Swot Analysis

Verizon SOOT Analysis Strengths Weaknesses High customer retention rates when compared to other carriers Solid increases in new subscribers, especially smartened users Infrastructure investment Verizon Communications’ Bios network Higher prices when compared to other players Presence limited to primarily Americas and not a major player like a few other established telecoms operators Lack of emerging market exposure Opportunities Threats The company is well-positioned to capitalize on growing markets Cost efficiency of converging telecoms services Strategic Acquisitions

Staff Turnover might result in loss of knowledge Federal Communications Commission Regulations Intense Competition in the saturated US market Verizon Communications Inc. Known as Verizon is a provider of communications services. The company provides an array of broadband, wireless, and wire lines services to business’ big and small, government, mass market, and wholesale customers. They are the leaders in the telecommunications industry as they are greatly pursued by the masses. The company’s solutions include wireless voice, data services and other valued services.

Other services they provide are internet access, roadman video and data, Internet protocol network services, network access and other services. Verizon provides converged communications, information and entertainment services in the US through its fiber optic network (BIOS). Verizon offers business solutions to customers in about 1 50 countries across Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific. As a multinational corporation Verizon Wireless is very well positioned and delivers great coverage for customers to take advantage of.

Verizon strengths are its resources and capabilities that can be use as a basis for a nominative advantage. Verizon business strategy is to archive a sustainable competitive advantage such as cost advantage and differentiation advantage. Verizon is able to deliver the same benefits as the other communication companies, but a lower cost, which is cost advantage or deliver benefits that exceed the competing products which is differentiation advantage. A competitive advantage enables Verizon to create great value for its customers and good profit for itself.

Verizon has exceptional signal throughout the United States and other countries and with great Verizon Soot Analysis By endurable be pricier, but the quality of their service is exceptional. The solid increase in their new subscribers especially smart phone users smartened service roughly doubles the cost of phone service, so the strong increase of the sale of smartness will undoubtedly increase revenue from data plans. The company invests a great amount into their signal towers and their fibrosis networks in order to give the best possible signal.

Investing in their infrastructure is a long-term investment, which is expensive, but the payout is much larger with new and existing customers. Verizon is a well-known carrier with great service given their stance among the telecommunications carriers; Verizon is priced on the higher end of the spectrum. Even with their family plans and bundle deals an average family of four will pay $180 when compared to Sprint or T-Mobile the price can range from $80-$100. This is a set back for many people especially in this economy when choosing carriers, but they must see that when they purchase Verizon they are also buying a reliable network.

Verizon is very big in the United States, but they can increase their presence in the international spectrum. Increasing their presence will also establish their brand name internationally and increase revenue. They need to be innovative and risk takers in the emerging markets in order to be considered and investing in their company globally will increase their reputation and consumers. This is especially important, as they are already an established brand in the United States.

Verizon is in a great position to capitalize on growing market sectors such as the sale of cloud, data, security, and networking services worldwide. Part of Verizon’s strategy is to capitalize on opportunities in the large-business, education, and government arrests. Verizon partner with other companies like MS offering MS premium free to Verizon DSL customer. Verizon also collaborate with modems and routers companies like Westerly and Links, the newest partner is action. They partner with these technology companies to be cost efficient.

Verizon provides a key advantage over cable companies seeking to build similar networks, they can convert to a single network which will keep them running smoothly and efficiently. This will also help customer service when having a centralized network. By being partner with these companies, Verizon capitalize on all opportunities to make profit. Verizon can create acquisitions with manufacturing company or any other company that will better serve their purpose and they will be able to launch new services and products in the future giving more reputation to their already reputable brand.

Verizon is a very dominant phone service company offering services that range from basic home telephone lines to a fast connecting internet service. Although Verizon is one of the top companies for DSL online service, it is not the only company offering this similar type of service. Also a big company like Verizon trains their employees exceptionally well. Many competitors would like to hire Verizon employees and explore their knowledge of he industry. Employee retention is a threat to Verizon as keeping turnover is a factor in any industry.

One major threat to Verizon like any is a difference between the types of internet service, each company is offering it is important for Verizon be ahead of the game and their strategic plan to remain successful in such a fast competitive market for online service. Verizon has to invent new technology and innovative ways to improve their online service and offer the nonuser a service that no other company can offer at the present. This is vital to keep the company running from competitors in a saturated sector.

