Master of Business Administration - Project Management &
Master of Business Administration - General
MBAPM/13B/PT, MBAG/14A/PT & MBAG/13B/PT
Examinations for Academic Year 2014 – 2015 Semester II / Academic Year 2015 Semester I
MODULE: STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT MODULE CODE: MGMT5310 Duration: 3 Hours
Instructions to Candidates:
1. This paper consists of both sections A and B. 2. Section A is Compulsory. 3. Section B contains Three Questions. Answer any two questions. 4. Answer four questions in all. 5. Total Marks: 100.
This Question Paper is printed on BOTH SIDES.
This Question Paper Contains 5 questions and 9 pages.
SR STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT-MGMT5310 Page 1 of 9 SECTION A: COMPULSORY
SAMSUNG From its inception as a small export business in Taegu, Korea, Samsung has grown to become one of the world's leading electronics companies, specializing in digital appliances and media, semiconductors, memory, and system integration. Today Samsung's innovative and top quality products and processes are world recognized. This timeline captures the major milestones in Samsung's history, showing how the company expanded its product lines and reach, grew its revenue and market share, and has followed its mission of making life better for consumers around the world. On March 1, 1938, founding chairman Byung-Chull Lee started a business in Taegu, Korea, with 30,000 won. At the start, his business focused primarily on trade export, selling dried Korean fish, vegetables, and fruit to Manchuria and Beijing. In little more than a decade, Samsung-which means "three stars" in Korean-would have its own flour mills and confectionery machines, its own manufacturing and sales operations, and ultimately evolve to become the modern global corporation that still bears the same name today.
1970 Black-and-white TV (model: P-3202) production started by Samsung-Sanyo
Samsung-Sanyo Electronics established (renamed Samsung Electro- 1969 Mechanics in March 1975 and merged with Samsung Electronics in March 1977)
1966 Joong-Ang Development established (known today as Samsung Everland)
DongBang Life Insurance acquired (renamed Samsung Life Insurance in July 1963 1989)
Ankuk Fire & Marine Insurance acquired (renamed Samsung Fire & Marine 1958 Insurance in October 1993)
1954 Cheil Industries Inc. founded
1951 Samsung Moolsan established (now Samsung Corporation)
1938 Samsung founded in Taegu, Korea
SR STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT-MGMT5310 Page 2 of 9 1970-1979 Diversifying in Industries and Electronics In the 1970s, Samsung laid the strategic foundations for its future growth by investing in the heavy, chemical, and petrochemical industries. During this time, the company also took steps to enhance its competitive position in the world's textile industry, integrating its manufacturing processes from raw materials to end products. As a result, many new companies were created, including Samsung Heavy Industries Company in 1974 and Samsung Shipbuilding and Samsung Precision Company (now Samsung Techwin) in 1977. Another burst of growth for Samsung came from the burgeoning home electronics business. Samsung Electronics, already a major manufacturer in the Korean market, began to export its products for the first time during this period. Samsung's also acquired a 50 percent stake in Korea Semiconductor, further solidifying Samsung Electronics' position as a leader in semiconductor manufacturing
1980-1989 Entering the Global Marketplace
1980-1989 Entering the Global Marketplace Samsung's core technology businesses diversified and expanded globally during the late 1970s and early 1980s. In 1978, Samsung Semiconductor and Samsung Electronics became separate entities. Samsung Aerospace Industries (now Samsung Techwin) was launched in February 1987, and Samsung has been developing its aerospace capabilities with unprecedented speed ever since. Samsung also entered the systems development business, establishing Samsung Data Systems in 1985 (now Samsung SDS) as a leader in information technology services, including systems integration, systems management, consulting, and networking services. Samsung's increasing focus on technology led to the creation of the company's two research and development (R&D) institutes that helped expand its reach even further into electronics, semiconductors, high polymer chemicals, genetic engineering, optical telecommunications, aerospace, and new fields of technology innovation from nanotechnology to advanced network architectures. In 1987, Samsung's founding Chairman Byung-Chull Lee passed away after almost 50 years at the helm of the company. His son, Kun-Hee Lee, succeeded him as the
SR STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT-MGMT5310 Page 3 of 9 new Chairman. During this period, Samsung challenged itself to restructure old businesses and enter new ones with the aim of becoming one of the world's top five electronics companies.
