Leadership Strategy & Innovation-coursework指导

Question 1问题1

关于过去三年Twitter的表现，我们真诚地承认，该组织缺乏使命感。Ashridge的商业模式评估了Twitter如何未能实现使命感的评估。Twitter的失败迫在眉睫，因为它最近的财务影响和一般利润的实现。Ashridge模型是一种业务工具，它对目标、战略、标准、行为和价值观的洞察在制定任务声明中起着至关重要的作用。尽管如此，Ashridge模型元素的正面和负面影响在下面的讨论部分进行了分析。

Regarding the performance of Twitter in the last three years, it is genuine to acknowledge that the organization lacks concerning a sense of mission. An Ashridge business model evaluates an assessment of determining how Twitter has failed to achieve its sense of mission. Twitter’s failure is imminent for its recent financial impacts and the general profit realization. An Ashridge model is a business tool whose insight on purpose, strategy, standards & behaviour and values play an essential role in developing a mission statement. Nonetheless, the positive and negative impacts of an Ashridge model’s elements is as analysed in the following discussion sections. 

a）目的。Twitter的使命宣言要求通过避免所有可能的障碍，让所有人都有机会立即创建和分享想法以及信息。Twitter的主要目标——关于最近的发展——需要成为第一个实时提供信息的屏幕。当被敏锐地评价时，Twitter已经能够在Ashridge模型的目标元素上实现它的使命感，这一点值得注意。
a) Purpose. Twitter’s mission statement entails giving all people an opportunity to create and share ideas - as well as information – instantly by avoiding all possible barriers. The primary objective of Twitter – concerning recent developments – entails becoming the first screen of providing information on a real-time basis. When keenly evaluated, it is eminent that Twitter has been able to achieve its sense of mission regarding the purpose element - of the Ashridge model. 

TWHR has been able to achieve its purpose by ensuring that its users interconnect at any given time. People are now able to send a message on all corners of the globe at the click of a mouse. It has enabled instantiating of debates that have social, political or economic benefits to the people. For instance, government oppression by the police who use excessive force on civilians and perpetrators taken to courts. Moreover, marriage conflicts which lead to death cases are also unveiled throw Twitter as people can instantly send a video immediately.

TWRHhas been able to achieve its purpose (via the first-screen strategy) by ensuring that people interconnect at any given time. It is practically evident concerning a Monthly Active Users (MAU) – from 2015 to 2017 – maintained a consistent rate of 320 million Twitter users for a run of 3 consecutive years. Moreover, the annual user engagement graph - illustrated in the annual reports – indicates that Quarter 2 records a low user rate of Twitter which rises to a maximum of Quarter 4 in achieving consistency. 

However, it is important to note that Twitter’s internal strategy on expenditure faces a risk of failure. This scenario is imminent concerning a comparison made in the overall cost spent on projects of different nature. They, primarily, include expenses on research and development as well as sales and marketing. As a result of evaluating the reports, Twitter aims at encountering the challenge of reducing the total number of users. Positive performance should be a strategic objective for Twitter for it to strengthen its competitive market advantage. For instance, Twitter needs to achieve a user target of more than 2 billion users which has already been attained by Facebook. It will elevate its market share from poor levels from 5% to 25% of the global population. 

b)    Strategy. Annual reports ranging from 2015 to 2017 indicate that Twitter plan entails capitalizing on its user-strength to boost its advertising business strategy. To optimize on the power of user-number, Twitter has developed mechanisms of structuring their advertisements. For instance, online activity of a Twitter user would determine which ads are suitable to that individual. 

Nevertheless, Twitter is undertaking a slow implementation process aimed at improving live streaming services - regarding the three annual reports. Using the Strength Weaknesses Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) business model, Twitter provides live streaming services which are not unique or different from fellow competitors (including Facebook and Google Buzz) who launched the products earlier than Twitter. 

Twitter has not achieved high-profit margin success for its prevailing financial conditions as illustrated in Table 1. Firstly, the net loss of the fiscal year 2017 has improved from 2016 to 2017. However, the advertisement revenue recorded a decrease of 6% during 2017.  Additionally, Twitter’s operational cost exceeds revenue generation by a considerable margin of 95%. The firm’s net loss in 2015 has improved to $64 million as evaluated in 2016. The following table provides a summary of the financial performance details of Twitter regarding its sense of mission. 

Year Total Revenue (USD, %) Net Loss (USD, %) Cost (USD, %)

2015 $2.22 billion (+58%) $521.0 million (+21%) $2.67 billion (-20.3%)

2016 $2.53 billion (+14%) $456.9 million (+5%) $2.90 billion (-14.6%)

2017 $2.44 billion (-3%) $108.1 million (-76%) $2.40 billion (+1.6%)

Table 1: Financial Summary of 3 Consecutive Financial Years (2015, 2016 and 2017)

c)    Standards and Behaviour. Twitter has adopted policies on moral regulation that, subsequently, have been strategically implemented causing both direct and indirect impacts. Ethical regulation policies evidenced in initiating legal processes have controlled various vices in most societies. For instance, exploiting oppressing practicing wrong use of power in modern warzone-countries. Through the UN Agency in The Hague, ICC has prosecuted prominent leaders in African Countries such as Mbemba due and given relevant verdicts with the aid of Twitter and other social media data. Nowadays, people are turning to social media to fight for justice in the community such as women in a bid to curb domestic violence. 

