According to Gareth, 2010 technology-push which is a business strategy refers to a situation where new technological innovations are pushed via R and R, production as well as sales departments into the customers or the markets with no consideration or satisfaction of the end users.
On the other hand, demand pull is a strategy in which innovation made by a business entity is purely based on the demands of the end-user. It has been thought that the later is the way forward for an organization to remain competitive in the current world of business.
In the case of Sony and Guerrilla Games, there are structural issues of concern that arise in their quest to being a giant in the world of games.
The four major design challenges include; vertical and horizontal differentiation, differentiation vs. integration, centralization vs. decentralization of authority and standardization vs. mutual adjustment.
It is no doubt that the merger between the two organizations will bring about a conflict on whether to adopt standardized way of doing things or adopting a mutual adjustment approach.
According to Gareth, 2010 it is worth noting that standardized although a good aspect of organizational structure, there will be need to ensure that it gives workers an opportunity to fully incorporate the ideas into the systems of coming up with better services and products.
Despite the fact that it will help cut down cost as well as increasing reliability there are instances that standardization will bring about a forced way of ding things which may plunge the two organizations into trouble.
To curb this, there is need to resort in adopting mutual adjustment where each of the organization will harmonized their differences and eventually share the same view points.
Having in mind that decision making within an organization is of paramount significance especially considering time factor, a centralized environment of authority will pose a great problem to the firms as arriving at decision and giving direction might take a shorter time. Such decisions stand chances of being vague.
Additionally this strategy gives very little room for consensus building; this may results to projects being arrived at without being fully agreed upon.
On the other hand, decentralized authority brings with it a democratic working environment (Gareth, 2010). With this, views can be brought forth in an open manner hence supporting consensus building. However, it usually take more time to arrive at a decision since there will be involvement of a number of individuals as well as departments.
Similarly, the issue of integration which typically is considered in terms of sharing information also arises when firms join forces. It is thought that integration bring a number of benefits regarding efficiency, agility, transparency as well as enhanced coordination.
In situations where information is shared across a less hierarchy level, then it is evident that the information reaches the intended party within the right time frame for feedback to be provided.
However, the approach make it time consuming when coming up with vital decisions. On the other hand the issue of growing into a complex organization comes into play. Such organization proves to be a challenge to manage.
Lastly and more importantly, horizontal and vertical differentiation provides a challenge to the firms. In cases where the products produced are distinct in features that cannot be ordered in an objective manner then horizontal differentiation will emerge.
This comes in form of differences in differences in attributes of the products such as varying styles and tastes (Gareth, 2010). Vertical differentiation is applicable where one product is deemed better than the rest. With this in mind, orders are placed purely based on objective qualities.
Reference
Gareth, J. (2010). Organizational Theory, Design and Change. New York: Prentice Hall.