Pick one of the two scenarios outlined below and write a 3,000-word report.
Apply up to three topics of your choice to address the issues raised in the scenario, and to maximise the opportunities and minimise the challenges identified in the scenario.
Topics / themes:
[1] Industry 4.0 and the CPS (Cyber-Physical Systems) layer model
[2] The Circular Economy
[3] AI and Automation
[4] Metaverse (extended reality technologies)
[5] Systematic, agile approach to digital transformation
Use the Business Model Canvas to develop details of a business model appropriate for the chosen scenario, to explain how your chosen organisation will leverage the three topics in practice.
Conclude by providing strategic advice to your chosen organisation based on your evaluation.
Scenarios:
[A] GreenLife: A European smart city team looking to maximise the use of green energy and minimise water consumption within a strictly controlled financial framework.
The twelve-person strong GreenLife team are part of a large European city governance organisation that has been embracing the smart city vision over the past seven years reflected by its early membership of the United Nations U4SSC.
After high initial investments in driving a targeted sustainability agenda, the City has recently experienced budget cuts but is determined to improve its KPIs relating to green energy generation, storage and usage combined with advanced water management.
GreenLife are determined to leverage digital technologies to drive their sustainability agenda whilst maintaining citizen engagement and are determined to learn from private sector initiatives in this regard.
[B] Cloth Swap: A UK based start-up aiming at building a circular economy/sharing economy business model in the clothing / fashion sector.
Jodie and Ken started ClothSwap three months ago after leaving University and realising that many in their social networks were sharing and swapping clothes. They secured seed funding from a local start up organisation to get ClothSwap up and going.
ClothSwap will provide a platform to encourage and enable easy temporary or permanent exchange of clothes. They want to focus on the Southeast of the UK (close to where they live) initially, targeting the 18- to 25-year-old demographic. Once the platform is proven they want to scale up and scale out to other geographies and demographics.
ClothSwap want to leverage digital technologies to realise a fast start-up, aiming at minimising reliance on external funding. They also want to ensure a smooth scale up once demand increases and – or course – keep a good handle on ClothSwap’s sustainability agenda.
Report structure and word count guidance:
[1] Introduction (500 words)
Providing context for your report, including highlighting the top three opportunities and the top 3 challenges implicit in your chosen scenario.
[2] Evaluation (2,100-2,200 words)
Critically discuss how your chosen topics / themes can be used to maximise the opportunities and minimise the challenges identified in section [1]
The section must draw on the business model canvas to explain how your chosen organisation will leverage the topics / themes in practice.
[3] Conclusion (300-400 words)
In this section, please provide a conclusion, and include strategic advice – in bullet point format – for your chosen organisation based on your evaluation.
Notes:
[1] You will be able to ask questions to the non-executive chair of your chosen organisation using a Minerva Q&A facility for 4 weeks leading up to your assessment submission.
[2] Your report must demonstrate critical thinking, drawing on and referencing course materials and other trusted sources throughout. You should support your points with a variety of trusted sources, including academic literature, grey literature (e.g. industry reports, industry blogs, policy papers etc), news articles, real-life examples or case studies.
[3] Should your report deviate from the suggested structure; this must be justified in your introduction.