Assessment task details and instructions
You must structure your report in the same order as the weighted assignment tasks set out below.
Word count
The total word count for the report is 4000 words (there is no +10% or -10% allowance for the wordcount); an indicative word count for each task is provided below. NB Task 1 is quantitative and therefore not included in the word count.
The word count also excludes the following:
- cover page
contents page
- references
- tables
- diagrams
- appendices
Abstracts / executive summaries are not required and will not be marked if included.
BACKGROUND TO ASSIGNMENT
The planet is becoming more urban. By 2030, more than five billion people — about 60 percent of the world population — will live in cities.
We are also becoming more mobile and more connected. New technologies and business models are pushing aside the privately-owned automobile and other less efficient modes of transportation.
Whether from autonomous vehicles, the electrification of transportation, shared networks of cars, scooters and bicycles, or the advent of 5G wireless, the world of mobility is changing almost daily.
Nowhere will that transformation be felt more acutely in the coming decades than in the world’s major cities where increased urban density and congestion make the tasks of creating and maintaining urban transport systems ever more complex.
This is why developing and improving urban mobility is a top priority of cities around the globe. If a city cannot move its people, goods and data efficiently, it is difficult to see how it thrives.
Three broad technological trends will be primarily responsible for reshaping urban mobility in every city — digitization, automation and electrification. The sharing (or collaborative) economy, a fourth trend, has led to new business models in which the mobility service provided is more important than its ownership…
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SEAT, S.A. is a Spanish automobile manufacturer with its head office in Martorell (near Barcelona), Spain. The firm has been a wholly-owned subsidiary of Volkswagen Group since 1986.
The firm is strategically repositioning itself from a vehicle manufacturer to a provider of shared mobility services (i.e. where users pay for transportation only when they need it, rather than owning a personal vehicle that is not used most of the time), especially in increasingly crowded urban areas. As stated by Luca De Meo, the firm’s Chairman:
“We are convinced that vehicles will become the second largest connected platform after the mobile phone and we will have the chance to integrate them into a rich ecosystem. This transformation forces us to innovate and move beyond the scope of being just a carmaker, stretching our value chain towards new mobility services, platforms and data businesses”.
As part of this repositioning, SEAT has identified ‘compact urban mobility’ (i.e. short commutes less than 10 kilometres within the city environment, using a small vehicle) as a core area for strategic development.
The firm unveiled its ‘Minimό’ concept vehicle at the 2019 Mobile World Congress to demonstrate SEAT’s vision of the ‘compact urban mobility’ of tomorrow.
Integrating the fields of electrification, connectivity and shared mobility the ‘Minimό’ is a 2-passenger quadricycle primarily intended for business-to-consumer free-floating carsharing providers* that has been designed to:
- have a considerably smaller ecological footprint (3.1 square metres) than a normal car (7.2 square metres) while providing safe, agile travel and easy parking
- release zero emissions due to its all-electric powertrain
- reduce the operating costs of carsharing providers by 50%, as the integrated battery-swap system means the vehicle rarely needs to be taken to a recharging point
- provide a convenient and smooth digital user experience for users based on hyperconnectivity with built-in 5-G technology
- allow the vehicle – in the future and subject to further development of autonomous technologies - to pick up the user when requested, thereby solving one of the main carsharing user pain points.
Delayed due to the global pandemic and global semiconductor chip shortage, the ‘Minimό’ will now enter into production in February 2024, leaving the firm with only 12 months to decide which city from across the globe will be most attractive for the product launch.
SEAT’s international strategy team have already undertaken some initial desktop research and have identified London (UK) and Singapore as potentially attractive markets for the product launch of the ‘Minimό’.
As an external consultant, you have been commissioned by the team to evaluate which of these 2 potential city-level markets is more attractive to launch the ‘Minimό’ vehicle into and to then analyse the more attractive city-level market in greater detail.
* Two of the main types of business-to-consumer car-sharing models are:
Round-trip Station-based carsharing – the user only has the choice of a round trip, picking the car up at Station A and returning it to Station A when they are finished. Those who plan trips ahead of time or are looking for a car at a specific time would benefit from these services.
Free-floating carsharing (e.g. car2go, Gig or DriveNow) – the user can see which cars are available within a set operating area on a mobile app and choose the one closest to them. Once the user is finished using the car, they can drop off the car at any location within the set operating area, saving time and avoiding unnecessary trips. Those who are spontaneous and decide last-minute that they need a car would benefit from these services. SEAT intends to sell its ‘Minimό’ vehicle to business-to-consumer free-floating carsharing providers.
