Intel

Intel makes the microprocessors that are found in 80 percent of the world’s personal computers. In the early days, Intel microprocessors were known simply by their engineering numbers, such as “80386” or “80486. ” Intel positioned its chips as the most advanced. The trouble was, as Intel soon learned, numbers can’t be trademarked. Competitors came out with their own “486” chips, and Intel had no way to distinguish itself from the competition. Worse, Intel’s products were hidden from consumers, buried deep inside PCs.

With a hidden, ntrademarked product, Intel had a hard time convincing consumers to pay more for its high-performance products. Intel’s response was a marketing campaign that created history. The company chose a trademarkable name (Pentium) and launched a marketing campaign to build awareness of the Intel brand. The “Intel Inside” campaign was Intel’s effort to get its name outside of the PC and into the minds of consumers. Intel used an innovative cooperative scheme to extend the reach of its campaign.

It would help computer makers who used Intel processors to advertise heir PCs if the makers also included the Intel logo in their ads. Intel also gave computer manufacturers a rebate on Intel processors if they agreed to place an “Intel Inside” sticker on the outside of their PCs and laptops. Simultaneously with the cooperative ads, Intel began its own ad program to familiarize consumers with the Intel name. The “Intel Inside” campaign changed Intel’s image from a microprocessor maker to a quality standard-bearer.

The ads that included the Intel Inside logo were designed to create confidence in the onsumer’s mind that purchasing a personal computer with an Intel microprocessor was both a safe and technologically sound choice. Between 1990 and 1993, Intel invested over $500 million in advertising and promotional programs designed to build its brand equity. By 1993, Financial World estimated the Intel brand to be worth $17. 8 billion. Intel continues its integrated campaigns to this day. For example, when launching its Centrino mobile platform, Intel began with TV ads that aired in the United States and 11 other countries.

These ads include the animated logo and ow familiar five-note brand signature melody. Print, online, and outdoor advertising followed shortly thereafter. Print ads ran in magazines and featured ads that targeted that magazine. For instance, an ad appearing in a sports magazine showed the logo in the center of a tennis racquet with the tagline “High performance laptop. No strings attached. ” Simultaneously, Intel held a “One Unwired Day” event that took place in major cities such as New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and Seattle.

In addition to allowing free trial Wi-Fi access, each city held festival events that included live music, roduct demonstrations, and prize giveaways. The company also set up free access demonstration sites (with wireless Centrino-powered laptops) in areas frequented by road warriors, such as San Francisco’s airport. To boost interest in mobile computing, the company partnered with Zagat Survey to produce a mini-guide inserted into The New Yorker that identified more than 50 “Wi-Fi Hotspots”—mainly restaurants and hotels—in the “One Unwired Day” cities. Finally, Intel ran online ads on such Web sites as CNET. om and Weather. com. Yahoo! created a Wi-Fi Center Web ite co-sponsored by Intel and featuring Centrino advertising.

The “Unwired” campaign was another Intel success in marketing integration. The $300 million total media effort for the Centrino mobile platform helped generate $2 billion in revenue for Intel during the first nine months of the campaign. Among marketers, Intel won the Innovation award in the Business Superbrands Awards 2003. Going forward, Intel CEO Craig Barrett said the company will aggressively target opportunities outside of its traditional revenue stream in PCs.

The company ill be moving beyond “Intel Inside” to “Intel Everywhere”—Intel chips in every type of digital device possible, from cellphones to flat-panel TVs to portable video players and wireless home networks, even medical diagnostic gear. The company is targeting 10 new product areas for its chips. If the new markets take off, they’ll increase demand for PCs and services, bringing new revenues for Intel’s core products even if its own new products do not succeed in these markets. In 2005, former marketer Paul Otellini will succeed Craig Barrett as CEO and take the helm of this $34 billion company.

Business organizations today operate in an environment that is characterized by intense global competition.

A sound strategic management perspective is imperative for any enterprise to achieve sustainable strategic competitiveness and earn above average returns. Business leaders need to adopt a new mind-set that values flexibility, speed, innovation, integration and the challenges that evolve from constantly changing conditions (Hitt & Duane 2006: 2-10).

Intel Corporation of the US is the world’s largest semiconductor company. Paul Otellini is its Chief Executive Officer and Craig Barrett is the Chairman, Board of Directors.

