The Strategic Positioning of Lenovo Laptops - Essay Example

The Strategic Positioning of Lenovo Laptops Table of Contents Introduction 4 Lenovo laptop strategic position 5 The Triangle Strategy 6 Total Customer Solution 6 System Lock-in 7 Best product 9 Porter’s Generic Strategies 9 Cost Leadership 10 Differentiation strategy 10 Focus or Niche strategy 11 Lenovo Strategic Group Mapping 12 The Strategy Clock: Bowman’s Competitive Strategy Options 12 PEST/PESTLE analysis 14 Political 14 Socio-cultural 15 Economical 15 Legal 16 Technological 16 Environmental 16 Porter’s 5 Forces Industry Analysis 18 Competitive Rivalry. (High) 19 Supplier Power. (Low) 19 Buyer Power. (High) 19 Threat of New Entrants. (Moderate 20 Threat of Substitution. (Low) 21 The Value addition to Lenovo Company Strategic Position 21 The Resource Audit 21 Lenovo Value Chain Analysis 22 Conclusion: The sustainability of Lenovo laptops strategic position 22 References List 24 Introduction Lenovo, a Beijing-based company –having the slogan "For those who do" – has inevitably shot to prominence when it accelerated into the global market with IBM's PC business in 2005. The idea that the ThinkPad, treasured of American business people, that would be made by the Chinese company resulted to uneasiness at first; the $1.75bn (£1.04bn) purchase had attracted extreme regulatory attention. Lenovo Group Ltd, the Chinese multinational computer technology company has its headquarters in Beijing, China and Morrisville, North Carolina, United States has hit market with very strong securing of market share that has to a greater extent resulted to wake up call upon other competitors in the industry. The stiff competition has been the basis of this research in ensuring how the organization strategically secure and maintain its market niche are relatively remain profitable and grows undisputedly (Xie & White, 2004: 196-203). The critical step in finding definition of the strategy of a business is the determination of its strategic positioning – the aspects of how it competes and in serving customers in the markets. At the core of strategic positioning is the customer attraction, the customers bonding, retention and satisfaction of the customers. The Delta Model helps in providing a roadmap for identifying and analysis of the optimal strategic positioning, from the perspective of achieving customer bonding, and thus provides the three strategic positions for reaching the company’s target objectives. In this research paper we will introduce these in the form of standalone options; in practice, the Lenovo Company having a more sophisticated strategy find it convenient to compete in all the three positions for effectiveness in serving its heterogeneous customer base. The core of this research paper is based on the Lenovo Company’s strategic positioning in critical view of the perspective of the competitor’s angle and its mechanisms of market securing from the analysis of the Bowman’s strategy clock. The external environmental aspects of the industry in which the Lenovo laptops operates is analyzed from the utilization of the Five Forces model of Porter and the Steeple table (Hitt et al., 2013: 154). The business atmosphere is occupied with competition and survival for the fitness is the key to prosperity in such a dynamic industry so that an organization adapts and formulate better service delivery strategies that would move the market for its success, lest risk being kicked out of the market.in due perspective of the dynamics in the global market the Lenovo Company is analyzed in the measures towards adding value to the Lenovo laptops strategic positioning in this report. This research paper further investigates on the resource audit in relation to value chain analysis in providing a detailed scrutiny of the provision of the Lenovo laptops to customers by created an added value to them, vis a vis the company’s ability to cut on its costs for the realization of optimal business standards (Liu, 2005). Lenovo laptop strategic position The Lenovo Company classic strategy frameworks give emphasis on the product’s orientation in place where the company is in competition with the rivals and the company with the best product becomes the winner. This is due to the mere fact the most crucial aspect of the business success is the ability to attract a large market share by the provision of highly standardized products. The Lenovo Company tends to commoditize customers through ensuring that it provides the standardized products by means of mass distribution channels that inhibit contact with end-customers. The connectivity and intimacy of a networked economy, however, provides opportunities which create long-term and constructive relationships with the customers that result to an unbreakable link that is known as the “customer bonding,” which is a mutually beneficial commitment based on transparency and trust. The achievement of bonding is done through the company’s promotion of investment in and around the Lenovo laptops by; first the complementors who constitute the firms delivering the laptops and service provision in view of enhancing or augmenting the company’s products, and secondly the customers in view of keeping the customers from walking away from the company since there is ability and provision to offer customized products (Liu, 2005). The company’s strategic positioning further into the investments into the lines of these “collateral” assets, from the aspect of the financial and even time, for instance learning how the products’ usage, incorporation of customer-specific data, integration of purchased add-ons, and finally customizing interfaces to the product. This strategy can result to increasing switching costs and strengthening of customer bonding. The Triangle Strategy This set of strategic positioning