Consulting Project: Final Submission

TOPIC:

How will an organization respond to a competitor (or multiple competitors) who offers innovative products or services that disrupts its financial success 

Overview

Each member of the class will fulfill the role of a consultation, who is hired to solve a critical problem for a particular organization. The consultant will utilize the business periodical databases to conduct research on the problem and to offer a solution. Students will research the problem and respond with a solution in a consulting report of a minimum of 3000 words with a minimum of 6 academic sources from research and following APA guidelines for format, style, and citation.

Schedule

• In Module 2, students will select their topic from the critical organizational problems options in the provided forum. This is a graded assessment.


• In Module 4, students will provide a status update on the project communicating the following:  a) reference list, b) major observations, and c) anticipated timeline for completion. This is a graded assessment.


• In Module 7, students will submit their final consulting project. This is a graded assessment.

Sections

The consulting report will include the following sections: (1) a description and diagnosis of the critical problem with supporting evidence from the business periodical databases and (2) recommendations for the following managerial functions:

• a) the planning functions to guiding the solution, including mission and vision, strategic planning, and goal/objective development;


• b) the organizing functions to manage the solution, including organizational design and culture;


• c) the leading functions to execute the solution, including leadership, decision-making, communication, groups/team, and employee motivation;


• d) the controlling function to ensure the success of the solution, including systems/processes and strategic human resource management.

Research

This project requires a thorough analysis of the organizational problem through the collection of research from at least 6 scholarly resources, including scholarly journal articles, periodicals, videos, and appropriate websites. In addition, each of the managerial recommendations must reflect the research in the field.

Sources

Reference List

Cusumano, M. A., Gawer, A., & Yoffie, D. B. (2019). The business of platforms: Strategy in the age of digital competition, innovation, and power. New York: Harper Business.

The authors give ways and strategies of organizations to beat competition. They focus on international competition, technology, and competitive strategy.

Kuncoro, W., & Suriani, W. O. (2018). Achieving sustainable competitive advantage through product innovation and market driving. Asia Pacific Management Review, 23(3), 186-192.

This article analyzes and gives empirical evidence that product innovation and market driving greatly affect sustainable competitive advantage.

Levine, S. S., Bernard, M., & Nagel, R. (2017). Strategic intelligence: The cognitive capability to anticipate competitor behavior. Strategic Management Journal, 38(12), 2390-2423.

This article gives insight into how organizations can use their cognitive capacities such as value creation, planning, and pricing to achieve a competitive advantage in the market.

Liu, W., & Atuahene-Gima, K. (2018). Enhancing product innovation performance in a dysfunctional competitive environment: The roles of competitive strategies and market-based assets. Industrial Marketing Management, 73, 7-20.

This article talks about how dysfunctional competition from developing economies makes it hard for innovators to make profits from their innovative activities. It gives some appropriate strategies that organizations can use to gain competitive advantage and inhibit competition.

McCann, B. T., & Bahl, M. (2017). The influence of competition from informal firms on new product development. Strategic Management Journal, 38(7), 1518-1535.

This article talks about how competition from informal companies affect the formal companies and what the formal companies can do to face the threat while at the same time maximizing their profits. 

Teece, D. J., & Linden, G. (2017). Business models, value capture, and the digital enterprise. Journal of organization design, 6(1), 1-14.