Campany Analysis (Essay Sample)

Student’s Name
Course Name – Tutor’s Name
Date Due
VODAFONE
Introduction
Vodafone group plc is among the world’s leader’s mobile telecommunications having a significant presence in Europe, Africa, Asia Pacific, the Middle East and United States through their undertakings, associated undertakings, joint ventures and investments (Gurufocus.com). They offer a wide range of world class services. Their telephone services include the manufacturer, operation as well as distribution of mobile phones and associated services. The company growth has been led by the fact that mobile phones have become necessities rather than luxuries which also has led to penetration into African countries, India and turkey, the areas which have great market potential.
External Analysis of the Company
The Vodafone Company has been affected in their operations by external forces which include economical, political or legal, technological, sociological as well as environmental factors which all have an effect on the operation of the organization, affecting daily operations besides effect on their revenue.
Industry Level Analysis
We analyze the industry with help of Porter’s Five Forces Model. It indicates that the industry has a huge effect on the company operations with regard to competition, their customers, suppliers and the new market entrants. It goes without saying that the mobile industry is extremely competitive. It is important to consider the aspects of the industry because they are inextricably interweaved together as mobile handset makers and network operators work closely together. We note that for both cases, the industry appears oligopolistic as the main competitors include Nokia, Samsung and apple for handsets and O2 together with orange in terms of network operator competition especially for the United Kingdom.
There is intense competition in manufacturing and network provision but the threat of new entrants is low because of regulation. The supplier and buyer power are moderate due to fairly oligopolistic tendencies while the threat of substitutes to mobile phones is weak in the face of strong Vodafone handsets.
Internal Environmental Analysis
The Vodafone Company has strong resources in terms, tangible or intangible with strong financial resources their profits exceeding hundreds of millions annually (Vodafone.com). This enables them to fund R&D bringing about a larger market share. They are credited with development of the next generation of wireless standards which allow both voice and data on the same network providing evidence of innovation and intellectual property.
They have a great employer brand because of strong human resource which enhances their image as employer as well as network operator which is evidenced by the Best Customer Care Award 2010 for Greece. The company resources linked to their R&D, their own brand and exclusivities have enabled them to have control over resources, in turn making competition stiff for other players besides their low cost strategy which brings them lower margins and subsidies for their operations.
Company Strengths
There is strong R&D which gives them competitive advantage to become market leaders in recent technology.
By their exclusivities, they have advantage over blackberry in close to a dozen world markets even though this could be a temporary advantage in the market.
They have a strong corporate culture which allows them to succeed. The strong financial base allows Vodafone enough room for any errors without driving their company to bankruptcy and also has ability to reinvest their resources in Europe so as to cope with competition in the region.
Company Weakness
The mobile phone market is saturated which makes it hard for Vodafone to stand out and above their competitors and yet Vodafone hardly has influence in the markets where they do the bulk of their business.
Vodafone is not known for marketing activities despite their demographics they target (Swotanalysis24.com).We note that some of the strengths of the company are potential risks if market conditions do not considerably change as some of the weaknesses could be their strengths for instance if they invest some of their resources in branding their handsets to make them safer, or greener along some of their competitors they could becomes the most innovative in the industry.
Threats
The saturated European markets - Europe is home to over 30% of phone subscribers but also brings over two thirds of revenue for Vodafone alone which demonstrates the dependence of the company on the continent (Indrayan). Given that in Europe mobile phone penetration is almost 100%, their growth scope appears very limited.
Uncertainty of regulation – the telecom policy as well as regulation is a challe...