Araya Messa

Colorado Technical University

Instructor:  Dr Cynthia Calongne

 

April 17, 2021

 

Unit4-DB3

In a business world, the most common business incidence is when big companies face big changes around them that make them fail unfortunately (Sull, n.d). This may be due to so many reasons such as being unable to preserve themselves against competitors equipped with new products, strategies, technologies, advanced success models. Such huge changes may make them watch their sales and profits decline hugely, their best employee and customers leave, and their stock price value flips down. After so much hardship rounds of downscaling and reform some of them eventually achieve to recover—while many don’t.

The question why decent companies eventually go wrong is usually assumed due business paralysis. However, Sull (n.d) did find insignificant evidence of paralysis. Those managers with a total paralyzed or beleaguered company generally identify the threat very early, analyze its consequences carefully, and provide a set of initiatives in response. According to Sull (n.d), the problem is not an incapability to act but an incapability to take proper action. The most blamed reason for this failure is a common company behavior called inertia or an active inertia as termed by Sull (n.d). Corporate inertia or active inertia is a term used to define an established company which keeps rigid in its thinking and actions instead of being open to any changing industry and company dynamics Kokemuller (n.d). It's easy for company leaders to become satisfied when things are going well though usually are not. Sticking in past formulas, strategies and action that brought success previously and trying those to get out of complex challenges when encountered rather make them immerse into deep unswimable pool.

To see very relevant example here let’s consider the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company (Sull, n.d). These company was a leading player in its industry but failed to meet the challenge of change. It was not due to its leaders didn’t take any action, but the reason was because they didn’t act properly.

According to Sull (n.d) Firestone entered the 1970s. It had shown very solid growth for 70 years in a row. During those years it managed to be one of the topes needed in the US tire industry alongside Goodyear. Firestone’s managers had unambiguous vision of their business strategy and positioning. They were set to see:

·       The Big Three Detroit automakers as their key customers,

·       Goodyear and the other leading U.S. tire makers as their competitors, 

·       their challenge as simply keeping up with the steadily increasing demand for tires.

·       they were keeping their good culture to treating customers and employees as part of their family and made great relationship with the top executives of the big automakers. 

·       the Firestone country club was open to all employees, regardless of rank any rank

·        they created aggressively loyal managers, immersing them in the company’s family values and in its worldview.

·       their company’s operating and capital allocation processes were designed to exploit the booming demand for tires by quickly bringing new production capacity online. Their formula in the capital-budgeting process, for instance, was that frontline employees identified market opportunities and interpreted them into proposals for investing in additional capacity.  Middle managers then selected the most hopeful proposals and presented them to top executives, who tended to speedily approve the middle managers’ recommendations.

Those unambiguous business design strategies and formulas were clear that paved Firestone to a great success for seven decades. However, everything became upside down with no time after a French Company called Michelin which manufactures a radial tire introduced to the U.S. market (Sull, n.d). Based on design modifications, radial tires were found to be safer, more elongated age, and more economical than traditional bias tires. They had dominated European markets, and Ford declared in 1972 that all its new cars would have radials. That clearly showed that the radial tire market also began dominating the U.S. market. Firestone was not too worried about arrival of radials. However, after the radials became so much popular rapidly, and its managers saw the coming of radials largely, and forecasted radials would be accepted by the US automakers, it swiftly acted. It financed nearly $400 million in radial manufacturing, built new tire plants dedicated to radial tires and quickly converted several existing factories (Sull, n.d). Although they did all that budget spending and built new factories for radial tires, they did that keeping their old strategies, values, processing formulas that they used in the past for their old bias tire factory. They also converted their plant to radial manufacturing plant rashly. That caused them to have a lower quality standard, lost their customer relationships, and became highly ineffective due to their mode of active inertia.  By 1979, Firestone became in big shock: Its plants were running weak at 59% of capacity, renting warehouses to store unsold tires, it was plagued by costly and embarrassing product recalls, and its domestic tire business had burned more than $200 million in cash (Sull, n.d).

