COMPREHENSIVE EXAM ANSWER STRUCTURE

Two companies in High tech industry to compare through the following axis

(1) CHALLENGES AND CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS

Criteria of high tech company’s success factor and challenges

1. Professional development and training 1. Training and education

2. Executive- and administrative-level support 2. Quality data and reporting
3. Skilled technical support 3. Management commitment, customer satisfaction
4. Stakeholder involvement
4. Staff Orientation
5. Skill level and commitment of faculty/students
6. Innovative culture/collaborative environment 5. Role of the quality department
7. Resources and financial support 6. Communication to improve quality, and
8. Incentives/rewards/time for innovation 7. Continuous improvement
9. Technology/infrastructure 1. People – availability, skills and attitude
10. Perceived value/addresses need 2. Resources – People, equipment, etc
11. Ease of use 3. Innovation – ideas and development
12. Quality, reliability, and flexibility of technology
4. Marketing – supplier relation, customer satisfaction, etc
13. Proven effectiveness
14. Strategic planning and governance 5. Operations – continuous improvement, quality,
15. Project management 6. Finance- cash flow, available investment etc
16. Enhances teaching and learning
17. Cost efficiency
 (2) BUSINESS MODEL AND COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE
Template for business model high tech companies and competitive advantage

Business models: a definition

At its most basic, a business model is the story of how a company operates. In slightly more detail, it describes how a company competes, uses
it resources, structures its relationships, interfaces with customers, and creates and captures value to sustain itself. The key elements in a
business model include the following:

 The customer value proposition – how will the company create value, and for whom?
 The profit model – how will the company make money?
 The key resources needed to deliver the customer value proposition.
 The company’s core competences – internal capabilities or skill sets that enable the company to manage the business in a way that
delivers value.

There are various generic forms of business model. But ultimately every company’s business model is unique because it is dependent on the
collection of resources it controls and the capabilities that is possesses. Copying another company’s business model is unlikely to be successful.
However, over time competitors will be able to emulate the distinctive features of an innovative business model. Changes in the external
environment may also reduce a business model’s effectiveness. Companies therefore need to continually review and refine their own business
model.
 (3) INNOVATION
Impact on management & HR and people & Portfolio \of products and service
Innovation criteria effect on high tech
Solutions to Help High-Tech Manufacturers meet Industry Challenges and Get the Right Products to Market with Speed
In an industry where product cycles are getting shorter and the pace of technology development is only getting faster, profitability is driven by the ability to continually
and quickly develop and market the right new products and processes. Organizations across the industry talk about a similar set of challenges that can impact their
innovation efforts:

 “We struggle to identify the right projects and allocate resources have the most potential as marketable products.”
 Adapt our innovation strategies and initiatives to the changing demand of consumers and a cyclical economic environment.”
 “Our products have increasingly shorter product lifecycles, and we need to produce a constant stream of practical, improved new products to stay competitive.”
 “We have continual and high R&D investment costs, and cost control is critical to our success and ability to keep up with competition globally.”
 “We struggle to have the visibility to effectively manage product obsolescence as technologies change.”
Sopheon’s Accolade solution helps high-tech and electronics manufacturers optimize their portfolio to ensure resources are allocated to the right mix of products, and
that those with the most profit potential are being brought to market – with speed. Accolade brings standardization and visibility to managing the innovation process,
including gated processes, even across cross-functional and global teams. In the face of changing consumer demand and cyclical technology improvements, Accolade
can help companies manage innovation planning and build alignment between changing strategic plans and innovation initiatives.
In a recent study, top innovation performers obtained an average of 13% more profit from new products and services than average performers, indicating the
important contribution of innovation performance to achieving profitability and success. 1
Leading High-Tech innovation companies like Honeywell, Nuvoton and Corning rely on Sopheon’s solutions for high-tech and electronics manufacturers to help them
to:
 Implement best practices that support the entire innovation and product development lifecycle aimed at speeding products to market.
 Determine the right mix of products in the portfolio to focus resources on investments with the highest differentiation and practical application to improve
profitability of initiatives.
 Standardize and automate product development processes to improve cross-functional collaboration and increase transparency into key information.
 Gain visibility across the innovation lifecycle to improve decision-making capabilities and reaction time to changing markets, consumer demand and emerging
technologies - and to reduce the impact of delays or changes.
 Effectively plan and manage the innovation process to meet the shrinking window of optimal product introduction.
 (4)TRENDS OF CUSTOMER EXPECTATIONS
AS TREND OF BIG DATA, ADVANCED ANALYTICS AND TREND OF INTERNET OF THINGS
New demand enhancers
1. Technology is becoming invisible 3. Technology democratizes markets
2. Technology makes the total experience better. 4. Technology makes just about everything transparent

