Case: Organizational Diagnosis, SLP: Time Warp!!

SLP2 – It’s New Year’s day, 2016. You just had a great New Year’s Eve celebration. You have finished analyzing the performance of Clipboard Tablet Co. in a great report that you turned in a few days early to Sally Smothers. Now you are ready to charge ahead into the future.
As you turn on the TV you notice something strange. The TV commentator is saying something about New Year’s Day, 2012. You look around and everything looks different. Yes, it’s true; it’s New Year’s Day, 2012. Time has rewound – a Time Warp, like the guy in the movie “Groundhog Day.”
You realize that you get to make the decisions for Clipboard Tablet Co. starting with 2012. Perhaps you can do better than Joe Schmoe.
At the beginning of each year (2012-2015), you will determine your pricing, your R&D allocations, and whether or not to discontinue any products. You make your decisions and time advances to the end of that year, and you look at the results to see what happened. You keep track of your decisions and make notes about your reasoning and analysis of the data, keeping the data for later analysis.
You run the Marketing of Clipboard Tablet Co. through the end of 2015. It is now December 31, 2015, New Year’s Eve. What is your total Score? Did you do better than Joe Schmoe?
You decide to organize your notes about your decisions, your analysis, and your reasoning into a report, which you think will help you move ahead into 2016.
Session Long Project
Run the Clipboard Tablet Co. simulation with your strategy, making decisions year by year for prices and R&D allocations. Write a 4-page paper, not including cover and reference page, in which you:
Write a report that shows your decisions and the results. Discuss why you did better or worse than Joe Schmoe.
KEYS TO THE ASSIGNMENT
The key aspects of this assignment that should be covered and taken into account in preparing your paper include:
• As you run the simulation, keep track of your decisions and the results – both financial and marketing. Copy and paste the results into Excel or into a Word document. You can also record the information that you get from the Advisor who discusses the market and compares Clipboard Tablet Co. products to the competition. Make note of the Final Total Score.
• You should include your Final Total Score, some tables, and/or graphs showing some of the results. Be sure to explain the differences clearly, using good logic.
• Remember that the key here is analysis.
• Time Line Summary:
SLP1
• 2015: Hired on December 15.
• Turned in first report to Sally a few days early on December 30.
• Celebrated on December 31.
SLP2
• Time Warp begins: January 1, 2016 warps into January 1, 2012.
• You realize you have to make decisions for 2012 – 2015.
• January 2, 2012 – input decisions for 2012.
• January 2, 2013 – input decisions for 2013.
• January 2, 2014 – input decisions for 2014.
• January 2, 2015 – input decisions for 2015.
• December 31, 2015 – You have gone through all four years, and you write your report to summarize how you did. You are hoping that you will wake up tomorrow and it will be 2016.