Intels Strategy on DRAMs and Business Decline - Essay Example

Innovation CASE What was Intel’s strategy on DRAMs and why the business declined? Innovation is the idea of coming up with new things, new market sources, raw materials, production methods, organizational methods, as well as new and unique communication methods. Intel’s idea of the venturing into the DRAMs in the processors market was in the quest to serve the increasing demand for the processors. This motivated the company to introduce the manufacture of the processors. The adequacy of the market demand was the motivating factor for the company to venture into the business. The leadership of the company eyed for the availability of the resources needed in the manufacture of the DRAMs. Japanese venture strategy However, with the increased information technology, there emerged rivals into the DRAMs market that started to compete with Intel Company such as Japan. This brought about the decrease in the company’s sales as there were different choices of products where the customers would choose from (Aid, 2012). This resulted in a loss for the company’s accounts as it had ventured a lot of funds into the DRAMs project. Some of the companies had a much more advanced technology in the manufacturing of DRAMs such as the ones that were used by the Japanese. The Japanese had links with the various raw materials, as well as labor suppliers. Skilled labor was readily available for the Japanese thus making great inventions into the DRAMs market. Through the availability of effective machinery in the Japanese’s industries, they were able to effectively assemble DRAMs that were of a higher quality compared to the ones that Intel was assembling. However, some companies such as Nikon helped in the advancement of the DRAMs thus beating Intel Company out of the market. Financial institutions in Japanese provided low interest charges on loans to the investors. This lead to the motivation of the entrepreneurs who had an eye in the assembling of the DRAMs thus resulting in increased variety of the products. Technological complexity With the continuously improving technology, the firms with the adequate and modernized machinery were the only ones that had a competitive advantage in the DRAMs market. This resulted to the decline of most of the firms that were technologically poor as their products did not meet the expectations of the clients (Aid, 2012). What did Intel do differently to make its EPROM program a success? The company’s success can be attributed to its uniqueness in the undertakings in the micro-processor market. The company was strategically positioned in regard to successfully having an exploration of the microprocessor venture through technological designs. This favored the markets of the processors thus marking the Intel’s venture a success. This was facilitated by the fact that after the loss of the DRAMs market, the company did not hesitate to venture into processors thus gaining an absolute market. What strategy did Intel use to gain a competitive advantage in microprocessors? Through the creation of its value, the company continued to have a standard value of its undertaking that made it win the contract from the IBM for the installation of its microprocessor in their PCs. This made Intel rise again. However, by enforcing the company’s Proprietary standard the company was able to reduce the licenses from 12 to 4 thus maximizing profits. This way, the company has gained loyalty of the big companies thus obtaining their contracts such as IBM and Compaq. The company had also started the move to fight the rampant cases of imitation of its products. This way, the company had been able to retain its rights over its products thus increasing its profits. Threats that Intel has faced to its microprocessor dominance In the microprocessor venture, the company had been faced with numerous threats in the dominance of the assembling of the processors. Among them are that the processors are easier to imitate due to the increased market size thus producing cheaper processors (Aid, 2012). Difficulties in patenting the processors, little opportunities of Proprietary standard were resolved by the company’s move in enforcing the Proprietary standard. The threat of the company’s bargaining power of the Microsoft Company was resolved through the company’s partnership with apple in 2006. The company has been accused on several occasions by the FTC due to the company’s move to replace the chips. The recalling of the Pentium processor is another threat that faced the company that made the company replace all the processors. Lessons about business strategy and market dynamics For a company to dominate there must be market saturation of its products to enhance the readily available markets as Intel’s move in the PC growth was facilitated. Being responsive to the increasing demands of the products also plays a big role in ensuring that a company is successful. Protection of the company’s technological advancements would help in retaining the company’s competitive advantage in the market. Through the advancements in technology having differentiated products would help in sustainability of the company amidst market forces. CASE#2 FedEx uses of technology to improve its competitive market FedEx Corporation is an express delivery company that offers transport services to the clients. The company ventured into delivery sector with an aim of providing global networking all over the world. The company aims at shaping the change globally rather than just preparing for the change. The Federal Express company has been in the front line of offering prompt delivery in ensuring that we are all connected with one other in the new era of Network Economy. This greatly improves the express delivery of the company as they have been been improving their services technologically. The Federal Express company formed a supply chain that enhances the effective undertakings of the company’s services