PlayStation: Sony's Game-Changing Product in the Video Game Industry, Exams of Business Management and Analysis

Download PlayStation: Sony's Game-Changing Product in the Video Game Industry and more Exams Business Management and Analysis in PDF only on Docsity! Autumn Repeat Examinations 2007/ 2008 Exam Code(s) 2BC1, 2CL1, 2BF1, 2IF1 Exam(s) 2nd Commerce, 2nd Corporate Law, 2nd BSc Information Technology, 2nd BSc Information Systems Module Code(s) MG203 Module(s) Business Organisation and Management Paper No. 1 Repeat Paper Yes External Examiner(s) Professor Colin Eden Internal Examiner(s) Professor Hugh Scullion Will Geoghegan Michael Campion Mary Dempsey Instructions: Please attempt BOTH questions: Question 1 and Question 2. Multiple Choice, use the Answer Sheet provided NB: Make sure you fill your name and student number on the MCQ answer sheet. Fill in your student number followed by a zero. Duration 2 hrs No. of Pages 13 incl cover page Department(s) Management Course Co-ordinator(s) Josephine Igoe Requirements: MCQ Yes Handout N/A Statistical/ Log Tables N/A Cambridge Tables N/A Graph Paper N/A Log Graph Paper N/A Other Materials N/A 2 OLLSCOIL NA hÉIREANN, GAILLIMH NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND, GALWAY AUTUMN EXAMINATIONS 2007/08 MG203 – BUSINESS ORGANISATION & MANAGEMENT PAPER 1 Time allowed: TWO hours Please attempt BOTH questions: Question 1 and Question 2. For Question 2, Multiple Choice, use the Answer Sheet provided Q1. In respect of the attached case, based on the facts of the case and knowledge learned in the course, please answer ALL three questions. All questions carry equal marks (66% of Total Marks) Q2. In respect of the 34 multiple choice questions attached, choose the best answer from the responses listed. Record your answers, together with your name and student number, on the MCQ answer sheet provided. 1 mark is awarded for each correct answer, 0 marks if there is no answer and – 0.33 marks for each incorrect answer. (34% of Total Marks) 5 dimension. CDs are cheaper than cartridges -- $5 to $10 versus $35. They're easier to turn into games. PlayStation manufactures CD-ROMs in three U.S. factories and fills orders within two weeks. Nintendo manufactures cartridges in Japan and takes as long as three months to fill orders. And CDs can store vastly more data than cartridges (650 megabytes versus 16 megabytes), which allows for more complex graphics and games. The flexibility of CD -ROMs lets the company test offbeat games in small batches and, if a hit appears, bring large volumes to market quickly. It also helps developers try to defy cultural barriers. Games that do well in Japan often bomb in Europe and North America. CDs let PlayStation troll for crossover titles by doing test runs of, say, 5,000 copies and monitoring the market response. To be sure, for all of PlayStation's triumphs, the game is far from over. Last September, Nintendo launched its own second-generation video console (dubbed N64) with speed and graphics that clearly outperform the PlayStation. During its first nine months on the market, North American consumers bought an impressive 2.6 million units. But Nintendo continues to struggle with its blockbuster complex. As of this summer, PlayStation customers have 250 game titles from which to choose. When Nintendo launched the N64, there were just 2 titles on the market. There are still fewer than 20. For PlayStation, variety remains the spice of business life. Free Spirits, Hard Work As video games become bigger, faster, and more lifelike, the stakes keep rising. Three years ago, Jonathan Beard, a 28-year-old producer and graphic artist, could sit down with a few programmer friends and create a game in six weeks. Beard's current project, a complex fighting game called Blasto, took 18 months of work and a small army of professionals: four programmers, four modelers, three animators. That's typical. Between 1988 and 1993, the average cost of making a video game jumped from $80,000 to $500,000. Since then, it has leaped to $1.5 million -- with a few projects burning as much as $8 million to $10 million. Yet by all indications, Blasto will not only make its deadline but also make a major splash in the Christmas market. Some insiders are predicting it will be one of PlayStation's biggest games ever. How does PlayStation rise to the challenge? First, it makes work playful.PlayStation also encourages autonomy, but demands accountability. Game designers like to be left alone. A sense of independence, defiance, really oozes from every corner of the studios. The flip side of all this autonomy is accountability. And the essence of accountability is shared goals. Once a project has been "green-lighted" -- that is, once a producer, a programmer, and an artist have developed an outline, and a development team has been assembled -- members of the team strike a formal agreement about how work will proceed. The agreement includes lots of traditional metrics: project objectives, deadlines, milestones. 