High Tech & Electronics gives you the tools to meet customer expectations faster with a reduced cost of doing business. By being able to more efficiently manage your
product lifecycles and supply chain, better maintain your cost position, and provide valuable aftermarket services, you’ll be able to innovate more aggressively, ensure
on-time delivery, and place the focus on your customers. With the strains that the constant drive for innovation put on your organization, Infor High Tech & Electronics
can help you profitably satisfy customer demand and grow your business.

2016 has already been pinned as the year of virtual reality. With a new wave of predictions comes increasingly lofty expectations on marketers to leverage new
technologies and deliver flawless customer experiences.
In this post, I will look at some of the customer experience trends that I think will change the face of marketing this year, and where marketers should look to invest
their marketing dollars in 2016.

1. Personalization will get personal

Marketers have seen the writing on the wall regarding personalization for a while. Research performed by Monetate found that 94 percent of marketers agree that
‘personalization of the digital experience is critical to current and future success’.
In 2016, personalization will get increasingly personal. Personalization is set to move beyond basic recommendation engines to creating individually tailored
experiences. Marketers will increasingly tap into streams of first party data, from CRM data to Voice of the Customer (VoC) data, and leverage predictive modelling to
create contextualized experiences. This echoes what Bruce Temkin recently wrote in his article on the 11 trends for 2016,
“As companies connect rich customer feedback with reams of CRM and operational data, the value of predictive modeling will rise exponentially. In 2016, we expect to
see firms that have built data hubs over the last few years investing in predictive modeling and using the insights to develop a more personalized treatment of
customers.”
With the rise in importance of personalizing the customer experience, the differentiator will be how effective companies are at leveraging different data streams like
VoC data to recognize and respond to the needs of visitors. Victor Milligan, CMO at Forrester Research recently said that, “[Consumers] expect firms to contextually
understand who they are, to respond to their needs and in many cases to anticipate them.”

Therefore, with an increasingly demanding consumer who is more connected and informed than ever before, hyper-contextualized personalization focusing on the
needs and wants of the individual will be a game changer in 2016.
2. We will enter a mobile-mature world

After what seemed like endless predictions of this year being the 'year of the mobile', 2015 was in fact just that! Case in point, mobile searches surpass desktop searches for the first
time. Also in anticipation of this shift, Google announced in April 2015 that websites that are not ‘mobile friendly’ will be penalized in mobile search rankings. This meant that
everyone had to go mobile and start providing what customers want - relevant, high quality website experiences across devices.
This year, mobile will grow up. With eMarketer predicting that over two billion people worldwide will have a smart phone in 2016, brands will have to move beyond basic mobile-
friendly websites to creating mobile experiences.
This will also include the app experience with KissMetrics predicting that, "2016 will be the year of even greater innovation from apps we already know and recognize. More seamless
integration between those apps and their corresponding e-commerce and social outlets will become commonplace."
In a white paper by the Altimeter Group, they called on companies to go beyond just adding a mobile website to creating mobile-only experiences. One of the main reasons outlined
in the white paper is that to increase conversions, companies must design mobile-first and mobile-only experiences to prevent channel-hopping (switching between channels as
preferred channel doesn’t meet their needs) and multi-screening (switching between devices and screens to complete a task). In addition, companies need to realize that mobile is
capable of hosting a complete end-to-end journey.
Mobile is well and truly here to stay, and in 2016, it will be the companies that provide the mobile experiences that users demand and expect that will stand out from the crowd.