used by the Lenovo Company in securing the market share has three distinctive strategic options, which offer extremely varied approaches towards achieving customer loyalty. Total Customer Solution The Lenovo Company is determined to reducing the technical costs from the shoulders of the customers thereby increasing customers’ profits. The commensurate link between the value of money to the customer and the quality of product they purchase from the company is a strategic positioning aspect that is greatly given consideration by the company in the mission to enhance customers’ economics, thus leading to stronger bonding. Instead of commoditizing the customer the company strategically places itself in the line of seeking to understand the customer and allow them to improve customized value propositions for every individual thus creating bonding. Besides the company marketing and developing standardized they formulate measures to provide a portfolio of services and products that heighten the customers’ sense of creating their own economic value, usually through self-customization. They further instead of concentrating on their own chain of supply, they pursue an integrated chain of supply which links them with the basic suppliers and customers. System Lock-in This strategy is put to test by the company in enhancing the sales of the Lenovo laptops with view to augmenting relations across the business board. It involves competitor lock-in, complementor lock-in or the propriety standards. This strategy results into attracting, identification and nurturing of the complementors thereby increasing the value they offer –and in return hasten the customer bonding. The System Lock-In has a very broad scope; which includes the extended enterprise-the firm, its suppliers, customers and very importantly “complementors.” As the central focus is unto the customers, this strategic option is aimed at identifying, attracting, and nurturing of the complementors. This is fundamental in the line of exploiting effectively the rarely detected, identified and finally incorporates all the vital external players that can be categorized as complementors. The Lenovo Company achieves this System Lock-In strategy by instituting constrained or very unique distribution channels that ensures that it locks- out competitors or by developing an extensive set of complementors in support of the company’s laptops and lock-in its customers. Moreover, mass adoption of the laptops in itself considerably expands the value of the Lenovo laptops to the customers-by resulting to a self-reinforcing feedback loop. Best product The company ensures that the Lenovo laptops it provides are characterized with low cost and high degree of differentiation. Consequently, this results to offering of low prices and provision of products with unique features to the customers respectively. The products are standardized ad are unbundled with the focus of capturing huge market share and out-witting its competitors. The high technology engraved products are highly competitive in the market and customer connectivity and relationship with the company is advanced as these results to improved sales and consequently high revenue generation. This best product approach can result to price wars and thus convergence which is the worst of all business deals. It is noted that the Total Customer Solutions and the System Lock-In provide new mechanisms to competition that deviate significantly from the conventional way of “best product” strategic positioning, thereby results to increasing levels of customer bonding. Porter’s Generic Strategies The Michael Porter’s five-force analysis illustrates the strategy as taking measures that bring about defendable positions in the industry. In a general perspective the strategies are either offensive or defensive in accordance to competitive forces. Strategies that are defensive take the structure of the technology industry in question, and the position the Lenovo Company suits itself to match its weaknesses and strengths. On the other hand offensive strategies are structured to facilitate more than merely coping with each of the competitive forces by the company. The offensive strategies are designed to change the underlying cause of such competitive forces, consequently varying the competitive environment itself. The Lenovo Company evaluates comprehensively the various offensive and defensive strategies and identifies which best fit the situation in hand. Though, Porter gives three broad suggestion or the generic strategies for ensuring a defendable position in the market in the course of the long-run and outperforming competitors. Cost Leadership The Lenovo company laptops are relative charged lower to heighten the competitive edge of company products. The company executes cost leadership by having the lowest per-unit, which is an average cost in the industry relatively being lowest cost to that of its rivals. The company charges the lowest per-unit cost in the midst of its rival in an industry which is highly competitive, in which case making the returns or the profits to be low but nonetheless relatively higher than the returns of competitors. The cost of production for the Lenovo company products are highly optimized to the lowest incurring of production cost among a few rivals in which each firm enjoys high profits and pricing power. This cost reduction creates focus of the company’s strategy, thereby targeting a broad market. The competitive advantage is attained through driving down costs. The Lenovo strategize so effectively to always be the successful cost leader in the industry and formulate measures to ensure that it is unchallenged in the position. This is very vital in a market share where the customers are highly price sensitive. Differentiation strategy The differentiation