So...I just took a test...

**ek3** · February 18th, 2003, 03:31 PM

...and I've never made up so much shit in my life...I have another one tonight...and I'm gonna try to make up even more bullshit!...

**ek3** · February 19th, 2003, 03:46 AM

I did it!...made up 3 pages of bullshit on the test tonight...I even think I made up some words...I'm the man...

**SHATOUSHKA** · February 19th, 2003, 07:00 AM

will you get the test back?

if so... will you c/p it here?

i SO wanna see it! [img]tongue.gif[/img]

**ek3** · February 19th, 2003, 02:37 PM

I can do you one better...the problem is...I don't have the questions...

1a. Value Chain
List what the companies value most. For example, does the company want to broaden the market they are in, by gaining new technology or are they content letting someone else do it and following them.

1b. 3G Teams
IT development teams.

1c. switching costs
Cost of certain technologies goes down with the increase in other technologies. Example, the cost a company may charge for a specific service has gone down with the implementation of a new more efficient service.

1d. ?factory? category of IT
Produces all that is necessary for the IT department to operate. Does do research or help in gaining new technology. Simply works with the technology given to it by the research branches.

1e. critical-mass technology
Technology that is critical for your company to operate smoothly.

1f. gap analysis
An analysis of where a company stands amongst their competition, and what direction the company needs to go to gain an advantage.

1g. leveraging knowledge
Leveraging knowledge is any knowledge that would give a company a competitive edge in a given market. For example, if AOL was the only company to know how to make Instant messaging software, that would give them a competitive advantage and them leverage themselves as the leaders in their market.

2. One competitive force which organizations must contend is with other companies. The company with the better IT personnel will have a definite advantage over other companies. Another competitive force is simply that of a changing market place. A company needs to keep itself ready to change so they don?t lose any advantage they may have. One example is AOL?s copyright of their Instant Messaging software, they have a clear advantage because they are able to enforce this is they so choose, and clearly put themselves ahead of the other messaging and internet providing companies.

3. Selling new information to other companies after your advantage has been made, giving you the opportunity to gain other advantages while they implemented your old technology. Another would be to do all that you could to make sure the information was not released so your companies gain would be maximized for the longest period of time.

4a. One problem is that they developed their business plan to take them where they wanted to go instead of leaving room to change with the market. Secondly they created an additional plan just to describe how they would follow the previous plan, thus adding more to learn and implement. Models like these no longer work because the times change so quickly and business need to by nimble, and easy to change. Companies that develop elaborate plans are time consuming to implement are at a severe disadvantage to other companies who have made placed themselves in a position to change easily with the times. The easily changed company can easily adapt to sudden changes in the market.

4b. With technology growing and changes so much these days, a company needs to watch the market and try to predict where it is going. Ideally, a company wants to try to sense where the market may go and have themselves in position to respond quickly once it does. This will maximize the companies advantage over other competing companies. If a company had a strategic plan that took them in a different direction than the market was going, they could take on a sense-and-respond approach to help them catch back up and gain what ground they had lost with their initially poor strategic plan.

5. I disagree with this statement. I don?t feel as though Information Technology his limited it?s strategic value in anyway. Information Technology is something that companies need and are willing to pay for, it is a co-specialized asset. An It company is a specialized kind of company but they offer many different types and forms of information and help, making it an irreplaceable asset.

6a. KPMG?s problem was that they did not try to position themselves to where the market was going, thus leaving them behind to struggle and try to find a place back in the market-share. KPMG?s management scale was old and not very up to date, they needed management that was aware of direction the market was going and management that would be able to direct them into the future of the market.

6b.
organizational culture
Is the hierarchy in which your business is built around. KPMG had a very high hierarchy instead of a more broad flatter hierarchy. Flatter hierarchy?s seem to fair better in the IT market.

Power structure
A company?s power structure is how the power is distributed among the company. KPMG had their power structure set up very small. All of the people at the top had the say and the power to make any and all decisions.

Project size/structure
Project size and structure determines how big the project a company is taking on will be, how long it will take to implement, and the hierarchical structure in which it is developed. KPMG took on a project that was easier for them to handle and flattened their hierarchical structure.

Core competencies
Core competencies are what your company depends on to function properly. Initially KPMG?s core competencies was it?s management but once they fell behind they tried to place their core competencies more on the employees and supervisors.

7a. There are many attributes of IT that can provide sustained competitive advantages. One is access to capital. Simply put, a company can have the biggest break through IT has ever seen, but if they don?t have the capital to implement and promote it, it is useless. The company needs resource heterogeneity so they can be in the position to make these changes and resource immobility so they know the resources will be available when needed. IT inventions also play a big role in sustaining an advantage. The company coming up with the next, greatest and biggest thing will have a clear advantage over the other companies, assuming they have the resources to implement it. Having employees with up to date and relevant technical skills is critical in sustaining an advantage. If a companies workers don?t have the skills required to make a competitive advantage the company will fail. Employees need causal ambiguity in that they need fundamental instincts to act and react in ways to help maximize the companies gain. Lastly, a company needs managers with proper IT skills. If a companies managers have no idea what is going on, who will lead the employees? Managers need social complexity, they need to be able to interact with the employees and create a work friendly environment.

7b. In my opinion it hasn?t changed much. I still feel as though all of the attributes listed for creating a sustained competitive advantage still hold true today. Access to capital, IT inventions, technical skills, and managerial IT skills are still crucial to an IT company striving for an advantage. One change that has occurred is more responsibility is placed on the employee to make changes and act in a way that helps the company, much like Verifone is ran.

**ek3** · February 19th, 2003, 02:45 PM

And yes...I got all of that from 3 minutes of studying...if you saw the questions you would really see how ridiculous my answers are...

**SHATOUSHKA** · February 19th, 2003, 05:59 PM

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><table border="0" width="90%" bgcolor="#333333" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="0"><tr><td width="100%"><table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" bgcolor="#FF9900"><tr><td width="100%" bgcolor="#555555"><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by ek3:
KPMG had a very high hierarchy instead of a more broad flatter hierarchy. Flatter hierarchy?s seem to fair better in the IT market.</font></td></tr></table></td></tr></table></BLOCKQUOTE>

for some reason...
this made me laugh...

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><table border="0" width="90%" bgcolor="#333333" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="0"><tr><td width="100%"><table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" bgcolor="#FF9900"><tr><td width="100%" bgcolor="#555555"><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by ek3:
Access to capital, IT inventions, technical skills, and managerial IT skills are still crucial to an IT company striving for an advantage.</font></td></tr></table></td></tr></table></BLOCKQUOTE>

well........ duh