Posted: November 13th, 2022

Evaluating a Company’s External Environment

Strategy in Practice
Assignment #1

Chapter
3

Evaluating a Company’s External Environment

The arrival of a new
technology can simultaneously represent both a threat and an opportunity. For
example, the Internet has given rise to wholly new business models and has
helped some firms well-equipped to meet the online revolution rise while companies
ill-equipped to cope with this disruptive technology falter and fail. One
particular new technology may prove similarly disruptive in the coming years – consumer-accessible
three-dimensional (3-D) printing. (If you are not familiar with 3-D printing,
an explanation can be found at .3dprinter.net/reference/what-is-3d-printing”>http://www.3dprinter.net/reference/what-is-3d-printing.)

Please read the information
below and perform a Five Forces analysis for the toy industry as it currently stands.
Next, tell how the proliferation of consumer-accessible 3-D printing could
affect each of these five forces. Include what you believe are the potential
opportunities and threats that the spread of consumer-accessible 3-D printing
technology poses to incumbent firms (those already competing within the toy
industry) and to new entrants (those contemplating competing within the toy
industry). Then, discuss the potential effect that 3-D printing can have on
another industry other than the toy industry; explain the manner in which 3-D
printing can both harm and enhance aspects of that industry.

.png” alt=”The new york times”>
.nytimes.com/pages/business/index.html”>Business Day .nytimes.com/pages/technology/personaltech/index.html”>Personal Tech
3-D Printers to Make Things You Need or Like
.jpg”>
Tony
Cenicola/The New York Times
ByAMY
O’LEARY
Published: June 19, 2013
You may have
seen some odd-shaped plastic trinkets on someone’s desk or heard about the
first shots fired a few weeks ago from a 3-D printed gun. With every new 3-D
printed object, the world seems to be getting closer to a future where we can
“print out” objects like furniture, clothing, human tissue and even buildings..com/86685/the-audacious-plan-to-end-hunger-with-3-d-printed-food/” title=”Article about the NASA grant.”>NASA even recently investedin technology to print food. The
possibilities are staggering.