3. Year of the screens

Mobile might be growing up, but today’s consumers interact with brands through a lot more than just smartphones. According to Vice President and Gartner Fellow David Cearley, "In
the post-mobile world the focus shifts to the mobile user who is surrounded by a mesh of devices extending wellbeyond traditional mobile devices."
This is evident, with the Internet of Things starting to heat up and the emergence of wearable devices, the number of screens is skyrocketing. According to Accenture, by 2016
wearable technology is expected to reach a total of 28 percent adoption rate.
This means that marketers will face the hard task of creating and delivering consistent and continuous experiences across the customer lifecycle. In an article penned for
Entrepreneur, Jim Joseph, the CMO for Cohn & Wolfe said that, “If the experience isn’t complete and consistent, the totality won’t be effective in creating customer loyalty.” In order
to provide consistent and continuous experiences that drive loyalty, brands will need to understand their customers’ needs, wants and desires before they can deliver. Brands that
understand customer expectations and how they are interacting with different digital touch points will be the winners in 2016.

4. Intent data will drive intelligent retargeting

Today, retargeting is a marketing staple, playing a vital role in converting visitors into customers. But in recent times, the impact of retargeting on the customer experience has seen a
significant backlash. The internet was littered with articles in 2015 about getting retargeting wrong. According to Liraz Margalit, “The reason is simple: Today’s targeted advertising and
website personalization technology tracks and responds to your past actions.”
In order to successfully retarget consumers and provide a good experience, companies need to get smart with audience retargeting. In 2016, companies will start recognizing and
aligning campaigns to visitor intent to increase engagement with relevant messages and calls to action.
If you know why visitors come to your website (i.e. to browse, research or buy), you can guide them towards a purchase by offering them a relevant incentive, showing them
audience-appropriate content or advertising to them with the right frequency. For example, a new visitor that seems apprehensive to buy, because they have done a lot of research
but never made a purchase, may need retargeting that offers a discount such as free shipping. A returning buyer that makes multiple purchases a month, on the other hand, may
respond well to more aggressive retargeting.
The importance of intent is reiterated by AdRoll president and CMO Adam Berke, who said that, “When you combine this hyper-valuable data set [user intent] with advanced media
buying technology, algorithmic bidding, dynamic creative, and reach across publishers and channels, you end up with an extremely important marketing channel that is now viewed to
be as crucial as search engine marketing.”
5. Customer Experience Analytics will be king

Analytics is becoming the fuel that powers the next generation of customer experiences. Brands that successfully leverage their analytics in 2016 will
obtain a competitive advantage that separates the leaders from the laggards.
Victor Milligan, CMO at Forrester Research speaking about his predictions for 2016 said that, “Analytics is becoming a key competitive weapon. It’s not
about making big data bigger but making it more useful and able to anticipate and deliver superior experiences to customers.”
As the marketing technology landscape experiences exponential growth, digital marketers will continue to find themselves overwhelmed by the options
and data available to them.
What will be critical this year will be using the right type of analytics streams in the right way. For example, using customer experience analytics to
recognize and personalize the visitor experience in-real time.
The potential is huge, with research from McKinsey reporting that companies making extensive use of customer analytics show a 126 percent profit
improvement over their competitors that don’t. As companies become more data-driven, using customer experience analytics will be key to extending the
ROI of other marketing efforts and providing a seamless customer experience.

Overall, this will be the year where marketers:

 Create one-to-one experiences for customers

 Become more mobile-mature
 Deliver consistent and continuous experiences across the customer lifecycle
 Get retargeting right
 Become completely customer-centric using customer experience analytics

2016 is going to be an exciting year, as this will be the year when marketers put all the pieces together.
 (5- )Detailed financial comparison
Financial Analysis using Ratios:-

Scenario (1) Scenario (2)

Market Remarks
.Liquidity Ratios Formula 2008 2009 2010 2010
Index
Current Ratio Current Assets/Current Liabilities *Overall Decreased Trend (2010 < 2008):-
(Times) If the result is less than industry average or is decreased from
last year, So The comment will be:
The firm has a great risk in related to its ability to satisfy it's
short term obligations which is critical indication for both
creditors & shareholders.
* Overall Increased Trend (2010 > 2008):-
If the result is greater than industry average then:
From shareholder standpoint, a high current ratio could mean
that the firm has a lot of money tied up in non-productive
assets.
From creditors point of view, an encouraged indicator that the
claims of short term obligations are covered by assets that
expected to be converted to cash fairly quickly.