Intel combines advanced chip design capability with a leading-edge manufacturing capability. It unveiled its new branding and marketing strategy in the year 2006. It included a new logo and tagline “Intel leap ahead” in accordance with the changing times (Edwards 2006: 43-53).

Today Intel is the leading manufacturer of high quality processors, chipsets, motherboards, adapters, Ethernet controllers, micro controllers, PCI bridges, storage systems etc. for a wide range of applications like desktop, laptop, servers and workstations, networking communications, consumer electronics, health care sector and entertainment industry.

A vision is a road map showing the route a company intends to take in developing and strengthening its business. Well-conceived vision statements are distinctive and specific to a given organization. (Thomson, et. Al., 2006, pp. 15-20).

The vision of Intel Corporation is “At Intel, we constantly push the boundaries of innovation in order to make people’s lives more exiting, more fulfilling, and easier to manage. Our unwavering commitment to moving technology forward has transformed the world by leaps and bounds.

We are a company that’s always in motion, fuelling an industry that never rests. We inspire our partners to develop innovative products and services, rally the industry to support new products, and drive industry standards. We do this so that we can collectively deliver better solutions with greater benefits more quickly”.

Through its vision statement Intel Corporation has set a very clear and convincing road map for its sustained growth and success.

An organization’s mission is the very purpose or the reason for the existence of the organization. The mission statement of Intel is very well conceived and defines the fundamental reason or unique purpose of its existence.

It sets the company apart from other firms of its type in the semiconductor industry. It also promotes a sense of shared expectations in its employees and it also communicates a positive image about itself to important stakeholders of the company like its shareholders. Objectives are the end results of all the planned activities of a given company.

The objectives of Intel Corporation are to extend leadership in silicon and platform manufacturing, deliver architectural innovation for market-driven platforms and drive worldwide growth. The achievement of the objectives so stated by Intel Corporation will definitely result in the fulfillment of its mission statement.

Scanning of the external environment helps the companies to understand and analyze external strategic issues and factors to identify the opportunities and threats facing it.

The factors having the greatest impact on the company’s strategy-shaping mainly pertain to the company’s immediate Industry and the environment in which it operates. Intel Corporation is a leading player in the semiconductor industry which comprises of all organizations that are engaged in the design and manufacture of semiconductor devices.

Currently in the semiconductor industry the threat of new entrants is low as the entry barriers are high. The industry is characterized by rapid technological advances, continuous product innovations, economies of scale in manufacturing of the products and strong learning/experience curve effects driving down costs continuously.

The inter firm rivalry is high and there is intense competition between the major players in this industry like Intel, Samsung, Texas Instruments, ST Microelectronics, NXP, Freescale, Infineon etc. The threat of substitutes and the bargaining power of the suppliers in the semiconductor industry is low.

As the industry sells to a small number of very large customers who buy in very large quantities the bargaining power of the customers is very high. The relative power of the other stake holder that is the government is high as the U.S. government regulates exports and certain uses of some types of semiconductors due to their potential use in military applications.

The primary element prior to purchasing a computer is to know ones computing requirements. The following steps could be attributed for making a right decision and finally purchasing the personal computer: • Deciding ones computing requirements is the essential factor as that would determine the configuration the personal computer must possess. If one requires a general one for office applications and spreadsheets, a minimum configuration is suitable.

On the other hand if one requires to perform programming and other high computing platform usages then processing capability would be greater to support the launching and running of applications. • The next decision would be to select between branded and non-branded PCs. Branded ones are non-assembled by the customer and are reconfigurable up to a certain limit, however they possess quality guaranteed by the vendor. Whereas the assembled PCs are reconfigurable to any extent and one can select their own hardware parts to match. This option is sought to be the best option.

• The hardware configuration is the next most vital point in the PC (How to buy a computer, 2007). One must focus on the following three: o Power: It usually comes from the microprocessors which are implemented in the PCs for executing the instructions faster. The Intel powered processors, AMD and others are recommended for usage. The Intel Pentium III or IV with 550 Megahertz is ideal for computing and personal environments. For extreme gamers and multimedia designers and users Intel Celeron 433 megahertz is quite ideal. Configurations: Pentium IV 1.