Competition is everywhere especially in pricing, but that is more of a weakness but competition in terms quality is a threat as a consumer might see the difference and decide otherwise. The FCC regulations and policies promote competition between carriers with their rules. The FCC can impose regulations that cause Verizon to invest more in leasing lines. They can also increase regulations on new contract terms or any other issue that will directly impact Verizon.

Recovery of world automobile market

Government incentives for electric automobiles Competition from established automobile manufacturers and new entrants. Concentrated industrial structure and potential trade restrictions Strengths (these correspond to the bullet points above) Mature global network and world famous brand Tests Motors is an international company that runs its operation in 116 locations in 18 countries of five continents.

The global network can benefit Tests to attract more potential costumers and promote its brand by displaying the products and providing he test drive, and to receive the constructive feedback within a short time. According to Navigate Research, 22% Americans familiar the Tests Model S to some extent, coming third among all the popularity ratio of alternative fuel vehicle models in America. SAP Social Media Analysis suggests that Tests has the highest rate at around 150,000 social mentions during the second half of 2013.

Cross-continental networks and the universal brand are the features that can make Tests more competitive in the electric vehicle industry (Tests Annual Report, 2014). The premium accelerating and driving range performance Compared with competitors in the electric automobile industry, Tests shows premium accelerating performance. Model S can accelerate to 60 miles per hour in 4. Seconds, and can reach the top speed at 130 miles per hour. By contrast, its strongest competitor, Ionians Leaf, needs 6. 9 seconds to speed up to 60 MPH, and can only attain the highest speed at 90 MPH. Tests also surpasses other electric vehicle competitors on the single-charge distance, which can cover the range of 300 miles with a single charge. On the contrary, the estimated distances of Ionians Leaf, Chevy Volt, and Ford Focus EVE per single charge are 73, 35, and 100 miles respectively (seagull, 2014). Limited manufacturing volume and strong dependence on the lithium batteries supplier Tests faces a potential shortage of deliveries.

According to Reuters, the global sale of Tests is 22,3000 in 2013, and expectedly to retain an increasingly growth rate in the ext five years, especially after Model X enters the market. However, the manufacture volume of Tests is currently around 20,000 annually. One of the main reasons for the supply deficiency is that Tests has a strong dependence on the Panasonic, its only lithium battery supplier. Every Tests vehicle contains more than 7,000 lithium batteries. When its sale increases to over 100,000, the battery demand may surpass the output capacity of Panasonic (Heron, 2013).

The shortage of supercharger stations in Chinese market Superchargers enable owners to travel for free between cities. Currently, Tests has established 164 supercharger stations, including 105 in North America, 50 in Europe, and 9 in Asia. The comparison between the station numbers of America and China is more dramatic, which are 104 and 2 (Beijing and Shanghai), respectively. In-auto- news point out that Tests sets the target sale at 5,000 in China’s market in 2014, which is 30 percent of the expected total global sale.

Therefore, the only two superchargers, only about 1 percent of the total number, may restrict on the users experience in China, and may also have negative effects on the market promotion in other cities of China (Tests Annual Report, 2014).

Opportunities

With the recovery of economy, the world’s automobile industry has been growing steadily over the past few years. According to Bloomberg, the US automobile sales climbed from its depth 10. 4 million in 2009 to over 15. Million in 2013. Furthermore, industry analysts predict that the sales will remain a growth trend in next five years, reaching 17 million in 2017. Things happened the same in Europe. During last year, Spain posted an increase of around 29 percent in the vehicle sales, Britain showed an increase of 8. 2 percent, and France expended its sales at 5. 8 percent. This constant recovery of the global automobile market creates a satisfactory market environment for Tests Motors to strengthen its profitability and realize market expansion (Elegant, 2014).

Government incentives for electric automobiles industry. The United States federal government approved the Energy Improvement and Extension Act of 2008 and the American Cleaning Security Act of 2009, providing ax credits for qualified electric automobiles. The fed further announced a bill to transfer the tax credit into rebate worth up to 7,500 dollars. In Europe, British government set 250 million pounds subsidy for purchase incentives in 2009, and German legislation passed a law that private owners could offset the list price up to 10,000 euros in 2010.

In Asia, Chinese government launched a series programs to provide the buyers could receive a maximum 60,000 ARM purchase incentives. The support to the electric vehicle industry will benefit Tests Motors in cutting cost and enlarging sales (Department of Energy, 2014). Treats (these correspond to the bullet points above) Competition from established automobile manufacturers and new entrants As the tendency of developing the alternative fuel vehicles, some traditionally automobile sellers have operated the electric vehicle production.

