MGT4070 3

MGT4070

Week 3 Discussion $10.00

Discussion Topic

Overdue - Last Fri at 12:59 AM

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For this assignment, make sure you post your initial response to the Discussion Area by the due date assigned.

To support your work, use your course and text readings and also use outside sources. As in all assignments, cite your sources in your work and provide references for the citations in APA format

Business-level, Corporate-level, and International Strategies

Using the South University Online Library or the Internet, research about the following:

· Globalization

· International strategic alliances

· Cooperative strategies

Select one of the main questions and address all of its bullet points:

Question 1

Based on your research and reading, complete the following tasks:

· Define liability of foreignness and regionalism. Discuss how it relates to and how it impacts international strategies.

· Describe corporate strategic alliance and discuss why a company would want to develop one. Are strategic alliances necessary for a company to expand internationally?

· Describe the primary reasons for failure of an international strategic alliance. Identify at least four fundamental issues that affect trust between partners, and explain when an acquisition is more favorable than a strategic alliance.

Question 2

Cooperative strategies seem to be a good idea. Using what you have learned about strategic management and in relation to cooperative strategies, respond to the following questions:

· Discuss the difference between a business-level cooperative strategy and a corporate-level cooperative strategy. Under what circumstances would you choose to develop a cooperative strategy? When is it not a good idea?

· Explain the approach you would adopt to manage a cooperative strategy between two companies.

· Describe the three types of strategic alliances and the reasons why companies develop them.

· Describe situations when each is most appropriate to adopt.

Start reviewing and responding to the postings of your classmates as early in the week as possible. Respond to at least two of your classmates. Participate in the discussion by asking a question, providing a statement of clarification, providing a point of view with a rationale, challenging an aspect of the discussion, or indicating a relationship between two or more lines of reasoning in the discussion. Complete your participation for this assignment by the end of the week.

Week 3 Project $20.00

Assignment

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Due May 17 at 12:59 AM

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Case Study #2—Baidu’s Business Model and Its Evolution

Read the Baidu case study located in the section titled Case Studies in your textbook concerning the following situation:

Co-founded by Li and his friend Eric Xu in 2000, Baidu was China’s first home-grown search engine and was created with the mission of providing the best way for people to find information. The company offered a broad range of products and services including search services, Online-to-Offline (O2O) services, and an online video platform. Baidu’s investments in technology along with its focus on local content helped it maintain a dominant position in the rapidly growing search engine market in China. In order to establish a global footprint, Baidu forayed into emerging markets such as Brazil, Indonesia, Japan, Egypt, India, and Thailand where Internet usage continued to climb. As of July 2016, Baidu commanded over 80% of the Chinese search market, and was among the world’s top five search engines in terms of market share.

In May 2016, Baidu planned to overhaul its business model from a search-oriented model to one based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) due to a slowing revenue growth in its core search business. The company planned to focus on developing products in areas such as automatic translation, voice search, and driverless vehicles. Li also planned to emphasize user experience over income and set up a department to root out any behavior that might hurt user experience. 

Li had a tough task on his hands and analysts were waiting to see how he would navigate the challenges faced by Baidu.

The following points are to guide a review and discussion of some important concepts.         •    Review Baidu’s general environment segments and elements and describe in detail all the elements associated with this segment.  Include three to four perspectives of the general environment. •    What are the segments in the general environment that relate to Baidu’s situation?  Be specific.  Provide examples and details. •    Analyze Baidu’s intended international corporate-level strategy.  How was it strategized and what led to these countries of interest? •    Identify Baidu’s current challenges. Based on your analysis, what additional recommendations would you make to help Baidu achieve its goals? •    Discuss the uncertainties and risks of doing business in different regions throughout the world.

Submission Details: •    Present your analysis as a 4–5-page report in a Microsoft Word document formatted in APA style. •    Support your responses with examples.  Cite any sources in APA format.

Week 4 Discussion $15.00

Discussion Topic

Due May 20 at 12:59 AM

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For this assignment, make sure you post your initial response to the Discussion Area by the due date assigned.

To support your work, use your course and text readings and also use outside sources. As in all assignments, cite your sources in your work and provide references for the citations in APA format.