d)    Company Value. Traditionally, Twitter is credited - in other social media platforms - for spreading information at the high rate across the internet. Most trending topics are first seen in Twitter before they spread to other social media platforms. It has challenged Twitter’s strategy on organizational culture development. The complicated nature of usability in the Twitter website platform has presented different and varying challenges attracting few followers. It is the current generation that is popularizing Twitter as the new social media platform for information awareness. Nevertheless, TWRH has been in a position to come up with android applications that have improved usability among users.#p#分页标题#e#

TWRH has been strategic when it comes to how it values its employees. Twitter ensures that its employees come from all backgrounds without any nature of discrimination from race or religion. It is has enabled this firm to handle its innovation and invention practices with diligence based on pure creativity and talent. For instance, gender-based discrimination activities within its firm are internally dealt with by disciplinary committees. In extreme cases of racial and religious discrimination, the firm has a legal structure that reports such matters to the relevant authorities for action against the perpetrators. 

The Ashridge Sense of Mission Model describes an analysis which evaluates a firm’s performance concerning its Purpose, Values, Behaviour Standards and Strategy. Purpose elaborates by issuing concrete reasons as to why it exists. The central beliefs as evidenced by the firm’s culture is depicted using its Values. Thirdly, the primary policies and rules that regulate operations in the firm are captured in Behaviour Standards a performance analysis. Lastly, the competitive position of the firm in the market, in addition to, its competence is evaluated using the strategy aspect. The above concepts of Ashridge Sense of Mission Model form the core part of this discussion using Twitter (TWRH) as the case context.  

Question 2

The growth and development evidenced in technology have seen social media platforms commanding the global communication system in dynamic ways. For instance, Facebook has been able to predetermine election results through online modified opinion polls when genuinely implemented. Nevertheless, the following discussion aims at outlining various elements of Twitter’s strategy using the Ashridge Sense of Mission Model. The sense of mission captured in the case context ought to elaborate on areas of strongpoints and failure.     

Most decision making theories enable firm’s to make use of information in interpreting the same to accrue more massive profits. In simpler terms, decision-making theories aim at management practices which implement various policies at the executive management level. Concerning TWRH, there are many new strategies adopted in the way in which social media features and functionalities can be advanced to real-time video environments. This discussion aims at analyzing critical decisions made by Twitter is positioning itself as a competitive force in the social media industry.

Moral regulation policies implementation is described as a deliberate strategy, and this has been effective in various ways. The nature in which people interact in Twitter carries a moral obligation of ensuring that explicit content in counter-approached before it happens. In this sense, it implies the TWRHis in a position to disable certain words from being posted as tweets with a specific context. For instance, some words are not supported in the firm’s database of the dictionary of permitted words. Objectively, this has been strategic in countering the effects of sending wrong messages as opposed to other social media platforms.  

The age factor of signing up a Twitter account has been deliberately strategic in achieving moral accountability. In technology, synchronization feature of a Google Account with various social media platforms has enabled quick detection of falsified personal data in a bid to sign up. For instance, the synchronization of cellular networks factual data as shared by mandated statutory bodies to authorize and legitimate companies have enabled Google lockout falsified data in achieving the objective of signing up fake accounts.

Commercial regulations control ethical behaviour on Twitter through many policies which reflect the deliberate strategy adopted for various enactments. For instance, awareness campaigns on the right use of social media platforms have been effecting in informing the public about the moral purpose of social media. For example, heroic moments such as the young man who saved a child hanging on an apartment achieves success concerning appreciating human morality to live. Such practices in society have been instrumental in fighting social vices that have long affected human moral values in access to explicit content. 

Adopting live streaming technology capabilities seems to be the best deliberate strategy for TWRH concerning the nature in which information should spread. In most social media platforms, images and videos are captured in a different manner which does not depict real-time attributes. Most videos, to be specific, are recorded and can circulate as late as two days after being filed. In the Twitter “world,” this seems to be an old-fashioned way and technologically analogue to some extent. It is attributed to the thrilling feeling of having first-hand access to a situation eroded due to the uncertainty of the time in which the video is (was) recorded.

Through live streaming, Twitter will become a news media within the social media industry. At the moment, there is no particular firm in the social media industry that has been able to implement such a strategy objectively. Being the social media firm with such a service, then the instant messaging feature in Twitter will take the firm to a whole new level. This will see this platform gain popularity and overtake social media platforms such as Facebook. Most people will turn to this platform as their essential source of real-time news at their hands. This will be affected if some innovation and inventions continue at the current rate. 

Conclusion

TRWH's mission has generated debates arising from all corners describing the firm’s failure in implementing its statement. The fact that moral decay has been facilitated by the corrupted use of social media platforms as evaluated by the Ashridge Sense of Mission Model. Various practices supported by Twitter like an instant messaging infrastructure have compromised not only, human interaction, but also the nature in which moral is decaying among the younger generation. For instance, fashion trends which with evil social motives such as attracting sexual harassment among women are facilitated by Twitter. The question of social causes promoted in social media platforms renders Twitter’s mission failure due to unregulated policies on various practices at local levels of its markets.