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Business Management: Overall Challenge

Business Management: Overall Challenge

Purpose of the assignment:  

This assignment is designed to get you to think more deeply about Part 2 of how you might solve the overall management challenge and why your chosen approach could be the “best way.”  Whereas your goal in A1 (Part 1) was to analyse what the FFCRC does as an R&D organisation, the goal of A2 (Part 2) is to analyse a particular energy product created by Engie Energy Resources (listed below).  In A3 (Part 3), you will bring what you have learned in A1 and A2 together to design a business model / roadmap for FFCRC to present to Engie Energy Resources about how they could work together to commercialise that product.

Overall management challenge: The FFCRC, as an R&D organisation, helps energy businesses design solutions to technical & management problems.  In this instance, the FFCRC is trying to help Engie Energy Resources design a business plan (roadmap) to commercialise the technical products they have created at the REIDS-SPORE Demonstration project. Details about the demonstration project are in the videos found HERE:

Information on what hydrogen is and how it is made can be found HERE (Links to an external site.).

For A2, pick only one of these products. Concentrate on building a business case for how it can be used commercially across a range of businesses within one business sector.

Problem:  Your task in this assignment is simply to imagine how this one product might be used and how it could be marketed to various end users both in Singapore (Links to an external site.) and within the ASEAN (Links to an external site.) region.  Consider macro, meso and micro implications as you make the case for the use of this product.  Rather than going broad and general, pick one business sector on which to focus (e.g., banking / finance, automobile production, real estate, e-commerce, etc.)  You may wish to ask the following questions:

  • How would the uptake of a ‘green energy’ product help businesses in this sector achieve low emissions goals?
  • Why should they strive to achieve these goals?
  • What are the financial implications?
  • Think about how soft and hard processes (e.g., leadership/culture, ethics/CSR, and/or HRM) would be affected (both +/-) by companies making the choice to purchase and use one of these green energy products?
  • How would the use of green energy products help end users achieve their own strategic sustainability goals or contribute to a regional decarbonisation strategy?

Requirements for the assignment:    

  • Re-state the problem as a research question
  • Undertake a literature review of management literature on energy / sustainability challenges within the business sector you chose.  This review will help you to better understand the nature of the problem, how theory can inform a solution and what (if anything) has been tried before to solve this kind of problem (e.g. Has this kind of challenge occurred before? Maybe in another industry? How has it been solved?)
  • Identify and select appropriate scholarly tools, models and theories that will help you to understand the implications the use of this product will have on hard and soft systems within companies in your chosen business sector (e.g., leadership, CSR, ethics, HR, etc.)
  1. What kind of leadership and subsequent cultures need to be formed when making the change to use this product? Why and How?
  2. Are there ethical aspects we have to consider with internal and external stakeholders?  Why and How?
  3. What overall alignment is required between HRM, leadership/culture, and ethics to make sure they all say the same thing when communicating with and motivating employees to support the use of this product?
  • The substance of your report is to justify why this product should be adopted by your chosen business sector – remember to use management theory and logic – make sure to support your case with evidence.

Additional Essential Resources:

https://youtu.be/ZtcC2DVUlOY – ENGIE Lab Singapore: Towards Carbon Neutrality

https://youtu.be/DX7RT6j3Taw – SIEW 2020: Energy Insights – ENGIE – The REIDS-SPORE Platform

The challenge: Engie South-East Asia (SEA) is currently running a demonstration project in Singapore. This project is a micro-grid which includes many industry partners to design and deliver a carbon-neutral microgrid, the REIDS-SPORE platform. ENGIE’s expertise in smart grids, industry energy efficiency and smart cities is reflected in the REIDS project – a state-of-the-art, multi-fluid, micro-grid solution. What recommendations should the FFCRC make to ENGIE as it takes the REIDS-SPORE project from testbed to commercial success?

A possible approach:

  • We could approach this challenge in terms of change management
  • Students should understand the difference between change and transformation – being that change can be just a segment of the organization and the operating environment, while transformation impacts everyone in Singapore!

Consider: “What business model is required for ENGIE to scale up a micro-grid project to address the energy needs of Singapore within the 2030 emissions reductions targets?

A possible approach:

  • Please discuss possible approaches in your tutorials from Modules 5 – 8.  Course staff will post ideas you generate.

Consider: How does the REIDS-SPORE Project scale up in Singapore as well as Malaysia and the Philippines using brand new technology within a new operating model. Exploration of what structures, models, governance and methods could be used to help develop and organizationally design a future state for energy generation and delivery. What would be the best approach and considerations for the organization?

A possible approach:

  • Please discuss possible approaches in your tutorials from Modules 5 – 8.  Course staff will post ideas you generate.
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