Negative Feedback Is Often Seen As Criticism †MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Negative Feedback Is Often Seen As Criticism And Most People Do Not React Well To Criticism. Answer: In order to ensure success in life, it is highly essential for every individual, to be aware of his own flaws as well as competence, so that one can accomplish success in life. It is not enough for an individual to invest all his time and energy in a piece of work, but it is equally important to assess ones knowledge and capability. This assessment is possible only with the help of feedback from a second person, who either helps one realize his unique attributes that can aid him in success, or makes him aware of the flaws that he needs to overcome (Doyle et al. 2013). While any form of feedback, positive or negative, should be used in a constructive sense, most of the people tend to get infuriated and repulsed by any form of negative feedback. The problem with negative feedback is that it is often confused with destructive criticism. However, both do not imply the same thing. On the one hand, destructive criticism refers to the extremely malicious and hurtful comment made by a person to abuse or humiliate another person. The motive of such criticism is only to hurl abuses on another person and to hurt him. On the other hand, as far as negative feedback is concerned, it should be noted that the ulterior motive of the speaker is not to hurt the sentiment of an individual, but rather to encourage him to perform better in future. Thus, unlike the former, any form of negative feedback essentially helps in improving the performance of an individual, helping him realize all his potentialities, and accomplish greater success in future. While a man engaging in destructive criticism will tend to tell his employee- You are a fool, you can never meet production target in future!. On the other hand, a person trying to provide negative feedback to his employee will say I am sure you can do better. This time you could not meet your target, and we believe you will meet the same in the next month. The latter clearly shows signs of encouragement, and the employee should feel motivated to perform better, rather than getting offended (Brookhart 2017). This is the reason one should not treat any negative feedback to be negative in the literal sense. However, on the other hand, it is important to consider the question, why do people, receiving negative feedback tend to get disheartened and offended by negative feedbacks. It should be remembered that any form of feedback is feedback, and that the ultimate aim of any feedback, be it positive or negative, is to enlighten an individual about his present state of performance, so that h can improve the same in future. However, most often, the people feel that the person providing negative feedback is trying to undermine his potentiality or question his ability (Brem et al. 2014). Hence, the person receiving the feedback, tends to get defensive about his own ability and tries to shut away himself from any feedback that tends to shatter his confidence. However, negative feedback is not at all equivalent to criticism, as unlike the latter, the former does not simply undermine the ability of the person, but rather informs him about his performance level. Hence, negative feedback provided i n the right time should be motivating to the receiver. However, it can be argued back that one of the chief reasons why negative feedback is often treated synonymously with criticism is because of the wrong attitude of the person who gives the feedback. It is indeed a pity that most people do not know the art of providing negative feedback. Often people get aggressive while providing the negative feedback, which can discourage the other person, and dampen his self-confidence (Boud and Molloy 2013). Hence, it is important to respect the sentiment of the opposite person, and choose words discreetly, so that the listener does not get de-motivated, but rather energized to accomplish more. If the boss calls his employee and offers a negative feedback that goes like- You are a total failure! How could you not meet your targets!, it is quite natural for the employee to consider the feedback to be a criticism only. The employee is bound to feel that the boss is judging his professional abil ity on the basis of a single performance. However, it should be argued back any form of feedback should be considered to be equally acceptable. On the one hand, when the boss of an employee calls him provides him a positive feedback, saying- You did incredibly well, the employee feels motivated. On the other hand, when the same boss calls him and provides him negative feedback, saying Here is where you have gone wrong, the same employee feels discouraged. However, the ulterior purpose behind both the kinds of feedback was the same- to improve the employee performance. While the positive feedback intended to help the employee realize the importance of staying committed to work, enhancing both confidence as well as performance, the negative feedback aims to inform the employee the areas where he would require to put in extra effort. Thus, in both the cases, the ultimate purpose of the feedback remains the same- to inform and enlighten the listener about his performance and ensure his future improvement. When a feedback is be ing given on the performance of a person, it clearly suggests that the performance of the action has been properly monitored and critically evaluated (Wooten and Ulrich 2017). This is the sole reason why any and every kind of feedback should be welcome. It is also important to note in this connection, that any form of positive feedback helps one to stay optimistic as well as feel more at ease with the challenges one is encountering, and yet this is somethingthat novicesneed (DiSanza and Legge 2016). Feedback, even the negative ones, thus, helps one to be aware of his flaws, rather than simply criticizing him. On the other hand, when one becomes anexpert, and he is already more or less aware of what he is doing, it is only negative feedback that can help him do what it takes him to accomplish more. It is indeed a regrettable fact that usually negative feedback has a dramatic impact on the motivation of the listener, while he should be more accepting of the same. However, at the same time, much focus should also be given on how the feedback is being communicated to the listener. The feedback provider should not employ the use of abusive words, nor should he forget to leave behind a piece of good advice at the end of the feedback is being given. This will help the listeners, especially the novices, remain optimistic about their capabilities. Any kind of feedback helps a person improve his performance and evolve himself for a better future. References: Boud, D. and Molloy, E. eds., 2013.Feedback in higher and professional education: understanding it and doing it well. Routledge. Brem, B., Schnueriger, N., Hemmi, M., Caspar, F., Schnabel, K. and Woermann, U., 2014. Quality assurance of simulated patient feedback in communication training for fourth-year medical students. Brookhart, S.M., 2017.How to give effective feedback to your students. ASCD. DiSanza, J.R. and Legge, N.J., 2016.Business and professional communication: Plans, processes, and performance. Pearson. Doyle, J.C., Francis, B.A. and Tannenbaum, A.R., 2013.Feedback control theory. Courier Corporation. Wooten, J.O. and Ulrich, K.T., 2017. Idea generation and the role of feedback: Evidence from field experiments with innovation tournaments.Production and Operations Management,26(1), pp.80-99.

