The Strategy of Sticking to the Companies, Style, Trademark, Culture, and Innovations - Term Paper Example

?AT & T Case Study Section Strategy AT & T Wireless has been a major player in the techno-communications industry and has made a lot of great impacts in society since its inception. Agreeably, the company has achieved so much and can boast of shredding shoulders with all other companies when it comes to naming global techno-communication giants. Apart from the fast that the company has grown in financial wise and has been credited with a number of technologically based innovations and inventions, there still remains a lot more that the company can do to wind up its achievement. It was option said that the sky was the limit but today a lot more corporate gurus are beginning to realize that there is much space beyond the sky and so the limit could even be pegged above the sky. If this is the case, then a lot more can be targeted for AT&T to achieve as a global corporate figure. But for whatever goal or vision is set for the company, the goal cannot be achieved in the absence of a well caved business strategy. This is because it is these strategies that serve as roadmaps, yardsticks and radars for determining the policy direction to take into achieving the goals of the company (Kusi, 2007). Based on this assertion by Kusi (2007), The Plan Ware (2012) defines a business strategy as document or facility that “can provide the foundation and frame work for a business plan.” This means that before a strategy would be needful, there must be a business plan in place. With reference to AT & T Wireless, their business plan may be summed in their mission and vision statement, which is to become a leader in the provision of network of all wireless carriers. It is actually based on this business plan that a technology strategy has been highlighted below. Quoting directly from the AT&T Enterprise (2012), the most outlining strategy suggested for the company is the “Development of a gap analysis which addresses people, process, and technology considerations.” This means that there is an advocacy for the customer to strategically focus on customer needs and assistance whiles exploring ways of expanding their technological reach. This is a very comprehensive strategy that entails a number of fundamental models. First, the company must be in a position to appreciate the contribution of their customer as the most important stakeholders of the company. Second, the company must have a commitment to meeting customers at the point of their needs. Third, the company must be result oriented so as to be in a position to solve all technology based problems pointed out by customers. Finally, the company must seek of ways of expanding their systems and structure to cater for growing demand of support from their customers. It must be emphasized that this strategy is not a corporate social responsibility whereby the company is being asked to solve customers’ problems for free. Rather, it is customer-oriented strategy that indict upon the company to help the customer know that he or she has this problem and so needs this solution to the problem and that the company is in a position to offer the solution. In simple terms, the company should look out for problems to fix at a cost. This will create a win-win situation where by the customer would see the company as a ready-to-help mate and the company to will by this means be making her own profits. Section 2 - Core Competencies Given the strategy of the company as “development of a gap analysis which addresses people, process, and technology considerations”, there are a number of core competencies that can be built around the realization of this strategy. Because the strategy is more of reach out system of identifying the needs of people (customers) and applying the most appropriate technology based solutions to the problems, some of the core competences that can be outlined include beginner technology evaluation, corporate technology offer assistance and wireless security expertise. Each of these three core competences can briefly be highlighted as follows: Beginner technology evaluation: Here, the fundamental idea is to approach players and users in the technology world (especially those relating to the use of wireless internet) to find from them their basic problems as beginners so that the most appropriate solutions can be designed and meted out to them. AT & T Wireless should have the competence to do this because of the large human resource base it has to sufficiently match up the customer bas. Again, the company has a very huge database system that makes it possible to track new and existing customers. This means that the company can easily abreast itself with the level of familiarity of each customer. Indeed and without doubt, this core competence fulfils the part of the three test of core competence that states that the core competence must “provide potential access to a wide variety of markets” (Marketing Teacher, 2012). Corporate technology offer assistance: This core competence is similar to the first one. The only difference that this has from the first one is the fact that this one targets existing customers of the company who are already well established. The focus of the company in this case shall therefore be to opt themselves up to customers in suggesting ways of advancing in their already existing technology base. This shall therefore concern itself with improving and advancing existing technology. But as indicated in the strategy, it should be the company that reaches out to the