Lego Group

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Qb

Opportunities and threats are the external factors in SWOT.

Opportunities:

- smartphone apps and technology are quickly on the rise, like GPS and Credit Card system.

- Increasing internet penetration & smart phone users.

- target market has an increasing amount of disposable income. Uber targets, young to middle aged professionals, later generations have placed great value in education and earning a higher salary.

- Uber is one of the first on demand car services provided through a smartphone so the ever-increasing numbers of smartphone users is huge to Uber and the company’s success.

- Customers are often dissatisfied with traditional cab companies because of high prices and long waiting time.

- Many people have their own car and want to have extra income.

- Rise in number of Uber drivers will reduce the Estimated Time of Arrival.

- The licensing system limits the supply of taxicabs. Regulators have long required that taxicab available to be hailed on the street be licensed.

Threats

- Regulatory limitations. Some new legal regulations in countries like Germany will ban Uber from operating. Problems with local authorities can lead to fines.

- Uber is being cited as an “unlicensed” taxi service and receives much criticism for the companies uncertified drivers.

- Rising competition. Other company or brands who have a similar service (use a smartphone app to facilitate matching drivers and customers), The idea on which Uber was built, despite its innovative design, can be easily copied. e.g. Lyft or Sidecar.

- Relationship between the company and drivers, as well as between the company and clients is relatively weak and can be easily replaced by the competition.

- Customer loyalty is low.

- Uber must find the perfect number of drivers in the streets. Uber needs to be careful of how their company might be viewed to consumers during times of bad publicity caused by competitors

- Need to balance the income and keep drivers happy. Taking more from drivers will increase Uber’s net revenue, but it will anger the drivers highly.

- There are lots of competitors using similar technology in different countries. Those domestic competitors become serious barriers for Uber in developing its international business.

- Claims of credit fraud and taking information from mobile credit systems when paying at the end of the consumer’s ride.

- Increasing competition will ultimately decrease prices.

- Self-driving cars, e.g. Google Cars, will eliminate the need for Uber.

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Question 2 (40 marks)

Not fully agree.

I think most of the concepts can used for high-technology industry, but the speed of the process decision cannot follow the unforeseen events rapidity.

For the main characteristics of high-tech (high technology) industry, it has

‘it is majorly R&D driven and it is very dynamic in nature. It is infrastructure intensive and hence a new player cannot easily enter the market. But currently the industries in this sector are diversifying in terms of products and markets and large number of players. The consumers have choice and hence have bargaining capability and the suppliers are niche therefore they have their own importance.’

(Madhur Anand)

From most of the concepts, I think formal strategic planning model can be used for High-tech industry. In Charles W. L. Hill’s theory, he said ‘A strategy is a set of related actions that managers take to increase their company’s performance’ (Hill et al. 2017, 4). The planning is done to decide where the organization need and to the head and where should it reach. It gives the company a way and a version about where to go.

In general, the major components of the formal strategic management process as: selection of mission and major corporate goals; analysis of external environment to identify opportunities and threats; analysis of internal environment to identify strengths and weaknesses; selection of strategies and implementation. (MGT-B820_U02_171, P23). At first, this Mission statement mix with the Mission, the Version, the value and the major corporate goals was being settled by top-managers. And then use SWTO analysis to identify the identify the strategies to exploit external opportunities, counter threats, build on and protect company strengths, and eradicate weaknesses. Once the managers have chosen a set of congruent strategies to achieve a competitive advantage and increase performance, those strategies have to be implemented. After implementing, its execution must be monitored to deter-mine the extent to which strategic goals and objectives are actually being achieved, and to what degree competitive advantage is being created and sustained. This information and knowledge is returned to the corporate level through feedback loops, and becomes the input for the next round of strategy formulation and implementation. (Hill et al. 2017, 16-22)

However, the speed of the process decision cannot follow the unforeseen events rapidity. The core issue of strategic management is how firms and organizations can improve their performance, in particular long-term performance. (MGT-B820_U02_171, P1). Even though, the long-term is a relative concept. There is no fixed timeline for strategic planning, depending on the circumstances it could be of shorter duration or it could be for as long as 3 or more years. In high-tech industry, being able to respond quickly changing to changing circumstances, and to alter the strategies of the organization accordingly, is paramount. We can clear find the high-tech industry is uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity dominate, and in which small rate events can have a large and unpredictable impact negative outcomes. The very fact that the industry is so versatile and has been unpredictable by offering different customers in different parts of the world, different products, a formal