strategy is one calling for the development in the product or service to provide unique attributes that are of great value to the customers. The customers identify the product as better and different from that of a rival firm. The value attached to the product a result of its uniqueness allows the firm to instill a premium price for it. The Lenovo laptops are differentiated from various angles based on their durability, image, after-sales, and quality among other features. There are varied approaches to differentiation: different design, number of peculiar features, brand image, new technology. When undertaking differentiation strategy the company can focus on two or more of the mentioned dimensions. The Lenovo Company undertakes proper research; possess flair, exclusivity which precludes low cost advantage and market share, product innovation instead of process innovation, applied R&D and a strong marketing basis in the course of facilitation of successful differentiation strategy. Product differentiation of the Lenovo laptops in the model aspects, for example the Lenovo Essential A10, Lenovo Thinkpad L series, Lenovo Ideapad B490, Lenovo B490 59381836 Notebook, Lenovo Ideapad FLEX, Lenovo A10 Android, Lenovo Yoga 11 among other models have insulated the company from competitive rivalry in ensuring brand loyalty, thereby lowering the price elasticity of demand in creating a sense of less sensitivity to the changes in the laptops’ price by the customers. The uniqueness of the laptops reduces substitutes and creates barriers leading to higher margins, which helps in reducing need of a low-cost advantage. Focus or Niche strategy This is a strategy in focus of a specific product segment, buyer group, or geographical market. This focus or niche strategy is instituted on giving service to a particular target (product, customer or location) very well. The Lenovo Company aims at the focus strategy in ensuring achievement of either a low cost advantage or differentiation in the specific part of the market, resulting to a defendable position within the particular part of the market. The company has given focus on the Lenovo Ideapad model has this laptop model has very unique peculiar features with fairly relative price across the different nations it is supplied (Abrahams, 2003). Lenovo Strategic Group Mapping The Strategy Clock: Bowman’s Competitive Strategy Options It’s another appropriate method to analyze a company’s competitive position with respect to the offerings of competitors. As in the case of Porter’s Generic Strategies, Bowman deliberates on competitive advantage relative to cost advantage or the differentiation advantage. The core strategic options are as listed below. Option 2 – low price/low added value likely to be in the line of segment specific. Option 2 – low price the risk of price war among firms and low margins, the company needs to be a ‘cost leader’. Option 3 – hybrid low cost base on production activities and reinvestment in low price and also in differentiation. Option 4 – differentiation (a)without a price premium: perceived added value to the user, yielding the market share benefits. (b)with a price premium: perceived added value sufficient in bearing price premium. Option 5 – focused differentiation perceived added value to a ‘particular segment’ warranting a premium price. Option 6 – increased price/standard higher margins in a case where competitors do not value follow there is risk of losing market share. Option 7 – increased price/low values only feasible in the case of a monopoly situation. Option eight – low value/standard price Results to loss of market share. PEST/PESTLE analysis This sub-section deploys a PEST/PESTLE analysis to examine Lenovo’s business environment, and emphasizes on the important drivers for adjustment. The PEST/PESTLE analysis sub-divides all probable external forces to arrive at six distinct classifications: Political, Social-cultural, Economical, Legal, Technological and Environmental aspects. This comprehensive and simple analysis will enable Lenovo to focus, anticipate dangers and to out-compete competitors on opportunities (Kachru, 2005: 84-85) Political Lenovo as a company may not be in a position to control the governments and that means they have to rely on established and fair system of governance. Conducting business in certain nations pose serious threats especially when there is political unrest coupled with new political policies aimed at giving aid to economically developing governments. Lenovo again has to adhere to existing taxation laws set up by the governments. All these require that Lenovo must constantly monitor such nations and be in a position to adapt quickly to salvage revenue, and reduce costs. Socio-cultural Globalization is a major factor with regards to bringing the best individual experience to all globally with the amazing hardware, software and internet offerings. Online and mobile business is bigger than ever and with the younger generation constantly demands products for social networking. The Social media trends on the other hand is a major target for businesses and marketers and more and more societies prefer to purchase products from mobile devices and to conduct research. All these increasing demands for mobile devices in the businesses world is becoming a market for Lenovo’s mobile products and high tech(Tan & Theodorou, 2009). Economical The ever rising prices/lowering of prices, the rising concern over emerging economies, the recent worldwide economic recession, the phenomenon of Crowd-funding helping small business acquire speed exponentially and the fact that technology is crossing boarders and generating opportunities for economies and businesses to take advantage, obviously impacts on the profit Lenovo is able to make on its products. Lenovo as