...his approach to PC manufacturing had two advantages: (1) bypassing distributors and retail dealers eliminated the markups of resellers, and (2) building to order greatly reduced the costs and risks associated with carrying large stocks of parts, components, and finished goods. Now, that concept picked up and arrived at Dell being the multi-billion dollar leading computer manufacturer in the world with 2001 revenues reaching $32 Billion and return on investment of 335%. However, things started to plummet by 2001 and Dell experienced, for the first time, a -10% decline in sales and unprecedented cutthroat competition from HP and IBM. Dell Corp. had to make difficult decisions on how to sustain its profitability in light of its broad product portfolio - PCs, workstations, servers and storage products for a broad cross-section of customers in the United States and worldwide. Fueled with ambition and determination, Michael Dell is set to maintain his company's leading position in these tough times. Dell, facing a predicament of whether they should maintain their strategic course or fundamentally change it in order to achieve the targeted growth rates, managed to acquire three important strategic options: 1) Focus only on the four major core products (Desktops, Laptops, Workstations, Servers), 2) Focus on both the four major products (Desktops, Laptops, Workstations, Servers) and on International expansion, or 3) Focus on both the four major products (Desktops, Laptops, Workstations...
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...ray tubes. The first company in Japan to make fluorescent lamps (1940), radar (1942), broadcasting equipment (1952), and digital computers (1954), Toshiba became the first in the world to produce the powerful one-megabit DRAM2 chip in 1985. The first laptop computer, the T3100, was also unveiled by Toshiba, in 1985.3 In 1995, Toshiba was an electronics giant, third in Japan behind Hitachi and Matsushita,4 posting sales of $47.9 billion and a net profit of $447 million. The information and communication systems and electronic devices division, which included notebook PCs, accounted for 52% of the company’s total sales. By 1995, Toshiba had produced more than 5 million portable PCs since it introduced the first laptop a decade earlier. The market for portable PCs was one of the most dynamic and rapidly expanding segments of the computer industry, as increasingly mobile professionals demanded powerful, light-weight machines packed with features. In total, 2.85 million notebook computers were sold in the U.S. in 1994, and sales in 1995 were projected to exceed 3.6 million units. In the first quarter of 1995, Toshiba was the leader in the lucrative US portable computer market, with a 19%. Toshiba’s Ome Works, located 50 kilometers west of Tokyo in the city of Ome, began operation in January 1968. In a building measuring 80,000 square meters (860,000 square feet), Ome produced personal computers, word processors, optical character readers (OCRs), PC boards, hard disk drives, computer...
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...[pic] SONY CORPORATION 1.0 Company Profile: SONY Corporation (TYO: 6758, NYSE: SNE), or the SONY Joint- Stock Company, is called SONY for short, For the corporate headquarters, Tokyo, Japan is the giant of SONY that across digital, daily necessities, the world's entertainment, SONY predecessor was called "Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo Co., Ltd.". SONY was founded in May 1946, and establish by Akio Morata, who was good at disposing the public relations, and Masaru Ibuka, that has the R& D background (research and development background). The current management team is common leadership by Howard Stringer and Chubachi, who has the R & D qualifications. (http://wenku.baidu.com/view/7f91731b227916888486d74f.html-18/06/2011) Picture 1：Akio Morata Picture 2: Masaru Ibuka [pic] [pic] Source of Morita: http://baike.baidu.com/view/8896.htm Source of Ibuka: http://baike.baidu.com/view/8896.htm 1.1 Vision of SONY: To create exciting new digital entertainment experiences for consumers by bringing together cutting-edge products with latest generation content and services. （http://zhidao.baidu.com/question/232668661.html-18/06/2011） 1.2 Mission of SONY: SONY is committed to developing a wide range of innovative products and multimedia services that challenge the way consumers access and enjoy digital entertainment. By ensuring synergy between businesses within the organization, Sony is constantly striving to...
