Motorola Inc. - Research Paper Example

Of significance to the situation is considering the external opportunities and threats that Motorola Inc. has to take into account. Furthermore, Motorola Inc. also needs to be aware of its internal strengths and weaknesses. The SWOT analysis is a method that companies use to assess and analyze internal and external factors so that they can use them to make further judgments for the future. Internal and external factors are divided into a two by two matrix. The four quadrants are allocated to strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, hence the name SWOT.

When assessing the strengths, the company may look at numerous factors including the company’s capabilities unique selling point and competitive advantage, its knowledge and experience base, innovative aspects and price and quality etcetera. For Motorola Inc. its strengths include the fact that it has a lot of knowledge and experience in the field, having dominated it for such a long time. It is also in the process of innovating, to keep pace with the modern times and is investing heavily in WiMax technology.

The weakness part of this analysis usually includes aspects like disadvantages, gaps in capabilities and lack of competitive advantage, it also encompasses the company’s vulnerability and pressures and problems of reliability, predictability etcetera. Motorola Inc.’s weaknesses have cost the company dearly in terms of revenue, profits and market share. It has failed to keep its pace as fast as some of its competitors and has duly lost to them some of its market share and profit levels. Also, it has been having financial difficulty and hasn’t been able to streamline costs with a deflated economy and falling profits.

The opportunities quadrant includes aspects like market developments, technological innovation, new or niche markets, new USPs or tactics, product or brand development, investment in research and any other external factors that might positively affect the business. Opportunities for Motorola Inc. seem few in these economically and financially hard times. The market has developed into a much more technologically savvy one; Motorola Inc. has tried using this to its advantage by innovating using WiMax technology.

With the help of this, it will develop and restructure its products to streamline them with market demand while keeping costs low. Threats include aspects like, adverse political, legislative or environmental effects; it also includes factors like competitors’ competitiveness, market demand, economy, and etcetera. Threats that are causing the most damage to Motorola Inc. over the recent years include the condition of the economy for one. The economy has been in a slump, which means that peoples’ consumption has gone down; this has lead to a significant drop in the demand of mobile technology.

Consequently, this has caused Motorola Inc.’s profits to decrease and costs to increase, creating recent fiscal losses for the company. Moreover, competitors like Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Apple Inc. and RIM have really stepped up their game recently and in some cases found very profitable niche markets that they are quite comfortably exploiting. As a result they are enjoying a good profit level and growing market shares, even in these depressed economic conditions. Motorola Inc. is considering some strategic options to effectively combat the bad times.

Their main aim is to cut down the losses and return the firm to