Week 8 assignments

Forum: Are there particular types of innovation activities for which large firms are likely to outperform small firms? Are there types for which small firms are likely to outperform large firms?

– What are some of the advantages and disadvantages of having formalized procedures for improving the effectiveness or efficiency of innovation?

Response #1: Hello everyone,
I hope this find everyone well and hope you had a great Memorial Day weekend.  It sure doesn’t seem like this is our last week already!  TIme has gone by pretty quick. 
The larger firms have advantages over smaller ones because they can have a long term of the fixed costs and be able to spread out the cost of R & D. They can have more and bigger equipment to do more and work quicker.   Big firms usually have more departments and functions such as marketing, accounting, in addition the size can also have a much larger capital to create bigger business.  Smaller firms seem to have less rules, policies and procedures.  Smaller firm also has a greater feel of return on investment and the bigger the company gets the larger one is less responsive to change.  Disadvantages to large companies is high number of employees and how the communication might be hard in making decisions and delaying them.  The bigger the company the harder changes are to deal with.  Smaller firms seem more flexible and it is easier to handle smaller employees, the customers and suppliers.  The smaller companies seem to be more rewarding to their employees then larger ones. 
Formalization is how reliant a firm is on their rules and regulations.  I think the worse part of formalization is that it could form resentment because the company get feel empowered in a fast-paced business and lose employees and perform lower job rates.  There needs to be structure and maybe not so much relying on the rules and policies and being such a powerful firm to boss around more people with less managers.  If there is help in large companies to help run smoother with less managers, there would be less of a managerial oversight.

Response #2: Good Morning Everyone, 
I hope everyone has had a good week. Larger companies have the advantage of having larger financial budgets, therefore they have more opportunitues for better enhancements. The example that I used in my research is the Nike Plus app. This app offers components that give it the abilty to outperform smaller companies, for example placing orders and have the abiltiy to pick the items up from lockers in physical locations, the app also have componets that allow consumers the ability to reserve items, have them placed in dressing rooms and make the purchases through contact free methods. 
Smaller companies innovations that can be outperformers will probably be the in person methods that will allow a more personal impact that will enhance their customer service influence. A small business may not have a large financial budget as larger companies so they have to make personal connections as possible. During this time of this pandemic companies have had to design more innovations to hold on to their customers and gain new customers as well. We use a small clinic for our dog, and the innovation they have used during this time is personal emails and calls to see if we needed anything for our dog. Larger companies do not do that. They have also created new innovative practices that make it easier to bring pets in, they do all the intake information over the phone and once you reach the clinic, you are to call and they will come out to retrieve your pet and the same thing is for pick up. Larger stores have methods that are similiar, but I think the personal touches will be a larger advantage over the larger companies. 
The advantages of have formailzing procedures is employers and employees know what the expectations are and what they are to adhere to. From personal experience, we are in the process of reopening our store, when knew what the procedures were prior to COVID-1+9, but there have been significant changes since the reopening and we are being retrained as we are working. This is an advantage as well as a disadvantage. The procedures are put in place for saftey measures for both staff and consumers, but the disadvantage is we are learning as we go.

(Responses will be submitted once initial forum has been posted)

Assignment: Throughout this course you have worked on various components of your marketing plan. Now it’s time to put it all together and finalize your plan, as you know it today. Submit your completed marketing plan. Your marketing plan should include the following:

Marketing objectives and how they meet business goals
Marketing framework
Customer segmentation – current, potential, and competitor’s
Differentiation of your business
Marketing dashboard
Graphics

Minimum 5 pages
Minimum 3 graphics
Minimum 2 scholarly sources
Business professional format
APA for citations and reference list