6 Job assignments are especially contentious. In the old days, when game teams involved just two or three people, the ideal designer was a brilliant generalist with multiple skills. Today's games require much larger development teams -- and much narrower specialties. Third, PlayStation encourages people to work in teams -- and to compete. The studios revel in an organizational tension that would make most companies very uncomfortable: just because everyone is on the same side doesn't mean they always have to get along. At PlayStation, creativity and competition are two sides of the same coin. Finally, PlayStation expects success -- but prepares to manage failure. Even the best-designed systems can't guarantee creative perfection. PlayStation pulls the plug on about 15% of the projects it starts. The studios rarely assign those teams another project. What do you do after you've conquered an industry with relentless innovation in hardware, software, and business strategy? Generate more innovation in all three areas. After all, Nintendo and Sega are pursuing aggressive comeback strategies -- and making genuine headway. PlayStation's only option is to keep changing the game. CASE QUESTIONS Please answer all questions 1. Identify the main trends and forces shaping the games industry. 2. Identify and explain the main strengths and weaknesses of Sony in this industry? 3. What appears to be the key requirements for success in this industry in the future? 7 QUESTION 2: MULTIPLE CHOICE Use the Answer Sheet provided NB: Make sure you fill your name and student number on the MCQ answer sheet. Fill in your student number followed by a zero. Choose the best answer from the responses listed. 1 mark is awarded for each correct answer, 0 marks if there is no answer and - 0.33 marks for each incorrect answer. 1. “A group of people working together in a structured and coordinated fashion to achieve a set of goals” best describes a(n) __________. a. Manager b. Employee c. Organisation d. Innovation 2. Which of the following is not a category of resources? a. Physical b. Human c. Financial d. Accounting 3. Which of the following according to Barney and Griffin is a function of management? a. Managing Strategy b. Managing Structure c. Managing Behaviour d. All of the above 4. First line managers mainly are involved in? a. Direction and leadership b. Supervision of workers c. Implementation d. All of the above 10 15. Which of the following would not be used as a category to evaluate a strategy? a. Suitability b. Feasibility c. Acceptability d. Proposabaility 16. Apples ipod strategy would be an example of which level of strategy? a. Corporate b. Business level c. Operational d. Functional 17. Which of the following is not an example of Porters Generic strategies? a. Low Cost b. Differentiation c. Operational d. Focus 18. Which of the following is an element in organising? a. Distributing authority b. Coordinating activities c. Differentiating between positions d. All of the above 19. If you work in the Accounts department, you are segmented based on: a. Functional Departmentalisation b. Product Departmentalisation c. Customer Departmentalisation d. Locational Departmentalisation 11 20. The purpose of control is? a. Adapt to environmental change b. Limit the accumulation of errors c. Minimise costs d. All of the above 21. Which of the following is not part of the operational control process? a. Preliminary control b. Manuaction Control c. Screening control d. Postaction control 22. Which author is famous for the view that managers do not have right to give away profit and that their job is to generate money, not spend it? a. Milton Friedman b. Michael Porter c. Igor Ansoff d. Jay Barney 23. Which of the following are not primary stakeholders in an organisation? a. Employees b. Suppliers c. Lobby groups d. Buyers 24. Which of the following is not an element of international culture? a. Material elements b. Aesthetics c. Modelling d. Education 12 25. With regard country cluster analysis in international culture, which of the following countries would not be classed as within the Anglo culture (which includes Ireland? a. Canada b. New Zealand c. Israel d. South Africa 26. The two main personality differences identified by Eysenck are: a) extroversion/introversion and shrewdness/insecurity b) extroversion/introversion and neuroticism/stability c) neuroticism/stability and optimism/pessimism d) optimism/pessimism and sufficiency/insecurity 27. Maslow’s theory and Herzberg’s theory are two examples of __________ theories of motivation a) Process b) Content c) Equity d) Expectancy 28. Heidler’s theory that behaviour is determined by a combination of perceived internal and external forces is known as the: a) Halo effect b) Perception theory c) Attribution theory d) Expectancy theory 29. __________ is the relatively stable set of psychological and behavioural attributes that distinguish one person form another. a) Behaviour b) Perception c) Attribution d) Personality