Sample of Paragraph on Hamlet

Sample of Paragraph on HamletA sample of characterization essay on Hamlet is a good idea for a student. It provides them with a basic outline of the plot and the motivation of the main character in the play. This can be a very important thing for an aspiring student to consider.A sample also shows a bit of what is required to write a good essay. For example the writing style that you should use is like that of a scholar and not just one who have no literary skills. One should definitely avoid the use of 'free' language. Remember that your professor will not pay you to use a free translation for example in a sample of characterization essay on Hamlet.This is because he will most likely see through the samples as his students will be like them. So, it is the responsibility of the instructor to make sure that you come across as a great writer. That is why the students of his class will be having the best of time. And therefore it is very important that the professor has enough confidenc e in his students and so that they show that confidence in writing.The sample of characterization essay on Hamlet is a great guide as to how the professor and the student will react to the write. Remember that there are different ways that you can go about finding out this. Some ways of making use of the sample are asking the instructor and then find out the choices from the responses.The second way is by checking the books that the instructor uses for reference and which you will have to use. The student will be able to access it. From these options, the student should choose the choice that most resembles how they want their essays to be.Another method is to get recommendations from students in your class. Be sure to visit the class and ask them if they recommend the choice of sample of characterization essay on Hamlet.You will find several websites that are specially designed to provide you with numerous examples for sample of essays on any topic. By going through these resources , you will find that you can prepare a very good work of literature.

The Life and Works of Maya Angelou free essay sample

A discussion of Maya Angelous life, talent and contribution to the black community. This paper focuses on the life and works of Maya Angelou, one of the greatest African-American literary figures in the United States. This multi-talented woman has had a major impact on the black community because of her active participation in the civil rights movement. Maya Angelou is an award winning writer, poet, historian, playwright, producer, and director and in short she is an amalgamation pf many talents, which are all, related to art. This amazingly writer has influenced the lives of millions of her readers because of her strong spiritual beliefs and an inner strength that she displays in her stories and other work. She has also actively participated in the civil rights movement because she feels that black still d not have equal rights in the United States; she has thus inspired many black men and women to achieve more by emulating her. We will write a custom essay sample on The Life and Works of Maya Angelou or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page She has written some autobiographies which are very famous among the public because of their emotional content as they come form the very core of the authors heart, these include All Gods Children Need Traveling Shoes (1986), The Heart of a Woman (1981), Singin and Swingin and Gettin Merry Like Christmas (1976), Gather Together in My Name (1974), and I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), which was also nominated for the National Book Award and has been one of her most widely read works.

Greatest Inventions essays

Greatest Inventions essays When asked what is the most important invention, many questions come to mind, and these inquiries must be answered before responding to the initial question. What is meant by the word invention? Essentially, anything that did not exist previously, whether it is a mechanical device or art, literature, or music, is an "invention". Is the most important invention a tool, a mechanical gadget, a concept or an idea that impacted or improved humanity as a whole (in terms of evolution, a new way of thinking, and connectedness)? What makes the invention or innovation important to humankind? What is the definition of most important? Not everyone has the same definitions and answers to the common questions involved in the discussion of humanitys connectedness and awareness of the world around them. The final answer immensely depends on the definition of important and the impact the invention had on humankind. There is not a single invention that is more important than the others, because they all contribute to the significant effects of change and evolution in civilization. If I had to narrow down my choices of the most important invention, after considering the massive array of discoveries and innovations that have surfaced over the far and recent centuries, I would choose the scientific method and the invention of the telescope and the microscope. They are both inventions that have not only transformed the way people live but the way they experience life. The scientific method is an important invention because it requires that we ask questions of nature with experimentation. It is an invention because humans actively and consciously thought it up. The greatest thing is, that one idea turned into many more ideas and concepts. The Ancient Greeks were impelled to understand the world around them and they believed that they could understand the world rationally because they supported the notion of co...