customer to suggest these advancement changes. As a company, AT & T has the competence to do this because the company has over the years proven to be a powerhouse when it comes to issues of technological advancement, innovations and initiations. Clearly, this core competence would stafisfy the part of the three tests of core competence that states that the copre competence “should make a significant contribution to the perceived customer benefits of the end product” (Marketing Teacher, 2012). This is said against the backdrop that the company would be the one to approach the customer for a needed change. Wireless security expertise: This aspect of the core competence is highly technical and revolves around the fundamental operations of AT & T, which has to do with wireless operations. Though not clearly stated in the strategy that the company will be looking at becoming a master or leader in the wireless service, the wireless sector has remained the core operational stake of the company. this means that the as much as the company continues to provide customers with wireless services, the company should be ready and competent enough to secure the services of wireless internet networking given to customers. Today, internet security is of great concern and so the AT & T cannot lug behind in the quest to fight the menace. Without any doubt, AT & T with all its experience in wireless networking over the years can approach this core competence in a manner that “should be difficult for competitors to imitate” (Marketing Teacher, 2012). Section 3 Industry Dynamics Industry dynamics has to do with the day-to-day changes takes place in a given industry that are directed towards improving the performance of the industry, service to customers and industrial growth (Ocran, 2008). With reference to AT & T Wireless, the industry concerned may be identified as the techno-communication industry, which is mainly about the provision of internet service and telecommunication service. Without any doubt, this is one industry that records some of the world’s fastest changes as far as industrial trend is concerned. It is in line with these changes that the strategy suggested earlier was selected. Below are some trends in the industry and how they make the strategy justifiable. Over float of competitors: Without any doubt, the techno-communication industry is one that has some of the world’s fastest growing pace of competitors. This is to say that the number of new openings in the industry keeps increasing by the day. In basic economics principle, it is when there is more demand than supply that suppliers can be assured that their products and services are going to be patronized. Once the situation turns upside down and the supply rate exceeds the demand rate, suppliers have not other choice than to go after consumers. The implication of this concept to AT & T is that as there continues to be on over float of competitors, the company is forced to share the few consumers available with other service suppliers. To do this well, there is no other option than going after consumers. With the strategy in place, which is more of an outreach scheme of identifying market area, AT & T will be a better advantage of grabing majority of the few customers. This is because before other companies say Jack, AT & T will be with the customer already. Quest for advancement: Another important area of the techno-communication industry that cannot be over is the fact that end users who are the customers are always looking for change. The change that is sought after is not just any ordinary change but that which brings about advancement. For instance clients who may be very familiar with cable networking and actually implements this at the workplace soon begin looking for something more advancing and that is wireless networking. It is in the light of this that the strategy makes room for gap analysis to identify specific areas of the industry where there can be improvement in service. This indeed calls for innovative and creativity. As a company, AT & T cannot have any other choice than to heed to this pestering change. Customer consolidation: There also is the issue of customer consolidation. The fact is that due to system failures, technological insecurity and general hazards associated with techno-communication, customers or consumers always want to have one and only one source they can trust for all their supply of product and service. This means that it should not just be enough, having one or more customers to serve them in a day. If steps are not taken to consolidate the customer, he or she would do business with you today and not come back again. Happily, the strategy caters for this in the sense that as much as the company reaches out to customers, customers can develop trust for the company and take the all important decision of keeping them for life for al their techno-communication needs. Section 4 - Technology Sourcing and Internal Innovation The type of technology sourcing used – be it internal or external has a lot of influence on the innovative development of a company. This is a general truth and AT & T is no exception to the rule. In a comprehensive research carried out by Hou and Mohnen (2012), it was found that there could be a complementary relationship between external and internal sourcing and that each impacts greatly on product innovation. It was also however deduced that “while each contributes significantly to product innovation, there is no sign of synergy in raising productivity.” Well, this is a conclusion from the two authors. Basically, their