Arrange Kick Off Meeting

[TheSmiff]

Kick off meeting to decide our approach - perhaps arrange for after the introduction. Agenda:

• [x] Assign Chairperson for this report
• [x] Generate some initial ideas to go and research
• [x] Agree expectations (how much work should we be doing and when)
• [x] Agree date for first meeting to discuss results of research and report stubs and next steps.

[TheSmiff]

I just added two PDFs in the Report 1/Sources folder.

One is a report I did for management 2 with some stuff in Appendix A about tablets and the "strategy clock" I think we could case study. I'm not sure whether to discuss it in the context of the strategy clock, but contrasting the iPad, Kindle Fire, Nexus and Surface makes some interesting points in strategy and how to make money. Equally I also looked at intel, AMD and ARM which provides another interesting comparison.

The other PDF is a book called Exploring Corporate Strategy, which is mostly lots and lots of management stuff, but has some good case studies in it. Maybe we can pick out a few strategic capabilities why we think companies make money and justify them through case studies? There's case studies about eBay, Lenovo, MySpace (I guess this book is a little old haha), Skype, Vodafone, Intel, Motorola and so on and so on. These might provide useful starting points.

[seblovett]

Minutes:

Tom is chair person

Ideas - Strategy clock - different approaches from different companies. Key word - percieved. Buying into the system for compatibility. Microsoft aiming for the top right, but falling short.

Reputation may play a key aspect - Intel, Apple and microsoft rely a lot on previous reputation.

Maybe look for an example not directly linked to electronics.

Hypothesis: Quality subjective to what people want. Google - Robin hood effect.

Microcontroller industry? Probably a bad idea.

Processors - Intel- backward compatibility, big, in with Microsoft, Manufacture as well as design. ARM - completely fab-less, sell only IP, Server chips? AMD - tried to copy Intel, much smaller market share. Attempt to follow same strategy, but aren't as successful. Moved to graphics. How does technology make money?? Reputation, Quality, collaboration. ARM Xilinx link - cyclic reliance. Maybe a purchase / patent collaboration Age of the small compnay.

Apple isn't collaborative, goes against our hypothesis. Atmel - another idea as they sell firmware for touch.

2) Minimising unshiftable assets

3) by diversifying in a smart way - intel less money as they are a one trick pony, only in desktop. Apple - were failing. brought out iphone and gained. ebay and amazon - amazon diversifyied - started making kindle etc. Established companies start with their good product and do more. Kodak - good at film. didn't go to digital. Nokia & blackberry - resisted touch screen, got left behind. Google - search engine made money. Money fed back into other technologies - android, data centres, etc. Microsoft - XBox, ninentdo. tom's book has some stuff about diversity.

Two Main ideas: 1) Collaboration 2) Diversification makes money. Related and Unrelated. R - Apple, iPad iPhone similar product, different markets. UR - Virgin - TV, Banking, transport.

Executive decision - Diversification hypothesis.

Actions

All do research. Start an issue as a thread Introduction - what an established company is. Definition of terms. Each to propose a case study by next week. Make a note of all readings.

Milestones

Week today - research done. Make hypothesis In meeting - make essay plan

Two weeks - first draft of essay. only need to polish