In summary, company need to know the sociotechnical applications in their business, that is they need to give special attention in order to use their processes, strategies, values in the way that makes sense for their overall business profit.  The driving forces that play here are aspiration of owning sustainable business when there is unforeseen hardships and maintain customer or societal satisfactions of the service that the business provides.

References:

·       Sull, D., (n.d), Why Good Companies Go Bad. https://hbr.org/1999/07/why-good-companies-go-bad

·       Neil Kokemuller, N., (n.d).  What Is Corporate Inertia? https://smallbusiness.chron.com/corporate-inertia-61349.html

 

Araya Messa

Colorado Technical University

Instructor:  Dr Cynthia Calongne

 

April 10, 2021

 

Unit4-DB2

In this discussion board we will define the discovery terminologies, Serendipity, Error, and Exaptation, and give some examples for each discovery. 

1.     Provide an innovation example for discoveries that are achieved through the following:

·       Serendipity: Big Bang by Robert Wilson and Arno Penzias and Penicillin by Dr. Alexander Fleming

·       Error: Pacemaker by assistant professor Wilson Greatbatch

·       Exaptation: bird feathers for flight

2.     In your own words, what do these terms mean to you? Give an example of each term in your experience or that you have read about.

a.       Serendipity:

This is a discovery that inventions are accidentally invented. This means when people invent innovative and new products that they do not even plan for it at all. Inventors are those that we regard them with high respect: the bright individuals who imagine that most of us even do not think of (Nield, 2016). However, half of all patented inventions found unpredictably (Nield, 2016). In 1960, astronomers Robert Wilson and Arno Penzias observed some odd and annoying "noise" from their large antenna while seeing the space between galaxies to measure the brightness of the sky with their radio telescope (McFadden, 2020). They also noted that the strange lively sound seemed to be everywhere they pointed their device. What they had unintentionally tripped upon was the galactic microwave background which is the leftover radiation from the "Big Bang" (McFadden, 2020). They were awarded the Nobel Prize for their discovery. Since then, it has become a universally agreed theory that states the universe began 13.8 billion years ago with the Big Bang.

b.      Errors: 

              Scientists, innovators, researchers, etc. usually set their detailed plan and procedures to invent or find a new thing or idea. They are not however always successful to accomplish what they intend. There is a time that they fail. However, their failure probably opens to another opportunity of unintended discovery. Turning mistakenly found incident into another scientific discovery is called a discovery from an error.  Scientists strongly suggest one need not to fear failures but need to learn from their failure. For instance, assistant professor Wilson Greatbatch invented Pacemaker after his project at the University of Buffalo rejected. He designed 10, 000 ohm of box to use on a heart-recording prototype that caused a circuit produced a signal that sounded 1.8 milliseconds, and then paused for a second — a dead ringer for the human heart (www.drugline.org).  This is now largely used for the people who have heart problem specifically those that have heart-beat issue.

c.       Exaptation: 

The term was first given by Stephen Jay Gould and Elisabeth Vrba in 1982 (Tam, 2018). The idea of exaptation is not limited to only evolutionary biology. It explains a process that extends to other new innovations such as technological progress. The best example here is the bird feather, that it eventually helps them to fly. The feather was not originally for flight but to warm themselves. Through evolution the feather developed to assist them to fly. This borrowing from old part and develop to new function also works in technology. Corning Inc. used its innovations and expertise in glass technologies to yield ground-breaking research in fiber optics, which transformed the world of telecommunications. The concept of exaptation offers valuable insight into the patterns of innovation which can lead to creative breakthroughs over time.

 

Reference:

1. Nield, D., (2016). Statistics Show Half of All Inventions Happen by Accident. https://www.sciencealert.com/the-statistics-say-half-of-all-inventions-happen-by-accident.

2.       McFadden, C., (2020). 15 Accidental Science Discoveries That Changed the World.     

https://interestingengineering.com/15-accidental-science-discoveries-that-changed-the-    world & https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPalHdzsImc&t=84s.