The EVE industry currently consists of 47 manufacturers, and has a total sale of 95,099 in 2013. The first three sellers are Ionians Leaf, Cherry Volt and Toyota Pries PHEW. Tests Motors comes the fourth, which sales 22,3000 cars worldwide. Many other existing leading automobile manufacturers, such as BMW, Volkswagen, enters or plan to enter the PEE racket during recent years. BMW Just introduced two models, 13 city and 18 sports car at late 2013, and e-Golf of Volkswagen will come to the to the PEE market very soon.

These new entrants may also occupy the market shares of the Tests in the future (Seagull, 2014). Concentrated industrial structure and potential trade restrictions Tests Motors focus on producing the automobile with 100 percent electric perpetration, and its product category comprises only three types, Roadster, Model S, and Model X. By contrast, BMW currently sales 27 types of vehicles, including traditional, electric, and hybrid cars. Because of such concentrated and narrow industrial structure, Tests may encounter potential threats when the tendency of vehicle market changes.

Moreover, many vehicle companies outside the America, like BMW, have entered the EVE industry. In order to protect and develop the domestic companies, European and Asian countries may set trade restrictions and tariff, which will negatively influence oversea promotion of Tests (Tests Annual Report, 2014). Conclusion Tests Motors is a well-known global electric automobile company with a constant development over the years. In order to increase sales and win market share, Tests must respond positively to internal and external issues.

Blackberry is a smartphone that was introduced by the company Research in Motion (RIM) based in Canada. This is the communication era where every piece of information is valuable. The value of the information increases proportionately with the speed at which it is communicated. This need for instant communication is being catered to by numerous companies and RIM is one of them. Its product blackberry is very much in vogue these days. It is an information relaying tool, it’s a style statement, it’s a status symbol and for many people it’s a necessity; one that they can not imagine their life without.

Following is the SWOT analysis of the blackberry which would provide a better understanding about its position in the marketplace.

Strengths

The biggest strength of Blackberry is its push system for emails where there is no need to download emails as they are delivered directly to the phone. The Blackberry gained popularity among business associates and corporate people just because of this unique offering. The brand image of Blackberry is another one of its strengths as it is one of the market leaders in the smart phone industry.

Blackberry is coming up with increasingly new models as the competition is growing in this sector. In order to cater to the consumer market it has come up with the touch screen models which are gaining in popularity day by day after the launch of Apple’s iphone. Companies, in order to cut costs, have started to use Blackberry as the medium of communication organization wide therefore it has a lot of demand in the corporate sector. Its applications such as Microsoft office is very valuable for the working population as they can easy view and edit documents.

Its capability of receiving emails on the go is the most important factor that persuades people to buy the Blackberry. The blackberry has a very sophisticated image as compared to its biggest rival iphone and is gaining popularity among the consumer segment as well after the launch of Blackberry Pearl. Blackberry Messenger is the latest buzz word among the younger generation entering the workforce as it enables instant connectivity with friends and colleagues worldwide. Blackberry can be used in any part of the world easily which is a big advantage as some smartphones are not able to work in various countries.

Its global reach has enabled it to capture a large market share which growing as people are becoming aware of the features it offers and their benefits.

Weakness

Blackberry’s weakness is that it is a bit slow in catching up to the latest technology that is being offered by other smartphones. The software being used by Blackberry is considered slow when faster operating softwares are installed by competitors. Also Blackberry is not considered very innovative when it comes to applications . The mobile applications demand is on the rise among consumers and iphone is the leader when it comes to mobile applications.

If Blackberry wants to cater to the general population as well it will have to make technology changes in its phone. Another weakness with the Blackberry is its design. It’s design although looks good with the male population but the females need a model with a feminine touch. Blackberry should keep in mind that more and more women are joining the workforce and a large number are already working. So they need to come up with a variety of colors and a design that is tasteful to the feminine palate. Blackberry is a high end brand and therefore its prices are also high .

This creates a barrier when targeting the consumer market where the purchasing power is lower than the working population. Other smartphones offer more features, better applications at lower rates and this causes the Blackberry to be confined largely to the corporate users. Another factor that works against the Blackberry is that it relies on the local connections for its internet connectivity. This means that the quality of connection will vary depending on the service provider and geographical location. People often attribute this poor quality to the phone instead of the service provider and this is where the brand gets hurt.

