Assessment Type: Reflective Essay – 1,500 words (+/- 10%). Purpose: The assessment is designed to allow students to demonstrate their critical and independent thinking skills. It will test students’...

The roles of Strategy, Technology, and Learning in a Knowledge-Economy
Contents
A.    Introduction    1
B.    Roles of strategy    1
C.    Role of technology    2
D.    Role of Learning    3
E.    Role Leadership    4
F.    Conclusion    4
G.    Reference    5
A. Introduction
A knowledge-based economy that is largely based on the idea of commercialization based on intellectual capital. It is the economy wherein its operation is based on the capitalization of intellectual knowledge and seeks to apply the theoretical knowledge of doing business into real-life applications. The knowledge-based economy has successfully replaced the industrial and manufacturing economy. The primary difference between these two eras is the knowledge-based economy is based on intangible assets and technological intervention as opposed to utilization of capital, fixed assets, and large labor source, all of it is tangible. It is justifiable to state that knowledge-based economy has been a stepping stone towards globalization, mobility of resources, and most importantly technological intervention. The focal point of the report is the contribution and challenges of strategy, technology, and learning environment to design, establish, and operate a knowledge base economy that can't propel without the force of leadership.
B. Roles of strategy
Competitive advantage plays a prominent role in today's business era when the cost of switching to another product and the availability of substitutes is everywhere. Thus to overcome cut-throat competition, enjoying a competitive advantage is important, which is a resultant of strategy identification, definition, and implementation. For example, Apple Inc categorized as the most trusted brand since it has always maintained a business growth strategy towards a premium customer who aims at the uniqueness and data security. Though the world is closely inter-connected and inter-dependent however nature, size, and scope of the market still are largely influenced by internal and external factors. To sustain in the market, understanding its dynamics is essential (through environmental scanning tools like PESTEL, SWOT, Porter's Five Force Model, etc) all of which are ascertained through strategic decision making. For example, McDonald's operations management, items on the menu, marketing techniques are mostly customized based on the local environmental scanning.
Designing and implementation of the strategy are grounded on goals (long term objectives). In case the organization fails to accurately articulate its objective based on the future trend, strategy by itself can be a destroyer of the organization. Alignment of strategy to stakeholders is essential. in the absence of doing so, the chances of miscommunication and misconnect can increase. Thus leading to a bigger failure. Another significant resource for strategies to fail is the lack of availability and feasibility of resources namely human, money, time, infrastructure, etc. in the absence of resources the probability of successful implementation of the strategy is a challenge. For instance, though China is a superpower, however, there they are called "World Factory" and not a Power-Point for knowledge and innovation. The reason for such a condition is the lack of skilled, competent, and educated human resources which is a cumulative failure of the government and education industry to prepare their human capital for the knowledge-driven economy.
C. Role of technology
A knowledge economy is dominated by technological interfaces, interventions, and capabilities. The first steps towards knowledge-driven organization have a direct result of technological innovation and application of the same in business to reduce human activities, cost of operation, and most importantly reduce wastage. All...