Discussion Board 2-2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Discussion Board 2-2 - Essay Example Following state and federal laws as well as professional codes of ethics assist assessors and test-taker in solidifying credibility of their psychological tests and assessments. Cohen, Swerdlik and Sturnam (2013) elucidate that the laws and codes of ethic act as basic standards that assessors and test-takers should rely on to produce inadmissible test and assessment results. Following state and federal laws and professional codes of ethics guides in observing client’s rights, which foster may work to encourage more disclosure about problems faced. Following laws and professional codes of ethics assist assessors and test-takers ensure mental, emotional and physical safety of all parties involved in a given psychological test or assessment. The laws and codes of ethics usually clarify the extents to which assessors may go in interrogating clients (Cohen, Swerdlik & Sturnam, 2013). The limits are usually such that there is maximum observation of client’s independence and safety. Furthermore, following established laws and professional codes of ethics can work out as defence for assessors in case they are to face false incrimination or accusations as regards conducted psychological tests or

Personal statement on intended major Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

On intended major - Personal Statement Example Our employees were falling ill and receiving pay cuts for their absent days. I listened to their problems, took notes on everything I felt my family needed to sort out in order to insure that we did not take a hit in our quarterly earnings. Prior to presenting the problems to my father, I decided to work on possible solutions to the problem on hand so that he would have immediate solutions to the problem. I will never forget that first day that I met with him, my organizer and laptop in hand, ready to show him what I discovered and how we could fix the problems that were affecting our company. I pointed out to him how our shifts at the factory needed to be increased so that we would have more products coming out of the line while giving out employees enough time to rest during the day. The shifting schedule would also benefit our part time workers who could fill in for anybody who was not on the working line that day. We had a discussion about the welfare of the employees and how we needed to get some sort of medical coverage for them in order to make sure that they could take care of their health. If we could not increase their salaries, we needed to find another way to keep the employees content. It would be best to make up the difference in another way. It was a highly animated discussion between two equals who both had the economics of life at the forefront of their minds. At the end of the meeting, my father had this smile on his face that went from ear to ear. I will never forget what he told me, â€Å"Son, I never knew that you were a born economist. Your deductive reasoning skills are above par. Keep up the good work.† It was those inspiring words of my father that drove me to learn more about economics and how I can use it to benefit myself as a capitalist while also sharing the financial blessings with those who work for me. If that makes me a born economist, then I guess I am and I am proud to be one. Personal Statement 2 I realize that being a student these days is practically a 24 hour occupation. In order to stay ahead of my classmates and remain in competition for the best grades in my school, I devote most of my free time to my studies. However, I also realize that a bookworm may become very good in theory but fail in the social aspects of his life. Which is why I try my best to balance these two aspects of my life. I am not all about academics. Neither am I all about fun either. However, I do not participate in just any kind of social activity. I have always been encouraged by my parents to be civic minded and try to do my best to give back to my community. That is why I chose to become a volunteer at a local senior care home. Whenever I want to take a break from the academic grind, I take a trip down to Tzu Chi, a local charity group that volunteers its services at a local nursing home. We come down twice a week in order to help entertain and educate the seniors who are only too happy to have us intrude into their hum drum lives. One of the activities that they enjoy doing the most is learning languages. I, being Chinese ended up teaching them the basics of conversational Chinese. China is emerging as a new economic giant in the world, our language is also fast gaining its place in the business world. Which is why most people enroll in Chinese language schools in order to learn the language. I

Ericsson Mobile Platforms Using Value Chain Model Information Technology Essay

Ericsson Mobile Platforms Using Value Chain Model Information Technology Essay The value grid approach allows firms to identify opportunities and threats in a more explicit way than the traditional value chain. This research aims to test the Value Grid in a multinational company: Ericsson Mobile Platforms (EMP). How does the value grid model help to define the organizations Key Success Factors (KSF)? For this case study, the value grid concept proved to be an interesting heuristic tool to locate opportunities that are not evident from a traditional value chain perspective. EMP can identify indirect ways of influencing demand by playing a coordinative role with network operators. Key Success Factors for Ericsson Mobile Platforms using Porters Value Chain model The value chain model, first depicted and popularized by Michael Porter in 1985, has proved to be an effective approach to analyze and capture the value generated along a chain of activities. But, with the increasing complexity of production and service delivery, critique has arisen from both academics and professionals in terms of value chain model applicability. The value grid approach allows firms to move beyond their industry lines and to identify opportunities and threats in a more explicit way. This research aims to test the Value Grid in a multinational company: Ericsson Mobile Platforms (EMP). How does the value grid model help to find novel opportunities and define the organizations Key Success Factors (KSF)? For this case study, the value grid concept proved to be an interesting heuristic tool to locate opportunities that are not evident from a traditional value chain perspective. EMP can identify indirect ways of influencing demand by playing a coordinative role with netwo rk operators. 