Scenario
You work as a middle manager for one of the top U.S. producers of luxury and mass-market automobiles and trucks.
The chief technology officer (CTO) of the company from the course scenario has been watching new technology developments that the company could integrate into its vehicles to enhance the usefulness of and access to the data acquired by the many digital sensors that have been integrated into vehicle subsystems over the past 20–30 years. The technology trend of particular interest is the internet of things (IoT)—the interconnection of embedded devices, such as sensors and computers, over the internet. By taking advantage of this trend, the CTO believes the company can seize an opportunity to provide better service and predictive maintenance to its customers, improving customer satisfaction and adding additional revenue streams.
Based on briefings by the CTO, senior management has decided to implement IoT in its product line. Your CTO has asked you to lead a cross-functional team to take this initiative forward. Your first task is to make a recommendation for how the company should approach this business problem. Do you recommend using incremental or discontinuous (that is, slow or fast) innovation? Specifically:
Should the company…
Design a completely new product line, based on the new technology (discontinuous innovation)
or
Add new technology features into one model and then incrementally into the broader product line (incremental innovation)
The recommendation you and your team make is an important first step in pursuing this new technology.
In Milestone One, you and your team defined what that innovation looked like: would it be disruptive (new product line) or incremental (new features in one existing product)?
In Milestone Two, you developed a strategy plan and a high-level business model. You’ve shared these with various stakeholders, and they are in agreement with your assessment of how best to get to market with this IoT innovation, which will allow the company to be competitive.
Now, the CTO has asked you to come up with a proposed organizational structure that will support the innovation implementation. In this way, you will be assisting in making the innovation sustainable for the company from the course scenario. Companies that are innovative must make sure they have structured the organization in a way that supports innovation, and a key component of innovation is keeping track of what their customers want in terms of products and services.
Directions
Complete each of the three parts of this project. Use your slides from Milestone One, your document from Milestone Two, and feedback on Milestone One and Milestone Two to complete the first two parts of your presentation. You can use the resources in the Supporting Materials section (below) for any other information you will need to complete your project.
Part One: Innovation Approach
In this section, share your revised slides from Milestone One and make your recommendation for the innovation approach you think the company should pursue. Ensure this section includes the following information:
Explain potential risks and benefits for options A and B.
Overview (1 slide): Present the business problem and options A and B.
Option A (1–2 slides): Explain at least two potential risks and benefits for option A.
Option B (1–2 slides): Explain at least two potential risks and benefits for option B.
Compare your competition’s products and services.
Competitors: (3–4 slides): Evaluate the competitors’ current products and services.
What are your competitors’ current products and services?
Are your competitors expanding in the current market? Explain how this impacts their market strength.
Analyze your company’s capability to pursue the innovation.
Complete a partial gap analysis (2 slides):
Does the company own the technology, or does it need to be purchased?
How is the technology currently being used in today’s products and services?
What type of technology is available to purchase?
Recommend the innovation approach your company should pursue.
Innovation Approach (2 slides): Explain which innovation approach you are recommending and why.
Consider the different stakeholders (research and development [R&D], marketing, finance) while communicating your recommendations.
Include a description of the incremental or discontinuous product that you are recommending for R&D.
Include the sales forecasts for marketing.
Include a financial snapshot for finance.
Part Two: Strategic Plan
In this section, share your revised paper from Milestone Two, which provides an overview of your competitors’ position in the marketplace, the available and future marketplace, and a plan for how to address a change in business conditions. Ensure this section includes the following information.
Analyze the competitors’ relative strengths in the marketplace. Use Power BI to create charts on the growth rates.
What is the growth rate of each competitor?
How much of the market does each competitor now own? Do you see a trend of gaining or losing market share?
Determine each competitor’s market strength by looking at the financials for each competitor.
Explain how your company’s market share compares to your competitors’. Use Power BI to create charts on your and your competitors’ market share.
Is your company gaining or losing market share?
What is your company’s growth potential in the industry?
How do your company’s financials look compared to your competitors’?
Identify future potential total available market (TAM) and growth for chosen product/service and technology.
What is the TAM for cars and light trucks?
What is the TAM for IoT-connected cars and light trucks?
What is the projected compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for cars and light trucks?
What is the CAGR for IoT-connected cars and light trucks?
Identify ways to adjust if business conditions change.
What can you do if your customers are slow to respond (buy) the innovation?
What can you do if one competitor is overtaking all the others, including you?
Describe the steps your company needs to take from concept outline to launch.
What is the size of development that will be required?
Will you require additional capital and personnel?
