Management Information Systems - WU - Chapter 1 & 2 Key Questions

What are Porter's three generic strategies and why would a company want to follow only one?

(1) Broad cost of leadership, (2) Broad differentiation, (3) focused strategy. Companies follow one of these strategies so it can project a consistent image to the entire marketplace.

What is the relationship between data, information, business intelligence?

Begins with Data. Information = data converted into meaningful and useful context B.I. = information collected from multiple sourcesKnowledge= skills, experience, and expertise coupled with information and intelligence

What is the role Porter's five forces model plays in decision making?

Buyer Power, Supplier Power, Threat of Substitute Products or Services, Threat of New Entrants, and Rivalry among existing competitors make up the Five Forces model. Buyer power is the ability of buyers to affect the price they must pay for an item. Supplier power is the suppliers ability to influence the prices they charge for supplies. Threat of substitute products or services in high when there are many alternatives to a product or service and low when there are few alternatives from which to choose. Threat of new entrants is high when it is easy for new competitors to enter a market and low when there are significant barriers to joining a market. Rivalry among existing competitors is high when competition is fierce in a market and low when competitors are more complacent.

How can a manager turn data into information?

By analyzing the data and converting it into meaningful and useful context

What is data? Why is data important to a business?

Data is raw facts that describe the characteristics of an event or object. It is important because it allows business managers to make more successful business decisions.

What is the relationship between a business strategy and stakeholders?

If the goal is to maximize profit for stakeholders, the business strategy must reflect that. **(I made this up lol)

Why is it important for a company to operate cross-functionally?

In order to be a successful company it must operate cross-functionally, integrating the operations of all departments.

How does system thinking support business operations?

Is a way of monitoring the entire system by viewing multiple inputs being processed or transformed to produce outputs while continuously gathering feedback on each part. It supports business operations because it lets the business react to feedback (positively or negatively)

Do you agree MIS is essential for businesses operating in the information age? Why or why not?

It is essential because data can be used and refined into information and with business intelligence can be used by knowledgeable individuals to make good decisions for a company.

What is the difference between a knowledge facilitator and knowledge assets?

Knowledge facilitators are people who help harness the wealth of knowledge in an organization. Facilitators help acquire and catalog the knowledge assets of an organization

How could a company use loyalty programs to influence buyer power? How could a company use switching costs to lock in customers and suppliers?

Loyalty programs reward customers based on their spending, think frequent flyer miles. Switching costs make customers reluctant to switch to another product or service including financial and intangible values.

What are the three types of analytics?

The three dominant types of analytics -Descriptive, Predictive and Prescriptive analytics, are interrelated solutions helping companies make the most out of the big data that they have.

How can a company use Porter's value chain analysis to measure customer satisfaction?

Value chain analysis is a highly useful tool that provides hard and fast numbers for evaluating the activities that add value to products and service. A company could survey its customers on their overall satisfaction. (support value activities)