1. Models of Value The purpose of this part is to analyze the evolution of value models from the value chain to the value grid through the value system, the value network and the added value chain. The intent is to clarify the relevance of the value grid choice for studying the case of Ericson Mobile Platform. The Value chain The value chain includes all the activities involved in product making. It is a useful tool to measure the value created for each activity in the process of product creation. It is a part of a firms strategic planning to arrange these activities in a way that the total value, the value that buyers are willing to pay, exceeds the total cost. According to Porter (1985), a company can create value through a cost advantage or product differentiation. Porter (1985) identifies two types of activities in the value chain: Primary activities and Support activities. Primary activities are those that create customer value. The goal of the primary activities is to produce value that exceeds the cost, thereby resulting in a profit margin. Support activities concern procurement, human resource management, technological development and infrastructure such as accounting, legal, finance, planning, public affairs, government relations, quality assurance and general management. The activities in the value chain are not independent. Linkages may exist between activities. In fact, one process may affect the cost and performance of the others. Linkage can exist between primary activities, as well as, between primary and support activities. Therefore, competitive advantages can also be derived from the linkages between activities. This is a highly relevant situation for EMP. The Value System Porter (1985) extends the concept of the value chain; a firms value chain is a part of the Value System, which is a network of interconnected value chains between suppliers and buyers. The value system includes the value chains of the upstream suppliers and downstream channels and customers. The available total margin is spread across suppliers, distributors and customers (Recklies, 2001) in the value system. The amount of how much part of this margin is received by each member depends on its market position and negotiation power (Recklies, 2001). A firm who has higher degree of vertical integration has a better position in coordinating its upstream and downstream activities and therefore get a higher margin, however a company with low level of vertical integration can also get high margins if it can achieve better coordination with suppliers and partners. The Value Network Porter (1980, 1985) measures value chain and the five forces model extracted from the organizations activities, in terms of financial value (margin) but ignore the fact that intangible assets such as competencies, internal structures and relationship with the environment are the driving factors behind the financial results (Sveiby, 1997). New methods appear to take into consideration the intangible assets. Value Network Analysis (Allee, 2003) is a method that combines tools that analyze strategy with insight into complexity of interactions among people (Middendorp, 2005). According to this analysis, the intangible assets should be considered as negotiable and exchangeable. Peppar and Rylander (2006) introduce the Network Value Analysis (NVA) method as a way to analyze competitive ecosystems. Combinations of players co-create the value in the network and the method focus not only on the company or the industry, but the value creating system itself (Peppar and Rylander, 2006). Firms cultivate an ecosystem a set of firms that can co-create value by building relationships among the different players in the industry: suppliers, partners, allies and customers (Peppar and Rylander, 2006). Firms that understand the sources of value in the network and are able to exploit them will be the winners in tomorrows more complex industries (Peppar and Rylander, 2006). The Added-value Chain According to McPhee and Wheeler (2006), focusing on the firms internal core activities is not sufficient to generate value in todays firms. The authors propose an added-value chain model that includes a set of expanded business activities from different business models and a redefinition of value that incorporates brand, reputation, and relationship-based value drivers of the firm. In the added-value chain model, the definition of value incorporates profit margin and intangible assets like leadership quality, innovate capability, brand equity and competences in strategic-alliance development. This new value definition gives to the firms the ability to evaluate how their strategies affect both hard and soft assets of the firms (McPhee and Wheeler, 2006). This model is incomplete for example in finding and exploring non-linear value opportunities. The Value Grid New research conducted by Pil and Holweg (2006) argues that this approach can also put a stranglehold on innovation at a time when the greatest opportunities for value creation (and the most significant threats to long-term survival) often originate outside the traditional, linear view. Based on this critic, Pil and Holweg (2006) develop an evolved concept of Value Chain called Value Grid, which has a variety of new paths to enhanced performance, resulting in a three dimensional grid: the vertical, the horizontal and the integrative diagonal dimensions. Regarding the vertical dimension, firms