Countries which have low quality service providers have lower demand for these phones as they are not willing to invest money when they know their needs wont be completely satisfied.

Opportunities

The biggest opportunity for Blackberry is to increase its share in the consumer market. Mobile phone usage is on the rise as people are now replacing their landlines with mobile phones. Brand awareness of Blackberry has also increased among the general population. People want to stay connected with others all the time, be it through email or chat and these features are provided by Blackberry.

Another major opportunity in terms of increasing market share would be to target the female population specifically by coming up with designs and colors that would appeal to women. Women have the same need for connectivity as men do, in fact more than men as they have to stay updated with the latest gossip, fashion and for women it also helps in conducting their professional work. Blackberry also has the opportunity to tap into the application frenzy that has spread lately. By developing applications that are compatible with other phones that enables sharing among people would make the phone popular with the younger generation.

Another opportunity that it can tap on is increasing its presence in the developing countries. There is a huge increase in the number of mobile phone users in these countries such as India which has one of the largest population bases in the world. If branded and marketed with the right target in mind it will be a huge success. As Blackberry is a high end product people in these countries would consider it as an accessory that will make them popular among their peers and would be considered as a status symbol.

Also the unavailability of its major rival iphone in these countries would give it a head start in capturing the market.

Threat

The threat that Blackberry would have to deal with is that of the growing competition in this product market. All the major mobile phone manufactures are now coming up with their own version of a smartphone. And the factor to take into consideration is that these phones have a similar design with smarter applications, better operating systems and cheaper rates. Another threat is that of the after effects of the recession that a lot of countries are experiencing.

Its high price would deter consumers from spending too much on a phone when they can get the same thing by a competitor at a lower price. Conclusion The need for communication is never going to end. Blackberry is a phone that has an immense brand value and will continue to do so as it comes up with better and smarter phones. With the success it has had with corporate users it is felt that it would take the consumer market by storm as well.

References http://uk. blackberry. com/newsroom/media/company. jsp

Based from the SWOT analysis given on the previous page, the ability of Welch’s Food Inc. to provide innovative and a lot reasonable fund for research and development in order to maintain the quality of their products line is something that they must be proud off. Furthermore, this strength of Welch’s on giving premium treatment for their customers and consumers has been the main ingredient of their success for the past years. In addition to this, to think that Welch has been in the juice manufacturing industry gave enough room for them to establish good reputation to their target market and rely on the brand loyalty from their customers.

The acquisition of National Grapes to Welch’s serve as the bridge towards the financial stabilization the latter and provide sure supply of grapes for their production. The two board system of the National Grape and Welch Food Inc. provide flexibility for the latter since every board member represent vital areas of its business operation. The aggressive expansion of Welch not only on their operation but also on their product lines contributes for their successful market penetration on their target market since they always secure their products to be in line with the tastes and preferences of their market segment.

All of the internal strengths of Welch were accompanied by their impressive and unique marketing strategies which add up to the popularity of Welch’s products in the market and reputation of the company itself. Despite of all the strengths and opportunities on the hands of Welch, tight market competition budge its corporate stability and market dominance since their competitors used price competition in order to undercut Welch (Netmba. com, 2008). With more funds on their hand, new competitors of Welch used this advantage to attract more customers in the market.

But this threat can still be solve through cutting down the prices of Welch relative to their competitors since it’s the only way in order to win back the loss sales that they experienced by the entry of new market players in the industry. There is a great possibility that customers will start shifting back to the side of Welch if they cut down their prices since they already have a good reputation, high quality and innovative products, and a lot of variety of juices to choose from.

Price is the main factor of consumption of consumers, therefore if Welch, alongside with its advantages, can provide cheaper juice products to the market there is a great chance of beating their competitors. In this regard, it is clear that the internal strengths of Welch would make it a lot easier for the company to restore their market dominance through giving what their customers wants – cheaper products.

Analysis of the Corporate Strategy Level

The acquisition of National Grape to Welch just supported the mission of the latter which is to provide high quality fruit juices to the market. With the said acquisition, Welch has been able to monitor the quality and specifications of the grapes that they will use for their manufacturing plants by teaming up with the workers of National Grapes. On the other hand, with the mission of National Grapes to provide the farmers control on their destiny from the growing of grapes to finished product, Welch fits for the attainment of the said goal since the latter have the skills and facilities to manufacture the grapes of National Grapes. In other words, the profitability of National improves by adding the manufacturing process into their business line.