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...company has got a nickname "big blue" for its innovative culture and the product branding. In 1981, IBM has introduced its first PC to the market. In 1992, ThinkPad series and ThinkCenters began to enter the market, which has gained a very good reputation by its quality service and innovative design. In December 2004, the PC division of IBM including the "Think" series was sold to Lenovo Group, which is the biggest PC manufacturer in China. This acquisition has been considered as an important step for Lenovo's going global. Today, Lenovo has become one of biggest PC makers in the world. ▪ Important Issues 1. the global market outside of China Lenovo has been the leader in Chinese PC market since 1996. It announced the entering into global market by taking over IBM PC in 2004. If we look at Lenovo's annual reports of the recent years, about half of the sales have always been completed in China. Although Lenovo has got a quite good performance in this biggest PC market in the world, in other countries, the influence of this brand is still limited. taking the world's second PC market - America for example, after IBM PC has been sold, the five biggest PC market share became HP, Dell, Apple, Toshiba and Acer. Lenovo has not been able to entered the main PC market in US yet, while IBM has already quit the competition. Table 1: Top 5 Vendors, Worldwide PC shipments, Second Quarter 2011 Rank|Vendor|2011 Shipments|Market Share|2010 Shipments|Market Share|2Q11/2010 Growth| ...
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...various steps taken by Lenovo, the leading PC manufacturer in China, in its effort to go global. The steps include changing its corporate name from Legend to Lenovo, sponsoring the 2008 Olympic Games and most importantly, acquiring IBM's PC unit. The case examines the need for Lenovo to globalize and critically analyzes the efficacy of the above steps in the company's globalization plans. It also highlights the challenges faced by Lenovo in its path towards globalization. Issues: » How innovation, differentiation and customization can be used as strategic and competitive advantages by a company, to maintain its leadership in the domestic market, and emerge as a global player » The need for globalization and the factors that must be taken into account when a company wants to go global » The measures by which a company can create a global brand » The challenges facing Lenovo in its efforts to go global Introduction In December 2004, the China-based Lenovo Group (Lenovo) announced that it had acquired the personal computer (PC) division of the US-based IT major IBM. Industry analysts termed this as a major milestone for Lenovo in its efforts to globalize its operations. It was also perceived as an important step towards achieving the company's goal of becoming a Fortune 500 company by 2010. According to Liu Chuanzhi (Chuanzhi), the Chairman of the Group, "The purchase will make Lenovo Group the third largest PC maker worldwide with an annual revenue exceeding...
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...ensure that higher levels of innovation are achieved by the Company. Introduction Dell, Inc. (“Dell”, the “Company”) is a multinational company that specializes in the development, manufacture, marketing and servicing of computers and computer related products. Dell has been one of the most successful firms in the computer industry, having achieved supernormal revenue growth and above average returns for several years spanning the mid 1990’s to the mid 2000’s. This was mainly due to their prowess in customizing products as per customer requirements, coupled with effective manufacturing and supply chain processes. The Company encourages little or no intervention from distributors and middlemen, and majority of all sales are based on a direct customer relationship business model. The firm’s resources focused on supply chain capabilities, with frequent inventory turnover and direct delivery emerging as Dell’s core competencies. At the time when Dell established these core competencies, they were valuable, rare and were not easy to imitate, therefore allowing the Company to build a sustainable competitive advantage. More recently, industry dynamics have rapidly changed and competitive rivalry has also intensified to a very large extent. The external environment has changed significantly and demographic factors, coupled with economic indicators such as large disposable incomes that is now...
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...FDI strategy vs. gaining competitive advantage in foreign markets- the case of Lenovo FDI in theory FDI is one of the options companies have while considering doing business abroad. The other possibilities are exporting and licensing. Licensing allows the company to use the property of the licensor in a foreign market. It’s intangible kind of intellectual property e.g., trademarks, patents, and production techniques. The owner of the license is charged a fee in order to receive rights to use the intangible property with possible technical assistance. Many time licensing allows companies yield high returns. The main threat for the investors using this mode is loss of potential returns from marketing activities and manufacturing Exporting stands for the marketing and direct sale of domestically produced goods abroad. It’s one of the most traditional ways of reaching foreign countries. This mode does not require production of goods in the foreign market, so no cost of foreign production facilities is needed. Most of the investments demanded in the exporting procedure have the form of marketing and logistic expenses, these cost are most of the time higher than those in the domestic market, since the exporter has to get foreign sales data and also know-how of marketing customs in target market Doing business in a foreign country calls for additional activities which incur additional monetary and human costs. Additional tasks are among logistics of co-ordinating operations across...
