To the Board of Directors of RadioShack,
2015 and 2016 shook the confidence of RadioShack first with the bankruptcy and later the resignation of the CEO, Ron Garriques, who served less than a year in the position. Although one may consider these to be significant setbacks, I view these as opportunities, blessings and stepping stones for future of the firm. These events mark an opportunity for the Company to wipe its plate clean and make itself relevant again. It must use its rich history as a one-stop shop for offering a wide-variety of higher quality electronics to fuel the rebound story and transform the Company from being a buyer’s second thought to regaining the buyer’s focus.
So how will RadioShack succeed? While no one direct formula
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RadioShack successfully executed a transactional plan for many years, conservatively defending its territory from competitors and using lean initiatives to make small incremental year-over-year growth, however as its ecosystem evolved and technology disrupted the market, it found itself as a sea squirt swimming amongst sharks. Today, incremental planning and thinking will limit the position to grow in the years ahead, and will likely position a Company into decling year over year results. To revive itself, RadioShack must consider transformational planning, where proactive and anticipatory competencies are deeply rooted in its core behavior. It starts with forecasting the future and identifying hard trends that become the user story for each product developed. This will truly allow the organization to move from an "as is" state to a "to be" …show more content…
The first step is to create a committee that has equal representation from the Board, C-suite members from each of the main functional areas (Finance, Marketing, and Operations), and a select handful of high-potential Middle Managers. The committee’s sole objective is to be the decision-making unit that develops the strategic initiatives the company will pursue to revive sales growth, and also to be the guiding coalition to the rest of the organization during the implementation of the initiatives. CEO, Dene Rogers, is crucial to the success of the committee. He must truly be a change agent and a conduit between the committee and the Company’s owners, General Wireless. He must help define the ideal state by understanding and committing to growth targets that are supported by the owners, and are sensible for a distressed business. In addition to establishing the measurements of operational and financial success, Dene must be influential in his approach and a catalyst to the
Sonance is a well-established company providing high quality customized speakers for in-home entertainment. After launching their Sonance 1 model, they progressed into multi-room amplification and eventually designed the first built-in system that would support the iPod. Operating as a lean organization with only 60 employees, they relied heavily on a network of dealer and installer word-of-mouth advertising. By 1999 Sonance had reached $46 million in sales. Similar to other companies affected by innovations in technology, Sonance was forced to change strategic direction in the early 2000’s. The newly acquired leadership needed to redefine marketing efforts in response to increasing low cost competitors. Major
The current economic downfall has forced many organizations to strategically restructure and downsize. Broadway Brokers is not immune to these economic challenges and has been faced with competition from discount brokers and Internet brokerage services. Broadway Brokers position of holding the largest market share has been jeopardized by their slow reaction to the shifting changes within the industry. Broadway Brokers staff possessed strong selling and interpersonal skills however lacked in their knowledge of the high tech skills that had been inundating the market. The organizations lack of adapting to new technology and their absorbent overhead was threatening their profitability. The organization was faced with the need to restructure, consolidate, and implement employee layoffs in order to remain competitive with the current financial climate. Rumors of impending office consolidations and staff layoffs had existed for some time. However, the CEO commentary in a Financial Times article confirmed such gossip. In fact, decisions had already been made by top management to enact a structural plan that would severely curtail offices, close offices, and reduce the level of employees across the organization. Top management was firmly fixed upon downsizing and consolidation and was now relying on its management staff to come up with a plan to implement a transition. A dozen of the company’s most respected managers – everyone from assistant vice presidents to managing directors were join together to devise a plan for change (Jick & Peiperl 2003).
