Armed Forces Programme - XXVI

Final Examination | Strategic Management |Term – II | MM:50

Mode: Offline | 07th March 2022 | 1415 – 1615 hrs.

Nature of Exam: - Its an open book examination. No electronic device is

permitted.

Question 1 (2.5x4 = 10 marks)

Identify the GROWTH Strategy in the following cases and give your views on
the decision.

1. Zeiss collaborated with Vivo to explore the mobile phone market for their
lenses.

2. Wal-Mart acquired Flipkart to pave the way for their Omni-channel retail
strategy in India.

3. Microsoft developed a new video camera for its Xbox 360 console that
allowed players to control games with the movement of their bodies, rather
than by holding a plastic wand in
their hands, as required with Nintendo’s popular Wii game console.

4. Byju’s acquired Whitehat Jr. and Aakash Institute.

Question 2

Go through the case: ‘The Future of Google’ and answer the questions given
at the end of it.

The Future of Google

Google wasn’t the first Internet search engine. At least 19 search engines
existed—including Lycos, Alta Vista, Excite, Yahoo!, and Ask Jeeves—before
Google was introduced in 1998. Nor is Google the only Internet search engine
currently operating. Currently, at least 32 Internet search engines exist,
including Ask.com, Bing, Baidu, and DuckDuckGo. However, despite what
appears to be an incredibly competitive industry, Google reigns supreme, with

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a U.S. and worldwide market share in excess of 60 percent of all Internet
searches. Indeed, Google has been so successful that it has been “verbicized.”
Now, to “google” something means to look something up on the Internet. This
is the case even if you don’t use Google to search the Web. Many have
wondered what has made Google so successful and whether it will be able to
maintain—and even extend—its success. Three attributes of Google have been
most widely cited.

First, Google is technically very competent. In the mid-1990s, all other search
engines counted key words on Web pages and then reported which Web sites
had the most key words. Google conceptualized the search process differently
and used the relationship among pages as a way to guide users to those Web
sites that were most helpful to them. Most people agree that Google’s
approach to Internet search was superior. This technical competence has
enabled Google to buy the technologies of several firms—including Keyhole
and Global IP Solutions—and then to leverage those technologies into
successful Google products—including Google Earth and Google Hangout.

Second, Google has been unusually successful in monetizing its software—that

is, finding ways to make the software it gives to customers for free generate
revenues for Google. Perhaps the best example of this is Google’s AdWords
program— a system that uses demand for Google advertising to precisely price
the value of clicking onto a Web site. In 2012, Google advertising generated
$10.42 billion in revenue. Finally, Google’s founders—Larry Page and Sergey
Brin— are convinced that Google’s unique organizational culture is central to
their success. Google has a playful yet demanding culture.

Developers are held to the highest standards of performance but are also
encouraged to spend at least 20 percent of their time working on their own
personal projects—many of which have turned into great products for Google.
Google expects to meet its product announcement dates, but when it issued
some new shares in 2005, it sold 14,159,265 shares, exactly. Why? Because
those are the first eight numbers after the decimal point in pi (3.14159265).
Google’s unofficial slogan—a not-very-subtle dig on Microsoft—is “Don’t Do
Evil.” So, Google doesn’t develop proprietary software that it then attempts to
sell to users for high prices. Instead, Google trusts its users, follows their lead
in developing new products, and adopts an open approach to developing
software. Whether or not these three attributes of Google are sources of
sustained competitive advantage is still up for debate. On the one hand,
Google has used all three to develop an open source smart phone operating

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system—Android—that has emerged as a serious competitor for Apple’s
operating system. Moreover, Google seems to have figured out how to begin
to monetize the success of one of its best-known acquisitions, YouTube. On the
other hand, Google’s acquisition of Motorola Mobile for $12.5 billion seems to
have created new challenges for the firm. Justified based on the mobile phone
patents owned by Motorola, Google must nevertheless find a way to make
money manufacturing cell phones. Motorola failed in this effort the last few
years it owned Motorola Mobile. And Google has never before owned a
business that actually made tangible products, like phones. There are, of
course, lots of different opinions about Google, and it’s easy to find them—just
“google” Google on the Web, and in less than half a second, you will see more
than 2 billion Web sites that are related to Google.

Questions
1) What are the sources of Competitive Advantage for Google? (10 marks)
2) Going forward, suggest a strategy for Google. (10 marks)

Q.3. Please go through the case Singapore Airlines and answer the questions
given at the end of it.

Singapore Airlines

Singapore Airlines Limited (SIA) is the 5-star airline of Singapore. Singapore

Airlines operates trans-Pacific flights, including the world’s longest non-stop
commercial flights from Singapore to Los Angeles and Newark on the Airbus
A340-500. In late 2013, the company ceased offering those two long flights
although Los Angeles is still served via Tokyo-Narita. The luxury airline has a
strong presence in Asia. A member of the Star Alliance, Singapore Airlines
carried around 18 million passengers in 2012, up from 16.9 million in 2011.
Singapore Airlines is very well managed strategically. The company has
diversified airline-related businesses, such as aircraft handling and engineering,
and owns SilkAir that manages regional flights to secondary cities with smaller
capacity requirements. Singapore Airlines operates passenger services to more
than 60 cities in over 30 countries around the world. Within Asia, passengers
can connect to over 30 cities served by SilkAir. The company is the official
sponsor of Singapore national football team and has been marketing Singapore
Girl as central image to the airline’s brand. Fortune in 2013 ranked Singapore
Airlines as the 31st most admired company in the world outside the United
States. In December 2012, Singapore Airlines sold its 49 percent stake in Virgin
Atlantic for US$360 million. In April 2012, Singapore Airlines phased out the

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747 from its fleet after 40 years of service. A final round-trip commemorative
flight was operated from Singapore to Hong Kong. In December 2012,
Singapore Airlines began using the A380 to San Francisco via Hong Kong as a
winter seasonal service, but still uses a Boeing 777-300ER for the remainder of
the year. In May 2013, Singapore Airlines made a commitment to order 30
Boeing 787-10X to be delivered in 2018-2019 timeframe. In September 2013,
Singapore Airlines began using the Airbus A380 on selected flights to and from
Shanghai, China. Singapore Airlines’ passenger carriage (measured in revenue
passenger kilometers) grew 8.6 percent in August 2013 year-on-year along
with a 3.1 percent increase in capacity (measured in available seat kilometers).
The company’s passenger load factor (PLF) improved by 4.1 percentage points
to 82.4 percent as the number of passengers carried in August 2013 increased
by 11.7 percent to 1.7 million. Load factors improved across all regions,
bolstered by strong leisure travel demand during the Lebaran/Hari Raya
holidays, coupled with returning summer traffic. Traffic to West Asia and Africa
also saw improvements. SilkAir’s system wide passenger carriage in August
2013 increased 10.7 percent year-on-year along with a 13.4 percent growth in
capacity. For that month, SilkAir’s PLF was 1.8 percentage points lower at 71.7
percent. Singapore Airlines’ cargo traffic (measured in freight tonne-
kilometres) was 5.7 percent lower in August 2013 year-on-year, while cargo
capacity was reduced by 5.0 percent.

Questions

(1) What is the competitive advantage of Singapore airlines that makes it

distinct as compared to its competitors? (10 marks)
(2) What should Singapore Airlines do to sustain its competitive
advantage(s)? (10 marks)

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