POLIMI - Leadership and Innovation (written exams 2019/2020) PDF

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“Leadership and Innovation” written exam – June 22/INNOVATION Patient Innovation is an online platform where patients and caregivers around the world connect to share and create solutions, they developed themselves or with the help from collaborators, to cope with a health-related problem. The platf...

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Written Exam – Leadership and Innovation – Politecnico di Milano 2019/2020

“Leadership and Innovation” written exam – June 22/2020 INNOVATION 1. Patient Innovation is an online platform where patients and caregivers around the world connect to share and create solutions, they developed themselves or with the help from collaborators, to cope with a health-related problem. The platform can be visited at this website: https://patient-innovation.com Patient innovation is an example of: a) A transactional two-sided platform since it matches patients and physicians and serves as a technological foundation upon which other users develop complementary innovations b) A platform enabling lead-user innovation since it leverages on users who face specific needs before the bulk of the marketplace c) It is not a platform enabling lead-user innovation since it leverages on users who are facing needs for products and services that do not exist on the market d) A platform enabling beta testing because patients are directly involved in the testing of innovative solutions 2. The PepsiCo Design Center partnered with PepsiCo’s Foodservice innovation team to develop the vision and spirit of F!ZZ – a completely new brand experience that defines the future of soft drink (e.g. Pepsi etc.) mixology, which we call “fizzology”. At the core, F!ZZ is a playful celebration of bubbles with unexpected ingredient combinations -- including flavor shots, bursts, garnishes and foams -- creating a fun, adventurous way for consumers to deconstruct and reconstruct soft drinks (e.g. Pepsi etc.). To define the F!ZZ beverage experience, we extended beyond traditional branded packaging, creating a unique experience for consumers that is emotive and fully sensorial. The resulting 360 degree immersive experience includes actual bubbles, spinning spheres, flavor scent tubes, a DJ and hands-on fizzology experiments which come together to embody the fun spirited nature and emotion that is now F!ZZ. The experiential architecture and graphic design system uniquely define the surprising and exciting experience of fizzology. Considering the soft drinks market (e.g. Pepsi) and the initiative of F!ZZ which innovation strategy has been adopted by PepsiCo Design Center? a) Collaborative innovation, in the Elite Circle modality, due to the close participation and the hierachical governance of Pepsi over the initiative that involved soft drinks innovation b) Market Pull, due to the answer to a specific request of the market, new flavours and new combinations of soft drinks c) Internal Platform, due to the creation of a format that would support the spread of PepsiCo soft drinks (e.g., Pepsi) all over the world d) Innovation of Meaning, due to the new meaning given to soft drinks 3. Over the last months the lockdown forced us to work in different ways. Many companies started using smart working, even though they never used it before, others leveraged it more extensively. For us at Polimi, it meant to move all the teaching activities online, using Microsoft Teams instead of our campuses. This "technological shift" changed the way in which we can teach. We were not seeing your faces to understand how the lecture was going, we used the chat to hear your thoughts, we used PollEv instead of raising hands and so on. Think back about the experience we had in these months and think about the innovation models we discussed, and pick the best of the following answers, putting yourself in the shoes of the Professors:

Written Exam – Leadership and Innovation – Politecnico di Milano 2019/2020

a) Teaching online is a great case of Competence destroying innovation: the skills Professors developed teaching in class are not useful in this new scenario b) Teaching online is a great case of Competence enhancing innovation: the skills Professors developed teaching in class are amplified by the technology c) Teaching online is a great case of Technology Epiphany because it offers a new reason why to follow a course d) None of the previous 4. Immuni is the app developed by BendinSpoon and commissioned by the Italian Government to track the coronavirus outbreak in these months. Its mission is "Let's start afresh together: living a normal life once again is possible. Immuni helps us reach this goal faster and without compromising our privacy". The app uses the Bluetooth technology to track contacts and alert the users who have had a risky exposure—even if they are asymptomatic. The app sends a notification to people who were in close contact with a user who tested positive for the COVID-19 virus, alerting them of the risk of infection. Thanks to Bluetooth Low Energy technology, this takes place without the app gathering any data on the identity or the location of its users. Users who have been notified by the app of a possible infection can isolate themselves to avoid infecting other people. By doing so, they help contain the epidemic and speed up the return to a normal life. Immuni has been designed and developed while taking great care to safeguard user privacy. Any data, collected and managed by the Ministry of Health and by public entities, are stored on servers located in Italy. All the data and app connections with the server are protected. Immuni is a digital service that can be read through the platform lenses, which kind of platform does best fit this case? a) Transactional Two-Sided Platform b) Industry-Wide Platform c) Orthogonal or Non-Transactional Two-Sided Platform d) Internal or Product Platform 5. We’ve reached an exciting milestone with PlayStation 5, as we’re starting to ship our new controller in its final design to developers who are implementing its unique features into their games. But first, we wanted everyone in the PlayStation community to get a first look at the DualSense™ wireless controller, and hear our vision for how the new controller will captivate more of your senses as you interact with the virtual worlds in PS5 games. The features of DualSense, along with PS5’s Tempest 3D AudioTech, will deliver a new feeling of immersion to players. We had a great opportunity with PS5 to innovate by offering game creators the ability to explore how they can heighten that feeling of immersion through our new controller. This is why we adopted haptic feedback, which adds a variety of powerful sensations you’ll feel when you play, such as the slow grittiness of driving a car through mud. We also incorporated adaptive triggers into the L2 and R2 buttons of DualSense so you can truly feel the tension of your actions, like when drawing a bow to shoot an arrow. When PS4 launched in 2013, the DualShock 4 wireless controller garnered a lot of positive feedback from gamers and developers for being the best PlayStation controller yet, and for introducing forward-looking features like the Share button. This brought us to the next question – how do we build upon that success? This provided us with an exciting challenge to design a new controller that builds off of the current generation, while taking into account the new features we were adding. Jim Ryan, President & CEO, Sony Interactive Entertainment Considering the current situation and the words of Jim Ryan about the DualSense remote control, which of the following sentences summarizes the approach adopted for the DualSense controller: a) Radical platform innovation because it will now give the possibility to game creators to leverage the controller to create new games

Written Exam – Leadership and Innovation – Politecnico di Milano 2019/2020

b) Technology-Push innovation since it leverages innovative sensors previously not present in DualShock4 remote control and increasing the performances c) Technology epiphany since the new haptic feedback technology enables the transmission of new sensations while playing. This will make the game even more real d) Innovation of meaning since it reinforces the feeling of immersion to players 6. SpaceX is an American aerospace manufacturer and space transportation services company. It was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk with the goal of reducing space transportation costs to enable the colonization of Mars. SpaceX has developed several launch vehicles, among which the latest is the Dragon capsule spacecraft. With a demo-launch, NASA has recently certified SpaceX’s Dragon capsule for human spaceflight, resuming regular crewed launches from the US after a nine-year stop. The launch represents the culmination of nearly a decade of work by NASA and SpaceX. Following the end of the shuttle program, NASA was left without a rocket to send astronauts to space, so for the past nine years, the agency has relied on Russian rockets for a ride to the International Space Station. It was a pricey proposition—seats on the Russian capsule cost $80 million per astronaut. NASA embraced commercial crew contracts with SpaceX as a way to drive down the cost of space access by harnessing the powers of the market. And the gamble is about to pay off. Once SpaceX starts ferrying astronauts to orbit on operational missions, seats on the Dragon capsule will cost roughly half the price of a seat on the Russian capsule. SpaceX won’t just be launching NASA astronauts, of course. In 2018, Elon Musk also sold tickets to the Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa for an around-the-moon excursion on SpaceX’s next-generation Starship rocket. NASA and SpaceX are about to usher the world into this brave new stage of commercial space exploration. The SpaceX Dragon capsule is an example of a) Technology-push innovation, since the whole innovation didn't start from a market need but from a new breakthrough technology b) Market-pull innovation, since it addresses the explicit needs of rich people who want to travel to space c) Innovation of meaning, since it is about a new way to communicate aerospace travel d) None of the other options 7. Lawson, Inc. is one of the top convenience store chains in Japan, third to convenience franchise giants 7Eleven and FamilyMart. All of the usual Japanese convenience store goods, such as magazines, video games, manga, soft drinks, onigiri, pastry roulette and bento are available. Started in the 1990s, Lawson allowed third -party providers to offer various services within its shops. Today Lawson customers can pay utility bills and insurance premiums, ship and pick up parcels through postal service providers, and claim items ordered from e-commerce sites just by visiting their local convenience store. a) Customers in the Lawson shops find it convenient to access various services in the same location and this creates network externalities, being Lawson a two-sided platform b) Lawson shops are not two-sided platforms because there are no direct effects among the customers or among the third-party service providers c) Lawson shops facilitate transactions between its customers and third-party service providers, but they are not a two-sided platform as there are no indirect effects d) Lawson shops are not two-sided platforms because they do not exploit network effects

