Take-home examination

Candidates should attempt only one question. Submission by 17:00 on 14th December 1995 to G04 Old North.

1 Minitel

At URL http://www.georgetown.edu/sutherland/minitel you will find a case study on Minitel complete with illustrations, original documents, adverts for Minitel services and other materials.

Analyse the Minitel case.
You may find the following questions pertinent:

what should be the measure(s) of success?
what were the successes and failures of the Minitel project?
how did the concept of success change over time?
how did the changes in market regulation affect the Minitel project?
how might the transition to the Internet and the World Wide Web be managed?

An alternative URL, http://stargate.lamp.ac.uk/~ewan/minitel, has identical files.

2 Global Virtual Business School

As businesses become increasingly global so do their training needs. This is accentuated after downsizing, when they cannot afford to have staff absent for prolonged periods of time. The traditional two-year MBA can be criticised as expensive and somewhat dated. Growth in the market is in for ‘executive’ MBAs. The other part of the market which is involved is the commercial market for executive training. Advances in technology make it possible to deliver educational and training services to any point on the planet.

Consider the opportunities for the creation of a Global Virtual Business School (GVBS).

You may find the following questions pertinent:

who are the stakeholders?
who might be the potential partners in the creation of such a venture?
how might such a venture foreclose entry from other players?
how might such a ‘business’ be built up?
what would be the role of a professor in such an institution?

3 Analysis

Using material from the case studies discussed in class, illustrate how frameworks and models help our understanding of the relationship between information technology and business strategy. Indicate clearly any limitations.

You may find the following models pertinent:

industry structure analysis model (M E Porter)
value chains (M E Porter)
five levels of IT-induced business reconfiguration (N Venkatraman)
strategic alignment process (K H Macdonald)

The Venkatraman and Macdonald references are in Michael S Scott Morton (1991) "The Corporation of the 1990" (OUP, New York).

4 RyderFIRST

Copies of "RyderFIRST: facilitating a turnaround in Ryder Systems’s Consumer Truck Rental division" Journal of Strategic Information Systems 3 (3) 236-253 are available from my office.

Analyse the RyderFIRST case.

You may find the following questions pertinent:

http://www.georgetown.edu/sutherland/mgmt550/exam.html