3. Tam, M., (2018).  Patterns of Innovation: How Exaptation Can Lead to Creative Breakthroughs. https://medium.com/asia-p3-hub-updates/patterns-of-innovation-how-exaptation-can-lead-to-creative-breakthroughs-d7a0a3641d8c.

4.       www.drugline.org.

 Araya Messa

Colorado Technical University

Instructor:  Dr Cynthia Calongne

 

April 10, 2021

 

Sociotechnical Approach: Unit4-DB1

The following activity is designed to help my dream and make plans for my future. Let’s see the items that I may wish to have in the future if I had all the time, money, and talent in the world.

1.       Education: Would you learn a language, master Aikido, get a second doctorate, or learn to play the guitar?

ü  Mastering my study concentration example data science or big data analytics

ü  Learn how to predict risks or consequences

ü  Updating myself with latest technologies continuously

ü  Learn how to communicate clearly

ü  Learn how to read things

ü  Learn to being creative

ü  Learn to be able to differentiate reality or truth from fiction

ü  Learn how to solve challenges of impossibilities

ü  Learn to improve my management and leading abilities

ü  Acquire more technological certifications and licenses 

2.       Job or research: Would you be a think tank researcher, mad scientist, astronaut, chief executive officer (CEO), or rock star?

ü  Data Scientist

ü  Big Data Researcher

ü  Geotechnical Data Scientist

ü  Agricultural Data Scientist

ü  Data Science Academia Instructor

ü  Data Science Consultant

ü  Cloud Computation Engineer

ü  Renewable Energy Data Scientist

ü  Think Tank Researcher

ü  Data Science Startup Owner

 

3.       Philosophical or religious: Would you visit the Vatican archives, study in Tibet, visit a sweat lodge, or host a spiritual retreat?

ü  Understand my own religion deeply

ü  Read and understand other religious manuscripts (Bibles, Qurans, etc.)

ü  Discuss exciting topics about philosophy

ü  Learn a little bit of everything

ü  Grow critical and structured thinking

ü  Read more how our universe came to an exist

ü  Read more about what happens about life

ü  Visit religion sites

ü  Read more philosophy books to understand what that actually means

ü  Would like to see major differences between religions

4.       Travel: Would you go beyond your favorite places to whereabouts in your wildest dreams?

ü  Travel to all 7 continents

ü  Travel to historical places

ü  Travel to long trips via train to appreciate nature

ü  Traveling with subways

ü  Travel to have occasional Camping

ü  Travel via oceans (cruise ships)

ü  Traveling using self-driving cars (Wishing)

ü  Travel with the future of high-speed travel planes such as quiet supersonic or hypersonic X-planes (wishing!)

ü  Travel to some planets other than our earth (wishing!)

 

5.       Home: What would you add to your home? Would you add a swimming pool, observatory, riding academy, or private beach? Would you want a summer home in Hawaii?

ü  Kids playground

ü  Swimming pool

ü  Garden with variety plants

ü  Housing or habitat for birds

ü  Water Fountain

ü  Mini library room

ü  Equipped with sophisticated desktop computers

ü  Equipped with Home Gym Equipment

ü  Making it smart home (utilizing smart technologies such as IoT).

ü  Ultimate Home Garage Setup

      Demand is limitless and looks like it is never fully achievable. From those 50 items that I listed above are some of them are that I plan to necessary accomplish them for the sake of life to continue sustainably. Some of them are significantly necessary but will not make me fail in life if they are not accomplished. Some of the rest are just wishing to satisfy my limitless demand partially ( as demand is endless to achieve fully).

References:

·  https://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/tech/tech236.shtml

·        https://courses.lumenlearning.com/sac-counseling116/chapter/professional-skill-building/

·       https://www.analyticsvidhya.com/blog/2020/10/8-things-data-science-career-know/  

·  https://www.lifehack.org/articles/productivity/5-reasons-why-you-should-invest-self-education.html