Compare and contrast the outside-in readiness of Zappos and Ricoh Canada at the time that each respective case was written. After comparing each company, provide your assessment of which organization, Zappos or Ricoh, is in the best position to deliver value to their customers.

The expectation is that you are able to draw on the appropriate concepts from “STRATEGY FROM THE OUTSIDE IN” in order to address the questions at hand. If you draw on too many (unrelated) concepts (i.e. the “everything but the kitchen sink” approach), this will detract from the clarity of your analysis. On the other hand, not drawing on all relevant concepts for that question will lead to an incomplete analysis.

Question 1A (Recommend about 2 pages)                                                 

Compare and contrast the outside-in readiness of Zappos and Ricoh Canada at the time that each respective case was written. After comparing each company, provide your assessment of which organization, Zappos or Ricoh, is in the best position to deliver value to their customers.

Question 1B (Recommend about 1 page)                                                   

For the company that you felt is the least outside-in driven (Zappos or Ricoh), what do you believe is the single most important thing that organization should do to move to become more outside-in driven. Justify why you believe that this is the single most important move.

Question 2A (Recommend about 1 page)                                                   

For an entrepreneurial initiative, Threadless has seen significant success over the years. There are many reasons for this, but from a customer value perspective, what has been their innovation?

Question 2B (Recommend about 2-3 pages)                                              

Refer back to the company you identified in Question 1(B) (as being the least outside-in driven).

Provide a complete customer value profile and assessment of value priority of one segment that you feel is core to that organization’s (Zappos or Ricoh) future success. Be sure to justify your customer value analysis by drawing information from the case study as well as drawing on as many concepts as is relevant in order to provide a rich understanding of the customer value and priority.

Question 3 (Recommend about 3 pages)                                                    

For the company that you discussed in questions 1(B) and 2(B), describe the Business Model that you believe that company (Zappos or Ricoh) will have to put in place in order to deliver value to the customer you profiled in Question 2B.