It was just like having control on the industry fruit juices from planting of raw materials to manufacturing. This is how farmers can control their destiny – by having control over the value chains of their products. Furthermore, to maintain the influence of National Grapes to the operations of Welch, putting four National Grapes representatives to the board of directors of Welch would be a good way to monitor and to keep their control over the operations of Welch. Aside from flexibility, the two board system of Jack Kaplan provides equal chances of voicing out the concerns of both companies.

Welch can easily make collaboration to the farmers of National Grape regarding the specifications and quality of grapes that they need to their manufacturing plants in order to preserve their reputation of selling high quality fruit juices which they cannot do to other suppliers. In addition to this, Welch was running out of funds in order to finance their operation that is why they have to sell the company to other business entity and the acquisition of National Grapes also solved this financial problem of Welch plus some added benefits which has been discussed a while ago.

In this regard it is clear that the acquisition between National Grape and Welch benefit both companies and widen their market influence. The internal strengths of Welch was further improved especially the quality of their products since they now have the control on the specifications and quality of raw materials that they will use on their manufacturing plants. As what we can observe, the acquisition marked the diversification of product lines of Welch plus supports the main goal of Welch which is to maintain relevancy between their customers and suppliers.

Welch started adding new flavors on their product lines as they become under the supervision of National Grapes which improved the reputation of Welch for being innovative on their product lines. Furthermore, it is already being expected that Welch would continue on innovating their product line with the aid of National Grapes since this change on their business strategy opened new market opportunities which can be seen on the improvement of their profitability and product diversification. 7. Analysis of Business Level Strategy Basically, National Grapes and Welch have different sets of corporate strategy to address their own target markets.

Welch, since its forte was to manufacture fruit juices, its marketing strategy was way above than of the National Grapes. Welch used uniquely the television and radio as one of their main marketing strategies in attracting more customers and promotes their new product lines (Gaebler. com, 2008). Sponsorship on various television programs added to the popularity of Welch’s product lines and its reputation in the market. Mass media indeed served as the powerful tool for the publicity of Welch. Their long running advertising campaign surely touched its target market and using magazines to reach their target customers.

It was just like putting all their products in various mediums where people oftentimes visited, read and watch to instill into the systems of their product lines into their target market. In addition to this, another marketing strategy of Welch was their entry on selling fresh grapes on the market which was their initial step towards major product diversification on their later years. Welch’s also did put much attention on the innovation of their products and packaging which was a good way to attract more customers especially those that were “quality conscious” customers.

This innovation on their product lines was backed up by their research and development team. With much interaction with the staffs and personnel of Welch, their research and development team began more productive and creative in developing the products of Welch. In this regard, it would be best to say that Welch was pretty much aggressive in marketing their products and tapping the interest of their customers and suppliers through the use of various media and even through the internet which has been identified as one best ways on how to market products and services in today’s modern world (Pcmag. com, 2008). Actually, it was not only on the product aspects where Welch did concentrate their marketing strategies, they even widen up their operations by entering the international market which is one of the best ways to increase their profitability and publicity of their product since aside from the fact that entry to international market provides vast potential market, it also provide new rooms for new business ventures like the distribution agreement between Nong Shim and Welch. These advantages of Welch, together with other alternatives, would solve their problem regarding the tight market competition existing on the fruit juice industry.

References

1. Gaebler. com (2008). For Entrepreneurs: Marketing Basics. Retrieved April 7, 2008, from http://www. gaebler. com/Marketing-Strategies.
2. htm Netmba. com (2008). Pricing Strategy. Retrieved April 7, 2008, from http://www. netmba. com/marketing/pricing/
3. Pcmag. com (2008). Internet Advertising, Retrieved April 7, 2008, from http://www. pcmag. com/encyclopedia_term/0,2542,t=Internet+advertising&i=45193,00. asp

Their motto is, “Quality Products Create Faithful Customers. ” They received environmental certification in 1999 and a 99. 6% quality rate, which is far beyond that of the industry standard (“About MS'”). One of MS”s primary strengths is their ability to seize opportunities when they see them. Because of the expanding market in response to notebooks, computer companies are trying to make them faster, lighter, with a longer battery life, and larger screens.

