TI Case Study Description

Background of the Corporation

Largo Corporation is a major multinational conglomerate corporation which specializes in a wide array of products and services.These products and services include healthcare, finance, retail, government services, and many more.The annual revenue is about $750 million and it has about 1,000 employees.The parent company is located in Largo, Maryland and its subsidiaries are headquartered throughout the United States.

The mission of the corporation is to bring the best products and services to people and businesses throughout the world so they can then realize their full potential.

The corporate vision guides every aspect of their business to achieve sustainable, quality growth:

• Productivity: Be a highly effective, lean and fast-moving organization.
• People: Be a great place to work where people are inspired to achieve their maximum potential.
• Partners: Nurture a winning network of customers and suppliers, together we create mutual, enduring value.
• Responsible: Be a responsible citizen that makes a difference through ethical behavior.
• Revenue: Maximize long-term return while being mindful of our overall responsibilities.

The company’s culture is reflected in their corporate values:

• Leadership: Courage to shape a better future.
• Collaboration: Leverage collective intelligence.
• Accountability: Own up to your responsibility.
• Passion: Committed to excellence.
• Diversity: Provide new perspectives into our business.
• Quality: We will want quality as part of our brand.

The corporation consists of the parent company and the following subsidiaries:

• Healthcare – Suburban Independent Clinic, Inc. (medical services)
• Finance – Largo Capital (financial services)
• Retail – Rustic Americana (arts and crafts), Super-Mart (office products)
• Government Services – Government Security Consultants (information security)
• Automotive – New Breed (electric cars)
• Systems Integration – Solutions Delivery, Inc. (communications)
• Media Design – Largo Media (website and app design)

The organization is headed by CEO Tara Johnson who completed her Master’s degree at University of Chicago and eager to make worthwhile improvements to the corporation.She rose through the ranks of Largo Corporation starting with systems integration, then retail and her last position before becoming CEO was in finance.

The corporation is in a highly competitive environment so the CEO wants savvy employees at many levels to make wise judgments and take an aggressive approach and deliver results towards improving the bottom line yet maintaining corporate social responsibility.

Corporate Issues

Ms. Johnson is very concerned about the outlook of her company. Revenues recently declined and she felt that the organization needed a transformation for the company to do well over the long term. In thumbing through some readings she was inspired when she uncovered the following:

We live in a business world accelerating at a dizzying speed and teeming with ruthless competition. As most of the tangible advantages of the past have become commoditized, creativity has become the currency of success.A 2010 study of 1,500 CEOs indicated that leaders rank creativity as No. 1 leadership attribute needed for prosperity. It’s the one thing that can’t be outsourced; the one thing that’s the lifeblood of sustainable competitive advantage.

Unfortunately, most companies fail to unleash their most valuable resources: human creativity, imagination, and original thinking. They lack a systematic approach to building a culture of innovation, and then wonder why they keep getting beaten to the punch. (Linkner, 2011)

One issue that can be addressed with original thinking is how to reduce energy consumption across IT and the business as a whole. With escalating energy cost, this represents a low hanging fruit for successful innovation.

She decided to establish a team responsible for an innovation proposal that would address these concerns.

You have been chosen by the CEO as the “Innovation Team” leader.All members of the team need to understand the process of environmental scanning and technology trend scanning in order to identify innovative technologies that allow the corporation to respond to dynamic changes in the global marketplace. Further, she has directed you to provide solutions robust enough to address unforeseen market choices and demand. Hence, you should always allow for serendipitous discoveries, that is, ideas that you stumble across which have potential future benefits which may not be immediately aligned with the current mission.

This learning activity establishes your understanding of how innovation is accomplished in an organizational environment. As you quickly discover, innovation hinges on providing an environment that nurtures and values creativity and innovation. Fresh ideas often arise from solving problems nagging the organization. Keep in mind that genius rarely resides in the head of one individual within the organization. Yes, you have the “Steve Jobs” types of executives upon whose shoulders the vision rests and without whom there is no vision. But this is rare.Equally rare will be the “hidden employee gem” whose sudden inspiration saves the day.

You will understand the innovation life cycle process. IT professionals need to understand the importance of innovation and how to achieve it in their organization. Innovation is doing something different that has an impact on the business’ operations. Innovations are not often on the leading edge of technology. They can be as simple as migrating operations from one form of processing to another, switching to a greener lighting solution, outsourcing desktop support, investing in a stronger email security system and so on. Most innovations result from proactive thinking and what we will call a “corporate mindfulness”.

