International Business Machines Corporation, or the IBM, is basically a multinational computer technology and has got hold over IT consulting services. The company has established itself as one of the selected information technology companies since 19th century. With its growth in the manufacturing as well as marketing domains of computer hardware and software, it has gained the nickname of “Big Blue”. IBM had encouraged its employees to use internet since 1997 when most of the companies were not allowing their employees use of internet. In 2003, the company made a strategic decision to encourage IBMers to participate in blogs and embrace the blogosphere. Social Business @ IBM is an internal site that has interactive, educational and social programs which explain IBM’s social business transformation and educates and enables IBMers in external social media participation. Employees take personal responsibility for their social media activities and the company has set Continue reading
Business Strategies
Porter’s Five Forces Analysis of Hewlett Packard (HP)
Hewlett-Packard is categorized in the Diversified Computer Systems industry of the Technology sector. Within the Computer Systems industry Hewlett-Packard has many high profile competitors such as: Canon, Dell, IBM, Apple, and Cisco Systems. The Computer Systems industry contains a large range of products including but not limited to: desktop computers, personal notebooks, printers, scanners, cameras, and different software programs. Most companies, such as Dell, Apple or Gateway, tend to be limited to a small product range. Compared to other industry competitors, Hewlett-Packard has a wide variety of consumer products. This gives HP a competitive advantage in the consumer market due to their brand name coverage in the technology industry. Hewlett-Packard offers desktops, notebooks, handhelds (pocket PC’s), monitors, home networking, televisions, digital photography, printers and printing supplies. Hewlett-Packard does not specialize in just one product line. With new technology innovations, some of their previously lesser known lines have grown to be Continue reading
Case Study of Apple Inc: An Apple for Your Enterprise
Apple Macs have made their way out of the art department and into the offices of accountants, salespeople, manufacturing planners and top executives. “We’re seeing more requests outside of creative services to switch to Macs from PCs,” notes David Plavin, operations manager for Mac systems engineering at the U.S. it division of Public Group SA, a global advertising conglomerate. For it managers across all industries – even those with a well established and stalwart Windows user base – the question is no longer whether you’ll need to design and support a Mac computing strategy. the only question is how quickly. You may already be a little late to the game. According to Forrester, business adoption of Macs tripled last year. What’s more, this will surely accelerate as companies hire more Gen Y workers. Coming through the door in those backpacks are a slew of consumer technologies and wireless personal productivity Continue reading
Relationship between Strategy Formulation and Strategic Planning
The word “strategy” or “strategic” is used in both terms, there is a possibility of confusion. The distinction is that strategy formulation is the process of deciding on new strategies, whereas strategic planning is the process of deciding how to implement the strategies. In the strategy formulation process, management arrives at the goals of the organization and creates the main strategies for achieving those goals. The strategic planning process then takes the goals and strategies as given and develops programs that will carry out the strategies and achieve the goals efficiently and effectively, The decision by an industrial goods manufacturer to diversify into consumer goods is a strategy formulation, a strategic decision, after which a number of implementation issues have to be resolved: whether to diversify through acquisition or through organic growth, what product lines to emphasize, whether to make or to buy, which marketing channels to use the document Continue reading
Case Study: Lessons from Blockbuster’s Downfall
With roughly 8,000 locations, the Blockbuster Company is a market leader in rental movies and video games. The businesses rented movies and video games to consumers for personal use. Blockbuster’s eyesight is to be a one-stop-shop for games and films. Its objective is to continue growing its fundamental rental business while leveraging its company image, massive database, retail locations, and cinema interactions to convey an even wider scope of home entertainment to existing and new viewers. The corporation has operations in the United States of America, Europe, Latin America, Australia, Canada, Mexico, and Asia. Blockbuster’s headquarters are in Dallas, Texas, and the company employs 58,561 individuals on a full-time, part-time, and occasional basis. The business made $5,287.9 million in income during the fiscal year ending January 2009, down from 4.6% in 2008. Blockbuster blamed the profit reduction mainly on non-cash asset impairments against its goodwill and other long-lived investments. By renting Continue reading
Socially Responsible Strategies
A question of central interest here is, how can corporations formulate socially responsible strategies? How can companies assure that corporate domain choice strategies and competitive strategies are responsive to social needs and do not harm the public interest? There are two basic approaches to dealing with these questions. First is to evaluate the social merits of each corporate and business strategy selected based on financial, technological, and market criteria. For each strategy, one could ask these questions: What social good does the strategy contribute? Does the strategy create any public risks or harm? Does the strategy harm the interests of our stakeholders? How does the strategy affect public image and goodwill? Will the strategy lead us into social controversies? The answers to these questions can aid in modifying strategies to fit reasonable demands. The idea is not to abandon strategies that have even the slightest negative consequences, but to consider Continue reading