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...competitiveness by acquiring IBM PC division in 2005 Capacity to keep up with market trend & demand _. Launch IdeaPad S-Series and New U-Series Global regional sales network & units in US, France, China, Singapore Know-how & experience of supporting global big sports event Well established brand equity & highly respected business partner Price competitiveness thru Chinese government support SWOT Target Seg. MKTG Plan Weaknesses Low brand awareness compared to other global brands _. Tough competition with two mega brands, HP & Dell No design identity _. No certain clear brand image without a combined concept or symbol Still not recognized as premium & high seg. target brand Notorious for high prices & poor tech. features without product differentiation Challenge to compete with Apple which is leading the #1 market in US Declining profit margin from price erosion with tough competition Opportunities New Pie, New Market ; Emerging market such as India, Brazil _. Expected 20% of growth rate in India PC market _. New SME1) seg. in India Easy access to giant consumer bases of Japan & Western Europe thru partnership with NEC Corp. & Medison Increasing demand for MP3 & MP4 tech.trend with mobile market (Chances of mobile convergence) Threats Mega Purple Cow : Apple’s new product innovation change PC industry _. Hardware & Software innovation with ipad tablet, app store and media contents Decrease in demand for brands PC due to cost benefit (vs. assembled PC) No strategies for...
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...cameras, printers, MP3 players and also electronics built by other manufacturers. The company is well known for its innovations in supply chain management and electronic commerce, particularly its direct-sales model and its "build-to-order" or "configure to order" approach to manufacturing—delivering individual PCs configured to customer specifications. Dell was a pure hardware vendor for much of its existence, but a few years ago with the acquisition of Perot Systems, Dell entered the market for IT services. The company has since made additional acquisitions in storage and networking systems, with the aim of expanding their portfolio from offering computers only to delivering complete solutions for enterprise customers. History Dell traces its origins to 1984, when Michael Dell created PC's Limited while a student of the University of Texas at Austin. The dorm-room headquartered company sold IBM PC-compatible computers built from stock components. Dell dropped out of school to focus full-time on his fledgling business, after getting about $300,000 in expansion-capital from his family. In 1985, the company produced the first computer of its own design, the Turbo PC, which sold for $795. PC's Limited advertised its systems in national computer magazines for sale directly to...
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...Weaknesses * The loss of Steve Job’s visionary spirit and superior leadership * Lack of compatibility options in its software * High R&D costs * iPhone’s late move to Verizon network * Safari’s conservative interface compared with Google Chrome’s * Apple does not have it’s own processors or memory, they rely on other companies for them * No plans to producte a netbook laptop | Opportunities * Expansion to a broader range of customers with lower cost product options. * Targeting of government and additional educational institutions. * Entry to new foreign markets. * Constant growth in the PC and smartphone segment. * Expansion into the gaming market * Growing market of energy efficient products * Production of Netbooks | Threats * Competitors with less expensive products * Competition in technology with other key players in the PC industry like HP, Dell, Acer * Competitors trying to recreate iTunes * Increasing popularity of Google Android * Retention of key staff critical | Grand Strategy: Growth; increase market share by growing at a faster rate that the industry average. Recommendations (short-term) * Enhancement of current products * More locations in foreign countries * Invest competitively in marketing * Continue to invest in R&D to gain headway in competition * Keep updating...
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...The name of the add-on card- Lianxiang- remains the Chinese name of Lenovo to this day. The company expands in Hong Kong that allowed them to raise its capital and overcome Lenovo’s previous experience in the global IT industry with a more international partner. In 1988, the company was restructured into Legend Computer Group Co. In the early 1990’s, the company was the largest among several domestic PC makers. In 1992, as the tariffs on imported PCs in China were reduced and import quotas were eliminated, foreign PC makers had a distinct price advantage over Legend. Consequently, Legend became sales and distributive representatives of American and Japanese computer companies in China. However, this became very strategic for Legend as it developed both technical and management expertise from its Hong Kong operation and from its foreign partners such as HP. Legend gain an advantage in building extensive distribution channels when the Chinese government restricted establishing distribution and retail operations of foreign companies in China. Legend introduced its self-branded PC in China that let it be the largest PC brand in China after a few short years. Legend put its most effort in building a nationwide distribution network. Over the next few years, Legend’s PC marketing business slowly overtook its add-on card business. However, its own brand still trailed foreign brands until 1996. Legend introduced the...