How would you approach determining the timeline from the beginning of development until initial product launch?
Dante Alighieri played a critical role in the literature world through his poem Divine Comedy that was written in the 14th century. The poem contains Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. The Inferno is a description of the nine circles of torment that are found on the earth. It depicts the realms of the people that have gone against the spiritual values and who, instead, have chosen bestial appetite, violence, or fraud and malice. The nine circles of hell are limbo, lust, gluttony, greed and wrath. Others are heresy, violence, fraud, and treachery. The purpose of this paper is to examine the Dante’s Inferno in the perspective of its portrayal of God’s image and the justification of hell.
In this epic poem, God is portrayed as a super being guilty of multiple weaknesses including being egotistic, unjust, and hypocritical. Dante, in this poem, depicts God as being more human than divine by challenging God’s omnipotence. Additionally, the manner in which Dante describes Hell is in full contradiction to the morals of God as written in the Bible. When god arranges Hell to flatter Himself, He commits egotism, a sin that is common among human beings (Cheney, 2016). The weakness is depicted in Limbo and on the Gate of Hell where, for instance, God sends those who do not worship Him to Hell. This implies that failure to worship Him is a sin.
God is also depicted as lacking justice in His actions thus removing the godly image. The injustice is portrayed by the manner in which the sodomites and opportunists are treated. The opportunists are subjected to banner chasing in their lives after death followed by being stung by insects and maggots. They are known to having done neither good nor bad during their lifetimes and, therefore, justice could have demanded that they be granted a neutral punishment having lived a neutral life. The sodomites are also punished unfairly by God when Brunetto Lattini is condemned to hell despite being a good leader (Babor, T. F., McGovern, T., & Robaina, K. (2017). While he commited sodomy, God chooses to ignore all the other good deeds that Brunetto did.
Finally, God is also portrayed as being hypocritical in His actions, a sin that further diminishes His godliness and makes Him more human. A case in point is when God condemns the sin of egotism and goes ahead to commit it repeatedly. Proverbs 29:23 states that “arrogance will bring your downfall, but if you are humble, you will be respected.” When Slattery condemns Dante’s human state as being weak, doubtful, and limited, he is proving God’s hypocrisy because He is also human (Verdicchio, 2015). The actions of God in Hell as portrayed by Dante are inconsistent with the Biblical literature. Both Dante and God are prone to making mistakes, something common among human beings thus making God more human.
To wrap it up, Dante portrays God is more human since He commits the same sins that humans commit: egotism, hypocrisy, and injustice. Hell is justified as being a destination for victims of the mistakes committed by God. The Hell is presented as being a totally different place as compared to what is written about it in the Bible. As a result, reading through the text gives an image of God who is prone to the very mistakes common to humans thus ripping Him off His lofty status of divine and, instead, making Him a mere human. Whether or not Dante did it intentionally is subject to debate but one thing is clear in the poem: the misconstrued notion of God is revealed to future generations.
References
Babor, T. F., McGovern, T., & Robaina, K. (2017). Dante’s inferno: Seven deadly sins in scientific publishing and how to avoid them. Addiction Science: A Guide for the Perplexed, 267.
Cheney, L. D. G. (2016). Illustrations for Dante’s Inferno: A Comparative Study of Sandro Botticelli, Giovanni Stradano, and Federico Zuccaro. Cultural and Religious Studies, 4(8), 487.
Verdicchio, M. (2015). Irony and Desire in Dante’s” Inferno” 27. Italica, 285-297.
Part One: Innovation Approach
1. Overview (1 Slide):
- Title: IoT Integration: Driving Future Automotive Excellence
- Content:
- Briefly state the business problem: Leveraging IoT to enhance vehicle data utilization for improved customer service and predictive maintenance.
- Present the two innovation options:
- Option A: Discontinuous Innovation – Develop a completely new IoT-based product line.
- Option B: Incremental Innovation – Integrate IoT features into an existing model, then expand.
2. Option A: Discontinuous Innovation (1-2 Slides):
- Title: Option A: Discontinuous Innovation – New IoT Product Line
- Content:
- Benefits:
- Complete control over design and integration, allowing for optimal IoT functionality.
Part One: Innovation Approach
1. Overview (1 Slide):
- Title: IoT Integration: Driving Future Automotive Excellence
- Content:
- Briefly state the business problem: Leveraging IoT to enhance vehicle data utilization for improved customer service and predictive maintenance.
- Present the two innovation options:
- Option A: Discontinuous Innovation – Develop a completely new IoT-based product line.
- Option B: Incremental Innovation – Integrate IoT features into an existing model, then expand.
