Case study 1 for assessment 1

Creating an innovation culture

Shutterstock, 25^th on the most innovative companies list in 2014, is certainly not one of those companies that can be accused of becoming slower innovators after going public. The company achieved a 40% growth in revenue and has been consistently releasing new programs. In addition to integrating with Dropbox, Shutterstock’s images are freely available to Facebook advertisers who formerly littered the site’s ad space with cheap but poor-quality photos.

Shutterstock’s founder and CEO, John Oringer, explained to Fast Company that the Facebook advertising deal is a win-win: advertisers are happy as their ads have high-quality photos for no cost; Facebook gets more advertisers and better looking ads and Shutterstock sells more images. Oringer said that Facebook pays Shutterstock a fee per image, with the photograph contributor receiving approximately 30% of that fee. That all of Shutterstock’s images are ready to be used commercially also helps advertisers avoid the threat of litigation that they would be exposed to had they simply copied and pasted an image from the internet.

The company has brought in the concept of collaborative experimentation, which can help companies to not only boost their products but instil a progressive innovative mentally into the company culture. Shutterstock’s Vice President of Product, Wyatt Jenkins, argues that through the continuous testing of ideas, a culture of experimentation can begin to manifest in the organisation. Jenkins says that the benefits of an experimental culture include the death of ‘HiPPOs’, which he describes as the ‘highest paid person’s opinion’. ‘A/B testing is a sure way to get to the bottom of a decision without relying on anyone’s gut instinct. At Shutterstock, if a senior executive has an idea in a meeting, the response is simply, “Let’s test it”.”

This process spills over into teams, which results in better engagement since their ideas are values and will be testes. Even if the result is failure, many positive spin-offs are achieved such as improved self-esteem and employee growth, especially the growth of critical ideas. Jenkins is an advocate of keeping the testing teams small, for example, a business analyst, an engineer and a designer/front-end developer (in the case of Shutterstock). The idea is to get a mix of different business functions but related to what is being tested. The concept of the ‘20% time’ phenomena of the tech world is relevant here. In essence, it allows employees to use some of their work time to work on any company-related product they want. They experiment with ideas that would not normally see the light of day. This kind of experimentation has led to Gmail, Adsense and many other Google initiatives.

Question 1 (max 500 words):

Shutterstock is empowering its employees by investing in a culture of experimentation. What are the benefits and limitation of allowing lower level employees to have a say in the strategic direction of the business?

Question 2 (max 300 words):

What risks to the organisation do you identify in the initiative Shutterstock executives have taken and what actions can they take to minimise such risks? (maximum 2 risks)

Case study 2 for assessment 1

COLES

The first Coles grocery store was started in 1914 by George Coles in Collingwood, with the philosophy of lowering the costs of living for Australian families. He used a small inheritance to start the small grocery store, and it was immediately successful. The location was good, and George had given careful consideration to the needs of balancing family and work life, maintaining a contended staff and creating a store environment that others would respect.

Following the Second World War (WWII) the organisation went through rapid expansion shifting from full service stores where staff would help pick products for customers, to what we consider normal today with self-service stores. The expansion in store meant that the organisation had to give more focus to activities other than food retailing, with logistics, warehousing and distribution systems becoming increasingly central to business operations.

Coles has continued to grow and adapt with technological innovations a hallmark of the company’s approach to business. In 1993, the internet provided a new opportunity for the business to explore value creation, and the flybuys program attracted 3.5 million members within its first year of operation. Coles was also early to market in trialling online shopping, with trials in Melbourne starting in 1999. Further market innovation came with the diversification to petrol stations, with Coles Express service stations forming parts of Coles market offering in 2004. Coles has continued to expand and break new ground under its new ownership. Acquired by Wesfarmers in 2007, Coles has focused on a mix of customer experience and sustainability initiatives.

Question 1 (max 400 words):

Based on the information available in the case, identify and describe the organisational structure that would best describe Coles structure after the rapid growth following WWII (but before 1993). In your explanation provide a reasoning as to why that structure was selected.