conclusion will be used as a hypothesis to determine which form of technology sourcing would be most suitable for the internal innovative growth of AT & T. Before delving into the details of the forms of sourcing and which of them would work best for AT & T, it is important to understand the demand at hand for the company as far as sourcing is concerned. So far, it has been explained in the strategy that the company will be looking out for gaps in the techno-communication industry to fill up. This means that a lot of advancement in existing technologies will be done. Therefore, a lot of new machinery, equipment, software and hardware need to be sourced. Internal Research and Development or simply put internal sourcing is one form of sourcing available to AT & T. Here, the company would have to depend on its available human resource to design and invent all required equipment and software for the advancement agenda. Basically, this will awaken the innovative drive of personnel in place in the company. Thus, personnel in the company shall be called to task to come out with modern day inventions that meet the demands of customers. On the part of external technology sourcing, it would basically deal with the sourcing of products and equipment outside the confines of the company. The major advantage of this system of technology sourcing that the company would have is that it would pave way for them to satisfy the needs of customers who are of foreign origin. This is because Hou and Mohnen (2012) have observed that “technological capability is needed in order to understand the tacit components of foreign technology.” Looking at the history of AT & T it has very large market sizes that are spread all over the world. This means that once a while, it will be important to work with sourcing companies from outside the head quarters. Comparatively, if the company wants to take advantage of improving internal innovation then internal sourcing is the most prescribed form of sourcing. There is therefore a plan to achieve this and that to work with the principle of division of labor. Division of labor may sound as an old system of productivity but it can really be used to attain maximum results at AT & T. The plan is very simple, as the outreach team goes to investigate and find out from customers what their most immediate needs are as far as service and products to them are concerned, a comprehensive report should be reported to the technical team on the most occurring needs that require inventions and innovations. Also among the technical team who will be responsible for creating the needed equipment and software, a very careful strategy should be built to ensure that the right personnel are assigned to just a few task to undertake. This will make way for them to really master what they do. Occasionally, the platform should be created for them to enhance their knowledge from outside the country so that the demands of foreign customers will be equally met whiles holding on to internal sourcing. Section 5 - Product Development Strategy With the industry in question, which is the product development may come in three major forms. These are new product development, modification of existing products and product advancement development. Each of these is very important and goes a long to account for the overall growth of the company. With reference to new product development, this refers to designing of products and software that did not exist in the industry all together. This hardly happens of late; especially with the techno-communication industry as all major inventions such as phones and computers have already been invented. This does not mean however that there remains nothing more to invent under the new product development. As a matter of fact, even with existing inventions such as phones and computers, the company’s development strategy can go a long way to ensuring that specific devices, peripherals, components and accessories that are new to the industry but would collectively enhance the running of the company and industry in general are invented. As a specific strategic, it is suggested that the company embarks on intensive research that will be aimed at discovering new inventions that are peculiar to solving problems of the industry and working hard bringing these inventions into fruition. Modification of existing products is the next form of product development strategy that can take place in AT & T and this may of course be more common and readily available as compared to new product development. This point is made against the backdrop that modifications have to deal with existing technologies. The major aim of modification is purposely to rectify anomalies and correct mistakes. Most often than not, there are technologies that are invented and used in the system for a whole; only to be identified as having shortfalls in their functionalities or roles. In such cases, the internal technical theme of the company must be in a position to readily identify the anomalies and correct them. As far as the telecommunication industry is concerned, it is not common to identify such basic problems with regards to telephony services that customers receive. In some instances customers complain of receiving messages suggesting that a matter number they are trying to reach is switched off when the number is actually not switched off. This is just one out of several examples with malfunctioning with communication industry that are caused by software errors that need to be corrected. There is a final version of product advancement