3 to 3. 6 GHz (robust than Celeron), Pentium IVs greater than 2. 66 GHz possess Hyper Threading technology (basically it’s like having 2 CPUs for the one), Celeron D is quite good for business applications), Xeon is used often in servers, Pentium M is common in laptops which helps the battery last longer. AMD: Sempron 2200 to 3300, Opteron, Duron (much like the Celeron, but an older AMD chip), Athlon (AMD’s model match to the Pentium III) (WisdomCorner. com). AMD would be my ideal choice as it is faster and the fans cool the chips constantly.

Intel Company is a strong multinational company which deals in manufacture of products such as microprocessors, motherboard chipsets, flash memory, graphic chips among other hard ware and soft ware. (www. intel. com) Intel has had a history of using aggressive tactics to defend its position in the market as the lead producer of microprocessors a move that has caused struggle for dominance in the PC industry with Microsoft.

Lately the company has expressed dissatisfaction with their current performance measurement system, which relies primarily on financial measures. Due to the development in the management system, where the roles of the customers and the shareholders are crucial, there has been need to safeguard the interest and requirements of shareholders and investors at large. This could only be fostered though the employment of high performing management system, where professionalism and legal requirements by the auditors are maintained.

The management has thus appointed a management and decisions and control consulting team to design and that a balanced scorecard would enable them measure accurately and more efficiently the performance of the company from financial customers internal and growth perspectives. However, they have also expressed concern about the balanced scorecard, particularly the readiness of the company to embrace this development. They envisage resistance as a potential challenge to contend with if the balanced scorecard is implemented.

As part of the MDC consulting team our task is to craft a report detailing the benefits of the balanced scorecard to inlet and identify problems associates with the current practices of safety relying on financial measures of performance and low the balanced score card could overcome this. Additionally a provision for the recommended design of the balanced score card tailor made for Intel will be included. The report will also focus on the positive and negative consequences of the balanced score card to the organization. (www.

intel. com) Brief Description In order to understand clearly what a balanced scorecard is, it is worthwhile to begin with, what it is not. Balanced scorecard is not the new management fad, it is not a form of project management or employee evaluation system, and it is not a tool, technique, or soft ware and is it neither a control system nor process improvement systems (Sauaia, 2001). A balanced score card is a management system that enables organizations to clarify their visions and strategies and translate them into actions.

(Hoque & James, 2000, Kallas & Sauaia, 2003) The reason why most people think of the above named things that balanced scorecard is not, is that it incorporates some the aspects in varied degrees. Notably, most organizations activities are encompassed in projects, involving many people, balanced scorecards act as framework for aligning the business activities to the organization strategies. Balanced scorecards give management channels to monitor performance and outcomes of the organizations and measure its attainments against strategic goals set.

A balanced scorecard does not function alone; rather it depends on the commitment and cooperation of project managers for its success to be realized. This means tying performance to strategy or actions to outcomes. (Hoque & James, 2000, Kallas & Sauaia, 2003). Balanced scorecard, developed by Robert Kaplan and David Norton in 1990, was a reaction to the weaknesses and vagueness of previous management approach. (Lipe & Salterio, 2000) The major loophole in the traditional management approach was the delay in reporting performance, usually it was past tense and hence of little relevance to management (Hoque & James, 2000).

The shift form the industrial age economy to the knowledge-based economy further compounded this problem. While the industrial ages depended of financial measures and supply chain production the knowledge based economy suffered because of lack of business intelligence and poor execution techniques. (Young & O’Byrne, 2001) These inconsistencies stimulated the pioneers of balanced scorecard to construct it. Although the introduction of the balanced scorecard management system came across as an innovation to many, the concepts behind it were old hat.

This is because things like performance measurements feedback strategic planting among others had long been in existence and future development management are also likely to build on this concept but the fundamentals remain. The balanced scorecard views the organization inn a different perspectives namely the customer, financial business process and learning growth perspective (Dilla & Steinbart, 2005). The customer perspective It recognizes the importance of the customers and the need to ensure customer satisfaction.