a company must therefore be extremely cautious not to rely heavily on the developing nations, which many economists predicts to be worse. Moreover, young companies with noble ideas can also threaten Lenovo and its market share because thousands of different market opportunities are available for every new technology. Legal Patents, Safety and health and trading policies, are just some of the legal issues Lenovo has faced and will continue to face. Rival tech companies normally deploy patent litigation as a basic strategic competitive tactics (Reinders, 2013: 332). Lenovo must therefore be prepared for court battles and the incredibly high legal costs over patents The Company must continue to change its policies in accordance to the latest established laws. Technological Since Lenovo are Technology Company, it’s obvious that technology has been a major and key driving factor. Research and Design demands are ever increasing with product shelf life staggering due to the rapid worldwide technology race. Boundaries between technology and business are become more unclear, as companies try to adopt more advanced-tech solutions. Consumers are never satisfied with their smartphones, and therefore constantly demand for mobility and more versatility. With developing technology, efficient and effective inventory management system coupled with advanced research and design modifications is an essential tool to maintaining competitive advantage. Lenovo’s engineers and marketers must constantly come up with products, systems and solutions meant for the business market and keep them different from competitors. Environmental Many firms globally are facing Social awareness pressures causing them to implement environmentally and socially responsible practices. Water shortages, the depletion of the natural resources and the ever high cost of energy have become a widespread worldwide issue. Lenovo must focus on the amount of pollution being created by their machines, packaging recycling, and power consumption and destruction level of their electronics. Lenovo must remain socially responsible, no matter the costs and/or risk resentment involved. The Company must jointly or independently fight to conserve fresh water and continue implementing company water saving goals which all together comes at a cost. The PEST/PESTLE analysis delivers a clear snapshot of the overall business environment, with some factors more impacting on Lenovo than others. It is therefore evident that the key drivers for change for Lenovo are socially and technologically related; however it is worth noting that the legal and economical aspects should not be over looked. Below are key Drivers for Change (Slamanig, 2012: 77). Businesses Going Social – Businesses must adopt high-tech savvy solutions for all undertakings from social marketing promotions to complex mechanical supply chain management. Global trends 2014 indicate that a massive 87% Fortune for 100 companies’ presence are on social networking site. Research and Design and Product Shelf Life– Advanced technology rapidly renders older devices outdated as consumers continually demand for mobility and versatility. Smartphones is the world and vice versa. With the high costs Research and Design aside, Lenovo must progressively restructure its logistics systems and inventory management in order to remain competitive. This they can achieve by constantly standardizing their processes and listening to their customers’ needs and demands (Tan, 2009). Shrewd Mobility Transforming our world – Internet access has become the global main source of information and socialization making products that are internet enabled to tremendously rise in demand (Cadle, 2005). Facts suggest that more people now use smartphone as opposed to computers to surf the web. In fact, Facebook reports indicate that more users log in on mobile devices than PC’s. Technology Crossing Boarders – Technologies are now interlocking, economies, geographies, products and industries. Smart mobile devices continue to gain acceptance globally and therefore, companies will begin looking for other markets in search of new ventures such as mobile banking and commerce systems. The End of Mortar and Brick – The unbelievable phenomenon that is mobile banking and commerce, is gaining use by the day. Smartphones are nowadays used by consumers for various applications from banking to conducting purchases. Global trends 2014 predict mobile banking to hit $3.2 trillion in U.S A by the year 2017. Porter’s 5 Forces Industry Analysis From the PEST/PESTLE analysis above, the Porter’s 5 Forces analysis offers a more refined emphasis at the smartphone industry itself. This model describes the 5 major competitive forces: Competitive Rivals, Bargaining Power of Buyers and that of Suppliers, Threat of New Entrants and that of Substitute Products (Mcivor, 2005: 213-216). Lenovo together with other smartphone manufacturers employs this analysis to formulate strategies aimed at countering these barriers. Competitive Rivalry. (High) Competitors – At the moment, Samsung presently holds the topmost global market share at 32% in 2013, Apple at around 14%. However, numerous smartphone manufacturers from all over the world are slowly gaining ground. Lenovo, HTC, LG, and Huawei now combine at 14%. Industry Growth Rate – Experts predicts smartphone prices and margins to greatly reduce as more players gain ground into the market share, although the same industry will soon begin to slow down warns experts. Supplier Power. (Low) Bargaining Power of Suppliers – For Lenovo, the suppliers bargaining power is actually low, because Lenovo manufactures most of its own components itself. Unlike Apple, Lenovo produces its own hardware components, displays, chips, and flash memory for most of its products. This allows Lenovo to