Case1: Japanese Animated Films
Japanese animated films, featuring cute images with improbably big eyes and cuddly creatures with squeaky voices, used to be scoffed at as a cultural curiosity whose appeal in the west was limited to children and cartoon junkies. But in recent years the market for anime has found a wider audience, becoming one of the country’s most valuable exports.
There are about 430 anime production companies in Japan. They employ large numbers of people to create hundreds of detailed drawings that the films require. It takes 100 people about three to three-and-a-half months to complete a 21-minute programme for a typical TV slot. If the programme becomes a big hit, the profits are shared by the TV broadcaster, the advertising agency, and the financial backers who invest in the projects. The studio that created the anime is paid costs but is excluded from profit sharing. Programmes cost on the average about Y13m to make, and the production company on the average receives about Y9m to Y10m from TV broadcasters. Some anime production companies generate additional revenues through toys, T-shirts, and other merchandizing if they retain rights to drawings of popular programs, but most have to forgo the rights to the original drawings in order to pay overheads and finance the production of the projects.
1. Analyze the above description of the Japanese animation industry using Porter’s Five Forces model. [25 Marks]
2. How can widespread availability of high-speed broadband internet influence the industry’s structure and competitive conditions?(15 marks) And; in continuation, why and what strategies can be adopted for superior business performance by a typical mid-sized production company?(10 marks)
Case2: Blue Bottle
Blue Bottle, based in Oakland, California, is part of what coffee lovers call the “third wave” of coffee, defined by premium micro-roasters like Stumptown Coffee Roasters. James Freeman, the bespectacled and detail-oriented founder of Blue Bottle, who started the company a decade ago at a farmer’s market, is near militant when it comes to quality control. At Blue Bottle cafes, each cup of coffee can take several minutes to make. Coffee doesn’t spew out of a pot. Instead, the beans are freshly ground for each serving and dropped into thin filters. Hot water is then carefully poured over the top of the grounds, which eventually flow to an awaiting mug. The coffee bags that are sold in its stores, for instance, have to be roasted within 48 hours, which means a Blue Bottle roastery (the facility where coffee beans are roasted), must be located near every retail outlet. In addition to a roaster and coffee bar in Oakland, California, Blue Bottle Coffee has four coffee bars in San Francisco, and two coffee bars in New York. Blue bottle is now in Miami and Tokyo with over 50 stores worldwide. In 2017 a majority stake was acquired by Nestle.
1. Describe the generic strategy Blue Bottle subscribes to and provide arguments to justify your explanation [20marks]
2. Bluebottle (propelled by Nestle’s aspirations) now seeks to make a move further into South East Asia market and European Markets. This is after some initial forays into China and South Korea and the European markets. It wishes to make a choice between where to go first (further into South East Asia or Europe) and decide on how? Use the CAGE and AAA frameworks to provide suggestions. Additional information can be used for this question- though not essential [30 marks]
Case 3: Tesla
Elon Musk is a man of visions and has crafted the purpose behind many modern ventures. He comes with a marked humility letting subordinates run the course and share credit after initial success is achieved. A founder of PayPal and SpaceX, a rocket-maker Mr. Musk’s long-term aim is to help colonise Mars and die peacefully there. In the meantime on earth, he is also the CEO of Tesla Motors a manufacturer of electric cars that has built up a reputation of doing things differently. Recently the Economist magazine noted: “It [Tesla Motors] produces many key parts in-house, from the battery packs to the slick touch-screen control panels. It is setting up a network of free fast-recharging points for its customers to top up their batteries on the road. It is battling America’s powerful car-dealership lobby so it can set up its own retail outlets. And it is aiming to get its products from the drawing-board to the assembly line at the speed of Silicon Valley tech firms rather than the statelier pace of Detroit’s car giants. Tesla’s manufacturing chief, Gilbert Passin, says the Model S moved from first design to production in just over two years, something he reckons would take a traditional car maker five or six years.” While Tesla Motors has made some early gains in a market where many have perished and growth is still slow, the article goes on to highlight that it is still early days. For instance: “Established carmakers could decide to fight Tesla head-on—indeed BMW’s new “i” range of electric and hybrid cars seems to be aimed at similar buyers. In the longer-term other technologies, such as biofuels, might develop faster than the electric battery.”
At the onset of 2019, Elon Musk, Tesla’s CEO, notified employees that the company needed to improve its profitability to become a “viable company.” This meant a 7% reduction in hourly and salaried staff, the elimination of its sales referral program, and an increase in its Supercharging pricing. But despite changes, Tesla has a record of costly and capital-intensive decisions, in part because the company prides itself on doing things differently. For example, Tesla opted to build commoditized components, such as seats, in-house, rather than relying on global seat suppliers that can produce more efficiently. Tesla also assumed that automation would reduce labour costs and speed up production, but as the legacy auto industry already knew, robots cannot yet replace human hands for every function.
1. Based on the limited case information, evaluate Elon Musk’s leadership style. You need to also draw a perspective using images of leadership (Senge) [25 marks].
2. Classify the nature /type of innovation the electric car industry is marked by in contemporary times (as in the case)? [5 marks] What is the type of innovation (Satell) or innovation mixes that may help Tesla propel the electric car industry and retain its strong position in the industry? [20 marks]
The post 1. Based on the limited case information, evaluate Elon Musk’s leadership style. You need to also draw a perspective using images of leadership (Senge) [25 marks]. 2. Classify the nature /type of innovation the electric car industry is marked by in contemporary times (as in the case)? [5 appeared first on My Academic Papers.
