A few hints on how to prepare for this exam:

1. You will be expected to explain and argue the implications of each of the four aspects of our service strategy framework, for each of the cases. So have the material (in the form of your notes) ready to go.
2. Review and refresh yourself on the key arguments and analyses of each case (consider all viewpoints, not just your own). Successful completion of the exam in the time allotted will not allow for you to re-learn or re-read entire cases or articles during the exam. So refresh, review, and come prepared.
3. Review our service design analysis framework (the Francis Frei article); how to analyze cases; and the primer on how not to get lost in the numbers. In other words, get your analysis mindset and tools ready so you can hit the ground running during the exam.
4. Unlike most midterms that you might be used to, this exam is will not test your knowledge of raw facts and figures. Rather, the questions on the exam are designed to test your ability to apply the methods of thinking that were taught and applied in class. The best way to understand what I mean by ‘apply methods of thinking’ are to give you an example. Our first readings this semester: Frei, F. X. (2008). The four things a service business must get right. Harvard business review, 86(4), 70-80, I will not overtly ask what the ‘four things’ are, but rather I will be looking for whether, you analyzed the given service strategy as it relates to having a sound offering that matches with customer values/needs/wants; the strength of its customer and employee management strategies; and its funding mechanism. AND that you have appropriately identified and evaluated the strengths and weaknesses of those mechanisms in the case given. A and B -grade responses are those that cross-pollinate the strategies used and issues presented in in-class cases with those that you’re currently being asked about.

INSTRUCTIONS & GUIDELINES ON EXAM:

1. There is no page minimum or maximum. But be parsimonious in your writing, and do complete your thoughts and explanations for a thorough and well supported analyses.
2. Write enough to make your points blatantly clear and convincing. I am NOT allowed to extrapolate or guess at your meaning, so make sure your logic/argument/analysis/chain-of-thought is clear.
3. Writing will NOT be graded on grammar or spelling. However, if I cannot understand what you are writing, I cannot give you credit.  So please use the spell check and grammar check functions
4. If you need to/are making assumptions, please state your assumptions and then continue.
5. Please feel free to use bullet points and outlines where appropriate, but your written meaning should be unequivocal – I will not interpret your writing/bullets/outline/meaning. Your meaning must be clear.
6. No additional research on the case company is required nor desired to thoroughly respond to the exam prompts (additional research on the company is actually discouraged). However, you are encouraged to draw on the learning and examples of the companies and cases discussed this semester, your own experience, and insight garnered from your other courses.