are seeking for competitive advantages in the value chain by reducing cost, reducing lead time between activities and improving coordination between supplier and customers. However, how the benefits are distributed across the value chain depends on the balanced power between suppliers and manufactures. Therefore companies need to focus on three areas: Opportunities to influence customer demand both upstream and downstream, opportunities to modify information access in either direction, and finally opportunities to explore penetration points in multiple tiers that are not immediately adjacent (Pil and Holweg, 2006). The horizontal dimension provides opportunities for companies to move across value chains, in order to leverage economies of scale across multiple sources of demand (Pil and Holweg, 2006). The potential of this dimension is to enable companies to manage risk, seize existing value (special products with advanced technology), integrate sources of existing value and explore new ways to create value. The horizontal thinking allows parallel value chains to be viewed from different industries, in this way companies can integrate these parallel value chains to offer package or price combinations, which cannot be achieved by the single value chain approach. Finally, in the diagonal dimension, firms explore the grid in an integrative fashion, in order to increase the control over inputs and customers. Firms looks at the upstream and downstream of other value chains for controlling the critical components of the supply chain and uncovering new ways of boosting customer demands (Pil and Holweg, 2006). Pil and Holweg describe the two strategies that take advantages from this dimension: The first is pursuing Pinch-Point mapping when companies shall monitor key component supplies and negotiate alternative source of components. The second is defining demand enablers when companies that have a particular expertise in a given value chain, can examine other value chains in other industries that can leads to new opportunities to leverage key competitive advantages (Pil and Holweg, 2006). Industry Background The telecommunications industry is undergoing radical transformations through liberalization, lowering of technological barriers to entry and the diversity of players (Li and Whalley, 2002). Originally, the process of manufacturing a complete mobile phone was finished within one company. However, as with the PC industry, the value chain for making a mobile phone has become more fragmented according to a more stratified approach (Anderson and JÃ ¶nsson, 2006). Companies like Ericsson Mobile Platforms (EMP) and Qualcomm are examples of this change in the industry. They provide technology solutions for mobile manufactures that enable them to make a new phone model much faster without having the core knowledge like radio access. New actors and new services enlarge the mobile communications value chain in both ways, functionally and institutionally (Buellingen and Woerter , 2004; Ballon, de Munck, Poel and de Pas, 2001; Fertig, Prince and Walrod,1999). The traditional concept of value chain may not be sufficient for todays firms (Buellingen and Woerter, 2004). Barnes (2002) tries to adapt the value chain analysis for m-commerce and analyses the players, technologies and activities involved. Full-size image (36K) The basic model consists of six core processes in two main areas: First infrastructure and services, and second the area of content. Pagani and Fine (2008) consider five principal actors in the supply chain: the content providers, application providers, infrastructure providers, network providers the device providers. They assume that the end consumers create demand, set the rules of engagement and then pull the supply chain system (Pagani and Fine, 2008). In the last decade with the entry of powerful new players, rapid technological developments and increasing market turbulences (Li and Whalley, 2002), the mobile handset industry has changed from a vertical specialization to a more horizontally stratified structure. A complex and rapidly evolving value network is developing (Li and Whalley, 2002). There are more parties involved in the process of making a mobile phone. Each party focuses on areas of the value chain where they have core competences such as new technology, customer relationships management, or infrastructure management. The market is then highly complex and competitive given the fact that companies compete also with companies from other industries operating under different value propositions and economics (Li and Whalley, 2002). Methodology: Research design and data collection There are several techniques for identifying Key Success Factors, Leidecker and Bruno (1984) propose the following: environmental scanning, industry structure analysis, industrial experts opinions, competitors analysis, best practice analysis, assessment of the companys internal feeling or judgment, intuitive factors and gathered data of profit impact and market strategy. This study mixes between internal assessment of a firm and industrial experts opinions. This internal assessment technique explores the firms forces and weaknesses. The KSFs are thus concluded from the interviews with experts in the industry. - Figure 1 about here - As designed in the research model, first a value chain analysis focuses on the firms core competences from an inside perspective. In parallel, the firms value chain is positioned into the value system of the industry, to identify adjacent players and external linkages and determine firms ecosystem. An analysis of the Value Chain aims to identify competitive advantages. From the Value System and the ecosystem, the Value Grid framework identifies competitive advantages from its three dimensions. The outcomes from Value chain and Value Grid are analyzed to test the Value Grid and to extract the KSF for EMP. An ideal analysis of the KSF for EMP would be to do benchmarking with other companies from the same Industry. Then it will be possible to define