The TOM Challenge: TOM Winners and Losers Assignment

December 09, 2015

Read The Full Prompt

The basic thesis of the TOM course is that company performance is driven by the alignment between the company’s business model and operating model. As defined in the “Introduction to the RC TOM Course” note, a business model is defined as how the firm creates and captures value, and an operating model refers to the processes that transform a firm’s assets (e.g., capital, labor, intellectual property, equipment, etc.) into valuable actions.

Please identify one organization in the global economy that you think is highly effective (or one that is highly ineffective) at driving alignment between its operating and business models

  1. Did you choose the company as an example of effectiveness or ineffectiveness? Why?
  2. Describe the company’s business and operating models. What is interesting about them?
  3. Do the models align and support each other?  How?  What specific features of the operating model are designed to create and sustain competitive advantage?  What features of the business model leverage unique capabilities of its operating model?  What are the implications for performance?

Submitted (929)

ENGRO Foods: Bringing information technology to milk farmers in Pakistan
Onaizah P
Posted on December 9, 2015 at 10:38 pm
How a local business giant reformed the lives of milk farmers in Pakistan
Fastenal: Focusing on Nuts and Bolts
Adam Gunter
Last modified on December 9, 2015 at 6:47 pm
What's behind the success of a 48-year old wholesaler and distributor of nuts and bolts? Their secret lies in the execution of a customer-focused business model.
BioRx – Transforming Specialty Pharmaceutical Distribution
RES
Posted on December 9, 2015 at 6:31 pm
An innovative specialty pharmacy service provider with 100% commitment to high-quality patient service that is helping to reduce costs and improve quality of life for patients.
ICEHOTEL: 8th Wonder of the World?
Richard
Last modified on December 7, 2015 at 3:29 am
Constructing and Managing the World's Largest Hotel Built of Snow and Ice
KIPP: Changing Lives One Student at a Time
Obi Okwara
Posted on December 9, 2015 at 9:20 pm
Roland Fryer showed that educational achievement is correlated with higher incomes, lower rates of unemployment, lower rates of incarceration, and better physical health.1 If you believe a causal relationship exists between educational achievement and life outcomes, then efforts to improve [...]
Tableau: Managing the data explosion
Sagar
Posted on December 9, 2015 at 11:24 pm
At the crossroads of truly understanding how to leverage data..
Spirit Airlines: Ultra-Low-Cost, Ultra-Impressive-Profits
rfennerty
Last modified on December 9, 2015 at 8:25 pm
Spirit Airlines has accomplished the seemingly impossible in the US airline industry: it has never lost money. It does so by keeping its business model, customer promise, and operating model simple and tightly aligned. It offers the lowest fares by [...]
Shaping Moore’s Law in the semiconductor industry: the success story of ASML
AM Schoonbeek
Last modified on December 10, 2015 at 8:19 am
In 1984, the year of ASML’s spin off from Philips, you could fit about 2200 transistors on one square millimeter of a computer processor chip. Today, it’s almost 8.5 million1. ASML produces the machines that made this remarkable development possible. [...]
CIBC World Markets: Serving clients or serving selves?
andrea.heckbert
Posted on December 9, 2015 at 9:57 pm
How one investment bank falls short of "beating the Street"
16 Handles: Too Hot of a Business to be Frozen Yogurt
Andrea Montero
Last modified on December 9, 2015 at 12:52 am
There is nothing novel about the frozen yogurt business. So how did this company manage to disrupt a market dominated by fierce competition and little differentiation? Simple: by focusing on who you are - versus what the product is - [...]
Zappos – Powered by Service but Stunted by Recent Changes?
Eric Chu
Posted on December 5, 2015 at 4:19 pm
Zappos has effectively set the standard for other e-commerce operations and, with annual sales in excess of $2 billion dollars, it’s clear that Zappos has been able to align its business and operating models. However, as they continue to experiment [...]
Warby Parker: Affordable Fashion That’s Easy to See
Adam H-L
Posted on December 9, 2015 at 5:35 pm
How Warby Parker's Operating Model has Enabled It's Disruption of the Eyewear Market
Vietnam Dairy Products Joint Stock Company: Milk for everyone
Tomo Nakagawa
Last modified on December 12, 2015 at 1:13 pm
Vietnam Dairy Products JSC is one of few state owned enterprises which pursues seamless innovation and brings value to the society.
GridPoint: Misalignment through Acquisition and Channel Partnerships
Caroline
Last modified on December 5, 2015 at 1:32 pm
Over the past 12 years, GridPoint has struggled to identify itself as a leader in the energy efficiency space.
The IKEA Concept: Furniture for the Masses
Andie
Posted on December 4, 2015 at 8:20 pm
AKA, How to decorate your apartment on a student budget
Topgolf Fore the Win
David Anderson
Posted on December 9, 2015 at 11:25 pm
Topgolf circumvents the declining trend of the golf industry by effectively aligning its business and operating models.
Netflix: Revolutionizing Content Creation and Distribution
NP
Posted on December 5, 2015 at 7:38 pm
Netflix is disrupting the media industry with its innovative approach to ad-free content distribution over the internet.
Paperless Post: Design Meets Technology
Pandanation
Posted on December 9, 2015 at 9:36 pm
Creating beautiful, well-designed communication for people who live both online and offline.
Get the door. It’s the liquor store.
CT6000
Posted on December 7, 2015 at 5:38 pm
Drizly does what Burt Reynolds couldn't (and what Amazon can't).
Samsung semiconductor
Go Choi
Last modified on December 9, 2015 at 11:29 pm
Samsung is one of the companies that is highly effective in aligning its business strategy and operation model. Although Samsung has been perceived as a mobile phone manufacturer to most consumers, Samsung’s core business is in semiconductor. Since 1993, Samsung [...]
Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev): The Winning Formula
Charles A. Mokuolu
Last modified on December 15, 2015 at 12:00 am
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev) has managed to differentiate itself from its competition by executing business and operating strategies that reinforce each other. AB InBev’s goal-focused and growth-oriented culture established AB InBev as the cost efficient player in the [...]
Welltok – a Healthcare Platform for Innovation
Kevin
Last modified on December 9, 2015 at 7:01 pm
Building a one-stop shop for digital health
Tesla – Winner winner chicken dinner
Aldo
Last modified on December 8, 2015 at 7:07 pm
Tesla is an example of successful disruptive company derived from effective alignment between business (“BIG DREAMS”) and operating models (“EXECUTION”)
DocuSign: Maximizing Growth Through Human Capital
Ezra Josephson
Posted on December 7, 2015 at 6:46 pm
“Back-office employees become cross-functional, lead small business units…”
1 … 10 11 12 13 14 … 39