Strategic Audit Of Motorola CorporationEssay Preview: Strategic Audit Of Motorola CorporationReport this essayStrategic Audit of Motorola CorporationMotorola Corporation is a main supplier of wireless communication systems, wireless accessories, wireless handsets, digital entertainment devices, and broadband systems. They are well known for their MOTORAZR, MOTORIZR Z3, and MOTOKRZR handsets and are the only provider of iDEN network to Sprint Nextel which uses infrastructure equipment. They also are leading providers for the delivery of networks which are used in the delivery of video, voice and data services. Their headquarters are in Schaumburg, IL and operates in the United States with 66,000 employees (Motorola, inc., 2007).
Motorola builds and promotes products, services and applications that make it easy to connect to people, entertainment and information possibilities through broadband, systems and wireless networks. The various business divisions of the company are the mobile devices, enterprise and network, and the connected home solutions. Their strong market position provides major investments in research and development (Motorola, inc., 2007).
Motorola Mission StatementMotorola’s mission is to benefit communities around the world by achieving strategic grants, developing strong community partnerships, advanced innovation and engaging their stakeholders (“Corporate”, 2008).
Strategic Alternatives and RecommendationsThe Corporate Strategy of the Motorola Corporation deals with the three key factors below:Directional Strategy — the firm’s overall orientation toward growth, stability, or retrenchment.Portfolio Strategy — the markets or industries in which the company competes with its products and business units.Parenting Strategy- How the management coordinates their activities and transfers their resources and cultivates their product lines and business units (Hunger & Wheelen, 2007).
The three alternatives to ensure Motorola’s long term success follow the directional strategy. Despite their difficulties in 2006, they are the largest vendor and a leading provider in mission-critical systems worldwide with over 65 years of experience in complex network design, voice and broadband data, sophisticated technology, public and private networks, rugged devices, and optimization and implementation. They are also the leading provider of digital cable boxes in North America. Their strong market position follows the directional strategy for growth and stability in addition to their heavy investment in research and development (Motorola, inc., 2007). The expected growth of Asian Pacific is to reach one billion in phone sales by 2009. The India market should surpass China in 2009 with 139 million units. With their affordable devices and increasing geographic penetration and with being a world’s leading manufacturer of mobile phones, whey will position themselves for these trends (Motorola, inc., 2007).
The stability of the company is maintained by their robust manufacturing capabilities and facilities. They own and contract manufacturing facilities in China, Singapore, Brazil and distribution centers in Malaysia, Germany, China, Israel, England, and the United States. Their home solution manufacturing facilities are in Mexico, Nogales, Taiwan, and Taipei. They also contract manufacturers primarily in China for their cable/voice module production. Their global manufacturing network combined with their experience enables them to effectively meet customer demands while achieving a competitive advantage over their competitors (Motorola, inc., 2007).
The retrenchment strategies are geared toward maximizing profits in the company due to a weak competitive position in some or all of their product lines which results in poor performance. Stu Reed, the former Mobile Devise division president left Motorola after assisting the company with turning around the handset business. The handset business has been suffering for more than one year and Motorola recently lost its place as the second largest global phone vender behind Nokia Corporation (Jones, 2008).
The recommended strategy is for Motorola to continue to promote consumer knowledge and growth of its product line. Since Motorola strives to be competitive and utilizes the constant changes in technology, the growth of the company will continue to rely on its research and development (R&D) for new products, the production of its engineering capabilities and while improving their existing line of products. They invested in their R&D expenditures; $4.4 billion in 2007 compared to $4.1 billion in 2006 and $3.5 billion in 2005 which demonstrates their drive for long-term growth (2007 Annual Report, 2008).
Motorola’s Implementation StrategyIn the past, Motorola has relied primarily on their R&D programs for the development of new products and improving the production of their existing products (2007 Annual Report, 2008). Programs, budgets, and procedures are needed to exchange technical data and product application on a regular basis. Looking forward, management needs to identify who will be carrying out these strategic plans, what must be done, and how are they going to do what is necessary to remain competitive in this industry. Restructuring will help the marketing rise and continue with their brand development and categorize their business into three divisions: Mobile Devices, Home and Networks Mobility, and Enterprise
; a series of new product segments and a range of new and evolving user groups. It also includes ongoing development activities and operations for the devices. We are working on these developments with the leadership of the division that handles the R&# 038;D programs in this respect.
Mobile Devices and Home Networks and Enterprise Mobile Device and Network Operations
The devices that we sell are designed for and sold directly through our networks and are not directly connected to the Internet and our home network. These devices, devices at all stages of design, are connected based on our wireless protocol and device-specific data protection technologies (e.g., data protection methods used by Google, Microsoft, and Cisco). These devices are designed for and sold from mobile devices through we-support-a-commodity such as third-party e-readier-devices (LDR) (1). The devices carry out the following objectives:
To be a more connected user of our networks through a secure, distributed, and private communications infrastructure, we need to reach users and establish links to their own devices (e.g., within our retail network/mobile interface).
To be able to make, manage, and sell more of our products and services via our mobile network.
Additionally, by providing mobile devices that include a wireless data connection into the retail network/mobile interface, we can communicate with, and maintain that data (e.g., on the phone, mobile device, etc.).
To integrate our wireless data and system capabilities into the products of customers without losing access to the real (non-coder) data they need to support our product-related features.
Additionally, by integrating technology into the product-related features that we provide within our platform, we can make more of use of that technology’s mobile infrastructure.
To develop and market software for our phones and devices and its development tools/framework.
To develop, develop, promote, and market data center services within our mobile networks.
To develop a scalable and comprehensive platform to enable our customers to provide their devices to third parties to consume our mobile networks. This enables us to build and market software for our devices.
To provide a way of integrating our mobile data infrastructure into the retail network/mobile interface of our products.
To ensure our products are consistent with our customers’ needs regarding their product functionality and user experience.
To develop to support our product-specific mobile devices.
The mobile infrastructure is a combination of data centers, mobile data centers, network components, servers, and infrastructure. Most of this infrastructure, or equipment, needs to operate on a consistent and decentralized basis and is designed to support consumers and mobile devices who work on or interact with our phones, devices, websites, and other electronic devices (2–5). Mobile infrastructure can be either the direct, local network that is built and maintained online or the embedded or