EMPs real strategic advantages. However, due to availability of information this research focuses on an inside-out perspective and tests the concept of the Value Grid using one source of empirical data (a single case study). Semi-structured interviews are conducted with a specific list of topics to be covered (Bryman and Bell, 2003). The advantage of this method is that the interviewer is free to reformulate the questions or simply ask new questions that may appear as a result of the answer of the interviewee (Bryman and Bell, 2003). According to Grunert and Ellegaard (1992), this type of interview with business decision makers can measure perceived KSF. Five key persons are chosen for an interview from EMP: Robert Puskaric, head of EMP, Martin JÃ ¶nsson, from Product Portfolio Management, Fredrik Dalhgren Deputy Director of System Management, PÃ ¤r Stigmer from Sourcing and Supply and Linda Wenerman from Product Management. Empirical Findings for Ericsson Mobile Platforms Ericsson Mobile Platforms is a business unit within the Ericsson Group. It was founded in 2001 as a result of a split from the Ericsson mobile handset division, Ericsson Mobile Communications. This split ended up in Ericsson Mobile Platforms (EMP) and the joint-venture Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications. Before that time, Ericsson produced mobile platforms for in-house use only. Through EMP, Ericsson started to license open-standard 2.5G and 3G technology platforms to other mobile phone manufacturers and other mobile communication devices. EMP offers stable platform deliveries that include ASICs and development boards (hardware), platform software, reference design, development and testing tools, training, support and documentation. The EMP platforms contain integrated circuits and softwares needed to build a GPRS, EDGE and/or WCDMA phone. It provides all the system functions such as Network Signaling, Data communications and Multimedia services. The system architecture of EMP is a modular design that is built on a use case analysis (Kornby, 2005). Examples of use cases are: imagining, video telephony, voice call, multimedia streaming, call handling, audio and video. The following criteria have been taken into account to develop this system architecture (Kornby, 2005): complete platform software (not only protocols), stability, flexibility, scalability to different market segments, adaptability to customer software applications, one single architecture for different mobile systems (GPRS, EDGE, WCDMA), maximum reuse of components and customer applications; and backward compatibility in software over the time. Customers build their applications on top of EMP platform software stack. Examples of customers applications are: multimedia players, phone call applications, web browsers, etc. EMP also supplies a suite of core applications where customers can use as a starting point for building their applications. EMP provides a complete application suite to support customers who do not build their own applications. This is especially for customers who want to focus in the low-end market. The goal of the EMPs Application Suite is to reduce time-to-market for customers in launching their phones. EMPs business model The EMPs business model consists of two parts: to license its core technology and to sell engineering support services to the customers. EMP charges a one-time up-front fixed payment for a Platform license and a royalty per unit that represent the major source of revenue (Kornby, 2005). EMP has built an ecosystem in order to ensure the maximum value creation for EMP. The five players in the EMPs ecosystem are depicted in figure 2. - Figure 2 about here - The first set of players relates to Network Providers; these companies offer the telecom infrastructure such as wireless communications systems. The main partner with EMP is LM Ericssons network group. They work hand-by-hand to provide end-to-end solutions, align roadmaps and ensure that EMP platforms can support the new network functionality offered by Ericsson (Kornby, 2005). Second, EMP has a closer relationship with the customers to ensure that new customer requirements are collected promptly in order to implement new functionality as early as possible. The third set of players in EMP ecosystem relates to Network Operators. These companies provide the services to the end-users (subscribers). They also purchase phones from mobile manufactures that are sold to the operators subscribers. Very often operators request mobile manufactures to use a specific mobile platform (Kornby, 2005). Thus EMP has built an important relationship in order to understand future operators requirements to secure that new functionality is available in the EMPs platform. Fourth, EMP and LM Ericsson are active at work with the standardization bodies such as 3GPP, OMA, JCP and OMPT. This is done in order to ensure interoperability of EMPs mobile platforms worldwide. And finally EMP works actively with ASIC, peripheral, IP and software suppliers in order to get fair prices for building EMP products. 4.2 The EMPs Value Chain and Value System The direct activities of EMPs value chain are: supply chain Management, hardware design activity, Software development and integration activity, a system reference design activity, a System Test and Interoperability Test (IOT), Product Use, External Networks and finally a customization activity. EMP has also a prototype unit that builds prototype phones for testing early functionality. The EMPs value chain and value system are depicted in figure 3. - Figure 3 about here - 4.2.1 Supply Chain Management EMP basically does not have any regular material flow, but outsource software and hardware through licenses. The task of the sourcing and supply department is to act as an internal consultant at EMP for deciding whether to buy an IP or develop hardware/software in-house. The sourcing department works tightly with the product definition and the RD organization; they work proactively to ensure fair prices. The