Corporate Governance

Governance mechanisms are considered to be effective if they meet the needs of all stakeholders, including shareholders. Governance mechanisms are also an important way to ensure that strategic decisions are made effectively. As a potential employee, how would you go about investigating a firm's governance structure? Would that investigation weigh in your decision to become an employee?

First, address the following item:

Identify a firm that you would like to join or one that you just find interesting. Complete the following research on your target firm:

· Find a copy of the company's most recent proxy statement and 10-K. Proxy statements are mailed to shareholders prior to each year's annual meeting and contain detailed information about the company's governance and present issues on which a shareholder vote might be held. Proxy statements are typically available from a firm's website (look for an "Investors" submenu). You can also access proxy statements and other government filings such as the 10-K from the SEC's EDGAR database.

Click on the weblink  U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission  to access SEC's EDGAR database.

Alongside the proxy, you should also be able to access the firm's annual 10-K. Here you will find information on performance, governance, and the firm's outlook, among other things.

· Identify one of the company's main competitors for comparison purposes. You can find this information using company analysis tools such as Data monitor.

Second, address any five of the following topics:

· Compensation plans (for both the CEO and board members; be sure to look for any difference between fixed and incentive compensation)

· Board composition (for example, board size, insiders and outsiders, interlocking directorates, functional experience, how many active CEOs, how many retired CEOs, what is the demographic makeup, age diversity, and so on)

· Committees (how many, composition, compensation)

· Stock ownership by officers and directors—identify beneficial ownership from stock owned (you will need to look through the notes sections of the ownership tables to comprehend this)

· Ownership concentration—evaluate the firm's outstanding stock owned by institutions, individuals, and insiders and identify the no. of large-block shareholders (owners of five percent or more of stock)

· Does the firm utilize a duality structure for the CEO?

· Is there a lead director who is not an officer of the company?

· What are the activities by activist shareholders regarding corporate governance issues of concern?

· Are there any managerial defense tactics employed by the firm? For example, what does it take for a shareholder proposal to come to a vote and be adopted?

· What is the firm's code of conduct? List them.

· Summarize what you consider to be the key aspects of the firm's governance mechanisms.

· Highlight key differences between your target firm and its competitor.

· Attach a graph to your post that covers the last 10-year historical stock performance for both companies. If applicable, compare both using a representative index such as the Standard & Poor's (S&P), National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotation (NASDAQ), or other applicable industry index.

Finally, based on your review of the firm's governance, discuss any change in your opinion of the firm's desirability as an employer.

Start reviewing and responding to the postings of your classmates as early in the week as possible. Respond to at least two of your classmates. Participate in the discussion by asking a question, providing a statement of clarification, providing a point of view with a rationale, challenging an aspect of the discussion, or indicating a relationship between two or more lines of reasoning in the discussion. Complete your participation for this assignment by the end of the week.

Week 4 Project $20.00

Assignment

Due May 24 at 12:59 AM

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Case Study #1—Alphabet Inc.: Reorganizing Google 

Read the Alphabet case study located in the section titled Case Studies in your textbook concerning the following situation:

In October 2015, in an unexpected move, global technology giant Google Inc (Google) restructured itself as Alphabet Inc (Alphabet), a new holding company under which Google’s non-core businesses, including self-driving cars, life sciences research, high-speed Internet access, and investment divisions, were spun off as distinct entities and separated from the company’s Internet operations such as Android, YouTube, and the Google search engine. The businesses were reorganized into two reporting segments: ‘Google’ and ‘Other Bets’. This marked a massive shift from the earlier setup in which Google was in charge of a number of diverse companies, some of which carried it far afield from its core search business. Under the new structure, a number of businesses including Google operated as subsidiaries of Alphabet and were run independently, each with its own CEO. According to a statement posted by Larry Page co-founder of Google, on the company’s official blog, “Fundamentally, we believe this allows us more management scale, as we can run things independently that aren’t very related. Alphabet is about businesses prospering through strong leaders and independence […]. This new structure will allow us to keep tremendous focus on the extraordinary opportunities we have inside of Google.”

