Gap Analysis: Global Communications
Global Communications faced a difficult and arduous decision. The company is declining and a new growth strategy is ready for implementation. The growth strategy will enable Global to become more competitive and responsive to their customers. However, the implementation of the plan was not thought out clearly causing conflict and division. How can Global fix their issues? The problems Global faced were looked at and measured against the concepts presented in the cited texts.
Situation Analysis
Issue and Opportunity Identification
In the scenario downloaded from rEsource, Global Communications faced difficult times. The stock price dropped over 60% within a three year period. Stockholders were anxious and their confidence was declining. The scenario indicated there was tremendous pressure to turn around economically.
The blame was placed on the entrance of the cable companies into the telecommunications industry. Cable companies, with advanced technologies and infrastructure, were able to not only provide television entertainment, but also phone and internet access. This was something Global Communication was lacking in. Global Communication could no longer compete in customer service.
In Understanding Business, 5th Ed, Nickels and McHugh state:
Competition among business has never been greater than it is today. Some companies have found a competitive edge by focusing on making high-quality products. The goal for many companies is zero defects-no mistakes in making the product. However, simply making a quality product isn't enough to allow a company to stay competitive in world markets. Companies now have to offer quality products and outstanding service at competitive prices. That is why GM is building automotive plants in Argentina, Poland, China, and Thailand. Combining excellence with low-cost labor and minimizing distribution costs have resulted in larger markets and long-term growth for GM (pp10-11).
This is the environment Global in operating in. The cable companies have the high-quality products that are in high demand. Consequently, Global intends to capitalize on not only updating their products, but by introducing new products and services, targeting specific customer demographics, and decreasing expenses while increasing customer satisfaction.
Nickels and McHugh also state there are four factors for operating in a highly competitive environment.
First is competing by delighting the customer (Nickels and McHugh,, 1999, p.11). This is what Global intends to do by introducing their strategic alliances with satellite and wireless providers. Coupled with their new calling features, video and wireless services now make one-stop shopping for all communication needs convenient for the customer. Also, the outsourcing plan is designed to increase technical sophistication of the support personnel to provide a better experience for the customer.
Every company has internal and external forces that effect how they operate within the community in which they are located and also within their own walls. These internal and external forces play a strong impact on the company’s profitability and success. These forces have an effect on what consumers they attract or ignore and how they are perceived by those who have the buying power. A mistake any analyzing and implementing measures to assist with these factors could greatly affects a company’s bottom line and success. This is why any company wanting to grow and be successful will need to take all of these forces; sociocultural, technological, economic, environmental and political-legal into consideration in creating their strategic plan.
Moreover, Ansoff suggested some main direction that companies should follow to develop market and product conditions. The market development and differentiation strategies suggest that in order to increase sales, WRSX have to offer their services in new developing markets such as China or India. The strategy for market development gives the opportunity to expand their service in order to attract competitors' clients and to expand in unreached markets (Barry, Witcher and Chau, 2010). Potential solution could be acquisition of UK agency competitor to assist WRSX to enter new market quicker and smoother go through the barriers of entry such as government regulations and different culture.
Achieving world class business performance is a major challenge in today’s society. Manufacturing companies continue to face increased competition and globalization from its competitors. (1, p. 148). The automotive industry is one of the most volatile manufacturing industries that we have, which was evident in the 2008 – 2010 automotive industry crisis. (2) This global financial downturn served notice to the American automotive manufactures to raise the bar, in order to achieve word class business performance. General Motors, one of the country’s largest automotive manufactures, had to receive a government bailout to survive. During this time many with the corporation asked themselves, if we were a world class business, would we be facing this pending crisis. The answer was a resounding “NO”. General Motors has come out of bankruptcy and is focused on being a world-class business organization.
Effective competition is widely seen as a key to the development of telecommunications services. The ability of new telecommunications networks to interconnect fairly and efficiently with existing networks is critical to the development of competition. AT&T has undergone numerous changes since its inception in the late 19th century. The McKinsey 7 S framework as applied by Pascale is recommended to manage the changes they are facing to adopt a greater competitive presence in the global economy. In conjunction with this framework, numerous other models were applied to analyse the global competitive position of AT&T. Recommendations for a revised strategy and direction for AT&T have been made throughout this document including two scenarios of how the telecommunications industry might develop towards 2000, while outlining the impact on AT&T.
The year is 1952 and a young John Rigas purchased a cable company for a mere $300 in Coudersport, Pennsylvania with high hopes of building the company into a successful family owned and operated business (AICPA, 2005, para. 3); a business that would remain unparallel to the rest of its competition. In the late 1990s his dreams came to fruition; John Rigas, along with a few close family members and investors, purchased Century Communications for $5.2 billion and merged the companies together becoming the 6th largest cable company serving more than 5.6 million subscribers (AICPA, 2005, para. 4). Ensuring that the majority of Adelphia’s voting stock and control of the board remained in the hands of f...