decisions are based on three aspects: comparing the prices of buying from others and developing by itself, assessing the risk of buying and finally evaluating the total value by an in-house development. For example, to get a new IP in the platform, the sourcing department evaluates the total cost composed of the getting IP cost from supplier and the using IP cost (license) per ASIC. In this case customers pay the license directly, the cost of integrating an IP into the suppliers ASIC (a supplier may have already the knowledge of adding this IP, thus it becomes cheaper) and the co st of the final integration into the platform (how difficult is to make drivers and APIs to control the IP). The sourcing and supply department acts differently depending of what wants to outsource. For IPs, the negotiations are based on case, for ARM and DSP cores it builds long term relationship with the suppliers, and for a specific component such as Image Signal Processor (ISP) it chooses the best price in the market. Since ASICs are costly, EMP co-develops the design with suppliers and builds long term relationship. 4.2.2 Hardware design (HW) Regarding the Hardware, EMP only designs and specifies requirements for the different hardware components in the platform. As is shown in the Error: Reference source not foundASIC suppliers (or fabs) test and manufacture the hardware. EMP verifies the hardware components only when it builds the reference design. The design of the HW is divided into two main parts, Front-End and Back End design. For the Radio Frequency (RF) hardware EMP designs the Front-End and Back-End. For the Digital Base Band (DBB) EMP only does the front-end design. Finally, the analog base band (ABB) ASIC, EMP only specifies the hardware requirements and leaves the rest to the ASICs suppliers 4.2.3 Software development and Integration Software development and Integration refers to developing software solutions for the different stacks in the software platform architecture. This activity also involves developing EMP (in-house) software stacks such as Network Signaling protocols for WCDMA, GSM/GPRS and EDGE; data communication protocols such as, TCP/IP, RTP, and IMS; multimedia protocols for streaming music and video; developing a set of application platform interfaces to control the software platform and hardware. DBB, ABB, RF, and peripheral are to implement low level drivers to control hardware components inside the mobile platform. This activity also involves integration of third party proprietary software components such as, music codecs (like MP3 and Windows media player), and operating systems. This activity also involves testing the software at different levels: module tests, regression tests and integration tests. 4.2.4 Reference design EMP builds reference boards and real-size reference phones. These non-commercial phones are produced in small quantities that are internally used for software development and hardware verification, interoperability test and early-stage test of hardware for customers. 4.2.5 System Test and Interoperability test The system test consists of the verification of the complete reference design. The tests are conducted in lab, with network vendors and interoperability test with major live networks operators in the world. This is a very costly task and it is done to uncover ambiguities in the basic standards and specification. It also covers informal type approval test for the phone (Kornby, 2005). Value Chain Analysis According to the theoretical framework a company can generate competitive advantages by analyzing the different activities in the value chain. EMPs value chain basically works only in the service domain. EMP licenses its platform solutions and let the customers manage the manufacturing process with EMPs suppliers, thus the EMPs core activities are design (both in hardware and software), integration and testing of the platform (of the whole system). EMPs advantage appears in the fact that the firm has designed a holistic system architecture which makes easy to develop and test the functionality independently. This saves considerable a considerable time amount at the integration phase. Moreover, the system is designed to be flexible and scalable, so it is easy to re-use and add new functionality. Therefore, EMPs main strength is that the firm successfully manages to develop, integrate and test very complex new technologies to deliver a stable cost-effective platform solution when techn ology development is not in a mature phase. The main EMPs competitive advantage is to be the leader in providing cost-effective solutions for the mass market when the new technologies are emerging. Another interesting strength found is that the brand image of Ericsson plays an important role when meeting with new suppliers. The reputation of the Ericsson corporation is transferred to EMP and it facilitates the starting of new agreements and business opportunities. Potential Risks The value chain is an analytical tool that helps to find value in each activity; this can also be used for finding weakness and improvement areas. From the value chain we can identify two main weaknesses. First, the base band ASICs are the most costly part in the platform, despite that EMP says that it has managed to get fair licenses prices for the ASICs. The power of the suppliers is relatively high, thus EMP cannot have full control of the hardware prices. It seems that high margins still go to ASIC manufactures. Second, at this moment, EMP does not have the competence and the resources to integrate vertically in the upstream value chain. According to the interviewees, the most valuable strategic resource at EMP resides in personnels competence in the area of radio access technology and in the skills for designing a flexible and low cost system. These two competences are the driving forces for providing a cost-optimized mobile platform. The main risk in the value chain comes from the suppliers side. When technology reached a mature market, there is a risk that the technology becomes a commodity product and thus, suppliers can acquire knowledge on how to implement these technologies in their own ASICs. This implies that ASIC manufactures can produce ultra low cost platforms, due to the fact that they can control the price of the hardware. Another identified potential risk relate to how much EMP should outsource (Varadarajan, 2009). As is shown in the value chain (figure 3), EMP outsources a number of software components. An indiscriminate software outsourcing policy may lead to the loss of competences inside the EMP value chain (such as signal processing knowledge) thus reduce the value of the platform offering. 