to the wider and needy community (Gilbert, 2012). This is enhanced by the facts that, in 1973, the company transformed itself from an express company to a global logistics company serving the clients on a global basis. This increased the services offered by the company and it ventured heavily into IT systems. This way, the company was able to launch the internet in 1994 thus enhancing effective services delivery to its customers. Effectiveness of the company since 1996 in building its e-business capability After the launch of the internet, through the continued technological advancement, the company built up a technical architecture that was very powerful in pioneering the internet commerce for effective customer satisfaction. The main trends that can be attributed to the growth of the FedEx Corporation are; application of new technology, globalization of the business and the advancements in the information technology (IT) to promote the efficiency of the processes. This way, the company has been able to effectively respond the changing demands in the market (Gilbert, 2012). As the company expands beyond the boundaries, new and cheaper resources and markets are imminent, and the movements of goods and services create demand for transport. IT advancements have promoted the globalization of commerce thus increasing the ability to interchange information between different departments within the company. How has IT changed the definition of “logistics” over the last 25 years, judging by the services FedEx now offers its customers? Over the last 25 years the company has been in the line of express delivery of services to its customers. Through the extensive innovations, the company has been able increase the sufficiency of its services thus enhancing the sustainability of its clients. In the idea of Smith in acquiring own fleet for their transportation would help the company have a competitive advantage. The company continued to acquire more tracks and planes that made the company the first Company in US to reach US$1 billion mark of their revenues. The building of company’s warehouses where customers were to call for the dispatch, ordering and the delivery of the orders instantly was a great move. This was due to the increased technological advancements that made the company have easier and much accessible ways for their customers. The government move to permit the landing of the large freights reduced the operation costs of the company. Also, allowing of FedEx to have a regional truck system led a sign8ficant decrease in costs. What is a “virtual supply chain” and what capabilities and its prerequisites A virtual supply chains involves the collaboration of parties to form a basis in which they offer a cloud of products to the clients. They form an evitable concept that helps in profit maximization, and in the reduction of costs incurred in the production process. Collaboration is the most effective way through which companies can thrive in all their innovation. As a result of the emergence of e-commerce and advancements in technology, various distribution methods have emerged in facilitating easier service delivery to the customers. A supply chain has been set to effectively facilitate reaching out to the various geographical regions in the express delivery of the customers’ parcels. Technological advancements that lead to the deregulation of trade in the Asian Pacific had an impact in promoting the availability of new markets for the company. The system of the company’s computer system known as the customer, operations, service master on-line system (COSMOS) maintained the handling of all the tracks by the company. Bar codes were placed in each parcel thus enhancing the privacy of the transported goods. The electronic data interchange emerged and the companies were permitted to have a producer-customer relationship through the internet. This minimized the wastage of the products in their supply as there would be movement of adequate products and services with respect to their demand (Birla, 2005). The company’s ability to allocate the information and interrelate to all the parties involved in the chain of supply was the main focus of the company. FedEx launched a packaging service where the customers would receive queries of the status of their package information for up to a maximum of 25 consignments instantaneously (Gilbert, 2012). The service also enabled some customers to access the information through their native languages, among them being the Japanese, Germans, Italians, Portuguese and the French through a company’s portal, fedex.com. Pressure on FedEx to consolidate its operations in January, 2000 and the lessons learnt for business continuity through business innovation FedEx performance Through the company’s introduction of the residential services on parcels delivery on low-costs, the FedEx Home Delivery was to be launched in the US. This was directed to facilitate service delivery to the organization’s customers to their pleasure in order to enhance their satisfaction. This greatly influenced the merging of two operations; caliber logistics and FLEC into one logistic group the FedEx Logistics. Competition Through increased competition from the rival groups, there was need to consolidate the company in order to attain a greater competitive advantage over the rivals. As the two groups seemed to merge in their operations, they joined to form one company that would cater for the overall extensive number of customers (Birla, 2005). FedEx Logistics was responsible for bringing together all the operations that had sprouted from the subsidiary companies. Internet marketing As customer could access the company services online, the size of the company was now of no much significant to the clients preference. This made the company to consolidate most of its operations in the move to reduce the operating costs. From the company’s operations, there are strategic tactics that can be applied in other organizations