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...dealers eliminating the markup of resellers and thus passing on the discounts to end user making computer priced low and affordable c. Partnering closely with suppliers. To squeeze and bring down the cost of the entire supply chain d. Expanding into add-on products and services. To capture the a bigger share of the customer’s IT budget e. Providing good customer service and technical support. f. R&D focus on meeting the needs of the customers. g. Standardizing technologies for all product offerings. h. Web Site strategy - prospective buyers could review Dell’s entire product line in detail, configure and price customized PCs, place orders, and track orders from manufacturing through shipping i. Low cost manufacturing to grow sales & market share in both the PC and server segment and expand into other product category such as flatscreen LCD TV, MP3 player, DVD drivers, printers, scanners, modems, monitors, digital cameras, memory cards, data storage devices and speakers made by a variety of manufactures. j. Allows customer to purchase custom built products and work station according to the needs of their applications. k. Believe in building assembly plant closer to customer to reduce labor cost 2. Which one of the 5 Generic Competitive strategies is Dell...
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...personal computer (PC) division by 20-year-old Lenovo, China’s largest PC maker, made headlines around the world. A relative upstart in the business, founded with $25,000 of seed capital from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lenovo was acquiring the IBM division that invented the PC in 1981. While Lenovo was arguably the best known brand in China and had some brand presence in Asia, it was virtually unknown to the rest of the world. In 2004, over 90% of Lenovo’s revenues came from China (see Exhibit 1 for financials).2 But with this major deal, Lenovo aimed to become a global technology giant. Annual revenues would triple to $12 billion, making Lenovo the third-largest PC maker in the world after Dell and Hewlett-Packard. As a new multinational with 20,000 employees operating in 138 countries, Lenovo needed a global marketing and branding strategy to match its new reach. This meant determining what Lenovo stood for and designing products that supported that claim. In January 2006, 13 months after the deal was announced and eight months after it closed, Lenovo was preparing for the intense limelight that would come with its sponsorship of the February 2006 Turin Winter Olympics. There it planned to introduce a Lenovo-branded product line designed from the bottom up for small and medium enterprises, a move considered bold and risky by industry observers. The Global PC Industry History Twenty-five years before this landmark deal, IBM introduced its first PC after...
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...middle channels, aimed at the high velocity, and distributed value and provided capable opportunity for cross selling and up selling. (good performance on retaining this customer segment) * Flexible online channel store that contributed to up selling & cross selling by complementing the physical direct channel * Efficient multichannel customer service, customer-centred service orientation, completed online service to interact closely with customers * Clear recognition of different segments and design the best models to fulfil different needs of different segments in a cost effective way * Attitude of continuously seeking the next high margin product/service market 2. How would you summarize Dell’s position in the industry as...
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...Annual Report Project | Lenovo, Fiscal Year 2012/13 | Accounting I Professor Jerome Newman By: Min Ki Kim August 24th 2013 | Lenovo is a Chinese computer company that primarily specializes in laptop computers, workstations and various other consumer electronics with an emphasis on catering to businesses, and government agencies with their Think line of durable laptops. Their 2012/2013 annual statement includes a quick business review from their management team that is composed of an: audit committee that independently review financial statements, internal controls, and risk management systems; compensation committee which decides compensation policy for the CEO and other senior management, nomination and governance committee whom help the board of directors organize and review the corporate governance principles and policies and finally the CEO who is responsible for the management and implementation of Lenovo’s strategy and policy (P.36). For the fiscal year of 2012/13 Lenovo boasted a 15.5% share in the PC market due to their PC+ strategy and achieved an overall number 3 ranking for total global market share in the smart connected device category (P.16). Lenovo has also begun penetrating into the smartphone market and is rapidly making headway into China, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Russia and Vietnam. How successful this venture will be remains to be seen but initial impressions are showing promise. Tablet sales have been showing steady...
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