The following points are to guide a review and discussion of some important concepts.

•    Discuss Alphabet’s corporate governance and evaluate the effectiveness of Alphabet’s board of directors.  •    Describe Alphabet’s corporate-level strategy and characterize its level of diversification. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the company’s organizational structure. Does the organizational design effectively support the needs of Alphabet’s corporate-level strategy?  •    Identify Alphabet’s current challenges and describe Alphabet’s next move in terms of growth and expansion. Provide an analysis of what additional recommendations would be required to be done to help Alphabet achieve its goals.

Submission Details:

· Present your analysis as a 3–4-page report in a Microsoft Word document formatted in APA style.

· Support your responses with examples.  Cite any sources in APA format.

· Week 5 Discussion $10.00

Discussion Topic

Due May 27 at 12:59 AM

Bottom of Form

For this assignment, make sure you post your initial response to the Discussion Area by the due date assigned.

To support your work, use your course and text readings and also use outside sources. As in all assignments, cite your sources in your work and provide references for the citations in APA format.

Organizational Structure and Strategic Leadership

The business firm is no longer just a place where people come to work. For most of the employees, the firm confers on them that sense of belonging and identity—the firm has become their "village", their community. The business firm of the twenty-first century is not just a hierarchy, which ensures maximum efficiency and profit; it is also the community where people belong to and grow together—where their affective and innovative needs are met (Lim, Griffiths, & Sambrook, 2010).

Reference:

Lim, M., Griffiths G., & Sambrook, S. (2010). Organizational structure. Mind Map Route. Retrieved from http://www.mindmap.0rg.pl/?mindmap= Organizational_structure

Select any two of the bullet points for your response.

· How important it is to be able to identify and distinguish between the organizational structures used to implement business-level, corporate-level, and international strategies? Give examples of various organizational structures and how they are used to develop strategies.

· What is the relationship between organizational structure and organizational controls? Are they always interrelated? What will happen to a company's competitive advantage if one or the other isn't in place?

· What are the attributes of an effective strategic leader? Discuss the value that an effective leader brings to the strategic management process.

· What is the relationship between organizational culture, leadership, strategy, and structure?

Start reviewing and responding to the postings of your classmates as early in the week as possible. Respond to at least two of your classmates. Participate in the discussion by asking a question, providing a statement of clarification, providing a point of view with a rationale, challenging an aspect of the discussion, or indicating a relationship between two or more lines of reasoning in the discussion. Complete your participation for this assignment by the end of the week.

· Week 5 CEA Project $45.00

Assignment

Due May 31 at 12:59 AM

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Case Stud#16—The trivago Way—Growing Without Growing Up? 

Read the trivago case study located in the section titled Case Studies in your textbook concerning the following situation:

In 2016, trivago’s field of business could be described as hotel-related online marketing and distribution. The firm provided a two-sided, online meta-search platform that connected travelers seeking hotel accommodations with more than 200 booking sites and 1.3 million hotels. With 1.4 billion visits and 487 million qualified referrals1 in 2016, trivago was the largest hotel meta-search platform in the world. What differentiated trivago’s business model from that of online travel agents (OTAs) was its value proposition as an independent information provider. trivago did not sell hotel rooms. Instead, it organized large amounts of hotel-related information from multiple sources to offer the optimal basis for making a booking decision. Thus, trivago helped users convert their initial interest into a clear, specific booking intention, thereby fulfilling their personal needs.

The following points are to guide a review and discussion of some important concepts.

•    Describe trivago’s corporate-level strategy and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the company’s matrix organizational structure. Does the organizational design effectively support the needs of trivago’s corporate-level strategy?  •    How does the management innovation activity at trivago facilitate achievement of the company’s corporate objectives? What recommendations would you make to improve either the design or implementation of the company’s management innovation efforts? •    Using a balanced scorecard framework, outline the financial and strategic organizational controls used by trivago to drive management behavior and firm performance. Are the corporate criteria balanced? Are they yielding desired outcomes for the company? 

Submission Details:

· Present your report as an 8–12-page Microsoft Word document formatted in APA style.

· Support your responses with examples.  Cite any sources in APA format.