1990-1993 Competing in a Changing Tech World The early 1990s presented tremendous challenges for high-tech businesses. Mergers, coalitions, and buy-outs were common while competition and consolidation flourished. Companies were pressed to rethink their technology and services offerings. Business began to flow across borders between countries and companies. Samsung made the most of these opportunities by refocusing its business strategy to better respond to market demands.
1994-1996 Becoming a Global Force In the mid-1990s, Samsung revolutionized its business through a dedication to making world-class products, providing total customer satisfaction, and being a good corporate citizen – all under the vision of "quality first." During this period, 17 different products—from semiconductors to computer monitors, TFT-LCD screens to color picture tubes—climbed into the ranks of the top-five products for global market share in their respective areas, and 12 others achieved top market ranking in their areas. Being No.1 also means fulfilling corporate social obligations, whether the cause is social welfare, environmental conservation, cultural events, or sports. To that end, Samsung actively participated in sports marketing, and as a result of its intensive efforts, its then-chairman, Kun-Hee Lee, was selected as a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in July 1996, greatly enhancing the company's image as a key contributor to world athletics.
1997-1999 Advancing the Digital Frontier Despite the 1997 financial crisis that affected nearly all Korean businesses, Samsung was one of few companies that continued growing, thanks to its leadership in digital and network technologies and its steady concentration on electronics, finances, and related services. Samsung responded to the crisis by reducing the number of its affiliated companies to 45 (according to the Monopoly Regulation and Fair Trade Act), decreasing
SR STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT-MGMT5310 Page 4 of 9 personnel by almost 50,000, selling 10 business units, and improving the soundness of its financial structure, lowering its 365 percent debt ratio in 1997 to 148 percent by late 1999.
Present A digital leader.A responsible global citizen.A multi-faceted family of companies.An ethical business. Samsung is all of these and more.At Samsung Group and Samsung Electronics, we uphold a belief in shared responsibility – to our people, our planet and our society. Across the company, we hold ourselves to the highest standards so that we can more effectively contribute to a better world. Samsung is guided by a simple philosophy, strong values and high ethical standards that inform our work every day. In everything we do, we strive to help people live better lives. Samsung is dedicated to developing innovative technologies and efficient processes that create new markets, enrich people's lives and continue to make Samsung a digital leader. Samsung Electronics' vision for the new decade is to "Inspire the World, Create the Future." We are committed to inspiring communities around the world by developing new technologies, innovative products and creative solutions. We are also committed to creating a brighter future by developing new value for our core networks: industry, partners and employees. Through these efforts, we hope to contribute to a better world and a richer experience for all. As part of our new vision, we have mapped out a specific plan of reaching $400 billion in revenue and becoming one of the world’s top five brands by 2020. To this end, we have also established three strategic approaches in our management: creativity, partnership and talent. We are excited about the future. As we build on our previous accomplishments, we look forward to exploring new territories, including health, medicine and biotechnology. We are committed to being a creative leader in new markets and becoming a truly No. 1 business going forward.
SR STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT-MGMT5310 Page 5 of 9 Management Samsung looks for creative and collaborative visionaries to run our companies. By attracting talented managers and evolving our organization’s culture to support them, we foster innovative ideas that advance technology, produce new products and improve the everyday lives of our customers. Samsung Electronics aims to be a world-leading company devoting our human resources and technology to create superior products and services, thereby contributing to a better global society.
