MANAGING INNOVATION AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP (Take home exam) Essay

MANAGING INNOVATION AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP (Take home exam) - Essay Example If these are not that effective, then entrepreneurs must have stopped using them for years. According to Porter’s five forces model, there are potential entrants that are able to play as relevant industry competitors. These new entrants are also capable of forming innovation and even imitation. China for instance is known for its low-cost products that at some point similar to existing offerings, which makes imitation not that impossible to take place. Thus, it would make sense that in order to prevent others from imitating a product; barriers to potential entrants should be made. According to Porter, barriers to entry includes economies of scale, product differentiation, capital requirements, switching costs, access to distribution channels, cost disadvantages independent of scale and government policy. We have been immersed mostly in the concepts of economies of scale and product differentiation so I would like to focus on these two as important barriers to innovation, as based on Porter’s five forces model. The economies of scale would force the entrant to face two undesirable options: come in at large scale and risk strong reaction from existing firms; choose small scale and accept cost disadvantage. In either of these choices, a new entrant needs to take the risk of losing his chance to successfully penetrate into the market. The other potential barrier to new entrant is product differentiation. Firms that already have brand identification and customer loyalties are hard to beat. Therefore, firms should therefore increase advertising, customer service, product differences and be the first into the industry in order to prevent potential entrants. Product differentiation therefore could at some point be highly associated with economies of learning, production techniques, production design and more, just to be able to create one-of-a-kind product that could bring competitive advantage and

Germany and US Stakeholders Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Germany and US Stakeholders - Essay Example Through this collaboration, they would be able to achieve two-fold objectives. Firstly, the employees and board representatives would be able to safeguard own interests and pursue their objectives. Secondly, when their objectives are achieved, the larger organizational aims is fulfilled as well (Petrick, 2010). In the stakeholder capitalism model, an employee representative is given a seat on the board of directors. The major responsibility of the employee representative is to communicate to each and every stakeholder about concerns of the employees. The presence of employee representatives within the board also enables the top-level management to establish a robust corporate governance framework for facilitating smooth operation of the organization. By working in collaboration with each other, the employee representative and the management representative can make sure that workflow within the organization is smooth. In addition, they are able to secure achievement of operational efficiency (Fauver&Fuerst, 2006). Achieving operational excellence is one of the most important objectives that organizations aim to attain. Operational efficiency can be facilitated only if the top-level management possesses very good knowledge about the workforce available to the firm. Such knowledge would allow the managers to allocate resources effectively according to the skills and experience of the workforce as well as the operational objective. By allocating resources effectively, managers are able to achieve operational efficiency and therefore maximize value for the shareholders. However, only satisfying the needs of the shareholders do not guarantee a company’s success. The management also has to be concerned about employee needs. They need to identify and understand interests of the employees, as they are perhaps one of the most important stakeholders (Faccio, Lang,& Young, 2001). In order to meet the employee needs,