Project 2 (teamwork)
Objective: Analyze the innovation stamina (capacity) of a BSE/NSE listed company based on how it is responding to a big technology trend (e.g. Titan to smartwatch trend, ARBL to Li-ion battery trend)
Submission format: A word document converted to PDF. Page limit 5 pages including references (12pt font)
1. Choose a company: Please choose a company listed in BSE/NSE. You will be referring to (a) multi-year annual reports (ARs) spanning 3 to 5 years (b) earnings call transcripts (ECTs) during this period (c) news - CXO interviews, press releases, etc. during this period. Enter your choice in this sheet.
2. Choose a technology trend: Please choose a technology trend that, in your opinion, is likely to significantly impact / already impacting the chosen company's business. Briefly explain the possible upside/downside to the business due to this trend. Enter the technology trend in the Google sheet.
3. Acknowledgment of the challenge: Please refer to previous years' ARs and/or ECTs. Mention the earliest evidence (if any) where management has acknowledged the technology trend as a challenge and/or opportunity.
4. Technology adoption lifecycle curve position: Where was the chosen technology trend in the technology adoption lifecycle curve for (a) the global market, and (b) the Indian market at the time the company acknowledged the tech trend (step 3)?
5. Internal bright spots: Please identify 2-3 earlier successful big bets from the company. Based on these bright spots, what can you say about the company's strength as far as innovation is concerned?
6. First steps towards the response: What was the trigger for the company to initiate action as a response to the tech trend? (e.g. Titan was possibly a response to Apple announcement). What was the initial response?
7. Experimentation capacity: How do you assess the company's R&D budget as a percentage of revenue compared to competitors? Please assess its intellectual capital vis-a-vis its competitors. How would you describe its technology development approach based on this finding?
8. Strategic bet: Has the company made a strategic bet on this technology yet? If so when? What triggered it? (e.g. ARBL's billion-dollar bet on Li-ion Giga factory) Using the real-win-worth it framework, guess which of the 3 criteria (real, win, worth-it) did the big-bet idea pass,
9. Core vs complementary assets: Identify the core and complementary assets of the company. How did management strengthen/protect its core assets and/or strengthen/acquire complementary assets in its strategic responses? Please justify.
10. Business model tinkering: Describe the company's business model (who-what-how to reach-how to make money). Did the company try to tinker with its business model as a response to the technology trend? If so, please assess the riskiness of tinkering through Zook and Allen's six-moves frameworks (class #15, slides 22-25).
11. Strategic partnerships: Did the company form one or more strategic partnership(s) for this strategic response? If so, when was this initiated? What complementary assets did the partner(s) bring in?
12. Innovation sandbox: Did the company build an innovation sandbox? If so, please identify the constraints, team size, and approximate budget of the sandbox. What were the key winning parameters?
13. Margin of safety: What was the downside exposure for the company during this bet? How did the company manage its downside exposure while taking this big bet?
14. What would you do differently? Please mention if you have any suggestions for the company's approach to the strategic response to the tech trend. Please mention the reasons.
Please mention evidence to support your view.