The director of MS”s notebook PC sales department, Samara Cheer, said, “CULL [Consumer Ultra-Low Voltage] models will eat into a big art of the share in traditional laptop market, and we definitely don’t want to miss such an opportunity’ (L’). The second strength of MS’ is their push of the newest technology out on to the market fast. While most companies wait for the old technology to be “consumerists” before releasing the latest, MS’ makes the other companies try to “out innovate” instead of “out produce. Acre was first on the market with the new CULL machine labeled its “Timeline” series. However, “MS’ has also announced its first machine which is like a Macro Air, but lighter and much cheaper. ” The MS’ X-340 is 1 . Keg, less than 3 pounds, and has a 13. 4-inch widespread, and around 6-8 hours of battery life (Sheffield). This model is part of the X-Slim line and MS’ expects to boost their 2009 laptop shipments up to 30 percent from the previous year (L’). Down the chain of production are the components such as the processors, integrated circuits, batteries, etc.

While MS’ makes the motherboard, case, and most of the other components, there are some features that weaken MS”s ability to produce. The competition from MAD and Intel, the two largest and seemingly only processor producers, leave MS’ in the middle of producing laptops ND notebooks for both. Their ability to not give in to Intel’s bribes have suited them well in the past but the technology between the two are now so similar that MS’ will have issues choosing one over the other. MAD will showcase their new chippies while Woman, “a new mobile standard”, is being pushed by Intel (Lie).

While notebook sales SOOT Analysis of Microsoft International By frontispieces downfall on both sides according to Dispatcher. The original notebooks came out with Linux, a free rival operating system to Windows or Mac. The notebook was not opposed to have processing power; it was made to integrate with web applications that store your data. The consumers did not buy these because they were too dissimilar to the existing operating system they knew (Sheffield). What is even more alarming is that they are going to try again with another version of Linux that seems more like Windows (Novel).

There are a limited number of ways for a Multi-national Corporation to expand their horizons, but in the ever-expanding market, there remain a few. The global market which according to analysts have been underestimated. Gardner, who forecasted 5. Million units in 2008, was under by almost ten million. The market for portable PC’s now make up almost to 20% of the entire market. MS’ who have been producing in this field since 2007, when notebooks first appeared, should stand to benefit from this increase (Sheffield).

While MS’ is located in Taiwan, China’s market has not always been the most hospitable to computers and technology… Until now. MS’ opened a production plant in 2000, and a research facility in 2001. These plants, located in China, now service China and “is now becoming one of the biggest motherboard and graphics card manufacturers in he world” (“About MS'”). Not only does MS’ recognize China’s importance, but other companies have also started to open their shops to China. Vice President of Dutch NSP Semiconductor J.

J. Wang said, “For us, China is a very important market, where growth will be faster than any other major market” (L’). While forecasts in the past have shown increases and expansion, Research firm DC predicts a downfall. By their calculation, PC shipments will fall about 4 percent worldwide. There are shortages of displays and memory chips that will likely show a drastic increase in prices. Even “Merrill Lynch expects PC vendors to face more pressure on margins from this [fall] quarter” (Lie).

The other major threat is from the consumers themselves. Linux failed in notebooks because people wanted the “system tray’ they used and understood. PC vendors have been fighting this turnover to the free operating systems and consumers seem unsure (Sheffield). MS’ wants to try again. “MS’ already offers USE Linux Enterprise Desktop preloaded on MS’ devices and this new Novel version of Mobile offers another interesting desktop computing opportunity for our customers,” aid Samara Chem.., senior director of Global Marketing at MS’ (Novel).

While some attribute the failure of Linux to the failure of the notebook idea, people want what they already know. Change is good, but risky (Sheffield). MS’ has been a leading company for years. Their strengths outweigh their weaknesses. Their ability to expand, even in tough economic times, is a testament to their diversification and understanding of their market. The threats the company face are mainly from the consumer’s tastes. We will not know if these ideas will succeed or fail. However, reflecting upon the past allures, every technological innovation changes the entire scheme.

HP Strengths and Weaknesses

Strength

The strength of Hewlett-Packard, Inc. rests on the values instilled in the organization by its founders, and this system of values is called the HP Way (Ceruzzi, 2003). It has flourished on the basis of such system of values, and the company has long been recognized for its strong culture. The company culture is actually often cited by management books as an important source of the firm’s success. HP is ranked quite high in surveys of the best places to work, and enjoys turnover much smaller than the norm in the Silicon Valley (Malone, 2007). They are also considered by industry experts as one of the most innovative companies there is, with a large percentage of its annual revenue coming from products that it introduced in the past two years. They have likewise achieved a global reputation for building and utilizing human capital in the creation of new innovative products and processes.

