge 3 keeping up with innovation in consumer
Describe the major components of a generic supply chain, and explain how they are connected using a real-life example.
Explain how a company may progressively move from one supply chain paradigm to another, stating how this will increasingly support innovation.
Choose an example, and use it to explain how supply chains can be used to support and extend innovation frameworks.
Describe how value nets may undermine traditional approaches to innovation.

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