The History of Sprint Nextel Corporation - Essay Example

Introduction Organization Sprint is a US telecommunications company and is a major global internet provider but also offers wireless services in America. The telecommunication company also offers other services like broadband, messaging, wireless voice though it does this through its other subsidiaries like Assurance Wireless, Boost Mobile and Virgin mobile. The company’s history began in 1899 when it was founded. During this time it was known as Brown Telephone Company. The company has undergone changes over the years. Leading up to 2013, the company merged with Nextel communication and changed its name to Sprint Nextel Corporation. Nextel was acquired by SoftBank and Sprint went back to trading as Sprint Corporation. Subsequently, the company bought ClearWire Corporation from SoftBank. Problem statement Sprint has come a long way from when its parent company was founded to its recent acquisition of CleraWire. Sprint needs to reorganize its resources and reclaim its place in the provision of wireless network in America. Project objectives Project objective are always put in place to help in answering research questions. Some of the objectives of the research project are; Find out if Sprint can increase its cellular activities and restructure itself to become the most profitable phone company in America. Find out if the company can use its latest acquisition ClearWire to help it increase its market share in cellular activities and profitability. Project results The project hopes to improve the penetration of Sprint cellular services in major cities in America and increase the company’s customer base in cellular subscriptions. Project content The project content will entail looking at the company’s position and examine how it can be used to the company’s advantage. Scope of project The proposed project will focus on the improvement of the company. It will also look at ways of improving the company’s cellular service and how to make the company focus on its core business of the provision of cellular services. Comparative Analysis Study Work breakdown structure The research study will be carried out in three sections. The first segment will be research one; secondary research while the second segment will be improvement processes and the third will be primary research. In the first segment; secondary research, the project will be mainly secondary research which will make use of secondary sources of information like books, journals, magazines, newspapers and online sources. It is vital that the sources of secondary data used in a research study be credible. Secondary research is significant because it gives the research an early insight into the research study and it also sets the pace of what is to be expected in primary research (Bernard, 122). It also helps the researcher to gauge the reliability and validity of primary data. In secondary research the database of possible locations will be focused on. One merit of secondary data is that it is easy to obtain and also costs less as compared to primary data. Another advantage of secondary data is that it provides the basis on which research questions, research problems and research objectives are formulated. After conducting secondary research, the results and recommendations will be presented to the executives of Sprint. Secondary research activities Indicator Activity Predecessors Duration (in days) 1A Secondary Research none 7 2B Analyze results A 14 3C Assemble database B 2 4D Deliver results C 7 The second part which is improvement activities, involves meeting company executives and presenting to them improvement proposals and other technical work recommendations. Activities for improvement processes Indicator Activity Predecessors Duration in days 5E Evaluate existing cell towers A 14 6F Evaluate resources from ClearWire A 14 7G Integrate existing cell towers from ClearWire E, F 240 8H Increase capacity of all cell towers E, F, G 120 9I Upgrade cell towers to 4G LTE speed H 180 10J Contact cellular companies that are in focus cities C, E 21 11K Meet with and negotiate with the companies J 60 12L Integrate the leased towers K 240 The final part of the breakdown structure will be primary research. Primary research is normally used in a research study to fill the gaps left by secondary data. It also aids in the answering of research questions and obtaining research objectives. Primary research can be conducted by use of interviews, questionnaires, unpublished manuscripts, field works and observations among others. In this research study, primary research will be conducted using questionnaires. Primary research is always referred to as Questionnaires will include a set of questions relating to the research project that will be given to respondents who will be expected to give their honest responses. Some of the questionnaires will be administered by the researcher while others will be self administered. In the case of self administered questionnaires, the questionnaires will be sent to the respondents via e-mail. The respondents will then answer them and mail them back to the researcher. In cases where the questionnaires will be administered by the researcher, the respondents will be asked questions directly by the researcher and respond to them. By using self administered questionnaires, the researcher will be able to save time that can be used in other demanding aspects of the project like data analysis. Before sending the questionnaires to the respondents, the researcher will have to seek their permission and only those who respond in writing will take part in the project. In instances where the questionnaire will be administered by the researcher, the respondents will be asked questions in a group or individually depending on their preferences. Their responses will then be noted and analysed later. One major disadvantage of using questionnaires in a research study is the time and cost implications that it has. The collection of primary data is time consuming because the questionnaires have to be designed, sent or administered to respondents. It also costs more as compared to secondary data which is just a click away. However a researcher can employ time and cost saving techniques like sending the questionnaires to the respondents which will save both time and money. Other cost and time saving techniques that can be employed are; use of fax, and telephones (Bernard, 137). If this is done, there will be ample time for data analysis. Data analysis will be carried out after receiving respondent responses and then the results of the analysis will be presented to the executives of Sprint together with recommendations. Activities for primary research Indicator Activity Predecessor Duration in days 13M Design questionnaire L 2 14N Distribute questionnaire M 5 15O Receive responses N 30 16P Analyze responses O 14 17Q Deliver results and recommendations Q 2 Sprint organizational matrix Sprint uses the Matrix Organizational structure. In a matrix organizational structure, there are multiple reporting lines and the flow of skills and information is encouraged. This kind of organizational structure has gained popularity in the past decade especially in America. It has been use by some of the large firms in America like General Electric, Citibank and Dow Chemical among others. Sprint also uses the matrix organizational structure which ensures that big projects are done effectively without having to remove employees from their responsibilities. In Sprint the President and CEO has ten managers who directly report to him. This kind of organizational structure makes the CEO accessible to everyone and eliminates organizational bureaucracies associated with other forms of organizational structures. Having been acquired by SoftBank, the company needs to reengineer itself to move from its position as the third most profitable phone company in America to the most profitable one in the country. PERT Analysis In PERT analysis, a project tasks are analysed depending on the time needed to complete each tasks in the project. Through this analysis, the time needed to complete the project is identified and the optimistic, pessimistic and expected estimates are obtained. PERT is instrumental to this project because it will enable the researcher to see the sequence with which the tasks are to be performed, how the tasks depend on each other for the successful completion of the project and how to reduce time wastage in the project. Critical Path Method (CPM) In critical path method activities are done chronologically and some activities cannot be started before others. CPM shows how the research will be conducted and the time duration in the secondary research, improvement activities and primary research. Indicator Activity Predecessor Duration in days 13M Design questionnaire L 2 14N Distribute questionnaire M 5 15O Receive responses N 30 16P Analyze responses O 14 17Q Deliver results and recommendations Q 2 Indicator Activity Predecessors Duration in days 5E Evaluate existing cell towers A 14 6F Evaluate resources from ClearWire A 14 7G Integrate existing cell towers from ClearWire E, F 240 8H Increase capacity of all cell towers E, F, G 120 9I Upgrade cell towers to 4G LTE speed H 180 10J Contact cellular companies that are in focus cities C, E 21 11K Meet with and negotiate with the companies J 60 12L Integrate the leased towers K 240 Indicator Activity Predecessor Duration in days 13M Design questionnaire L 2 14N Distribute questionnaire M 5 15O Receive responses N 30 16P Analyze responses O 14 17Q Deliver results and recommendations Q 2 Gantt chart A Gantt chart gives a graphical representation of the activities to be carried out in a research project. The grant chart is a diagrammatical representation of CPM. The Gantt chart in this project outlines the activities to be undertaken like secondary research, improvement activities and primary research. Works cited Bernard, Richard. Social research methods: qualitative and quantitative approaches. 2000. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Read More