The rational behind this is that dissatisfied customers eventually exit the company and look for other companies that can better meet their needs in the short term this may be bearable but eventually the compamy is bound for decline or closure in severe cases customers satisfaction thus becomes a clear indicator of performance of an organization. Thus, developing measures to ensuring customer satisfaction is crucial and this is achieved by analyzing organization process of providing the product or services to customers (Kirkegaad, 1997, Kallas & Sauaia, 2003).

Financial perspective As seen balanced scorecards does not totally disregard financial measures of performance. Thus, timely and accurate data is essential to the successful implementation of balanced scorecard. This implies that handling and processing of financial data should be swift and centralize perhaps fully automated. The financial data should be integrated with corporate databases and especially data regarding risk assessment and cost benefit analysis (Stewart, 2000). Learning and growth perspective

This category recognizes that people are the only repositions of knowledge i. e. people posses intangible assets of the company. In this information age intelligence is the heart of organization success and hence Ned to ensure continuous learning through employee training. This is because technology changes rapidly as aloes people exiting an organization for greener pastures. (Lipe & Salterio, 2000) As a result, corporations’ culture and attitude need to be shaped to ensure that people within the organization pursue self-improvement and reverse brain drain to other companies.

The cost of recruitment and training people is usually high and measures of allocating the funds to reap maximum benefits need to be developed. Knowledge sharing is equally important. Notably not all training translates to learning but the most effective learning occurs, using mentors and group discussions and communication within the organization. Intranets may contribute towards facilitating communication and learning (Norton, 2001) Process perspective

This category identifies two kinds of process within the business one, the mission oriented processes and two the support process. Support processes are repetitive in nature and nature and hence easier to measure on the other hand mission oriented involve government offices and hence difficult to measure. Attention to these perspectives enables managers to know how well the operations of the business are and whether they are in tandem with customer requirements and expectations. (Kaplan & Norton, 1996)

Back in June, 1994 the Pentium Flaw was noticed by Intel testers, who had discovered a division error on the Pentium chip. Intel managers didn’t see this as a major problem so they kept this from anyone outside their corporation. The nature of this issue was a mathematical problem in their Floating Point Unit (FPU), or the math coprocessor. The Pentium chip was having glitches in calculating large divisions. It wasn’t until October 19th, when Dr. Thomas R.

Nicely had revealed the malfunction of the (FPU) trying to do certain calculations. Dr. Nicely was a mathematics teacher at Lynchburg College in Virginia. After running several test on the 486 and Pentium he had pin pointed the error to the Pentium chip. Dr. Nicely contacted Intel and they had confirmed the error, but said they had no reports till then. Intel handled the situation very poorly; they would not return contact to Dr. Nicely, forcing him to write a letter on the internet about the flaw.

Even then Intel continued to consider the problem as minor. The internet was getting loads of articles on the flaw and people were making a joke out of Intel. By not letting the industry know about the Pentium glitch, Intel showed their selves to be untrustworthy to the costumer. There are so many different ways Intel could have handled their mistake. They chose to rather send a measly email of apology from the President of Intel with the wrong address. This infuriated costumers saying it was a fake.

In the Pentium problem (Janeba, 1995) wrote: Intel’s policy, when it first publicly admitted the problem around November 28 of 1994, was to replace Pentium chips only for those who could explain their need of high accuracy in complex calculations. Intel tried to fix the problem still as a minor error and kept delaying the proper fix. By Intel postponing the fix on the (FPU) cost them even more money than what it would have, if they’d answer back right away with an honorable fix. This goes to show you learn from your mistakes.

Eventually in late December Intel declared they would replace all flawed chips upon request. Now Intel has employees who keep up on newsgroups on the internet to see what people are saying about Intel; and they now conduct a better follow up with unsatisfied costumers. I believe Intel did handle this publicity very incorrectly. For being a well-known corporation they didn’t act like it. When they first got word of Dr. Nicely and his discovery on the flaw, Intel should’ve immediately contacted the professor with any apology and offered to replace the bad one.

If this procedure would have been done the professor would have been happy, and never have written what he did. Then customers possibly wouldn’t have known of the flaw. In my opinion of the question, what would happen today if this same problem occurred? I don’t think Intel would take the same route they did back then. Intel is a well-established corporation and I believe they would act faithfully with great hast, to solve the problem. I think they have a greater appreciation of their customers now, since this whole Pentium Flaw hit the fan.