The next competitive advantage is quality of service. Outsourced environment is quite different than that of the environment in an enterprise. Advertisers are different economic entity with profits at risk. External service provider will make every effort to deliver good quality; good service and everything will apply and will be tested. For example, the usage of the ITIL methodology. Service providers will also provide high output, and perform better output, needs, and change control. Thr...
For over fifty years, Toyota has established over 50 bases in 26 different countries and regions. Their automobiles have found their way into over 170 countries across the entire globe. In addition, Toyota has design and R&D bases in nine locations overseas, with this they prove that they have achieved consistent globalization as well as localization. The most important part in any Toyota base is the quality assurance. They don’t stamp their product with “Made in the USA” or “Made in Japan”, but instead opt for one label for all: “Made by TOYOTA.” This shows that the product is made in the “Toyota Way.” To achieve this, the company minimized support that comes from Japan to let each of their foreign locations become self-reliant. For example, a Toyota plant recently began production in Texas has made maximum use of its sibling’s experience in Kentucky which has been cultivated over the past 20 years. Toyota believes that in order to reach their goals is through educating people. Multiple Global Production Centers have been built within Motomachi Plant in Toyota City, in United States, the United Kingdom, and Thailand to carry our corresponding activities in the Asia-Pacific, European, and North American regions. To promote the “Toyota Way”, the Toyota Institute established an internal human resources development organization in North America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Oceania. As you can see the pros of the globalization of Toyota are endless. This company alone has created millions of jobs across the world. Winners are not only the workers, but also the buyers, without globalization Toyota automobiles would only be available in Japan. Many people, including me, see globalization of this kind as a beneficial and advantageous result. Toyota companies have not only created jobs for thousands if not millions of people, but their
Ford’s production plants rely on very high-tech computers and automated assembly. It takes a significant financial investment and time to reconfigure a production plant after a vehicle model is setup for assembly. Ford has made this mistake in the past and surprisingly hasn’t learned the valuable lesson as evidence from the hybrid revolution their missing out on today. Between 1927 and 1928, Ford set in motion their “1928 Plan” of establishing worldwide operations. Unfortunately, the strategic plan didn’t account for economic factors in Europe driving the demand for smaller vehicles. Henry Ford established plants in Europe for the larger North American model A. Their market share in 1929 was 5.7% in England and 7.2% in France (Dassbach, 1988). Economic changes can wreak havoc on a corporation’s bottom line and profitability as well as their brand.
The intent of this paper is to perform an analysis of the cable industry's external environment. The first sections of the document will discuss environmental scanning and define the telecommunication niche that is currently occupied by cable operators such as Comcast. The next section will identify the macroeconomic variables that currently impact cable operators and will compare two variables to two corresponding industry variables. The final section of the paper will identify some of the challenges and opportunities facing the industry. An external analysis of the industry will provide a clear picture of the environment as well as any opportunities and threats faced by Comcast. By understanding the environment, opportunities and threats a company has the ability to create strategies to support its business goals. The primary process by which Comcast will gain an understanding of its external environment is environmental scanning.
Introduction: Toyota Motor Corporation is a very successful automobile manufacturer that is recognized globally. They have continued to obtain and retain a competitive advantage over their counterparts, despite recalls over many years. Regardless of recalls, Toyota has been quick to rectify their shortcomings and continue to lead the automotive industry with their innovative measures. In this essay, I will discuss key internal factors for Toyota. Within those factors will include Toyota’s core competencies, which are what they do really well in comparison to their competition, three of their strength’s, which will include their posture within the automobile market and their heavy focus on research and development, and two of their weaknesses.
As a result of the increased demand of cars, the competition among car companies is becoming intense. Although the market of car is the biggest growing market in the world, there are still some companies who make cars failing year after year. However, there are some outstanding car companies such as The BMW Group performing distinctly.
The economic problem was that WorldCom had a vast supply in telecommunications capacity that emerged in the 1990s, as the industry rushed to build fibre optic networks and other infrastructure based on overly optimistic projections of Internet growth (Lyke and Jickling, 2002)
GM- focused differentiation, medium pricing, breadth of product line is high. A strength is market share, and a weakness is styling and reliability and perceived quality.
University of Memphis, . (1990).Communications networks for managing global operations. (global business). Retrieved from http://www.entrepreneur.com/tradejournals/article/9267862.html
The global economy has enabled customers to enjoy a buyer’s market where the company with the most competitive price possible for a product or service receives orders from customers around the world. The burgeoning world ...