thus leading to successful ventures. The methodologies include team work. Team work among the company subsidiaries and the employees plays a great role in the success of any business. Secondly, having a strategic plan for the business; this helps in planning for all the company’s goals and how to achieve them. An organized mode of governance is a key factor in the success of any business venture; this facilitates an effective ruling and administration of the business. Innovation is the tendency of developing new ideas, this would help in coming up with new means of performing duties within an organization, as well as improving the methodologies in use. CASE#3 Why did Medtronic nearly lose its position as market leader? Medtronic Company is a pacemaker company. According to a research done, the decisions that the leaders made were just the minor decisions, as the major decisions were made by the functional managers and the project managers. This resulted in lack of strategic decisions leading to wrangles in the leadership of the company. This made the company nearly lose its position as the leading pacemaker. Lack of innovation in the company was another factor that nearly brought Medtronic down, reflected from the general manager Mike Stevens; those involved with its development would say that they didn’t get anything to market as the market strategy kept on fluctuating with time. This would subsequently reduce the company’s sales at a great margin. As a result of different customers, there was need for differentiated pacemakers to cater for their different demands. Since the managers frequently had wrangles among themselves on the ideas of having numerous varieties of pacemakers, there was poor planning of the company thus almost dragging it down. Improvements made In 1972, the company introduced the programmable pacemaker that would serve the purpose in an effective way. Following this, there was the introduction of the dual chamber peacemaker in the enhancement of the service delivery to the clients (Pace, 2007). This was as a result of the company’s increased innovations. In early the 1980s, Ken Anderson came with an idea of making a pacemaker that was responsive to the changes in the body by detecting when the heart required to beat slower or faster and it responded by stimulating the heartbeats respectively. The pacemakers were tested and the patients reported on the effectiveness of the pacemakers. The concepts of “product line architecture” and the “train schedule” Product line architecture is an approach applied in the idea to improve the company’s efficiency in development systems. This is in the ease to facilitate large-scale reuse of materials. It’s in the idea to provide infrastructural reuse in deriving members in a product line. They enhanced the efficiency of the operations within the company thus enhancing effective pace making. This had been in the front line in facilitating the success of the company in pace makers as they were able to mobilize their infrastructure and effectively utilize them to promote developments (Pederson, 2007). Under the train schedule concept, the continuous production of the pacemakers within the company in order to maintain the rapidly increasing demands of the pacemakers. Through such concepts, the company has been able to serve its customers adequately without depletion of the products they require. This brings the sustainability of the customers as they are always sure of products availability in the company. The threats faced the Medtronic pacemaker business unit in 1996 By 1996, many firms had ventured into the industry of pacemakers but only few had been able sustain their undertakings from the extensively increased completion. As some had a strong financial background, they posed a great threat to the Medtronic pacemaker business thus affecting its effectiveness in its service delivery (Pace, 2007). This resulted to the company’s economic disequilibrium thus affecting its operations. Sustainability of the company’s profile would help in retaining the company’s dominance, as well the continued improvements As the company emerged to be among the biggest pacemaker companies, it had to work closely with its clients in order to ensure that there was satisfaction of customers which seemed to be a big challenge to the company (Pederson, 2007). Also, in venturing abroad, the company had to use its profits in order to extend its services; this would require a lot thus posing a great challenge to the finances of the company. Proper planning for the venture would be applied and have strategic plans that are both short and term based. Lessons learnt from Medtronic’s approach to new product development Through the company’s approach to new products, certain concepts can be borrowed to help in the advancement of other companies. The idea of pluralism in the innovation has been applied in the company thus facilitating the growth and development of new products. Risk taking is also a key value for the company. Risk taking opens up opportunities that the company can venture, resulting in its growth and success. Having strategic decisions made through a hierarchy also helps in making quality decisions. CASE#4 Was the founding of Polycom a good example of blue ocean strategy? Why? Polycom is a visual related company that specializes in video conferencing. The founding of the company was a real blue ocean strategy as there are not vigorous competitors in the field thus making the video conferencing field with less or almost no competition. In the venture of the business, there weren’t any competitors in that business category. The company did not face any completion challenge during its introduction into the market. This was the factor that propelled its intensive growth and development. The company did not gain any profits from the completion because of lack competitors but rather from the services provided to its clients. The company pulled into the conferencing market new