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MBA 580 Milestone One Guidelines and Rubric
Overview
In the highly competitive automotive market, it is critical to keep up with current technology to stay in or get ahead in the marketplace. To remain competitive, companies must innovate and integrate new technologies within their product lines and services.
Scenario
You work as a middle manager for one of the top U.S. producers of luxury and mass-market automobiles and trucks.
The chief technology officer (CTO) of the company from the course scenario has been monitoring new technology developments that the company could integrate into its vehicles to enhance the usefulness of and improve access to the data acquired by the many digital sensors integrated into vehicle subsystems over the past 20 to 30 years. The technology trend of particular interest is the internet of things (IoT)—the interconnection of embedded devices, such as sensors and computers, over the internet. By taking advantage of this trend, the CTO believes the company can seize an opportunity to provide better service and predictive maintenance to its customers, improving customer satisfaction and adding additional revenue streams.
Based on briefings by the CTO and your Module One memo, senior management has decided to implement IoT into its product line. Your CTO has asked you to lead a cross-functional team to take this initiative forward. Your first task is to create a presentation that will include your recommendation for how the company should approach this business problem: should you use incremental or discontinuous innovation?
Specifically, should the company:
Design a completely new product line, based on the new technology (discontinuous innovation)
or
Add new technology features first into one model and then incrementally into the broader product line (incremental innovation)
The recommendation you and your team will make is an important first step in pursuing this new technology. Your presentation and recommendations will be reviewed by senior management. Until senior management approves your approach to this innovation, your cross-functional team will not have a budget and will not be able to start work on the innovation. You should utilize your work from the Module Two presentation and data analysis when making and justifying your recommendation in this first milestone. In Milestone Two, you will subsequently develop a go-to-market strategy. For your project in Module Nine, you will compile your work from Milestones One and Two, and include a proposed organizational structure to best integrate, produce, and market the new technology.
Prompt
Create a PowerPoint presentation to make a recommendation for how the company should pursue the IoT technology to remain competitive: either by discontinuous or incremental innovation. To make your recommendation, you will need to identify how the evolving IoT (sensor) technology fits into the company’s products and services and determine potential risks and benefits. You will also need to look at your competitors to see what they are doing. Finally, you need to analyze the company’s capability (resources) for pursuing the innovation. Use the information and data from the CTO Brief, Comparative Growth Data, Comparative Operating Statistics, and Comparative Product Plansto complete this milestone. Note: Remember to use both on-slide text and narration or speaker notes to convey your information effectively. If narration is not possible, precise and extensive speaker notes should be used, while addressing all of the rubric elements in the presentation. For example, you can use brief, bulleted lists on the slide and include detailed explanations in your narration or speaker notes.
Explain potential risks and benefits for options A and B.Overview (1 slide): Present the business problem and options A and B.
Option A (1–2 slides): Explain at least two potential risks and benefits for option A.
Option B (1–2 slides): Explain at least two potential risks and benefits for option B.
Compare your competition’s products and services.Competitors (3–4 slides): Evaluate the competitors’ current products and services.What are your competitors’ current products and services?
Are your competitors expanding in the current market? Explain how this impacts their market strength.
Analyze your company’s capability to pursue the innovation.Complete a partial gap analysis (2 slides):Does your company own the technology, or does it need to be purchased?
How is the technology currently being used in today’s products and services?
What type of technology is available to purchase?
Recommend the innovation approach your company should pursue.Innovation approach (2 slides): Explain which innovation approach you are recommending and why.Consider the different stakeholders—research and development (R&D), marketing, finance—when communicating your recommendations.Include a description of the incremental or discontinuous product that you are recommending for R&D.
Include the sales forecasts for marketing.
Include a financial snapshot for finance.
What to Submit
Create a PowerPoint presentation with on-slide text and narration or detailed speaker notes. Your presentation should be 10 to 13 slides in length. If you include references, they should be cited according to APA style. Consult the Shapiro Library APA Style Guide for more information on citations.
Milestone One Rubric
CriteriaProficient (100%)Needs Improvement (80%)Not Evident (0%)Value
Risks and BenefitsExplains potential risks and benefits for options A and BShows progress toward proficiency, but with errors or omissions; areas for improvement may include citing both risks and benefits for both options A and BDoes not attempt criterion15
CompetitorsCompares competition’s products and servicesShows progress toward proficiency, but with errors or omissions; areas for improvement may include discussing whether competitors’ products and services are expanding in the current marketDoes not attempt criterion15
Company CapabilityAnalyzes company’s capability to pursue the innovationShows progress toward proficiency, but with errors or omissions; areas for improvement may include completing a partial gap analysisDoes not attempt criterion10
RecommendationRecommends the innovation approach the company should pursueShows progress toward proficiency, but with errors or omissions; areas for improvement may include considering stakeholders’ interests when making a recommendationDoes not attempt criterion30
Articulation of ResponseClearly conveys meaning with correct grammar, sentence structure, and spelling, demonstrating an understanding of audience and purposeShows progress toward proficiency, but with errors in grammar, sentence structure, and spelling, negatively impacting readabilitySubmission has critical errors in grammar, sentence structure, and spelling, preventing understanding of ideas20
Citations and AttributionsUses citations for ideas requiring attribution, with consistent minor errorsUses citations for ideas requiring attribution, with major errorsDoes not use citations for ideas requiring attribution10
Total:100%
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