easily manipulates and bring products to the market very fast. Buyer Power. (High) Buyer Volume – Currently smartphone users stands at 1.2 Billion. This number is projected to be at 1.8 billion 2015. Bargaining Power of Buyers - A world of information is in the hands of consumer because of technology and globalization. As mentioned, consumers can compare every detail of every phone from anyplace they so wish and that means buyers have very great power in the smartphone market (Lele, 1992). Threat of New Entrants. (Moderate) Barriers to Entry – This section receives a moderate score because barriers to entry vary depending on the “new entrant”. The barriers are very high for a new company starting from scratch based on classical sense. Economies of Scale. The concentration of the industry globally is extremely high, and dominated mostly by Apple and Samsung. Gaining economies of scale is therefore the greatest problem based on the fact that this requires astronomical capital which the industry controllers thrive off of. Intellectual Property. Pieces of a smartphone are patented with the patents held by the market controllers creating barriers to entry. With the limited resources, any new firm trying to get hold of the market must be ready to counter the very expensive patent litigation regularly. Brand Loyalty. The brand loyalty for Apples is viewed as barriers in themselves to entry for upcoming firms, even though this is not the situation with every manufacturer (Hamm, 2005: 267). Joint Venture/Crossovers –The threat for new entrants is low for new firms, however, Apple computers as an example in 2007, invented the iPhone that completely redefined the smartphone and its production. Today, every company has thrown its weight in the production of the smartphone based on the revenue results; however, the Windows phone is also making inroads into the market. Threat of Substitution. (Low) Other Devices – As mentioned in the PEST/PESTLE analysis, technology is rapidly transforming and every manufacturer is continually offering substitutes to the Smartphone line. Looking then at Lenovo alone, we are able to note the astronomical threat of a substitute devices. However, industry is wise enough and is convinced that the threat of other products substituting the smartphone is certainly low (Hamm, 2005: 273). Some predicting the eventual replacement of the smartphones by the Tablet, however as tablets get smaller and smartphones get bigger, the boundary between smartphone and tablet begins to fade. The Value addition to Lenovo Company Strategic Position The Resource Audit The Lenovo Company positions itself in the industry by acknowledging its capacity of resource and competencies. The Lenovo Company reserves this information on the basis formulating a mechanism to designing a strategy that works best for it putting into place what it can do better in comparison to its competitors. Physical The company’s total inventory is £ 29.1 trillion Financial Net income 2013, £ 33.7 trillion 2013 cash and cash equivalents of £30.1 Human The company has approximately 78,000 research and development personnel Number of employees in Asia by 2013 are 122,001 Lenovo Value Chain Analysis Infrastructure The Board of Directors is tasked with the technical aspects of the company’s operation. This entails the delegation of duties and sourcing of relevant expertise towards the running of crucial areas of the company The advanced information technology adoption to facilitate the progress of the company. Technological Development An annual amount of £5 billion is specifically allocated to the R&D purpose with a workforce of about 29%. The technological advancement of the company is due to the reliable having a resilient capability to identifying and practicing for the better progress of the company. Primary activities Inbound Logistics Operations Outbound Logistics Marketing & sales Service The Lenovo Company has structurally put mechanisms in ensuring that it captures the local and international market globally, through creating of logistic companies in its subsidiaries. The Lenovo eradicates the risk of products counterfeiting internally by ensuring that it produces every crucial part of their electronics within its premises. The Lenovo distribution centres in the overseas markets are the centre of logistics for making sales and payment deliveries. The outlets also form the core of the global supply chain. Recognition of dynamism within the overseas market has been the challenging factor for the strategic positioning of the various global regional headquarters. The headquarters holds an average of an annual £ 120,000 million to facilitate marketing and sales. The advancement in technology has made the provision of services to be timely and easily facilitated. The Lenovo company website has been the central point of online operations between the company and the customers. Conclusion: The sustainability of Lenovo laptops strategic position This research report has comprehensively given an analysis of the Lenovo Company’s up-date strategic position (Shimizu, 2006: 312). This has been in light of the business environment in which the company has to find its market niche and thrive to success. It is noted that the business environment is extremely competitive and survival for the fittest is the key to lock-in customers for loyalty and lock-out competitors. The laptops company being an industry which is dynamic and continuously advance in every aspect and in every ticking time. The differentiation of the Lenovo laptops is a strategic positioning which is highly capitalized by the company to bring on board the models that best meet the consumers’ expectations and are relatively affordable across the economy of the nation in question. 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