this question for perspective on strategy the text book is s

this question for perspective on strategy the text book is strategic management theory and cases an intergrated a pproach 11th edition by hill, charles so the question is :

you are the managment team of a start up company that will produce hard drives for the personal computer (PC) industry . you will sell your product to manufactures of PC\'s( original equipment manufactures{ OEMs} . the disk drive market is characterized by rapic technological changes, product life cycles of only 6 t 9 months, intense price competion, high ficed costs for manufactruing equipment, and substantial manufacturing economies of scale. your customers, the OMEs , issue very demanding technological specifications that your product must comply with. they also pressure you to deliver your product on time so that it fits in within their company\'s product introductio schedule.1

1- in this industry , what functional competenceies are the most important for you to build?

2- how will you design your internal processes to ensure that those competencies are bulit within the company?

Solution

1. Functional competencies are those competencies that are specific to a job or a responsibility. The functional competencies required for the hard disk drive market are:

2. internal processes will have to be designed to keep them flexible and agile. As stated, the product changes every 6 to 9 months and this will require changes in the internal processes related to design and manufacturing frequently. This will be possible only when the internal processes are flexible so that they can quickly absorb and implement the changes.

Secondly, the internal processes should be designed in a way so that the overhead costs are kept at the lowest possible level. Otherwise the high \"sunk\" costs, everytime the product design is changed, will make the company financially weak.