Question 2 (max 400 words):

Based on the information available in the case, identify and describe the organisational structure that would best describe Coles structure following the adoption of modern technologies (such as the internet) and diversified products (such as service stations). In your explanation provide a reasoning as to why that structure was selected.

Assessment Description:

Please answer all the questions given in each of the case studies. Answer to each question carries a different word count and is mentioned in the pdfs below. Please use the readings of relevant weeks and journal articles to support your answers (at least 2 to 3 Academic references per question including the readings provided using Harvard style referencing). Your submission should include both the in-text citations and the full reference list.

You should provide answers to all questions of both case studies in one document. Ensure that proper headings are used to allow markers to identify the answers clearly. Don't forget paragraph division to create clarity.

Submission Process

Please read the below instructions for the complete submission process;

Template for your answer

You may choose to use the below word document template when answering the case study questions. Some items have been placed in the document as example content. Please remove them when you use the document. Use of this template is not compulsory. Click link below.

Submission process for Major Assessment 1

Part A Step 1: Studiosity Submission

1. Attempt the case study questions and prepare a A draft is not a 100% complete answer. For example, your draft may contain answers just for case study 1 questions. A draft should also not be 1 paragraph.
2. Once the draft is ready, submit the draft along with the relevant case study (studies) and questions to Link to the Studiosity submission can be found in the Major Assessment 1 eBook in the Assessment block on LMS. It’s the 2^nd link in the Table of contents (top right-hand corner) once the eBook is opened.
3. You should receive the feedback within 48

Part A Step 2: Studiosity Reflection

4. Once you have received the feedback, in a separate document write a reflection on the feedback you have This reflection should mention what you think about the feedback i.e was it valuable feedback, did it make sense, or did it not really make a difference. Your reflection should also contain, how you would change your final submission based on the feedback received. Ideally, you would need to write approximately 100-200 words.
5. Please check table in the Assessment block on LMS for the due
6. The submission link can be found in the Major Individual Assessment 1 eBook in the Assessment block. It’s the 3^rd link in the Table of contents (top right-hand corner) once the eBook is
7. pages documents or zip files.Please note that the Studiosity reflection submission is a one-time submission i.e. multiple submissions not Please make sure you complete your submission correctly and don’t leave your submission in “Draft status”.
8. Your submission to Studiosity reflection should contain the following in a single document:
   1. Draft
   2. Feedback from Studiosity
   3. Your reflection on feedback
9. The submission document should be .pdf, .doc or .docx Please don’t submit any pages documents or zip files.

Part B: Final submission

1. Please check table in the Assessment block on LMS for the due
2. Final submission should contain complete answers to all case study questions, including in- text citation where appropriate and a full refence
3. The link to the final submission can be found in the Major Individual Assessment 1 eBook in the Assessment It’s the 4^th link in the Table of contents (top right-hand corner) once the eBook is opened.
4. This is a Turnitin link, which means that plagiarism will be checked. Once you submit, you will receive a similarity score indicating how much your submission is similar to content available on the
5. You can submit to this as many times you want until the due date. You should make use of this opportunity to make sure you have a low similarity score. Please remember that when you submit the 1^st time, it will take up to 2-3 hours for the similarity score to be generated. 2^nd submission may take up to 24 hours or more to generate the similarity And the time increases every consecutive submission. Therefore, time your submissions appropriately.

Other important information:

1. You should check the quick video on using Google Scholar and La Trobe library for finding academic resources for supporting your answers. You can find this video on LMS Assessment
2. If you need some assistance in using the Harvard referencing tool, there’s a folder with some

training material in the Assessment block. This is right below the above video.

3. There’s a template you can use for your answers in the Major Individual Assessment 1 It’s in the instructions section of the eBook.
4. Grading rubrics for all assessments can be found in the subject learning guide on LMS as well as the Major Individual Assessment 1 eBook. It is highly recommended that you check the rubrics before writing your answers and then check back again when you have completed.