Weaknesses

HP has in recent years had difficulty in maintaining its growth and in meeting Wall Street’s earnings expectations. Many of its businesses, such as computers and printers, have become increasingly price competitive, and the firm has been under pressure to increase its margins. The result is that the firm is being torn between its values and beliefs and a set of short-term financial pressures, made real by a set of measurement practices that emphasize results in the present at the expense of being prepared for the future. This situation highly affects the decisions that HP has done lately. There is pervasive evidence that the firm’s commitment to acting on the basis of what it knows has been sorely tested and that the company’s measurement practices have induced pressures inconsistent with its culture and with doing what it needs to do for long-term success.

Opportunities

There have been notable efforts recently on the part of the company to overhaul their current information technology operations, and the opportunity lies in being ahead in the industry when it comes to IT and the chance to showcase what the company is capable of with the aid of excellent IT operations. It can also increase the effectiveness of how they perform their primary and support activities, not to mention the fact that such move could potentially drive costs down so that revenue targets may be more reached more easily. Expansion to the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) countries which are expected to grow economically in the near future (Malone, 2007) is also seen as a very promising opportunity for HP. Mergers and acquisitions, as a common occurrence in the industry where HP belongs, also presents an opportunity fro HP to grow its business even more. Also read HP strategy analysis

Threats

Since HP is operating in very competitive, high-technology industries with shrinking product life cycles, intellectual capital and talent are in constant danger of being outdated and rivals are always ready to pounce on every opportunity they can acquire to get ahead of the game. The current markets where they are operating, particularly U.S. and Europe, are predicted to experience a slowdown in economic growth. If this proves true, then HP is in the danger of experiencing decrease in sales revenues from said geographic regions. Any subtle change or development on the company’s suppliers also presents a threat to the company, because they are highly dependent on these suppliers to be able to manufacture HP products. Read about HP strategy analysis

Primary and Support Activities

Primary activities that HP is involved in are the design and manufacture of measurement and computation products and systems used in business, industry, engineering, science, health care and education industries. Specifically, they manufacture hardware and software and the provide solutions and services in relation to technology. HP produces many different types of products, from laser printers and computers to hand-held calculators and electronic instruments. The company is currently organized into Computer Products, Systems, Measurement Systems, and Test and Measurement organizations (Morgan, 2006). Support activities include using production postponement (delaying the differentiation of a product for an individual customer until the latest point possible in the value chain) to deal with market demands for mass customization, which the company has done successfully.

References

1. Ceruzzi, P. (2003). History of Modern Computing. Massachusetts: The MIT Press.
2. Malone, M. (2007). Bill & Dave: How Hewlett and Packard built the World’s Greatest Company. New York: Penguin Group.
3. Morgan, G. (2006). Images of Organization. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications, Inc.

Conducting a situational analysis of the environment of Panera Bread Company considered the multi-dimensional factors affecting its performance and the identification of challenges or problems that led to the development of recommended solutions to support the sustainability of the company. The situational analysis considered the macro environment, market or customers, competition, collaborators and company aspects.

Panera Bread SWOT Analysis

Strengths

The Strengths that Pander Bread Company has are the following: a strong presence in its niche segment, a strong relationship with their franchisees, they focus on having a specialty bread and robust financial performance.

This helps the company become secure in its segment of the market. Pander Bread Company has had robust financial performance. Its revenues increased by 21. 8% from 2007 to 2008. The companies net profit increased by 17. 4% from 2007 to 2008. This continued growth provides the company with a positive future. The company also purchased 51% of the outstanding stock of Paradise.

Weaknesses

Pander Bread Company has highly concentrated geographic operations, meaning the company is confined to operating in North America. This is a problem because if a hang in state taxes could bring a risk to the market concentration.

It also loses the opportunities that their competitors will have to establish themselves in foreign markets. The company does not operate in the Asia-Pacific region or Europe-Africa, which could be potential areas they could benefit from. Another weakness that Pander Bread Company has is its lack of scale. When compared to its competitors, Pander Bread Company has a lot smaller revenues. Companies such as Cutbacks or McDonald’s dwarf this company, in yearly revenues. Pander needs to expand to other regions to become a worldwide competitor.

