MIS441/641 Assignment 3: (5-7 pages)
Uber case: analysis and report: concerning Expansion and Growth
Overview of case:
You have been asked to produce a short case-report for Uber’s new CEO, Travis Kalanick. This report is expected to:
1) assess Uber’s current business situation,
2) generate and discuss a short list of alternative go-forward strategies for Uber, especially concerning expansion and growth
3) choose and justify your recommended strategy and
4) identify the next steps to implement your choice.
In your analysis of Uber’s case, you are also asked to identify all key related ideas from MIS441 Weeks 5, 6, 7 and 9 (Text chapters 5, 6, 7, 8 as well as chapter 12’s parts: “Mobile” and “Customer-Managed-Interactions” (CMIs)) and describe how they apply to Uber’s situation.
NOTE: Because Uber’s business is the production of Information Technology products, your scope can include the entire Uber business as a whole, or solely Uber’s internal Information Systems, or some combination.
Assignment structure:
Task A: Your approach to the case (40% = 4×10%):
Use the following Case Study approach (Based on Simon’s 4-step Decision-Making model):
• Step 1: Gather and assess all relevant Business INTELLIGENCE (10%) (< 1 page)
• Step 2: DESIGN your decision (10%) (2-5 pages)
• Step 3: Using your value system, evaluate and CHOOSE from the alternatives (10%) (< 1 page)
• Step 4: Plan the actions to IMPLEMENT your decision (10%) (< 1 page)
Task B: Extra analysis of the design of your decision (60%= 4×15%):
Inside Step 2, do extra analysis: relate the ideas and lessons of Week 05, 06, 07 and 09 to the Uber case:
• Relate ideas and lessons from Week 05 (Feb 03) and Ch05 to the case (<1-page: 15%)
• Relate ideas and lessons from Week 06 (Feb 10) and Ch06 to the case (<1-page: 15%)
• Relate ideas and lessons from Week 07 (Feb 24: Startups) and Ch12 (Mobile, CMIs) to the case (<1-page: 15%)
• Relate ideas and lessons from Week 09 (Mar 10) and Ch07, Ch08 to the case (<1-page: 15%)
Size-limits:
Length: 5 pages – 7 pages
Spacing: Single spaced – 1.5 spaced
Margins: .5” to .75”
Table of Contents:
Use the following Table of Contents for your report. Also, label all your report’s sections with matching title-headings.
1. Intelligence Gathered and Assessed
2. Analysis and Design of Alternatives
a. Key Week 05/Chapter 05 ideas and how they relate to this case
b. Key Week 06/Chapter 06 ideas and how they relate to this case
c. Key Week 07/Chapter 12 ideas and how they relate to this case
d. Key Week 09/Chapter 07,08 ideas and how they relate to this case
e. Alternative Expansion and Growth Strategies Considered
f. Evaluation and Comparison of Alternatives
3. Choice
a. Choice of Recommended Expansion and Growth Strategy
b. Additional recommendations for internal Organization Strategies & Technology Strategies
4. Plan of Steps to Implement the Recommended Expansion and Growth Strategy
Minimum Requirements:
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Step 1: (10%) Gather all relevant Business INTELLIGENCE (< 1 page)
For input, consider the following news-clippings and links (not a complete list: find more input on your own):
News-clippings (attached to Asgn 3 in Blackboard) and Links (not a complete list: find more links on your own):
2013_07_01 http://www.inc.com/magazine/201307/christine-lagorio/uber-the-car-service-explosive-growth.html
2013_12_16 http://blogs.hbr.org/2013/12/ubers-price-gouging-is-the-future-of-business/
2014_01_03_Ride_service_Uber_stalks_new_markets_A.PDF
2014_01_03_Ride_service_Uber_stalks_new_markets_B.PDF
2014_01_06 http://www.wamda.com/2014/01/ubers-financials-surge-pricing
2014_01_11 http://www.businessinsider.com/uber-travis-kalanick-bio-2014-1
2014_02_10 http://business.time.com/2014/02/10/uber-faces-its-biggest-test-in-india/
2014_09_03_Uber_faces_ban.pdf
2014_09_09_UberX_raises_red_flags.pdf
2014_11_12 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travis_Kalanick
2014_11_19_Cities_dig_in_against_Uber_A.pdf
2014_11_19_Cities_dig_in_against_Uber_B.pdf
2014_11_21_Uber_hires_advisor.pdf
2015_01_07_Uber_cars_seized_by_Cape_Town_police.pdf
2015_01_20_Ubers_CEO_on_charm_offensive.pdf
2015_01_20 https://action.uber.org/edmonton/
2015_01_21_Uber_raises_1-6Billion.pdf
2015_01_29_Uber_City_set_collision_course.pdf
2015_02_01 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uber_(company)
2015_02_02 http://www.edmontonjournal.com/Edmonton+ponders+next+step+Uber+announces+rides+free/10775638/story.html
2015_02_13 http://www.edmontonsun.com/2015/02/13/ride-along-on-a-couple-uber-edmonton-trips
2015_02_17 https://www.uber.com/
Identify the opportunities/problems, especially concerning expansion and growth:
o include many points of view: try not to prematurely exclude possibilities
o consider characterizing the environment along dimensions such as (from MIS441 lecture 1):
Markets: (Strong competition, Expanding global markets, Innovative marketing methods, Opportunities for outsourcing with IT support, Need for real-time, on-demand transactions)
Consumer demand: (Desire for customization, Desire for quality, diversity of products, and speed of delivery, Customers getting powerful and less loyal)
Technology: (More innovations, new products, and new services, Increasing obsolescence rate, Increasing information overload, Social networking, Web 2.0 and beyond)
Societal: (Growing government regulations and deregulation, Workforce more diversified, older, and composed of more women, Prime concerns of homeland security and terrorist attacks, Increasing social responsibility of companies, Greater emphasis on sustainability)
• characterize your objectives within the environment: what is your ideal target-state for your business (especially concerning expansion and growth)?
• characterize the gap between the current state and your ideal, including metrics for how you will measure this
• use knowledge of environment and objectives to identify value-system to be used for evaluating future alternatives
