Topical Engineering Issues for MBA Dissertation Topic

Hi Jamie

You have an interesting idea there, and I would suggest an extension. Why are small businesses so much more able to be efficient than big businesses? The whole idea of building businesses by aquisition often does not work. One can find may examples of this on the stock market, particularly in the USA. I wonder if you have read the books by Eliyahu M Goldratt, he has written a number of novels which describe company situations in a number of sectors to illustrate his "Logical Thinking Process" of business improvement through analysis and problem solving. There is also a textbook and a number of other books, but the novels will get you thinking about your dissertation area. A typical big business which has made a number of fairly bad choices in aquisition because it did not understand what made those businesses work is Belden, Inc. a big player.


It produces electronic cables, coax etc, and has attempted to diversify into the broadcast electronics market by aquision of several companies, eg. Grass Valley Group. GVG had already aquired Snell  of the UK amongst others. The are now all sold to a venture capital company, probably for peanuts. This group was the crown of Broadcast, but stopped innovating and began to make software products with largely COTS hardware some years ago, causing costs but also selling prices to fall hugely. Support became very expensive and became poor in quality because of management failure to realise that Broadcast and Film is a 24/7 operation which cannot tolerate delay in fixing problems.


I am suggesting you follow a real problem rather than a theoretical one, the value to a business is much greater than simply an academic discussion (or dissertation)! It is the application of your MBA that is important in the future, not the letters after your name, and my and many others experience is that actions speak much more strongly than words. You can analyse the problems this company had with the tools you have learned, and show how they could have prevented the problems, and highlight the mistakes made. You might well find that junior managers doing things because their seniors expect them is an interesting factor, as well as "snag shifting" down the chain to people who do not have the power to make change, but can be blamed, is quite important too. Covid-19 will be blamed but is not a factor!


I can give you more info. and a contact, if interested send me a PM.

Hi Jamie

You have an interesting idea there, and I would suggest an extension. Why are small businesses so much more able to be efficient than big businesses? The whole idea of building businesses by aquisition often does not work. One can find may examples of this on the stock market, particularly in the USA. I wonder if you have read the books by Eliyahu M Goldratt, he has written a number of novels which describe company situations in a number of sectors to illustrate his "Logical Thinking Process" of business improvement through analysis and problem solving. There is also a textbook and a number of other books, but the novels will get you thinking about your dissertation area. A typical big business which has made a number of fairly bad choices in aquisition because it did not understand what made those businesses work is Belden, Inc. a big player.


It produces electronic cables, coax etc, and has attempted to diversify into the broadcast electronics market by aquision of several companies, eg. Grass Valley Group. GVG had already aquired Snell  of the UK amongst others. The are now all sold to a venture capital company, probably for peanuts. This group was the crown of Broadcast, but stopped innovating and began to make software products with largely COTS hardware some years ago, causing costs but also selling prices to fall hugely. Support became very expensive and became poor in quality because of management failure to realise that Broadcast and Film is a 24/7 operation which cannot tolerate delay in fixing problems.


I am suggesting you follow a real problem rather than a theoretical one, the value to a business is much greater than simply an academic discussion (or dissertation)! It is the application of your MBA that is important in the future, not the letters after your name, and my and many others experience is that actions speak much more strongly than words. You can analyse the problems this company had with the tools you have learned, and show how they could have prevented the problems, and highlight the mistakes made. You might well find that junior managers doing things because their seniors expect them is an interesting factor, as well as "snag shifting" down the chain to people who do not have the power to make change, but can be blamed, is quite important too. Covid-19 will be blamed but is not a factor!


I can give you more info. and a contact, if interested send me a PM.