Project 2 (Team project)
Objective: Analyze a listed company based on how it is responding to a big technology trend (e.g. AMD to AI data centers, Amara Raja to Li-ion battery trend)
Submission format: A Word document converted to PDF. Page limit 5 pages including references (12pt font)
1. Choose company A: Please choose a listed company A. You will be referring to multi-year annual reports (ARs) spanning 3 to 5 years, as well as CXO interviews conducted during this period, and earnings call transcripts. Enter your choice in this sheet. Please provide the reference (i.e., which annual report, page number, etc.) for every answer.
2. Choose a technology trend B: Please choose a big technology trend B that, in your opinion, is likely to significantly impact / already impacts the chosen company A's business. Enter the technology trend in the Google sheet.
3. Choose A's competitor C: Choose another listed company C that is A's competitor. Enter C in the Google sheet.
Part-A
4. Innovation dashboard: Based on the recent annual reports, present an innovation dashboard for company A. Make sure it covers elements from pipeline, velocity, and business impact.
5. Assessment of innovation dashboard: Based on sectoral baselines, write your comments on A's innovation dashboard. What additional information would have helped strengthen the dashboard?
Part-B
6. Acknowledgment of the challenge: Please refer to previous years' ARs of A. Mention the earliest evidence (if any) where A's management has acknowledged the technology trend B as a challenge and/or opportunity. How have they articulated the challenge? When did this happen?
7. Initial response: What triggered company A to initiate a response to the tech trend B? (e.g. Trigger for Amara Raja's response was growth in the EV market). What was the initial response? When was this response created?
8. Strategic bet: Has the company made a strategic bet on this technology trend B yet? If so, what is the bet? When did it make the announcement? What triggered it? (e.g. Amara Raja's billion-dollar bet on Li-ion Gigafactory). Using the real-win-worth-it framework, guess the ease with which the big bet passed the 3 criteria (real, win, worth-it).
9. Innovation vs complementary assets: Identify company A's innovation assets and complementary assets relevant for the bet. How did management build its innovation assets? And how did it strengthen/acquire complementary assets in its strategic response? Please justify.
10. Business model tinkering: Describe A's business model (who-what-how) associated with this bet. How did the company change its original business model to respond to the technology trend B? What was the cost of this business model change? Did it involve any culture change? If so, how? Did A do any low-cost validations before changing its business model? If so, how?
11. Strategic levers: Which strategic levers did company A utilize in executing the bet? Did it create an innovation sandbox (focused experimentation capacity)? If so, what were its elements? Did it create a platform? If so, briefly describe it. Did it access start-ups and/or other forms of open innovation? If so, briefly mention the nature of collaboration. Did it use any other lever?
Part-C
12. A vs C on response to B: How do you compare A's response to that of competitor C to trend B? Consider dimensions such as quality of innovation assets, speed, focus, partnerships, etc.
13. Your recommendation: What is your recommendation to A's management at this point? Why?