To achieve this goal, we share and pursue the Samsung Values of People, Excellence, Change, Integrity, and Co-prosperity and the 7 Factors of a World- Leading Company (Dream, Vision & Goal, Creativity & Challenge, Insight & Good Sense, Technology & Information, Trust & Credibility, Speed & Velocity, Change& Innovation) to be instilled in the individual employees and the organization. Furthermore, Samsung Electronics employees follow Samsung’s Global Code of Conduct to comply with laws and ethical practices as well as to express our concrete commitment to social responsibility. The Global Code of Conduct will be the guiding standard for everyone in Samsung Electronics, outlining conducts and value judgments in all business activities. - We endeavor, with a sense of urgent awareness of the fact that we cannot survive without innovation, to achieve future competitiveness in Speedy response to the changes of environment and customer's demands, by maintaining the sustained attitude of Change & Innovation towards our Dream, Vision & Goal. - We cultivate Creativity & Challenge, acknowledging that future competitiveness depends on the development of Technology & Information ahead of competitors. - We aspire to become qualified experts in our field with Insight to foresee the future, and the Good Sense to identify and take advantage of opportunities. - We create an open culture where senior staff lead and junior staff are encouraged to make decisions and act proactively with a sense of ownership, based on the mutual respect of individuality and Trust & Credibility. - We pursue co-prosperity by maintaining relationships of Trust with shareholders and business partners, and facilitating sound management thought mutual cooperation.
SR STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT-MGMT5310 Page 6 of 9 R&D is at the heart of everything Samsung does. Ongoing investment in our collaborative global research network plays a critical role in our ability to innovate products today that will enrich people’s lives tomorrow. Throughout 2010, Samsung Electronics continued with efforts to proactively respond to a fast changing business environment and foster a creative organizational culture to facilitate expansion of our software and solutions business as stated in Vision 2020. Labor and management will work together to enhance the organizational culture under the mottos of Work Smart, Think Hard, and Build Trust and build an ideal workplace where all individuals can unleash their creativity.
Research & Development Samsung’s team of researchers and engineers include over 50,000 employees across 42 global research facilities—each one collaborating on strategic technologies to forge new market trends and set new standards of excellence.
Samsung’s R&D organization consists of three layers: 1. The Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology (SAIT) SAIT identifies growth engines for the future and oversees the securing and management of technology. 2. R&D Centers Our global R&D centers for each business area focus on technology that is expected to deliver the most promising long-term results. 3. Division Product Development Teams The division teams in each center are responsible for commercializing products scheduled to hit the market within one or two years.
Investment R&D is our key to responding to uncertain business environments and an increasingly competitive market place. Each year we invest at least 9% of our sales revenue into R&D activities with a commitment to leading technology standardization and securing intellectual property rights.
SR STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT-MGMT5310 Page 7 of 9 Global R&D Network Our R&D network spans six Samsung centers in Korea, and 18 more across the U.S., U.K., Russia, Israel, India, Japan and China—not to mention our organizations in Universities across the globe. Our network investigates the latest technology trends and realizes technologies that offer the greatest benefits.
Building a Smarter Future Samsung manufactures eco-conscious products that are not only energy-efficient, but also help to reduce your carbon footprint on the environment. For example, our LED technology helps us significantly reduce energy use while materials generate less waste.
Recycling Direct Samsung is proud to reaffirm its commitment to recycling with the Samsung RECYCLING DIRECTSM program. Available in all 50 states and with over 500 fixed drop-off locations, our programs make it easy for consumers to conveniently and responsibly recycle their old electronics.
EXTRACT: http://www.samsung.com/us/aboutsamsung/
QUESTION 1: (30 MARKS)
Using information gathered in the text, identify and comment:
(a) on the strengths of Samsung (15 marks)
(b) on the core strategies used by Samsung (15 marks)
SR STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT-MGMT5310 Page 8 of 9 QUESTION 2: (20 MARKS)
The challenge of many firms today is not how to build competitive advantage, but rather to sustain it over time. Using information from the text, evaluate the capacity of Samsung to build and sustain competitive advantage.
SECTION B: ANSWER ANY TWO QUESTIONS
QUESTION 3: (25 MARKS)
Explain how combinations of competences and resources can be developed, deployed, and protected. Evaluate how these dimensions of firm-specific capabilities can be sources of advantage?
QUESTION 4: (25 MARKS)
Companies that enjoy enduring success have core values and a core purpose that remain fixed while their business strategies and practices endlessly adapt to a changing world. Discuss how Core ideology provides the glue that holds an organization together through time.
QUESTION 5: (25 MARKS)
Discuss on the advantages and disadvantages of the following organisational structures: 1. Functional Structure (8 marks) 2. Divisional Structure (8 marks) 3. Matrix Structure (9 marks)
***END OF QUESTION PAPER***
SR STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT-MGMT5310 Page 9 of 9