Topic

Marks & Spencer Marketing and Business Strategy

Instructions

Write an essay on Industry Analysis. The essay should be 4500 words long with 35 references. Use Harvard format.

Task:

Select ONE industry or public sector: automotive industry, fashion industry, media industry, oil & gas industry, healthcare industry, social welfare organisations and disaster relief.

Select ONE of the following areas of technology: Nanotechnology, Biotechnology, 3D printing, Steelmaking, Information technology, Communications technology, Electric vehicle technology, and Medical equipment technology.

Write an ESSAY, in the form of a REPORT to the chief executive of a major firm in your chosen industry. Advise the chief executive on how to deal with the strategic challenges posed by your chosen technology. Include the following:
1. What, briefly, is the technology? What are the strategic challenges it poses?
2. What technology management topics are particularly relevant to dealing with this challenge? Select ONE topic from those covered in PM5004, such as technology sourcing, technology integration, disruptive innovation, dominant designs, project portfolio management, Stage-Gate project management, technology commercialisation
3. What are the main principles of the topic, as set out by the main writers on the topic?
4. What is your own critical analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of these principles?
5. How are these principles applied in practice in your selected industry? To illustrate this, give an example of the topic being applied in the selected industry.
6. What are the most important three or four actions you recommend the chief executive should take, in order to apply these principles in the best interests of all the stakeholders in the firm?

Answer preview

The world has in the past few decades been witnessing a technological revolution, in which a multitude of new, improved and more efficient technologies have been discovered. The technologies go a long way in revolutionizing the manner of life and business, regardless of the industry. From medical equipment technologies, through steel making and telecommunication technologies, so many changes have occurred, most of which have enhanced business in ways hitherto unimagined. One of the most prolific technologies, where tremendous developments have occurred, is the information technology, or abbreviated as IT. There cannot be denying that IT has revolutionized virtually all aspects of human life, spanning business through private life, to politics and social rearrangements (Higon, 2011).

Word count: 5292