After several new product failures, the company began using customer input to help develop new products. In 1989, the fishing electronics industry is experiencing a downturn, and the company's sales and profits are slipping. The company, which has one product line (depth sounders) and a strong brand (Hummingbird), has conducted substantial market research on three new products. These products are project 901, hummingbird VHF Radio, Locator/ GPS navigator. Of these, project 901 is an extension of the depth sounder product, while the other two would be new product lines for the company. Top management is deciding which one or more of the three new products it should proceed with. In this paper, I will discuss the positive and negative aspects of each product ideas and my recommendations to Techsonic management
Cannon knew that his compact echo machine, which he carried under his arm by a single handle, would have to perform competitively in a room filled
finding the right cell-phone with their guidance) to every single customer. Unfortunately, this created numerous negative brand associations from loyal hobbyist customers, who viewed this shift as abandonment, breaking almost hundred-year old brand promises. The most notable negative association-RadioShack was trapped in the 1980s-was exacerbated by its obsession as a mass-marketer, since the brand failed to update strategies to address confusions. A deadly problem emerged: RadioShack's customers were confused, and the brand itself did not understand customers. Bloomberg's pedestrian interview displayed this customer confusion: almost all respondents failed to explain what customer value was provided by the brand. RadioShack's mass-marketing obsession failed to help determine customer needs, as many of their brand measurement efforts focused on measuring brand awareness. Often, the problem was not brand unawareness; customers simply no longer viewed RadioShack as the brand to resolve problems, and loyal customers no longer supported positive subjective brand associations (e.g. innovative, affordability, convenience) about the brand. Disastrously, RadioShack's brand strategies confused customers about basic objective associations, such as
Satellite radio is a technology that provides a radically new way to listen to radio. XM’s service makes use of advanced satellite capabilities and elaborates terrestrial receiver architecture to deliver a wide array of high quality radio programming nationwide. In early 1998, Robert Acker, director of strategic planning at XM, needs to develop a marketing strategy for this new radio service. There are several decisions that need to be made by the company in order to finalize the business plan. At fist XM needs to decide which of two business models to pursue, whether emphasis should be placed on charging customers a monthly subscription fee, or whether to rely more on earning revenue through advertising. In addressing this problem, management must consider the value that XM radio could propose for different consumer segments as compared with existing modes of radio (AM, FM) and in relation to its sole competitor in satellite radio – SIRIUS. Besides choosing a business model there is also a need to explore how best to approach and leverage manufacturer and channel partners, considering high unknown and high-risk technology. The purpose of this report is to analyze possibilities and outline possible recommendation on strategies for XM Radio. The following areas will be examined:
Barco N.V. was established in 1934 as a producer of radio broadcast receivers. At the end of 1970's, facing the economic recession owing to oil supply shock, the company altered its market strategy from consumer market to industrial niche market of projectors. This decision was based on firm and clear vision that Barco knew which market it had to serve. Pursuing top-of-the-line in the high-end niche market, Barco focused on R&D to retain the top quality and launched series of international expansion activities.
It has been concluded that Nortel’s growing dominance in its markets in the 1990s “led to a culture of arrogance and even hubris combined with lax financial discipline. Nortel’s rigid culture played a defining role in the company’s inability to react to industry changes.” (McFarland, 2014). While Nortel was increasing its revenue between 1997 and 2000 through a spree of acquiring other partners and tripling its share price in the same period, the company lost focus on profitability and was in a very tough position (McFarland, 2014). Nortel misread the market and was not prepared to respond to increased competition from Japan and other competitors. The accelerating rate of technological change and the power shift to customers was just too much for them. The bad taste they left in key customer’s mouths made them feel that Nortel would not be around for the long term to fulfill their promises. Their lack of resilience, strategy, structure, poor financial management, business processes, people and culture decreased the company’s ability to adapt to keep up with competitive advantage. (Nisen, 2014). Nortel, made textbook errors like failing to communicate, meet commitments, and possess a firm technology knowledge (Nisen,
The decreasing dollar amount of Radio Shack then caused them to go bankrupt and have to build up again. The company also had partners which caused the partners to then be in trouble when Radio Shack went bankrupt in early
...ide whether it should be getting better at what it is already good at or whether it should be looking toward higher order capabilities that are beyond the old. The strategic vision of AT&T must be adjusted to reflect their intent of being ‘boundaryless’ and to become the leader in the infocom industry. It must become the companies culture.
In 2007, Circuit City, an electronics retailer who took pride in providing excellent customer service, fired 3,400 employees nationwide (Seitel, 2011, p.217). The company needed to reduce expenses and decided the termination of loyal employees was the only option. The workers were laid-off simply because they were “being 'overpaid”” (Seitel, 2011, p.217). However, according to Seitel (2011) they were paid the average hourly wage of a retail sales associate (p.217). Circuit City’s poor communication with employees proved detrimental and led to the company filing for bankruptcy protection the following year (Seitel, 2011, p.218).
A strategic plan is a tool that delivers guidance in achieving a mission or goal with maximum proficiency and control for an organization. Strategic planning is used to transform and revitalize organizations. The plan helps provide an inclusive understanding of opportunities and challenges both internally and externally for the organization. The plan delivers an assessment of the strengths and limitations that are realistic within the company. A well-developed strategic plan will offer a comprehensive approach and empowerment for the stakeholders involved. It is an opportunity for learning and understanding priorities that will drive the business to succeed. Jones (2010), describes how in health care organizations, strategic plans characteristically concentrate on operational and organizational goals such as when to obtain new technology, how to meet competitive challenges, and what staffing, tools, or facilities are needed to ensure organizational survival. The mission and value statements are significant in determining the quality of a strategic initiative. Forcing the organization to look toward the future creates proactive objectives in which both short-term and long-terms plans and goals are necessary in order to succeed.
Strategic planning directs every movement in a business and is very essential to business performance (London 2002, pp.26-33). The strategic plan and operational plan are extracted from Best Buy Form 10K to better clarify the current situation and future direction of Best Buy.
We intend to exploit our leadership role by continuing to target and enter segments of the communications market that we believe will experience rapid growth or grow faster than the industry as a whole....
In this age of rapidly changing technology, market-driven decision making, customer sophistication, and employee restlessness, leaders and managers are faced with new challenges. Organizations must build new structures and master new skills in order to compete and survive.