Note:-
Current ratio = 1 – 1.4 …… Bad
Current ratio = 1.5 – 2 …… Slightly bad to Good
Current ratio > 2 …….. ….. Strong situation

Scenario (1) Scenario (2)

Profitability Market Remarks
Formula 2008 2009 2010 2010
Ratios Index
Gross Profit Gross Profit /Total Sales (%) *Decreased Trend (2010 < 2008):-
Margin (%) Limited chain value and needs to minimize the cost of
Gross profit = Sales-COGS (cost suppliers of raw materials, production process and logistics.
of goods sold) (Cost Leadership Strategy is a must and optional integration
strategy).
Total sales= Net revenue
*Increased Trend (2010 > 2008):-
Efficient performance of production & logistics.
Operating EBIT / Total Sales (%) *Decreased Trend (2010 < 2008):-
Income Margin EBIT=Earnings before interest & High operational risk that indicates to poor operation
OR EBIT Margin tax =revenues-COGS-operating management and needs some advancement.(Retrenchment
(%) expenses strategy)

*Increased Trend (2010 > 2008):-

Efficient operation management performance.
Net Profit Net Income / Total Sales (%) *Decreased Trend (2010 < 2008):-
Margin NOI (%) The company is using more debt to finance operations which
leads to increased interest rates.
“Net Operating Income From Operations = Gross We recommend:-
Income “ profit or margin - Operating 1- The firm should change its financial strategy to
Expenses depend more on equity rather than debt.
2- Firm should change its marketing strategy to increase
Net Income = Income From sales in less operations cost to increase its net
Operations + Non Operating income.
Income - Taxes
*Increased Trend (2010 > 2008):-
High combined performance of liquidity, assets and debt
management on operating results.
Return on Net Profit (Income) After Taxes / *Decreased Trend (2010 < 2008):-
Assets(ROA) Total Assets (%) This means poor management performance due to utilizing its
(ROI) assets in inadequate way. also means that the firm is paying
more interest expenses which decrease the net income .We
recommend:-
1. Avoid inadequate inventory or insufficient
production capacity.
2. The firm should change its financial strategy to be
more effective in managing its assets

*Increased Trend (2010 < 2008):-

High performance in managing Assets that facilitates planning
for expansion.

Scenario (1) Scenario (2)

Leverage (Debt) Market Remarks
Formula 2008 2009 2010 2010
Ratios Index
Debt to Asset Total Liabilities (Debt) /Total *Overall Decreased Trend (2010 < 2008):-
Ratio (Total Debt assets (%) Creditors prefer low debt ratios because the lower the ratio,
Ratio) the greater the cushion against creditors' losses in the event of
Note : total debt = total assets – liquidity.
total equity Stockholders, on the other hand, may want more leverage
because it magnifies expected earnings.

* Overall Increased Trend (2010 > 2008):-

According to the ratio value > 30%, Financial department
needs to re-configure company "Finance Plan" depends more
on "Equity"
Note:-
If the ratio = 30% , it means that 30% of the company assets
are financed by "Debt" and the other 70% comes from
"Equity"
 (6) Growth Strategy of each organization
How each of organization reaches Sustainability of this growth in long term performance

Step 8, Strategy Implementation (Functional/Operational Mng. Level) as follows:

Functional / Operational Plans

Production/Operation Plan
Marketing Plan Finance Plan HR Plan R&D , MIS Plan
Executive EPS/EBIT Analysis
Summary
Situation Analysis Financial Budgets
Macro, Micro and
Financial analysis Sales Expenses Divisional
"Summary from Budget Budget Budget
strategy
formulation"

