Easy solution is a machine by listening to commands delivered via Internet, intranet or touch screen, it can produce exact mixes of solutions with the precise pH values in a particular temperature in a minute time. Questions raised by the investors will be taken from SAFe framework which is suitability, acceptability and feasibility.SuitabilityCamillia Oxley and three of her friends have founded Easy Solution and later form Labs Minds Ltd to market Easy Solution. The hierarchy is shown in Figure 1. To solve the bottle-neck problem of time consuming and getting the right pH, Easy Solution is a necessary.
Competitive resources should follow the VRIN criteria which defines a firm is deemed to have competitive advantage when it creates more economic value than its competitor (Peteraf and Barney, 2003). Suitability is where in the external environment, candidates must first determine whether strategic choices are suitable ad compatible (Wu, 2010).Figure 1Valuable There are three reasons which makes this machine a competitive advantage which is it is able to save time, save resources and save money. It can save up to 500 hours across the whole time as a doctoral student and also create varying mixes of liquid chemicals which have an exact pH at a particular temperature. It also has better function than its rival brand Miillipore such as an alternative uses as a coffee machine.RarityThe Easy Solution is the pioneer product which is able to perform mixes accurately.
Alternatively, it can also be used as a coffee machine where rival brand Millipore, failed to do so.InimitableThe Easy Solution machine cannot be easily imitated by other company especially for its extra function as a coffee machine. Non-substitutable The Easy Solution cannot be easily substituted by other machines or by doing it manually in order to save time and to get the exact pH at a particular temperature. Also, by the function of its ability to treat it as a coffee machine which can save money and space.
VRIN FrameworkAs mentioned above are the opportunities, however there are still criticism for Easy Solution. The critics are the alternative uses of the machine as coffee maker seems irrelevant as one is used in the lab and the other is for home/pantry use. Another point is even 200 surveys are conducted; there will still be a difference between expressing interest of buying it. Lastly, the cost of the machine is quite high.Acceptability Acceptability focuses on risk, financial and stakeholder aspect (Wu, 2010).
Risk can be measured by using the sensitivity analysis. Sensitivity Analysis shows the effects of uncertainty by varying the values of the key factors and showing the resulting effect (Khomenko and Poddubnaya, 2011). What if the four partners separate and go their ways? Who is there to sustain LabMind Ltd? Will LabMind have sufficient capital and funds after the separation? What if there is a better machine in the market?What if the sales of the Easy Solution failed? What if something went wrong with the machine? What if some other companies imitate and come up with a better machine than Easy Solution with better functions? Sensitivity analysis Return on Capital Employed (ROCE) is the profit before taxation and interest and it is a measure of the profit earned by the business irrespective of how the business is financed (Shoesmith, 2004) the Calculation for LabMinds Ltd’s ROCE is shown below.LabMinds Ltd’s ROCE Year 1 shows losses because the product is still new in the market and need time to market it. In year 2, the company is estimated to gain profit and believe to maintain or increase profit in year 3.FeasibilityFeasibility focuses whether the organization has resources to pursue strategic choice (Wu,2010).
For financial feasibility, capital and loans will be from the four founder of LabMinds Ltd, the four founders must make sure that they have sufficient funds to pay back their loans in order to sustain EasySolution. Whereas for technical feasibility, DC Allen and Design Technology International Ltd will help Easy Solution to advice on the product development. For staffing feasibility, there is no need for LabMinds Ltd to hire a finance director and sales team because of their tight of capital. As a new product in UK, they have not reached the full exposure in the UK yet so there is no need to go to the U.S. market.
(468 words)Patch 2Strengths As leaders in Google, Page and Brin practice of transformational leadership is one of Google’s key to success. They allow their employees to control the workflow quality and the nature of projects and also allocated 20% of their work time to personal projects that interest them to stimulate innovation. According to Lievens and Coetsier (1997), transformational leader can assist changeover process by placing value on development of a vision and inspired followers to pursue that vision. While Page and Brin practices transformational leadership, CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt is a transactional leader because he deals with administration.Epitropaki and Martin (2005) have argued that transactional leadership style gives organizational identification and a higher satisfaction as compared to transformational leadership style. Besides that, Google is different with others with their IPO, they use open IPO where buyers decides on the fair price for a share and not the investment banks.
To stay away from office politics, Google practices laissez faire leadership where the company employees are given the minimum interference in work. Bass (1985) have argued that this style of leadership is inactive and lack of leadership. However, not all decisions are made by engineers. However, the top management (Brin) makes decisions too such as pulling out China.
The advantage and disadvantages of Laissez faire is shown in Table 1.Advantages Disadvantages Employees can be read as control as well as freedom. Eg: Engineers are given 20% of their work time to do what they are interested of to stimulate innovation and create new knowledge as well as potential products Not a lot of opportunities for new ideas as engineers spent more like 30% of their time on labour of their own choice. Office politics can be avoided.Work teams are limited to six and projects worked on must be limited. Deadlines are short which is no longer than six weeks.
Organic organization. Employees have the freedom to do whatever they want every day. Employees might be doing their personal stuff which is not work related.The governance structure with two-tier boards of director set up by Google have allowed Google to increase its managerial freedom and have an additional distance between them and their shareholders. This two-tier model plays an important role for the supervisory board, with new controlling functions and power to perform duties entrusted to the board of directors of shareholders (Jensen and Meckling, 1976).
WeaknessesOne of the weaknesses of Google is they did not practice much of the formal planning in their organizational structuring. Their disorganized organization has caused chaos which is an example of the failure to renew its own domain name in the German market in 2007. Besides that, Google have failed to send a legal representative to the Belgian law suit. They also launch half-finished products into the market and do not control information flow about their product. The advantages and disadvantages of formal planning are shown in Table 2.
AdvantagesDisadvantages Organization goals are outlined Requires investment in time, money and people Allows other functional areas within the company to coordinate activities. Can be cumbersome and over-detailed that requires large amount of information Better alignment of resources (employees, finance, equipment) It gives a false sense of securityEnable effective control and evaluation It is rigid as it makes the administration inflexible. Provides a long term view of strategic options and directions Spent too much time on non-essentials Table 2 Kudla (1976) argued that formal planning system is an important tool for manager, since it was designed with the aim to improve managerial decision making and contribute more rational decision making. Although Google has more than 16,000 employees to be proud of, but Google’s “breaking the mould” style of management is seen as arrogant by some. Another weakness of Google is their style of rigidity in recruitment. Their requirement to be an engineer for Google is strict as they must either have a Masters or Doctorate from a leading University.
Apart from meeting those requirements, they must pass through a series of assessment tests and interviews.