and this has a lot to do with the prevailing strategy suggested for AT & T. product advancement as a product development strategy is said to be extremely importantly to AT & T because the strategy outlined is basically to identify technology gaps and fill them. By gaps, reference is being made to technologies that do not match up to modern needs. This simply refers to advancement. Going into the history of the mobile phone, it could be seen that the very first type of phones were made with no color screens. By advancement in technology, the screen got color but there were no multimedia. With time, advancement started putting things like FM radio, music player, video player and today we have internet phones. Such is the advancement being suggested for AT & T – the ability to improve on an existing technology system. Clearly, this can be achieved if the company would take the strategy of reaching out to customers more seriously to brainstorm them on the kind of improvements they would most prefer. Section 6 Strategy to protect innovations Innovations and other intangible assets are very important property to protect. Most often, these are generalized and referred to as intellectual property. The connotation ‘intellectual’ is given to them because they generally compose of assets that are developed out of the intelligence and mental ingenuity of people. In the techno-communication industry were AT & T belongs, the protection of intellectual property has often being around the protection of innovations. This is because the innovative inventions of people in the industry basically serve as the major competitive advantage that players in the industry use over other people. It is in this direction that the Inno Support (2009) states that“effective Intellectual Property management enables companies to use their intellectual property assets to improve their competitiveness and strategic advantage.” Generally, abuse of the intellectual property right of AT & T and other players in the industry would revolve around the use of another person’s inventions, innovations and strategies without their confirmed approval. Avoiding basic innovation and intangible asset theft means putting one’s house in order to remain competitive. But how to achieve this or do this has always been the question. Well, the answer is in getting a comprehensive strategy that protects one’s property against abuse. The first approach is to be very economical with commercial or public outburst of core competitive strategies or innovations. By this, players in-house are advised against going public about basic innovative secrets that keep the company running. This is because even if larger firms and companies will not steal these ideas because when they do they will easily be caught, smaller and up coming organizations who are no where near the radar of the public and monitoring agencies may pick the innovations up and start working around them. Gradually, a situation of imitation becomes created and the company would start losing loyal clients because the clients would feel their guarantee to trust the quality of the products and services from the company has bee n compromised. There is also a general strategy of making very good use of existing laws and regulation on intellectual property. Clearly, these laws may protect AT & T from larger companies than from smaller companies. The basic requirement of the company would be to register all its innovations and brands so that any company or organization caught using them will be held accountable. To conclude, an unusual strategy of sticking to the companies, style, trademark, culture, innovations and strategies is suggested. This suggestion is made with the logical believe that it is only when the company sticks to these for very long times that they will become more fond with customers and the general public. Through this means, the public itself would be come a watchdog in the protection of these intellectual property. With time, a customer or clint would not need an expert to distinguish between an original AT & T product and service from a fake one because clients will be too fond with the original because of how long it has existed. In most cases at the early stages of companies changing their brands and identity, unscrupulous people take advantage to imitate because it often takes clients and the public very long to identify differences. AT & T should therefore keep up with its identity. REFERENCEL IST AT & T Enterprise (2012). Strategy and Roadmap. AT & T Consulting Services. retrieved February 19, 2012 from http://www.corp.att.com/consulting/convergence/strategy.html Hou J and Mohnen P (2012). Impact of technology sourcing strategies in Chinese firms. retrieved February 19, 2012 from http://unu.edu/articles/development-governance/impact-of-technology-sourcing-strategies-in-chinese-firms Inno Support (2009). How to protect innovations and intangible assets. Retrieved February 19, 2012 from http://www.innovation.lv/ino2/publications/leonardo_manual/en/www.innosupport.net/webhelp/wso/index.cfm@fuseactionlearnl_id3558pl_id3558.htm Kusi A. T. (2007). Corporate Strategic Plans for Modern Business. Print Well Publications: London Marketing Teacher (2012). Marketing and Core Competences. retrieved February 19, 2012 from http://marketingteacher.com/lesson-store/lesson-core-competences.html Ocran T. E (2008). The Basis of Industrial Growth. PrintMark Group Company Limited: Durban Plan Ware (2012). Introduction to strategic Planning. Retrieved February 19, 2012 from http://www.planware.org/strategicplan.htm Read More