Employing Strategy in a Competitive environment
Bus 599 Strategic Management
Strayer University
Dr. George Gannage
- Create an environmental scan for the company indicating the most significant environmental threats and discuss how the company should respond to each threat to ensure that the impact to the business is minimal.
The environmental scan of Verizon Wireless reports the Company’s core values cited in the Annual Report 2012, Chart 1 (Verizon 2012).
Chart 1. Environmental Scan, Verizon Wireless (Verizon, 2012).
Six Sigma SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) assessment of the Verizon Wireless company situation captures the main market drivers, as well as external environmental forces influencing the profitability and sustainability of the organization into the near future, Chart 2.
Chart 2. SWOT analysis of the Verizon Wireless company situation (Verizon, 2012).
- Based on the environmental scan, evaluate the company?
Environmental scan of Verizon Wireless and its partner organization, wholly owned subsidiary, Vodafone indicates that the vast opportunity for profit in the wireless communications market will mean serious competition in this economy of scale. The joint-venture (JV) with Vodafone in 2000 led to expansion of Verizon’s interests to 30 countries, with growth oriented partnerships spanning 50 markets worldwide. Foreign direct investment (FDI) by Verizon is supported by strong investor confidence.
Stock performance remains vital for Verizon (VZ) with the technology sector leading trading results across the board. Verizon is a publically traded, global telecommunications infrastructure resource to the North American and foreign markets. The company also reports economic growth in the wireless retail service segment at 8.4%, resulting in a healthy 4.5% growth margin in operating revenue. External political and regulatory forces may pose threat; and this will be an ongoing challenge to the Verizon-Vodafone JV entry into new foreign markets.
Product performance is exceptional, with Verizon FIOS revenue reporting 17.2% growth in 2012. Verizon’s innovation focused R&D strategy sets the pace for the wireless connectivity service, cloud data center and mobile electronic product segments; offering investors substantial reason to participate in the company’s growth prospectus. Nevertheless, threats of product substitution top the list of near and future strategic priorities as Verizon strives to sustain competitive advantage as sector leader. Continuous product innovation, R&D and marketing investment, quality assurance and exceptional attention to customer service will be required for Verizon to maintain its position.
Verizon’s social responsibility is an essential element of company competitive strategy. The company’s social responsibility campaign is designed as stakeholder collaboration, including employee service to the community. The promotion of Verizon’s image through employee volunteerism is an admirable, yet potentially a weak area in terms of consistency in reputation beyond the tenure of employment.
Consistent with the wireless technology giant’s commitment to environmental regulation are Verizon’s SmartGrid infrastructure, uniting “producers and consumers of energy into a single, dynamic energy ecosystem”; and 116 ENERGYSTAR retail stores (Verizon, 2013). Manufacturing goals at Verizon are in compliance with federal and state carbon emissions reduction guidelines, as the company works toward creation of conflict metal free technological solutions to consumer products (Verizon, 2013). The company is dedicated in service to the community in social responsibility to environmental programs, and contributes volunteer time and resources to renewable energy production through collection of used electronics for recycling.
Conclusion
Recommendations drawn from the environmental scan include careful attention to customer service models of retention. The sector is plagued by poor customer service delivery and a high propensity of theft and other detriments. Consumer reporting on wireless telecommunications indicates a general trend in employee defraud of customers. Verizon wireless will sustain customer churn by staying ahead of competitors in full-service delivery, and especially in transaction management of client record.
References
Annual Report (2012). Verizon. Retrieved from: http://www22.verizon.com/investor/app_resources/interactiveannual/2012/index.html
Verizon (2013). Retrieved from: http://www.verizon.com