customers that did not exist in any other industry. The company also created new ventures benefits such as markets, innovation, and intuitive control of its leadership and monitoring of its undertakings (Kim& Mauborgne, 2005). Through the phase of innovation, the company has really improved in its operations thus possessing originality of methodologies in its venture field. Most important aspects of Polycom’s culture Polycom Singapore has an effective strategy of its work life in the enhancements of its undertakings to meet the customer expectations, as well as those of its employees. The employees are given the freedom to choose where and when they will work in order to achieve their objectives (Kim & Mauborgne, 2005). This also facilitates the sustainability of employee’s responsibilities, as well as their personal interests, rather than just facilitating the achievement of the company’s objectives. Loyalty among employees is enhanced to promote the customer satisfaction as well as achieving their expectations from the company’s services. At polycom, servicing clients has become more difficult as clients are opting for the cheap elucidations, as well as much contact with the merchants. The technology has also been changing in order to keep up with the pace of the altering desires in the market. From teleconferencing meeting rooms, they have upgraded to video conferencing to enable people have face-to-face interaction. What elements of their culture imposed some constraints and the cultural issues on the acquiring of viaVideo? ThePolycom Singapore’s managerial team had a strong base that would maintain the leadership of thecompany by ensuring that strategic decisions are made, as well as making of quality decisions. The management had certain criteria that were enhanced to ensure that the company’s flex culture continued for a long term basis (Minessale & Schreiber, 2010). The company’s motive to employ qualified and talented personnel makes them fit for the posts thus an effective undertaking of duties in the current company’s culture. In utilizing the flex cultural practices, the potential hires did not necessarily have be experienced but rather they possessed the crucial abilities such as accountability, collaborative nature, ethical codes, and flexibility while relating with others. Use of flexible tailored concepts and talents is the management’s motive to promote an effective performance of their duties. Interns in Polycom Singapore are treated in unconventional model; those interns from large institution served a one year internship compared to those from small institutions whose serve the usual 10 weeks internship in the company being their internship standard period. After the 10 weeks period in the internship, the interns are later provided with equipment and they start to have part-time duties without terminating their education (Kim& Mauborgne, 2005). This way, the interns are exposed to great working experience where they gain their working experiences from the different departments they are allocated. Henceforth, the company ends up getting high caliber employees. Why has Polycom been effective in its acquisition strategy? What has it done well? The move by Polycom Singapore to acquire the company was greatly influenced by the managerial team that highly conducts its ruling in a much higher routine that ensures a business success from the quality decisions made. As the management’s identifies the employees’ potentials with regard to their performances in the business operations, they are able to make rulings that both facilitate and motivate the success of the business. With company’s move to acquire ViaVideo in Austin, this was due to the fact that the management team had eyed for the available chance in promoting the growth of the company despite the acquisition of the Via Video Company. Moreover, Polycom Singapore had a well-established baseline for its clients thus having the confident of customer availability even after the acquisition (Minessale & Schreiber, 2010). This greatly increased the volume of services offered to the clients thus ensuring total satisfaction of the customers which in return earned their loyalty towards the Polycom Company. Lessons learnt from Polycom Interacting with local community helps the company staffs in getting to know those in the local area in all perceptions. These calls for ethical practice thus making the staff calm, a mediator or rather a translator may be used to make the local community understand the motives of the company. Through such initiative the inter relations between the community and the company staff can be increased by the continuous interactions. Having a clear policy of that guides the employer-employee relationship is essential in enhancing effective undertaking of duties by the employees to facilitate quality decision making. References Aid, M. M. (2012). Intel wars: the secret history of the fight against terror. New York: Bloomsbury Press. Barnitt, R. (2011). FedEx Express gasoline hybrid electric delivery truck evaluation 12-month report. Golden, CO: National Renewable Energy Laboratory ;. Birla, M. (2005). FedEx delivers: how the worlds leading shipping company keeps innovating and outperforming the competition. Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons. First record of single event upset on the ground, Cray-1 computer memory at Los Alamos in 1976. (2010). Washington, D.C.: United States. Dept. of Energy. Gilbert, S. (2012). The story of FedEx. Mankato, MN: Creative Education. Kim, W. C., & Mauborgne, R. (2005). Blue ocean strategy: how to create uncontested market space and make the competition irrelevant. Boston, Mass.: Harvard Business School Press. Minessale, A., & Schreiber, D. (2010). FreeSWITCH 1.0.6. Birmingham: Packt Pub.. Pace, K. L. (2007). Cult fiction: art and comics. London, UK: Hayward Publishing ;. Pederson, J. P. (2007). International directory of company histories. Chicago: St. James Press. Read More