Written Exam – Leadership and Innovation – Politecnico di Milano 2019/2020

LEADERSHIP 1. DISH&WASH, a company producing components for household appliances, is a family-owned company whose revenues significantly grew in the last 3 years. Thus, the CEO and owner of the company decided to re-design the overall organization and to hire two professional managers, Bob and Mark, for one position as Sales Director and one position as Accounting Director. During their job interviews the two managers were asked to describe their management style, and that’s what they shared: Bob: “I always try to talk with all the people in my team, one by one, to understand what their concerns are and what can best motivate each individual. I think that having a one-to-one connection is at the basis of an effective leadership interaction. Also, I always push the boundaries of excellent performance” Mark: “For me the best way to achieve a successful performance is to closely supervise what my team is doing. I assign clear roles and responsibilities to each member, and before an important meeting or deadline with the client, I always organize several internal meetings with my team to check that everything is okay, and to prevent mistakes from happening”. Which is the best model that can help the CEO to identify Bob and Mark’s leadership approach, based on what they shared during their interview? a) Shared leadership b) Leadership traits c) Johari window d) Transformational and transactional leadership 2. This is Helen's Johari Window. She built it with her colleagues. To describe Helen all of them (Helen included) picked 6 words out of a long list. If the one the words selected by Helen was also selected by at least a colleague, that word is positioned into the public/Open Area. If none of the colleagues instead selected that word, it is put into the Private/Hidden Area. Words selected by the colleagues but not by Helen are in the Blind Area. Finally, words not selected by anybody are in the Unknown Area. This is the result:

Which of the following statements may be a proper comment for this Johari Window? a) The exercise did not work. It's clear that Helen's colleagues do not know her enough, she should repeat this exercise with someone who knows her better