2. Option A: Discontinuous Innovation (1-2 Slides):
- Title: Option A: Discontinuous Innovation – New IoT Product Line
- Content:
- Benefits:
- Complete control over design and integration, allowing for optimal IoT functionality.
-
-
- Opportunity to create a premium, technologically advanced brand image.
- Potential to capture a new market segment of tech-savvy consumers.
- Risks:
- High initial investment in R&D, manufacturing, and marketing.
- Significant market risk, as consumers may be hesitant to adopt a completely new product line.
- Potential for cannibalization of existing product lines.
- Longer time to market.
3. Option B: Incremental Innovation (1-2 Slides):
- Title: Option B: Incremental Innovation – IoT Feature Integration
- Content:
- Benefits:
- Lower initial investment and reduced market risk.
- Leverages existing brand recognition and customer base.
- Allows for phased implementation and continuous improvement.
- Quicker time to market.
- Risks:
- Potential for limited IoT functionality compared to a dedicated product line.
- Risk of competitors launching a fully IoT-integrated product line, gaining a competitive advantage.
- Potential for inconsistent customer experience during phased rollout.
4. Competitors (3-4 Slides):
- Title: Competitive Landscape Analysis
- Content:
- Slide 1: Competitor Overview:
- List key competitors and their current IoT-related features (if any).
- Examples: Tesla (fully integrated), Mercedes-Benz (connected services), Ford (telematics).
- Slide 2-3: Competitor Deep Dive:
- Analyze each competitor’s strengths and weaknesses in IoT integration.
- Evaluate their market positioning and customer perception.
- Are they expanding in the current market?
- How does this impact their market strength?
- Slide 4: Competitive Comparison:
- Present a comparative chart of competitor IoT features and market share.
5. Partial Gap Analysis (2 Slides):
- Title: Gap Analysis: Technology and Capabilities
- Content:
- Slide 1: Technology Assessment:
- Does the company own the necessary IoT technology? If not, what acquisition or partnership options exist?
- How is sensor data currently used in existing products?
- What are the available IoT platforms and technologies on the market?
- Slide 2: Capability Assessment:
- Evaluate the company’s R&D, manufacturing, and data analytics capabilities.
- Identify any skill gaps or resource constraints.
6. Innovation Approach Recommendation (2 Slides):
- Title: Recommended Innovation Approach: Incremental Integration
- Content:
- Slide 1: Recommendation:
- Recommend Option B (incremental integration) due to its lower risk, faster time to market, and ability to leverage existing resources.
- Justify the recommendation by addressing stakeholder concerns (R&D, marketing, finance).
- Slide 2: Implementation Plan:
- R&D: Focus on integrating core IoT features into a flagship model.
- Marketing: Develop a phased rollout strategy, highlighting the benefits of IoT features.
- Finance: Present a financial snapshot, including projected development costs, sales forecasts, and ROI.
- Sales forecast information.
- A description of the incremental product.
- A financial snapshot.
Part Two: Strategic Plan
1. Competitor Analysis (Power BI Charts):
- Title: Competitive Market Analysis
- Content:
- Power BI charts displaying:
- Competitor growth rates over the past 3-5 years.
- Competitor market share and trends (gaining or losing).
- Financials of each competitor.
- Analysis of competitor strengths and weaknesses.
- Analysis of how your companies market share compares to competitors.
- Analysis of your companies growth potential in the industry.
- Analysis of how your companies financials compare to competitors.
2. Total Available Market (TAM) and Growth:
- Title: Market Potential and Growth
- Content:
- TAM for cars and light trucks.
- TAM for IoT-connected cars and light trucks.
- Projected CAGR for both segments.
- Analysis of market trends and growth drivers.
3. Adjustments for Changing Business Conditions:
- Title: Contingency Planning
- Content:
- Strategies for addressing slow customer adoption:
- Enhanced marketing campaigns.
- Incentive programs.
- Educational initiatives.
- Strategies for addressing competitor dominance:
- Accelerated innovation and product development.
- Strategic partnerships.
- Aggressive marketing and pricing strategies.
4. Steps from Concept to Launch:
- Title: Implementation Roadmap
- Content:
- Detailed development plan, including:
- Concept design and prototyping.
- Software and hardware development.
- Testing and validation.
- Manufacturing and supply chain setup.
- Assessment of capital and personnel requirements.
- Timeline development approach:
- Phased milestones with clear deadlines.
- Regular progress reviews and adjustments.
- Size of development required.
- Capital and personnel requirements.
- Approach to determining timeline.
