International management (Essay Sample)

GTX CORP: International Management
Student’s name
Institution
International Management
Corporate profile and nature business
Global Trek Xploration (GTX) Corporation was founded in the year 2002 in Los Angeles, Carlifornia.The Company is a public limited company listed in the United States together with its subsidiaries; LOCiMOBILE, Inc., Code Amber Alertag and Code Amber News services.
GTX is both a service provider and manufacturing company in the electronic and footwear industries. This is because it designs as well engage in the development of location based applications and hardware, before selling them through their licensed partners. The company sells GPS smart soles in partnership with ProThotics Inc. for children, Athletes and Veterans who suffer from trauma due to brain injuries, and also to those who suffer from Dementia. The shoes send an alert text message in case the wearer leaves the designated place. The designated place is usually set by the caregiver (GTX Corp, 2008).
GTX Corp is majorly known for its Global Positioning System (GPS) Tracking Personal Location Services (PLS) and the patented GPS shoes, which was its first product in the market. In addition to the above products, they also offer the 2-way tracking services that are ideal for personal level security because it enables tracking of the current location of vehicles, people and any valued property and their recovery. This is made possible through their cellular location platform with miniaturized transceiver module, wireless connectivity gateway and viewing portal. Furthermore, the company offers customized GPS Tracking Solutions to Businesses. This is made easier through the readily available and customized software and hardware, complete with data service plans and concrete professional services to help them meet their customers’ expectation in an efficient and cost effective manner.
The company, through its LOCiMobile subsidiary, offers a package of enterprise and consumer mobile tracking, proximity alerting and social networking applications that converts smart phones into tracking devices.
It also engages in the provision of Website tickers and news feed to a diverse group that includes online traders, network service providers, national and international agencies. GTX Corp has also entered into a product test and licensing agreement with Midnite Air Corp and Aetrex Worldwid ,Inc. respectively to develop proprietary GPS enabled transport container, for ease of tracking incase of theft or any other incidence.
Key Milestones GTX Corp
The company has made tremendous progress in terms of market share and expansion. This is evidenced by its presence in approximately 162 countries. The company has also penetrated the market so fast due to its focus on the wearable technology which saw it win the multi patent GPS award and also get a nod from the Apple CEO (GTX Corp, 2008).
The GPS shoes were among the top ten high-tech gadgets to help grandma and grandpa. These shoes have GPS devices that alert caregivers whenever the wearer leaves a particular place.
In the year 2012, GTX Corp, in partnership with Talk About Curing Autism (TACA) were awarded the patent for the protection of children suffering from autism. This utility patent is aimed at ensuring that autistic children. The company is also considered the leader in customized two-way GPS technology, with its ever growing intellectual property platform which includes 11 patents and still some in the pipeline (Mandour & Associate, 2012).
According to Mandour and Associates (2012), GTX Corp’s patent dubbed "System and Method for Communication with a Tracking Device’’ is crucial to the current communications of both their partners and customers will give the company an increased market share in the expanding $13 billion location based industry.
The company has expanded its market penetration by bringing their services to the masses through agreement with Google. Google is the leading search engine in terms of users and hence use of Google Maps API Premier for personal location based services is a step towards achieving sustainable competitive advantage by GTX Corp. It means that people can go online via an intuitive interface.
The signing of an agreement between GTX Corp and Samsung (one of the world’s largest handset manufacturers) in 2010 to deliver GPS tracking software to its phones was a major milestone towards ensuring the continued penetration of the company’s products into the market. LOCiMOBILE, Inc., one of the wholly owned subsidiaries of GTX Corp is mandated with the provision of the company’s personal location applications to Samsung Smartphones and other GPS enabled handset. Samsung is among the largest world handset manufacturers in the world (GTX Corp, 2008).
Similarly, the company has expanded the usage of this technology by not only targeting those who need to know the whereabouts of others and assets, but also in the athletics arena to enable fans, coaches, and event promoters to track the progress and performance of athletes during competitive events. This has been made possible through the signing of a license agreement with MyAthlete LLC.
GTX Corp has the quality to pursue and expand their location based services and products because it is the pioneer in this part telecommunication industry with relevant foundation infrastructures. Its business model also offers it an advantage to further grow in the industry as it delivers a variety of customized wearable location devices to its customers via their licensed partners.
The company has been granted a number of patents in this sector with an ever growing intellectual property, an indication that it has the capacity to undertake the GPS and interrelated services and also selling of the products in a similar capacity. It has also avoided copyright by licensing its core technology to branded consumer product partners (GTX Corp, 2008).
The company has won awards as a result of its outstanding products and services such as the GPS smart shoe that shows that their products and services have real and tangible impacts on their customers. According to the balance score card, a company that gets the customers’ expectations right is viewed as being in the right track in its business ventures.
Management and human Resources
The management of GTX Corp is structured in such a way that it incorporates both the founders ,who had the business idea at hand on what they wanted to pursue, and a pool of experienced staffs with the right skills in both management and technical areas to steer the company in the international arena. The organization’s chart reveals that GTX Corp has a flat organizational structure. This structure revolves around competent and qualified staffs that are fully engaged and skilled.
Below is the organization chart of GTX Corp.
Figure 1: Organization chart of GTX Corp.
Chairman/President/ CEO
Board of Directors
Vice President of Businesss Development. DdDevelopmentVice President of FinanceChief Operating OfficerChief Financial Officer
The above management positions are very crucial to the company as these are the top management team responsible for strategic decisions of the company. The interrelationships between and amongst the occupants of this positions determines the roadmap of the company in conquering and succeeding in the international market.
The company’s board of directors and management team are made up of highly experienced and qualified individuals as shown later in their brief biography. The board members and management team are composed of persons with the ideal skills required to steer the technology-oriented company to the heights of international trade and ensure its in pace with the ever dynamic customer demands.
The list starts with the Company CEO, who also doubles up as the Chairman. Mr. Patrick Bertagna is also one of the promoters of GTX Corp. He is experienced in building companies in the technology and consumer branded industries for over 27 years. This makes him the right man for this top most position. As one of the founders of the company, he played a pivotal role in the invention of the company’s patented GPS footwear technology.
This is the technology that has put the company at the helm to date and also given it competitive advantage. He has been responsible for the long term strategies of the company that ranges from its break through into the market, corporate governance and its funding for six years. In addition, he has enabled the company to expand in terms of infrastructural development to become a holding company, with three subsidiaries.
Prior to founding GTX Corp, Mr.Bertagna was involved in a variety of business ventures ranging from being an importer of apparel in 1983, to being a manufacturer of clothing, accessories and footwear in over 20 countries between 1987 to 1993.He eventually landed into the world of software technology by founding Barcode World, Inc., a Company that enables accurate tracking of consumer products from design to retail. This enabled him to amass the required knowledge and skills in consumer products and tracking technology for the inception of GTX Corp in 2002 (GTX Corp, 2008).
Mr.Bertagna has formed formidable alliances with the reputable companies in the telecommunication industry such as IBM, EE, Google and GE. These alliances has seen the company benefit in terms of business ventures, for example , the contractual agreement between GTX Corp and Google to enable GTX Corp to launch its personal location-based services on the Google Maps API Premier platform.
Mr. Christopher Walsh, a holder of B.S. in Marketing from Boston College, is in charge of Operations at GTX Corp. He is experienced in the fo...