Written Exam – Leadership and Innovation – Politecnico di Milano 2019/2020

b) Helen should work hard to show the others the lower left quadrant, otherwise she cannot be valued in the organization c) Helen should take this result as the opportunity to ask her colleagues for feedbacks to better understand the behaviors in which they see the elements in the blind spot d) Helen should spend more time talking with her colleagues, having such a wide unknown area with the people she works with is not a good sign 3. Paul and Gloria did a workshop together. At the end of the session, they are in the parking lot and Paul says: "Hey Gloria, I think it was an excellent session. Can I give you a feedback?". Gloria says yes and Paul continues: "You tend to expect that everything is done as you would do it. I feel uncomfortable when you do it, as I don't understand what should I do instead". Thinking about this feedback, pick the best of the following statements: a) This a corrective feedback that did not follow any of the 4 steps for a corrective feedback b) This a corrective feedback that followed 3 out 4 steps of a corrective feedback c) This a corrective feedback that followed 2 out 4 steps of a corrective feedback d) This a corrective feedback that followed 1 out 4 steps of a corrective feedback 4. You are working with the corporate legal department team to consider a new approach to the existing yearly proxy statement process. The team has worked diligently on the proposal for the past few months. One team member, Marie, is obsessed with minor details, and is stopping the submission of the proposal despite the team covering those details multiple times. Marie starts to get in a heated debate with other members on the team, who feel the delay is unnecessary and looks bad for the team as a whole. You engage with Marie to help this person understand the team’s perspective and now she is debating with you. The outcomes of continuing a debate may not yield fruitful results for the team and Marie is not in a position of authority. Moreover, you feel that the team is tired and wants to move on. What is the most effective conflict management style you should adopt in this situation? a) Compromising b) Collaborating c) Accommodating d) Avoiding 5. The true mark of a leader is the willingness to stick with a bold course of action — an unconventional business strategy, a unique product-development roadmap, a controversial marketing campaign — even as the rest of the world wonders why you’re not marching in step with the status quo. In other words, real leaders are happy to zig while others zag. They understand that in an era of hyper-competition and nonstop disruption, the only way to stand out from the crowd is to stand for something special. Andrea Guerra, a CEO, put it about as well as anyone has: “Crises are not only about negative things,” he said. “Where the world is changing and changing fast, your thoughts have to be bold and you need to see the future of the company five years from now, not today.” Considering the perspective of Andrea Guerra choose the correct statement: a) He relies mainly on his limbic layer of the brain and on his left hemisphere b) He relies mainly on his limbic layer of the brain and on his right hemisphere c) He relies mainly on his neocortex layer of the brain and on his right hemisphere d) He relies mainly on his neocortex layer of the brain and on his left hemisphere

Written Exam – Leadership and Innovation – Politecnico di Milano 2019/2020

6. Laurent is a new manager hired at Sylvestre Inc. He will work in the HR department, guiding a new important project that should significantly change how people work with the company. His goal will be to design, implement and roll out an Agile framework to change how projects and processes are managed within each function. He has been selected by the new CEO due to his great experience in different companies. He guided a start-up from the early days to a big exit with a multinational company, but he also guided a digitalization process for a multinational company. During the interview, the CEO understood that Laurent tends to be extremely clear when providing guidance and instructions, as well as an avid observer to make sure that everything goes as planned. Nevertheless, the experiences he told to the CEO, convinced him that he is very good in adapting his leadership style to the context he is working in, doing what is best for the project he is guiding. He will manage a task force of 5 people. They are quite experienced within the company, all of them attended various Agile courses and worked in Agile environments over the years. Nevertheless, they passed the last three years working at the Sylvestre Inc with the previous CEO, an authoritative leader who tends not to ask for the others opinions. This had a very relevant impact on the behaviors and attitudes when working on projects. According to the situational leadership model, which Laurent knows very well, which style should he use with this team? a) Delegating b) Participating c) Selling d) Telling 7. SUPER CLEAN, a company producing components for household appliances, is a family-owned company whose revenues significantly grew in the last 3 years. Thus, the CEO and owner of the company decided to re-design the overall organization and to hire two professional managers, Wilma and Joan, for one position as Sales Director and one position as Accounting Director. During their job interviews the two managers were asked to describe their management style, and that’s what they shared: Wilma: “I do believe that a friendly environment is the key for achieving the best performance. I work hard to convey a shared purpose and to create a collaborative environment, as in my opinion this is the secret for excellence” Joan: “I always say this to the people I work with: ‘When you are at work, you must forget what there is outside. Your personal life is not my problem’. I am convinced that the key for success is to have a solid planning and a clear system of objectives, expected targets and incentives. In the end, the most powerful tool to make people happy to work in a place is to pay them enough money for the proper accomplishment of their tasks. Which is the best model that can help the CEO to identify Wilma and Joan’s leadership approach, based on what they shared during their interviews? a) Shared leadership b) Leadership trait c) Managerial grid d) Situational leadership 8. The Covid-19 Data Portal (C19DP) task force is a team of scientists working on open data, interoperability, virology and life science. The task force has been gathered by the European Commission in order to facilitate data sharing and analysis on coronavirus, accelerating the related research. All the members of the task force are very experienced in their field and possess specialized knowledge and

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