5.2 Benchmark What are the EMPs keys factors that are considered important for success? EMP is constantly evaluating and comparing with competitors in terms of cost, size, performance and power consumption of the product offering. From an end-users perspective, EMP is interested in delivering high quality multimedia functions for providing good speech and audio quality. Other benchmark measures are purely financial measures. All the interviewees agree that there are areas of improvement for EMP from a value chain perspective. 5.2.1 Horizontal integration In most of the interviews, a potential improvement for EMP consists in the integration of the value chain from a horizontal perspective by adding others technologies for example to offer an integrated solution with WLAN, BT or FM radio. The platform today provides the flexibility to add these peripherals, but this is a work that the customer must do when he done the product design (and it doesnt add a real value for EMP). This extended platform function offering in EMP platforms has the following impacts: 1) As customers will have less control over the price for these peripherals, they will not be able to bargain the prices 2) the cost of the EMP platform for customers will increase, 3) the total PCB area will go down due to integration of the peripheral in the ASICs and 4) the final product from a customer perspective (i.e. phone ready to launch with everything in place) will result in a total cost reduction. Thus, EMP would add value into the platform and customers will benefit fro m cheaper phones. In order to integrate these peripherals, EMP should create alliances with these suppliers in a cost effective manner (HÃ ¥kansson and Ford, 2002). It is not enough to just integrate any peripheral; it should be a peripheral that can be used by almost all customers in the different platforms, in a way that provide a common platform offering. Otherwise it will end up in a customized platform and the total value added from a portfolio perspective may not be that clear. An example of a peripheral that may fit with this approach is BT devices. The goal of EMP will probably be the re-use of the same platform as much as possible; however this is not defined yet. EMP has managed to have more than one ASIC supplier. This has increased the possibilities of getting fair prices. EMP is still looking to increase the number of suppliers to gain bargaining power. 5.2.2 Vertical integration Almost all the interviews discuss the fact, if the vertically integration must be in the upstream or not. As was described, the most costly part in the platforms is the ASICs and in order to offer competitive price, alliances must be created with ASICs suppliers. However, what if EMP chooses a fabless model? EMP would need then to focus more on the design of the hardware devices (today, it leaves it to some suppliers to design the hardware). EMP should start to do more IP designs, to focus on the back-end design of all the hardware components (ASICs) and create cell libraries for them. This vertical integration implies that EMP would leave ASIC manufacturing to a silicon foundry (for example, companies like TSMC, UMC, Chartered, etc). The advantage is that EMP would be able to choose suppliers, to get better prices and thus to get higher margins. For instance the EMPs competitor Qualcomm has this approach and uses TSMC as ASIC manufacturing. Nevertheless, complete back-end design requires EMP to build specific competence and skills for the complete hardware design. Moreover, EMP would need to take care of production issues like yield management, quality and logistics. This could lead to an expensive learning experience. Since EMP is a rather small company in global terms which focuses mostly in software design and system integration, a solution would probably be to invest in a company who has already the skills and experience. But in the near future this option will be not considered. Test of Value Grid Value Grid offers a variety of new paths to enhance performance, resulting in a three dimensional grid: the vertical, the horizontal and the integrative diagonal dimensions (Pil and Holweg, 2006). 6.1 Vertical Dimension From the theory of Value Grid and the analysis of the value chain in the previous section, there is a match between the External Networks from the value-added chain concept and how to influence customer demand in the downstream. In this case the relationship between EMP and network operators plays an important coordinative role (Andersen and Christensen, 2005). EMP cannot influence demand directly since this activity is mainly driven by EMPs customers who manufacture, distribute and sell the phones to operators and end-users by other distribution channels. Indeed, network operators distribute a great part of the mobiles phones to the end-users due to their infrastructure. In order to increase traffic in their networks, they finance partly the cost of the phone by tying it with contracts (fixed subscriptions periods normally for one or two years) or offering a phone at lower cost with the restriction that the phone can only be used exclusively with prepaid SIM cards. Therefore, to inc rease sales and market share, EMP can build a strong relationship with operators and persuade them to buy mobiles phones from EMPs customers. 6.2 Horizontal Dimension In this dimension similarities were detected betwee