Symantec Corporation and the Device-Centric Strategy

BA 301 Final Term Paper
3/17/14
Table of Contents

Executive Summary……………………………………………………………………………… 3
Position…………………………………………………………………………………………... 4
Sense…………………………………………………………………………………………....... 8
Uncover…………………………………………………………………………………………. 10
Solve…………………………………………………………………………………………..... 12
Build…………………………………………………………………………………………...... 14
Achieve…………………………………………………………………………………………. 17
Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………… 19
Works Cited…………………………………………………………………………………….. 20
Appendix A…………………………………………………………………………………….. 22

Executive Summary

This report focuses on Symantec Corporation and the problems and symptoms the company faces. Throughout the report one will gain knowledge about the company in general and learn about different problems the company faces. Financial standing of the company will be given and their competitors will be listed. Over the last few years the company has faced issues with leadership and their financials have stayed in the same place. As of 2012 Symantec acquired a new CEO who hopes to implement a new strategy into the business by focusing on protection tablets and smartphones rather than just computers. Even though the strategy is new Bennett has to come up with ideas on how to get the product out to their customers. One solution to this that will be discussed is using word of mouth through their philanthropic giving program. If Symantec can get the device-centric strategy to take flight than it could be their answer to raising their revenue and stock prices in the near future.

Position
Symantec is an American based company that specializes in computer security and cloud storage solutions. Its headquarters are in Mountain View, California. Gary Hendrix founded the company in 1982. Hendrix’s original focus for the company was artificial intelligence-related projects. In 1984 a small company acquired Symantec where they decided to stick with the Symantec name. The first product put out was, Q&A for the IBM-compatible PC, it was a database program that used natural language query. They are now known for their Norton Anti-Virus protection software for computers and larger networks. (Funding Universe, 2005) Symantec’s mission statement, out of their handbook states:
“Symantec Enterprise Support Services is committed to responding quickly to your inquiries. We will help you ensure that your IT environments – including infrastructure, information, and interactions – remain secure, available, and compliant at all times, maximizing the business value of your Symantec solutions. Our primary focus is to enable you to leverage the operational functionality of your Symantec licensed software by providing tools, resources, and technical assistance” (Symantec Corp., 2009, pp. , 4).