Opportunities

The three opportunities that Pander Bread Company has are the following: controlling of operating cost, expansion to grow top line and growth demand for organic products. Pander decided to focus its menu primarily with breakfast and Pander SOOT By Knaggy like pastry was intended to attract a late afternoon to early evening consumer, but had little growth. The little growth was believed to be caused by the recession, which made the company have to focus its menu to two meals a day. The expansion of the company has created more geographic presence for top line growth.

Threats

Pander Bread Company has four major threats to its success. The first threat to the company’s success is the highly competitive restaurant industry. The company has to compete in three different industries. Pander competes in the specialty food, quick service and casual dining retailers. It major competition is Cutbacks, McDonald’s, Einstein Noah Restaurant Group, Potbelly Sandwich Works and Yum! Brands. This competition could impact Pander Bread Company’s market share.

Panera Bread PESTEL analysis

The political factors affecting the operations of Panera Bread Company comprise of regulations on consumer rights, sales contracts, product quality, and other regulations comprising the standards uniformly applied in the baked products industry. Overall, the political environment of the baked products industry is competitive, which means that apart from the regulations required by law and public policy, bread producing companies have a wide room for self-regulation.

This enables Panera Bread Company to use compliance with these regulations as a means of enhancing value offering to consumers to compete with other bread producing firms. The economic factors affecting Panera Bread Company are exchange rate volatility because it imports some of its raw materials and its operating cost and economic downturns because these affect the purchasing power of its consumers. Panera Bread Company developed the company as providing high quality products and high end services at competitive prices.

This strategy should support growth in the company even with exchange rate adjustments and economic downturns. The technological factors influencing the operations of the company refer to innovations in the tools and processes in bread production that require lesser cost and ICT tools in marketing to support the promotional campaigns of firms. Panera Bread Company employs the traditional European style stone deck bakery oven (Thompson 285). However, although the concept is traditional, there are various innovations to make deck ovens more fuel efficient.

This allows Panera Bread Company to operate cost effectively while providing artisan bread. Nevertheless, the company sparingly engages in ICT tools for its promotional activities. The socio-cultural factors determining the operations of Panera Bread Company include the appeal of its business concept to different socio-demographic groups. The ability to meet the demand for the targeted socio-demographic groups determines the long-term success of the company. Panera Bread Company targets a broader market appealing to consumers across gender, age, income and racial groups.

By understanding socio-cultural factors, the company was able to fashion its business concept to address the demand of a broader market. Competitive Situation The competitive environment within which Panera Bread Company operates comprise of the internal and external situation. The internal situation leads to the internal strengths and weaknesses of the firm and the opportunities and threats external to the company, particularly relative to its competitors. The strengths support the capture of opportunities while the weaknesses and threats are areas for improvement or resolution to ensure effective outcomes for the company.

One of the strengths of the company is as a fast-casual firm positioned in between fast food companies and full-table-service dining (Thompson 294). This allowed the company to combine cost effectiveness and differentiation to appeal to both the customers of fast foods and full-service firms by offering high value based on a competitive pricing for quality products and high end service. This gives rise to the other strength of the company of having a strong brand name and high brand equity by giving customers a positive experience to encourage repeat purchases and word-of-mouth advertising to their family, friends and acquaintances.

However, the company also has weaknesses. One is its cost structure as vulnerability. Any changes in the factors affecting its operating cost would have an impact on its pricing and/or revenue generation. Another is its limited promotional activities. Although the company collects contributions from its franchises and allots a percentage of revenue for advertising, the priority is personal selling and experiential marketing that heavily relies on consumers to notice the company and make the move to try its products and services (Thompson 288).

These are areas for consideration if Panera Bread Company wants to remain competitive in the long-term when its competitors strongly engage in advertising. A number of opportunities are open to the company relative to its competitors. One is to target niche markets or organize its products according to niche markets (Bradford et al. 38). Panera Bread Company has great products sold more or less uniformly at its bakeshop cafes.

The company can introduce product lines for vegetarians, health conscious individuals, those engaged in loss weight regimens, sports enthusiasts, those with diabetes, and other niche markets. This way, the company can provide a product line for its broader or mass market while at the same time accommodate niche markets. This would enable the company to sustain a high market share. Another opportunity is to engage in more active advertising of the company even at its existing level of expenditure on promotions. This would ensure a wider awareness and market reach to influence more people to try its products.