Marketing
Annual
Objectives

Marketing
Strategy
Competitive:- Cost leadership (High demand , Economy of scale) , need less skill in marketing
Differentiation (Using competitive advantage), seek quality leadership and effectively communicate their quality
Focus (Niche) (Localized Differentiation), business focuses on one or more narrow market segment
Growth (Ansoff) :- Market penetration (convert non user to user , Increase the consumption of actual users)
Partial or complete development of new product (Product development)
New Market Development (New Geographic coverage, Globalization)
Diversification (Related or Unrelated)

Segmentation: - Geographic, Demographic, Psychographic

Targeting
Marketing Mix: - 4 Ps (Product, Place, Price, Promotion)
Positioning
Long Term objectives:-
Notes:-
Financial Objectives Strategic Objectives There is a trade-off between financial
1. Growth in Revenue 1. Larger market share and strategic objectives
2. Growth in Earnings 2. Quicker on-time delivery than rivals Marketing Plan:-
3. Higher dividends 3. Shorter design-to-market times than rivals Financial objectives can best be met
Item
4. in Market Plan
Large profit margins 4. lower costs than rivals Market Penetration Strategy Market
by focusing firstdevelopment
and foremostStrategy
on
Executive Summary
5. Greater return on investment 5. Higher product quality than rivals achievement of strategic objectives
6.
Situational Higher Earning
& Financial per share
Analysis 6. Wider geographic coverage than rivals that improve a firm's competitiveness
7.
Annual Rising Stock
"SMART" price
objectives 7. Achieving ISO 14001 (Environment)
-Increase & ISO
our market share18001 (Occupational Safety) and market strength
by 10%
8. Improved cash flow 8. Achieving technological leadership
-Increase (4-6) new outlets "according to financial
situation" and re-arrange its distributed network to
widen brand coverage & customer accessibility
- Increase Revenue by 20%
According to financial analysis ,Cost leadership to
Competitive strategy achieve lowest production and distribution costs that
can under price competitors and win market share
Convert nonusers to users.
Growth strategy
Increase consumption of current users.
Segmentation (Market segments opportunities)
Marketing Geographic: - the new outlets will be in new regions
Not all segments are useful
Strategy and neighborhood (NOT countries) that not reached
An ideal Market segment must be:
before.
Measurable (purchasing power can be measured),
Demographic:- age , family size, family life cycle,
substantial (Large and profitable enough to serve),
income, occupation, education, social class
accessible( effectively reached) , differentiable
Psychographic:- benefits, user status , usage rate ,
(different respond to product), Actionable (easy
loyalty status and attitude toward product
attracted)
 Targeting (segmentation evaluation):- we look to
the segment's overall attractiveness aligned with
company's objectives & resources availability
Financial position:- Low
Targeting Five criteria :- business size, growth, Targeting approach :- undifferentiated (mass
profitability, scales economies and low risk marketing) , design marketing program for superior
image product
Targeting approaches:-
Mass market (Product oriented marketing program) Financial position:- High
Full market coverage (diff. products , diff. groups) Targeting approach:- Multiple segment specialization
Multiple segments specialization:" Product "product specialization" approach
Specialization) OR "Market specialization"
Single segment (customer oriented marketing prog.
Individuals as segments

Item in Market Plan Market Penetration Strategy Market development Strategy

Product :- description of product quality, design,
features , brand name, packaging , sales support,
warranties
Place :- new regions and neighborhoods that haven't
been reached before in same cities
Price:- unit price should be minimized
Promotion: good sales commission
Marketing Mix :- 4 Ps Advertising by Internet and social media
websites
some software programs with each sell
Marketing as a sell force
Strategy One hotline no (16006) for technical
Support
Direct marketing through SMS to cell
Phones and email massages
Brand/product Positioning:-
What exactly the customer gets? "Competitive
advantage".
Using points of parity POPs and Points of Differences
PODs to provide reasons to believe or proof points BY
Positioning maps (according to most product beneficial
features).
Brand Mantra

Final recommendation:
Recommendation for formulation
Recommendation for Implementation
Recommendation for evaluation