Not only are they committed to their customers; they are also committed to their employees and the community. When looking at their website they have pages dedicated to these topics. They want to make a difference and they want their staff to feel like they are making a difference in the industry and community. “Smart people who collaborate and innovate make great things happen. Whatever your role, your ideas are encouraged and rewarded. Together we give people the confidence to work and play in a digital world” (Symantec Corp., 2014, pp. , Careers). To touch base on these topics they state that their corporate responsibility is to “Conduct our business with a commitment to ethical operation, sound environmental management, and positive societal impact. Our corporate responsibility platform is organized into three pillars: Our People, Your Information, and The World” (Symantec Corp., 2014, pp. , Corporate Responsibility). Where they talk about their people they believe to achieve all of the company goals they need to have the right team that reflects their mission and values. They want their employees to be creative and innovative and to do that they need to supply them with the right type of tools, resources, and support from the company. They are working on expanding their international employee base to better understand their markets all over the world and to enhance everyone’s user experience (Symantec Corp., 2014, pp. , Our People).
To ensure everyone’s user experience is enhanced they want to make sure people’s information is safe and secure and that as the world becomes more interconnected, people keep the sense of security, and that their confidential information is going to stay confidential. Their promise is “to enable confidence in a connected world—is becoming more urgent every day. The world is increasingly interconnected, and much of the vast amount of data flowing around the globe is personal and confidential information” (Symantec Corp., 2014, pp. , Your Information). These responsibilities are all tied into the global spectrum. Where they talk about their impact on the world and what they would like it to be, their main focus seems to be on making sure things are done in an environmentally friendly way. They address the topic of “climate change, and our partnerships with global non-profit organizations as well as the local communities where we work, live, and play” (Symantec Corp., 2014, pp. , The World). Symantec may be committed to all these things but when you go onto Yahoo Finance and look at their stock over the last few months their stock price has hovered right around $23 per share, with the highest price being $24.62 and the lowest price being $21.49. (Those two prices were back on October 23 and 24, respectively.) Today’s current stock price is $23.62. There revenues are $6.88 billion with a debt level of $2.09 billion.
As of right now Symantec’s biggest competitor is Microsoft Corporation, along with McAfee, Inc., Trend Micro Incorporated, AVG, Avira, BitDefender, BullGuard, Comodo, F-Secure, Kaspersky, Panda Security, and Sophos. Most people have heard of Microsoft and McAfee, Inc., but none of the others. Microsoft though, if you were to ask anybody on the street what Microsoft was known for, they would most likely say computers and windows, for example. If you asked someone what McAfee was known for they would most likely say virus protection. So even though Microsoft is listed as one of the major competitors on Yahoo Finance people would generally think of McAfee before they thought of Microsoft when they think of Symantec’s competitors.
Nobody can say how much of a competitor McAfee is though because they are a privately held company along with, BitDefender, BullGuard, Comodo, Frisk, Kaspersky, and Sophos, therefore their financials are not given. Microsoft on the other hand has revenue of $80.37 billion and a debt level of $16.52 billion. One thing to keep in mind though is that Microsoft provides a lot more products and services than Symantec does. Employees are one of the most important primary stakeholders to Symantec. The company provides their families a way to live by providing a salary. Symantec employs about 21,500 people around the world and are looking to expand their international employee base, like mentioned before. If this is the case their employees as stakeholders become even more reliant on the company’s profit margin because the more people they hire the more money that has to be divided between.
Shareholders also rely on the company succeeding. Last year they set up a program that allowed them to pay out their first dividend in June. Overtime the strategy is to “return approximately 50% of free cash flow to shareholders through a combination of dividends and share repurchases while still enabling the company to invest in its future” (Symantec Corp., 2013, pp. , Press Release). The good thing about being a Symantec shareholder right now is it has strong buyback activity. According to an article in The Street, Symantec “Is the #69 broker analyst pick among those stocks screened by The Online Investor for strong stock buyback activity. To make that list, a stock must have repurchased at least 5% of its outstanding shares over the trailing twelve month period” (TheOnlineInvestor.com, 2014). They also say that “Symantec Corp. is a company with strong buyback activity that is also considered a compelling buy by analysts; a bullish investor could take this to mean that sharp analyst minds came to the same bullish conclusion as the company itself that the stock is a good value, and therefore the stock should do well in the future” (TheOnlineInvestor.com, 2014). This leads us to think about how certain activities outside of the company affect our performance. TheOnlineInvestor.com says that Symantec stock has good future value.
Customers are important to any company, without them the company wouldn’t survive. Customers also have many different substitutes to choose from so Symantec’s goal is to always be a customer’s first choice. To help Symantec promote their product they need partners that help get their image out. In 2006 Adobe agreed to promote Symantec’s Norton Internet Security to people who download their free Adobe Reader. Symantec also has deals with several PC makers like Cisco Systems (Evers, 2006).
There are also secondary stakeholders to think about, which is mainly the surrounding community of Symantec locations. Symantec provides many jobs that are good for the people who live in the community. If Symantec wants to expand to create more jobs could be bad or good depending on how a person look at it. If they do expand it could be good because it creates more jobs but also the company could produce more pollution in the surrounding area because it could mean that many more people driving to and from work.
Sense
Symantec’s mission and vision pushes them to move with the innovative population as it moves forward and they want to be the company that everyone uses for anti-virus software, storage, and software management systems. We know that their revenues and debt levels are doing fairly well and that their largest competitors are Microsoft and McAfee, Inc. Investors have also told us that Symantec’s stock is a good buy and has good future potential.
Their revenues and debt levels may be doing fairly well but one problem that the company faces is the lack of growth. As mentioned before their stock price has hovered over the last couple of years and really hasn’t grown. There is a fear that the company isn’t keeping up with the rest of the competition and customers are choosing substitutes and not Symantec’s products. One reason can always be that Norton is overpriced compared to their competitors. Below is a graph of some of the prices of 1-year anti-virus software:

From the list of competitors that were given earlier there are some missing from the chart. The reason for that is because they didn’t offer the same product as the companies in the chart so I left them out. Symantec’s Norton product is right in the middle of the group, where McAfee is one of the lowest priced software’s. This could potentially be a problem, especially if the two programs offer the same features. A customer in the industry will choose the lowest price every time if reviews and features are the same. If this is the case than it doesn’t help Symantec’s stock price, especially because their Norton Anit-Virus software is 36.7% of the total stock price. Below is a breakdown of percentages of Symantec’s stock price according to Trefis data that has been collected:

(Trefis Team, 2014)
To give a little background Trefis is “an online financial community structured around trends, forecasts and insights related to some of the most popular stocks in the US. Whereas most finance sites simply give you the facts about where a stock has been and what a company has done in the past, Trefis focuses entirely on the future” (Trefis, 2014). In the diagram the percentages are based of the Trefis price which is a estimate of what they believe the intrinsic price of the company’s stock is. In Appendix A there are more graphs provided where the same division are broken down by revenue, adjusted EBITDA, and free cash flow.
Another problem to look at is that “Globally, PC shipments have been declining at a double-digit pace as consumer buying shifts towards smartphones and tablets due to their flexibility in addressing customers’ increasingly variable demands” (Trefis Team, 2014). If this is the case than Symantec may want to think about re-working their software to aim it towards tablets and smartphones. Shifting their whole platform though takes a lot of time and money with research and development. They have to make sure if they go into the new market it will be beneficial. They already have software that works with computers, if they come up with new software they have to think about the potential danger of it failing and what kind of name it would give Symantec. Also they will want to be a front-runner in the new market and not a follower. If other competitors have released new software that is successful than they have to make sure theirs is just as good and better. Symantec definitely needs to look into the tablet and smartphone industry to see what they can do and where they can fit in. If shipments of PCs are going down that quickly they will need to rethink their strategy to keep up with the evolving industry.
Uncover
One symptom can be the redesign of their protection software. Symantec wants to move anti-virus software into the phone and tablet industry rather than keeping it solely in the computer industry. This could eventually cause some problems if people are unwilling to buy into the idea or if the software doesn’t end up working. According to the same SWOT analysis piracy is becoming more prevalent in today’s software industry. “According to industry estimates, software piracy causes more than $2.9 billion of competitive disadvantage per year across manufacturers in Latin America, Central and Eastern Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. According to industry reports, in 2011, software piracy resulted in a loss of approximately $64 billion to the global software industry. Symantec witnessed losses due to software piracy in the last few years” (Symantec Corporation, 9).
Another symptom to a larger problem for Symantec Corp. could be that in the last year they fired their CEO. According to an article by Jim Finkle and Nicola Leske the firing of the CEO was unexpected. The reasoning given for doing so was because Symantec’s stock has not grown in years. Even though Symantec has went to new leadership in hopes of boosting their stock and profits, their net income this last year compared to 2012 was down by $407,000 and their stock hasn’t gone anywhere in the past year either. According to a SWOT analysis published in Marketline one weakness that is discussed is Symantec’s reliance on OEM sales channels. Symantec is in and industry that is highly competitive and if they rely too heavily on their product being delivered and sold through computer packages than they may have no control over how much they sell. One of their main competitors is McAfee who is owned by Intel or Microsoft who is a brand name of their own. They don’t have to rely on anyone else but themselves to deliver their products to their customers.
Both of these symptoms can lead to a larger problem of leadership. Symantec may have had an idea that they needed someone fresh and new but their net income over the last year has suffered and their stock price is still hovering in the same area it has been for the last couple years. One good thing with the idea of a redesign is that they are trying to keep up with the shifting market. Also maybe the redesign will help make it so the software can’t be pirated also. In the long run maybe research and development costs will be high but it could also save them some money if they can keep people away from their software formula.
One last thing that is always considered a problem in this industry that Symantec has to keep in mind is that as the population, as a whole, shifts to storing everything online cybercrime becomes more and more dangerous and common. Cyber criminals know that most people don’t know how to protect their information and that there are many tricks for them to get a person’s personal information. According to their Corporate Responsibility Report the victims that are most common are:

(Symantec Corporation, 2012, p. 34)
Solve
Symantec knows that something needs to be done in order to get out of the flat line they are in. In July of 2012 they ended up replacing their CEO with Steve Bennett in hopes that it would turn things around. Now that he has been the CEO for more than a year he has come up with a new game plan in order to keep up with the market. Earlier it was mentioned that shipments of PCs have been rapidly decreasing because of the increase in the tablet and smartphone industry.
Recently, according to the Business Essentials Edgar glimpse of Symantec’s 10-K, they will be working their way into a “device-centric, which means protecting endpoints and the data center, to having the broader focus of protecting and managing digital information” (Edgar-Online Glimpse, 2013). The reason for this new development is because they believe that the market is switching from computers to mobile devices and tablets. They feel it is the right time to also shift their market while keeping up with computer anti-virus software. With this their “strategy is to establish leadership in this evolving information-centric world by identifying and delivering solutions that solve large unmet or underserved customer needs, while building competitive advantage and creating sustainable financial performance” (Edgar-Online Glimpse, 2013).
We know that Symantec wants to raise the bar when it comes to what they offer but they have to consider what factors are going to affect them along the way. Just a few days ago Symantec gave a press release stating that their new NetBackup software was ready to go and would provide its consumer with multiple upgrades. The new software,
“Is the only backup product designed for enterprise level scale, which can accommodate hundreds of thousands of virtual machines and petabytes of data while giving customers 400x faster virtual machine recovery than a standard restore. IT organizations can now simplify and automate the protection of massive and complex physical, virtual and cloud environments that are the building blocks of a modern data center” (Symantec, 2014).

This release doesn’t necessarily affect the everyday person who uses a computer for recreational use but affects large businesses that rely on good protection against outside threats. Since the new software has just come out we can’t decide how well it is performing and will have to keep an eye out for more releases on the subject or potential problems it causes. Keeping in mind that their new strategy is to keep up with the evolving market I believe their mission statement stays true and reflects their strategy. Since the new device-centric strategy fits the company and will hopefully help raise revenue so Symantec can continue to expand I think that the new leadership under Bennett could be a good thing.
Build
Having revenue and cash flow are two of the most important aspects of business. If you can’t make money and don’t have any to spend on research and development then there is no way a company will stay in business. Over the last few of years Symantec’s revenue has gone up along with their research and development expenses. This is all tied to the new strategy that was talked about in the last section. Cybercrime has also become more popular and below are some facts and percentages about some of the most common attacks that can happen:

(Symantec Corporation, 2013, p. 12)
Symantec provides these facts to their customers because they want to make sure their customers are as equipped as they can be to be prepared for attacks. The more informed people are the quicker they can react to any possible threat. Bennett as CEO is moving in the right direction. Tablets and smartphones are becoming a larger target because they are becoming more popular. As we can see phones are becoming more vulnerable to viruses every year.

(Symantec Corporation, 2013, p. 10) Symantec also already does a good job of informing their customers of who is most likely to be targeted by attackers. In their Internet Security Threat Report they list the top 10 industries that were attacked in 2012.

(Symantec Corporation, 2013, p. 15)
They also give graphs of attacks by size of targeted organization and targeted attack recipients.

(Symantec Corporation, 2013, pp. 16-17)
These graphs are helpful and show that Symantec knows what to expect and how to best help their customers. Since they have been spending more money each year on research and development and their revenue levels have been raising it shows that the company knows what they are doing. According to the graphs from Trefis we know that their largest market is Norton. If they continue to build on the device-centric software and make sure that it is functioning they could build up their security and software for business to also make it a larger market. Bigger corporations are obviously the ones being attacked. Since employees now have easy access to the work e-mail and the Internet on their phones or tablets the company becomes three times more likely to be attacked through any of those forms of devices. Symantec already has a good connection with many large companies. If they use their connections well and the software ends up being successful than they could see their security and software market of the business might become their second if not third largest part of Symantec’s operations.
Achieve
To implement the new software Bennett needs to make sure the reports on how not only computers are being attacked out there to their customers. Symantec needs to be willing to go out and advertise the product and prove that tablets and phones are becoming more and more dangerous by the day. Many companies don’t think about blocking social media sites on their employees work phones or tablets but Symantec knows that this is one of the major issues. “As new social media tools emerge and become popular, criminals will target them” (Symantec Corporation, 2013, p. 54). Social media can be a great way to advertise and get word out quickly about an upcoming event or new product, but as new way come out where customers can buy product directly off social media websites the more attention they will grab from online criminals. One great way to get the new product out is to also donate it to companies that need it. Symantec has a great philanthropic program. If they allow certain industries to use their product than they may go out and tell other companies how great the product is. Word of mouth is proven to be one of the best advertising strategies there is, so why not use it as an advantage while keeping up with the philanthropy work. Below is a breakdown of Symantec’s philanthropic giving by region and by focus area:

(Symantec Corporation, 2013, p. 21) As long as Bennett can keep up the leadership and keep the device-centric strategy moving in the right direction and implements it to their customers right than Symantec should be successful in raising their revenues even if their debt levels increase for the next couple years because of research and development.
Conclusion
In the end even though Symantec has had issues with leadership in the recent past Bennett seems to be leading the company in the right direction. The market is changing and he realized that, got together with part of his team, and implemented a new strategy that focused on protecting peoples tablets and smartphones rather than just their computers. This is a good solution to the problem of a flat lining stock price and no recent change in revenues. Without revenues and customers buying product a company cannot stay in business. A company has to be able to stay on top of trends and move with the innovative population, which I think Symantec is doing.

Works Cited
Edgar-Online Glimpse. (2013, May 17). 10-K Symantec Corp. Business Insights: Essentials .
Evers, J. (2006, March 2). Adobe to promote Symantec suite. (CNET News) Retrieved March 5, 2014, from CNET News: http://news.cnet.com/Adobe-to-promote-Symantec-suite/2110-1029_3-6045446.html
Funding Universe. (2005). Symantec Corporation History. (St. James Press) Retrieved February 27, 2014, from http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/symantec-corporation-history/
Symantec Corp. (2014). Business Overview. Retrieved January 22, 2014, from Symantec: http://www.symantec.com/about/profile/business.jsp
Symantec Corp. (2014). Careers. Retrieved January 22, 2014, from Symantec Corporation: http://www.symantec.com/about/careers/
Symantec Corp. (2014). Corporate Responsibility. Retrieved January 22, 2014, from Symantec: http://www.symantec.com/corporate_responsibility/
Symantec Corp. (2014). Our People. Retrieved January 22, 2014, from Symantec Corporation: http://www.symantec.com/corporate_responsibility/topic.jsp?id=our_people
Symantec Corp. (2013, January 23). Press Release Details. Retrieved February 27, 2014, from Symantec Corporation: http://investor.symantec.com/investor-relations/press-releases/press-release-details/2013/Symantec-Announces-New-Strategy-for-Returning-Cash-to-Shareholders/default.aspx
Symantec Corp. (2009). Symantec Enterprise Support Services. In S. Corp., Symantec™ Enterprise Support Services Handbook for Essential Support and Basic Maintenance (p. 4). Cuepertino, California: Symantec Corporation.
Symantec Corp. (2014). The World. Retrieved January 22, 2014, from Symantec: http://www.symantec.com/corporate_responsibility/topic.jsp?id=the_world
Symantec Corp. (2014). Your Information. Retrieved January 22, 2014, from Symantec : http://www.symantec.com/corporate_responsibility/topic.jsp?id=your_information
Symantec Corporation. (2012). 2012 Corporate Responsibility Report. Report.
Symantec Corporation. (2013). 2013 Corporate Responsiblity Report. Report.
Symantec Corporation. (2013). Internet Security Threat Report 2013. Report.
Symantec. (2014, January 21). Symantec NetBackup Tackles Data Growth, Performance and Virtual Sprawl as Customers Transition to the Modern Data Center. Mountain View, California: Market Wired.
TheOnlineInvestor.com. (2014, January 10). The Street. Retrieved January 22, 2014, from http://www.thestreet.com/story/12225096/1/analyst-favorites-with-strong-buyback-activity-symantec-ranks-as-a-top-pick.html?puc=yahoo&cm_ven=YAHOO
Trefis Team. (2014, February 25). Big Data and Data Center Growth Should Expand Symantec's Information Management Revenues. Retrieved March 5, 2014, from Forbes: http://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2014/02/25/big-data-and-data-center-growth-should-expand-symantecs-information-management-revenues/
Trefis Team. (2014, January 31). Symantec Analysis for NASDAQ: SYMC. Retrieved March 7, 2014, from Trefis: https://www.trefis.com/company#/SYMC
Trefis. (2014, March 5). Trefis. Retrieved March 5, 2014, from Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/company/trefis

Appendix A
Trefis graphs:
Revenue

Adjusted EBITDA

Free Cash Flow

(Trefis, 2014)