All IT professionals must be able to communicate effectively (oral and written) to executive level management in a non-jargon, executive level manner that convincingly justifies the need to invest in IT improvements and modernization. In addition, you will be developing critical thinking and key leadership skills. This learning demonstration is designed to strengthen these essential knowledge, skills, and abilities needed by IT professionals.

TI Steps to Completion

1) Download the file TechnologyInnovation.zip. You will find this file under Course Content> Final Group Project. This file contains: Evaluating_External_Environment.pdf, Organization-Culture.pdf

2) Perform Environmental Scanning

Environmental scanning involves identifying external opportunities and threats for an organization. Open the file Evaluating_External_Environment.pdf and read the article

Activity:Understand Environmental Scanning

3) Research Green Technology for Innovation

Green technologies are environmentally friendly technologies that often involve: energy efficiency, recycling, safety and health concerns, renewable resources, and more.

Research Green Technologies and examples of Green Technologies that are out there.

Activity: Provide a Green Technology report which summarizes your findings. Provide an overview of Green Technology and give examples of Top 5 Green Technologies. Identify one Green Technology for innovation at Largo. Be specific how it addresses Largo’s issues identified in the Introduction section of this learning activity.The report should be minimum 2 to maximum 3 pages.Include at least 3 references in the report. To better guide the reader, include an Introduction and Conclusion. The Introduction sets the context for the report; the Conclusion restates key take away points for the reader. Create a Cover Page and cut and paste this Activity (in highlight) on the page.

4) Research Cultures of Innovation

Innovation occurs within an organizational culture that supports innovation. Open the file Organizational-Culture.pdf and read the article.

Research other articles on Cultures of Innovation that are out there.

Activity:Provide a Largo Culture report that compares and contrasts ideal organizational culture/structure for innovation and Largo. Make three recommendations to move Largo towards a culture that is more conducive for innovation. Be specific how the recommendations address the issues identified in the Introduction of this learning activity. The report should be minimum 2 to maximum 3 pages.Include at least 3 references in the report. To better guide the reader, include an Introduction and Conclusion. The Introduction sets the context for the report; the Conclusion restates key take away points for the reader. Create a Cover Page and cut and paste this Activity (in highlight) on the page.

5)Research Innovation Cycles

In this step, you will learn about the process of Innovation AKA Innovation Cycles. Google “Innovation Cycle” using the Internet and research the different Innovation Cycles that are out there.

Activity: Prepare an Innovation Cycle report that addresses the findings from this step.Provide a report that compares and contrasts three innovation cycles.Include a table that summarizes the attributes of these innovation cycles. Make a recommendation as to which Innovation Cycle is most appropriate for Largo. Be specific how the recommendations address the issues identified in the Introduction of this learning activity. The report should be minimum 2 to maximum 3 pages.Include at least 3 references in the report. To better guide the reader, include an Introduction and Conclusion. The Introduction sets the context for the report; the Conclusion restates key take away points for the reader. Create a Cover Page and cut and paste this Activity (in highlight) on the page.

6) Executive Summary

Activity: Prepare an Executive Summary report summarizing the key findings from the group reports. The report should summarize each report under a separate section heading in the Executive Summary. For clarity, use the group report name as the section heading in the Executive Summary, i.e. Green Technology, Largo Culture, Innovation Cycle. Each section has a minimum .5 page – maximum 1 page in length. Be sure to include at least 3 references. These references should be taken from the Group Reports. Write an Introduction and Conclusion for the Executive Summary. The Introduction sets the context for the report; the Conclusion restates key take away points for the reader. Create a Cover Page and cut and paste this Activity (in highlight) on the page.

TI (Final) Group Project Deliverables

Format each report with one-inch margins, double spacing, and 12 point font.

• Create a Cover Page listing the Title of the Group Project, the study group number, the facilitator, the consolidator, the formatter, and main contributors for each deliverable (two maximum main contributors). (name this file: 1-Cover-Page.doc(x))
• Step 6: Executive Summary (name this file: 2-ExecutiveSummary.doc(x))
• Step 3: Green Technology report (name this file: 3-Green-Technology.doc(x))
• Step 4: Largo Culture report (name this file: 4-Largo-Culture.doc(x))
• Step 5: Innovation Cycle report (name this file: 5-Innovation-Cycle.doc(x))
• Create a folder to hold all of your deliverables.Zip (compress) the folder containing all of your files and submit the zipped file in your Study Group under Post Your Final Group Report Here. (name the zip file GroupReport_(groupNumber).zip)

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