Assignment #14~ Mallory Clynes

(1) Identify a strategic change your company has gone through in the last decade.

In 2003, Pepsi-Cola unveiled a new advertising campaign, "Pepsi. It's the Cola," whichis the brand's first major campaign shift since 1999. This new campaign highlighted the popular soft drink that goes with everything from food to fun. In 1999 Pepsi's campaign was, "The Joy of Cola," and in 2000 it was changed to, "The Joy of Pepsi." Also in 2003, Pepsi promoted, "Pepsi Play for a Billion" where they gave 1000 consumers the change to play for $1 billion on a live television show in The WB.

Assignment #14 (5) - Sandra Adams

(5) The core competencies of Toyota are customer first, people are the most valuable resource, continuous improvement, and shop floor focus.

Using the customer first and people are the most valuable resource are the best core competencies to use to decide which new business opportunities to pursue. Since the demand has been growing for fuel efficient and environmentally friendly cars, Toyota decision to improve upon the hybrid car will only bring them towards more success. People are not able to afford gas guzzling SUVs and have developed a new found interest in the environment. By moving towards meeting those customer needs, Toyota will continue to be one of the most successful car manufacturer.

Assignment #14 - Danielle O'Neill

(3) What is the most recent strategic alliance your company has formed? Identify and evaluate the rationale behind this alliance. Does it make sense?
The most recent strategic alliance that Sirius has formed was in December 2003, when Sirius signed a seven-year exclusive deal with the NFL to broadcast games in the 2005-2006 season. Sirius also signed a five-year deal with Howard Stern.
The most recent strategic alliance that XM has formed was in October 2004, when they signed an eleven-year $650 million deal with the MLB, giving XM exclusive rights to the satellite broadcast of MLB games beginning in 2005, including the World Series.
This makes sense for the companies because it justified the premium subscription price of its service for Sirius, and for XM it was a response to moves made by its competitor.

SENIOR SEMINAR- ASSIGNMENT #14

This group blog must be completed by 7:00 AM on Thursday, November 29th. Read chapter 8 and as a group answer all of the following questions about the company that you are doing your case study on. The first person in your group should do an original post, all subsequent entries from your group should be under COMMENTS to that person. Each group member must answer a different question.
(1) Identify a strategic change your company has gone through in the last decade.
(2) What is the most recent acquisition your company has made? Identify and evaluate the strategic rationale behind this acquisition. Does it make sense?
(3) What is the most recent strategic alliance your company has formed? Identify and evaluate the rationale behind this alliance. Does it make sense?
(4) What is the most recent internal venture your company has undertaken? Identify and evaluate the rationale behind this internal venture. Does it make sense?
(5) What are the current core competencies of your company? How could your company use these core competencies to decide which new business opportunities to pursue?

Thermo Electron- Question #1-Nicole Damboise

Thermo electron strategy created alot of value in regards to the company and its share holders, using an unusual diversification method. The companies sales went up an historic 3.6 million dollars through a numerous amounts of different products. This process happened very quickly and it created a large compound return average for its sharholders.

thermo Electron- #2- Eric Yoshikawa

While at first this strategy sounds very good, the idea of massing a bunch of companies together in a conglomerate. This however tends to do well for established companies. Such as GE owning GM and various other companies. Some argue if they have over extended themselves. Now back on the topic of Thermo Electron, more companies means more reports and earning statements. This means more money being spent. While this means that a few companies that aren't ass successful as other companies under Thermo Electron will bring them down. It also means that some of these companies will rush to produce products that might not be ready. Because whether you think it's true or not, they are competiting against each other. Take this for example, if one of the companies isn't doing as well as other companies there'll be more pressure to do atleast as well as that company. This will mean that the company will produce products that aren't quite ready for production. After all nobody wants to be financing the "black sheep" if you will. Buy having all of these companies under them, they are pushing companies to move faster then some of them really should be. Also as soon as Hatsopoulos stepped down as CEO in dropped about half of the companies it had aquired.

Thermo Electron- Question #2 Chad Schrepper

Although the success of Thermo Electron's diversfied strategy there are many drawbacks that they have encoutered as well. The complex strategy has a negative effect on share price, investors also complain that the strategy is to complicated. Having twenty-three subsidaries also means producing twenty-three annual reports and nintey-two quarterly reports, which has turned out to be a very costly process. Also having so many companies it spreads thier management and engineering talen very thin. Aurguably the biggest drawback is that if one of the subsidaries is not doing well, it effects the the whole company.