NB the differences between car-sharing, ride-sharing and ride-hailing:
Car-sharing = ‘I rent a car to drive now and park it when I’m finished; someone else will rent the same car later and drive it’.
Ride-sharing = a customer (rider) shares a vehicle with other riders. It is not personal transportation, as the vehicle is shared with other riders and will make stops to pick up other riders.
Ride-hailing = when a rider “hails” or hires a personal driver to take them exactly where they need to go. The vehicle is not shared with any other riders, nor does it make several stops along a route. The ride is booked and paid for through a smartphone app with a transportation network company (TNC) such as Uber.
ASSIGNMENT TASKS
Overview of assignment tasks:
|
Task
|
Nature of Task
|
Weighting
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Word Count
|
|
1
|
Comparative evaluation of 2 markets + identification of most attractive market to enter
|
20%
|
N/A – Quantitative
|
|
2
|
5-forces analysis of competition in the carsharing industry in your chosen city
|
20%
|
1000
|
|
3
|
Identification of the company’s most relevant internal value-adding activities to support entry into your chosen city
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20%
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1000
|
|
4
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Evaluation of relevant modes of entry into your chosen city + recommendation of most suitable mode of entry for the company
|
20%
|
1000
|
|
5
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Evaluation of the potential for the SEAT ‘Minimό’ vehicle to create Shared Value
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20%
|
1000
|
Task requirements:
1. In order to identify which city is the most potentially attractive destination for the launch of the SEAT ‘Minimό’, you are required to undertake a comparative evaluation of what you believe to be the most relevant country-level (i.e. macro-environmental) factors and city-level (i.e. socio-economic and urban mobility readiness) factors for London (UK) and Singapore*.
- Task 1 must be presented in table format and must be no more than 8 pages in length.
- Your tutors will provide you with a template for the tables for Task 1; you must use this template for Task 1.
- Country-level macro-environmental data should be recent, quantitative and obtained from appropriate sources (refer to the list of Useful Data Sources which your tutors will provide you with).
- City-level socio-economic and urban mobility readiness data should be quantitative and obtained from the Urban Mobility Readiness Index (refer to the list of Useful Data Sources which your tutors will provide you with).
- A weighting and scoring system should be used for each factor for each country / city to show whether each factor is more or less attractive for the company. These scores should then be totalled for each country / city in order to arrive at a score of overall attractiveness for each country / city.
- Also refer to the Assignment Task 1 Briefing slides and Task 1 Guidance Notes when preparing this task (your tutors will provide you with these).
* Singapore is a sovereign island city-state; as such, both country-level macro-environmental
data and city-level socio-economic and urban mobility readiness data are readily available as
per the UK / London.
- Worth 20% of the overall mark; not included in the word count
2. Apply the 5-Forces model to critically analyse the competitive environment of the carsharing industry in your chosen city.
- Remember that you can present a summary of key points in a table or diagram.
- A SWOT analysis is not acceptable.
- You must apply the 5-forces model to the city you found to be most attractive in Task 1; no mention of the less attractive city must be made in Task 2.
- Refer to the Assignment Task 2 Briefing slides when preparing this task.
- Worth 20% of the overall mark; 1000 words
3. Using the Value Chain model as a point of reference, identify and discuss which of SEAT’s internal value-adding activities will be most relevant in supporting SEAT to launch the ‘Minimό’ into your chosen city.
- Remember that you can present a summary of key points in a table or diagram.
- A SWOT analysis is not acceptable.
- Refer to the Assignment Task 3 Briefing slides when preparing this task.
- Refer to the list of Useful Data Sources which your tutors will provide you with.
- Worth 20% of the overall mark; 1000 words
4. Critically evaluate the various modes of entry that are relevant to SEAT and recommend - with justification – the most suitable mode of entry that will enable the product launch of the ‘Minimό’ into your chosen city to be a success for the company.
- Remember that you can present a summary of key points in a table or diagram.
- Refer to the Assignment Task 4 Briefing slides when preparing this task.
- Worth 20% of the overall mark; 1000 words
5. Evaluate the extent to which you believe the SEAT ‘Minimό’ vehicle has the potential to create Shared Value; support your answer with reference to relevant Shared Value concepts.
- Refer to the Assignment Task 5 Briefing slides when preparing this task.
- Refer to the list of Useful Data Sources which your tutors will provide you with.
- Worth 20% of the overall mark; 1000 words