Multimedia
Why, then, do even the most ardent 3-D
printing evangelists show off this brave new world with dull-as-nails examples?
Dishwasher knobs. Dimmer switches. Replacement parts for laundry carts. Is that
all there is?
“That’s the million-dollar question,”
said Alyssa Reichental, who works at.3dsystems.com/”>3D Systemsand showed off the company’s Cube
printer at a recent trade show in New York. Right now, it seems, 3-D printing
is more about the technology’s potential than anything practical. After some
thought, she added, “We see it as more of a lifestyle.”
The technology behind 3-D printing has
been used in commercial manufacturing for decades, but home machines from
companies like 3D Systems,.makerbot.com/”>MakerBotand.afinia.com/”>Afiniahave
opened up the technology to more users in the last few years.
Hobbyists and tinkerers have embraced the
technology first, buying consumer models for anywhere from $300 for a kit you
can assemble at home to $4,000 for a printer of almost professional quality.
Most 3-D printers work by threading
spools of plastic filament onto a heated nozzle that drops liquid plastic onto
a surface one layer at a time until an object, typically no bigger than a
grapefruit, is formed. Filament can typically run from $30 to $50 a spool.
If you want to dip into the world of
printables, it may be wise to begin your experiments alongside an enthusiastic
hobbyist or professional who can guide you. Many.org/wiki/”>hackerspacesmake 3-D printers available as part of
their memberships. Some libraries around the country have begun offering 3-D
printers and coaching help. Soon, .engineering.com/3DPrinting/3DPrintingArticles/ArticleID/5662/Staples-First-3D-Printing-Experience-Centre-goes-live-with-Mcor-Technologies.aspx” title=”Article on Staples service.”>Stapleswill offer a 3-D printing service in
its stores, using a full-color process from the Irish company MCor Technologies
that makes items out of paper instead of plastic. It has already introduced the
technology in Europe.
This month,.amazon.com/b/ref=amb_link_1183092_1?ie=UTF8&node=6066126011″ title=”Amazons 3D Printing Store”>Amazonbegan selling 3-D printers and
accessories.
As 3-D printing begins to show its
promise, here are five categories where it makes good sense to get started.
CUSTOMIZE CHEAPLYIn the land of 3-D
printing, you do not have to settle for a bland, boring “World’s No. 1 Mom” mug
anymore, not when you can produce a sculptural model, in plastic, of your
mother’s head for pennies. And why stop there? You can make personalized
wedding cake toppers, even Star Trek figurines in your likeness.
Many “cloud printing” services, like.shapeways.com/”>Shapeways,.kraftwurx.com/”>Kraftwurx,.materialise.com/”>iMaterialiseor.com/”>Cubify, offer templates that let you design or
customize objects online. Those designs are then printed on industrial machines
offering more colors and materials than you could afford at home, and are
mailed to your door. Many of these personalized products have all the subtlety
and class of a license plate screaming, “ILUV3D,” but they clearly show the
advantages of 3-D printing.
While there are many clunkers in this
category (customizable.shapeways.com/model/159588/bathroom-santa.html?li=productBox-search”>Santa-in-the-bathroom-figurine,
anyone?), there are a few charmers..com/”>Crayon Creaturesoffers to turn any child’s drawing
into a three-dimensional toy (for a not-so-child-friendly price of $130). And
for urban cowboys,personal
branding ironsthat cleverly attach
to a standard Bic lighter are available for $23.60.
WIN THE PLASTIC PART
BATTLEThere are few
greater frustrations than when a tiny plastic part breaks and your blender — or
whatever — no longer works. The part may be cheap, but if you cannot find it,
the world suddenly feels as if there’s a conspiracy by Big Plastic to keep you
buying blenders.
Online, you can find a wide array of
designs for little parts, from nuts to bolts to washers, available in design
libraries like.com/”>Thingiverse, whose repository is growing
every day. Need a coat hook for your Volvo C30? How about a part for that
Bugaboo stroller? The designs are already available for download, along with
more than 175 replacement or repair parts for Ikea products. Someone has even
created a design for lost Scrabble tiles.
Beyond the satisfaction of repairing your
own things, there is also the cost savings. Vintage car buffs are a niche group
that has found real advantages to 3-D printing..practicalprototype.com/” title=”Ryan McMaster’s Web site.”>Ryan
McMaster, a mechanical engineer in Reno, Nev., said he used 3-D printing to
help his mother restore her 1966 Mustang Coupe.
“All those little parts on those cars,
they charge an arm and a leg for them,” he said. Now, he simply makes his own.
MAKE YOUR OWN ADAPTERSBoth Duplo and Brio make
charming wooden train sets for children. Their track sets, however, are not
compatible. You can be a Brio family or a Duplo family, but not both.
One of the most ingenious applications of
3-D printing is the ability to make your own adapters for these kinds of
products,.thingiverse.com/thing:4041″>as one man in Brooklyn has done.Online design libraries are full of
connectors and adapters that merge products that were never meant to be used
together. Nearly 400 online 3-D printer designs exist for Lego-compatible
products alone.
A man in Moscow had a Canon camera and an
old Soviet-era Helios lens. He printed.thingiverse.com/thing:91487″>a custom adapterthat allowed him to connect the two.
Other photographers have found that expensive hardware can be replaced with
cheaper homemade versions. Brackets, mounts, gimbals and housings can be
printed at.com/”>Shapeways.comfor $5 to $20. Comparable products in
stores can easily cost three times more.
Mr. McMaster, the mechanical engineer
helping his mother restore her car, also moonlights as a professional
photographer. Out of the 1,000 objects he has printed in the last few years, he
said, he has saved the most money printing these kinds of photo accessories.
SPREAD 3-D
KNOWLEDGEBeyond the
recently released designs for.org/liberator/”>“The Liberator,”
a 3-D printed
gun made almost entirely out of plastic, there are a number of ways to test the
limits of intellectual property — if that’s your thing.
The sale of lawn darts, for instance, was
banned in the United States in 1988, but you can find 3-D printer designs for
them online. (The designer cautions common sense. “Don’t make this if you’re a
moron,” he writes. “They were banned for a reason.”) Other designers have
uploaded mock copies of Google Glass and imitation Livestrong bracelets, for
either parody or entertainment purposes.
But sharing physical “information”
doesn’t always have to mean infringing on someone’s design. Mary-Margaret
Murphy, a graduate student in anthropology at the University of Montana, is
investigating how to use 3-D printing to replicate grizzly bear skulls (and
eventually human ones, too), so scientists can share models of otherwise
fragile and rare artifacts anyplace in the world.
PROTOTYPE, INVENT AND
LEARNFor people
who like to tinker, build prototypes and invent things, 3-D printing provides a
fast track to making stuff. Early adopters include professionals like jewelry
designers, architects and scientists. But right now, the best possible
application for 3-D printing may be in the brains of the people who are using
it.
A recent 3-D printing conference in New
York was as flooded by teachers as it was by engineers. And most enthusiasts
agree that the technology is about much more than objects.
“It’s not about printing. It’s about how
you start to look at the world,” said Justin Levinson, a technology consultant
in New York, who has been using 3-D printing for several years. “You start to
think, ‘I can solve my own problems.’ ”
If you are ready to do that, an simple,
dependable machine is the best place to start. Two standouts are the.afinia.com/3d-printers”>Afinia H-Series($1,599) or the.com/cube/index.aspx?tb_cube_learn”>Cube printerfrom 3-D systems ($1,299). Both were
judged as among the most reliable and easy to use in a comprehensive test of
printers last year compiled by.makezine.com/volume/make-ultimate-guide-to-3d-printing/”>Make
Magazine.
Whatever you make is up to you. Perhaps
in enough time someone will figure out the million dollar idea that will makes
3-D printers so vital and necessary that it will be hard to imagine a time when
we only made quirky plastic paperweights and iPhone cases, it will be hard to
imagine a time when we asked, “what else is 3-D printing good for?”

.jpg”>.jpg”>.jpg”>.jpg”>

Order | Check Discount

Tags: Ace My Homework: Essay Help, Assignment Help: USA's #1 Online Assignment Writing Service, Do My Assignment for Me Online - Write Academic Papers, Reliable Online Homework Help For You, UK Homework Study Bay: Assignment Homework Help & Homework Answers, Write My Assignments AU - Online Assignment Maker - Writing Services