HBS Written Report

During 14/12/2011, our section had combined with section 01 and carry out the Harvard Business School, HBS case study. Our main idea in HBS case study is about competitive among the famous handset manufacturer such as Symbian, Apple and others.

Initially we were in group of 5, but the discussion is only about 3 hours. Since there are a lot of group, we were required to reform our group from 5 peoples to 7 peoples. First, we are sitting group by group. After that we need to prepare a piece of paper and write our name on it to let lecturers and teaching assistant to know ourselves and this save a lot of time because we doesn’t need to introduce ourselves.

Lecturers had introduced themselves and show the slides they had prepared on the screen. There are 10 question distribute to 10 group of us. Every group leader is required to do sortition on the stage. Lecturers had prepared 10 piece of small paper which contain of the number of questions.

Here are the 10 questions during HBS.

1.Strategies taken by Symbian, Google, Apple in striving to lead the mobile industry.

2.Lessons learned from Harvard Business School Case Study

3.New entry company such as Google & Apple become threat to Symbian company. How?

4.Discuss the key players in mobile phone industries and how they influence each other.

5.As the future IT professional, how this case study change your view about your career?

6.What innovations can be introduce in improving mobile phone industries in terms of community uses and work?

7.Discuss the Symbian's situation based on Porter's 5 Forces model. What are your recommendation?

8.Analyse  Symbian's situation using SWOT analysis technique. What is your opinion about company situation.

9.Discuss on key Symbian Executives(exhibit 3).What is your opinion about them? Give suggestions.

10.Discuss on the mobile market share based on the statistics given.

 Our group got Question 3.
There are some strength from different companies who become threat to Symbian.
Microsoft

a.Improved phone reliability and performance

b. Build alliances with wireless network operators and phone manufacturers

c. Large network of third party PC developers potential in building apps

d. Motorola left Symbian (2005) to work with Microsoft

Palm

a.Intuitive user interface, reliable synch with PC’s, long battery life, modest cost.

RIMM

a. Always-on mobile e-mail devices

b. Offered Blackberry e-mail services to non-Blackberry devices

 Apple

a. Apple had substantial power over network operators

b. The iPhone support “multitouch” interactions and motion sensor

c. Offer third-party apps to iPhone users

Google

a. Offer a giving away software and services instead of charge the advertising fees

b. Encouraged development of third-party apps

c.Provide affordable wireless internet access

Our group member  all very nervous, because this is our first HBS. We still hv another 7 HBS for future.Although my group is not the best group in this HBS, we still happy .Through this , we learn how to cooperate with members. We learn critical thinking and time managemant in the presentation.