Section B: (Case study) (5 marks 2=10 marks) (word count 750-1000) ATH Technologies: Making the Numbers Scepter a major pharmaceutical company, acquires medical technology startup ATH Technologies and makes a portion of the sale price contingent on the business hitting a set of sales and earnings goals. Dr. Charles Casper and John Frost, the founders, decide to stay with the business and focus on rapid growth in order to grow market share. However, this approach leads to mounting losses for the business. In an effort to meet the earn-out goals, ATH managers usher in a new focus on profitability, promising employees a bonus and a trip for two to Hawaii if ATH meets the goals. ATH does meet the earn-out goals, but their focus on eliminating costs has created unforeseen risk- employees cut corners on product quality, and the FDA has now issued a warning letter. ATH attempts to address the FDA complaints by motivating employees to focus more heavily on quality and customer satisfaction through a new set of incentives and the introduction of a beliefs system. Employees meet these goals, but ATH fails to achieve the earn-out goals. Moreover, their inward focus has distracted them from the emergence of new competitors who begin to erode their market position. With the future grim, the founders leave, and the new management team at Scepter discovers that the once-promising business will be difficult to save. The ATH Technologies story highlights the challenges of managing tensions between growth, profit, and control and the importance of using all four "levers" of control to manage the balance between innovation and control in order to drive profitable growth. The story also underscores the risks of failing to define your business strategy. Case study related questions: 1. How would you define a business strategy at your own business or at a selected organization with four Ps of strategy? 2. Articulate the which of the four levers of control are actively used or referred to, in the day-to-day work at the selected business. Section C: (Scenario) (10 Marks) (word count - 750 -1000). Scenario related questions In the early days of online book retailing (1994-2001), Amazon's value network comprised the company, its suppliers (publishers), and its customers. Amazon's customers had other places to buy books, most notably from Barnes \& Noble online. Those customers were therefore guaranteed a hefty slice of the value pie. But because Amazon dealt with everybody who wanted to deal with it, no unsatisfied demand for Amazon's services remained. Therefore, Amazon was not guaranteed a slice of the pie; the best it could hope for was to appropriate a share of the meager amount left over by competition. 1. There is a dilemma that when a breakthrough technology shakes up your industry, how should you see it as a Bargaining power of the buyer within the context of innovation differently at different; stages of its evolution. Examine the above in the context of disruptive change with sufficient examples