Sony SWOT Analysis
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Sony SWOT Analysis
Strengths
Sony is a well established company with sufficient source of revenue from vast range of electronics, games, entertainment and financial service categories (Dogruer et al, 10).
The company has invested in various parts of the world hence most of its products have stronger market share than those of its competitors (Dogruer et al, 3).
Sony has strong brand name which has boosted its publicity in the global markets.
Sony has very experienced engineers who have learnt from the past failures hence they can produce and work better for the organization.
Sony’s marketing department has adopted advance advertising techniques in order to attract and retain large number of customers (Hartline & Ferrell, 121).
The workforce is highly valued as evident by better rewards for their commitment to the organization. This has helped boost the morale of the employees.
Notably, Sony has created revolutionary equipment for employees since that is what the company would rely in all of its business operations.
Sony is the world leader of electronic products because of innovations, inventions and creativity. Sony products are very superior. The phones supplied by the company enable the users to access the internet and allow them play video and other audio files as they wish.
Innovation has resulted in quality products being availed in the market. Sony has been striving to sell it quality products at cheaper prices. This is because it has efficient and effective employees who are committed and loyal to the company.
The company has been expanding its business operations to various parts of the world. The company may be deciding to carry out more expansion in the overseas countries hence gaining more market for maximum profitability. By doing so, the company would realize more revenues (Dogruer et al, 3).
Despite stiff competition in the global markets, Sony has managed to prosper due to its ability to deliver high quality products at affordable prices and good reputation.
Sony is known not to copy the ideas and the products of its competitors and this has enabled the corporation gained reputation.
Sony’s products have unique features that meet the needs and demands of the customers in the global market.
Historically, Sony has been known to embrace new technologies that help it cope with the ever changing business environment. The current business environment calls for effective and efficient production systems that would improve quality of products and services the company avails in the market.
Sony has been able to do well in the international market because of quality products and services. The company is very competitive towards other firms in the industry.
The stock prices of the company have been going up in the last decade. This has attracted large number of investors from all parts of the world. Consequently, this has increased the capital base of the company.
Inventory management has been the first priority of the management of the company and this has resulted in minimum losses.
History of the company’s products shows that Sony Corporation is reputable
Weaknesses
Sony has not been able to attract and maintain talent. Talented employees are very crucial for the success of any business organization around the world. They are effective and efficient thus ensuring quality products at cheaper costs.
Inability to recover costs incurred. Sony invests in diversity of products. However, some of these investments have not bore any fruits. For example, the financial service categories have not been profitable hence the costs incurred have not been recovered (Dogruer et al, 7).
Within the last few years, Sony Corporation has been making loss with some of its products especially in the financial service category.
Efficiency of employees has been going down in the recent years because the management has not been able to maintain close relationships with them. The workforce has little trust on the management of the company, and this has reduced their morale.
The company has engaged in diversification of products and services. Instead, it should focus on one particular profitable product line.
Despite innovations, the company still spends great deal of resources on marketing and advertisement. The systems used to undertake this operations are not effective thus resulting in huge costs.
The company uses great deal of resources on modern technologies, and this has been transferred to the customers through increased prices. Consequently, the company is loosing huge number of customers to the competitors in the markets.
The company has offered little support to the employees. This has resulted in high employee turnover which erodes company’s profitability.
Sony 902 mobile phone is a weak brand that has negative effect on the profitability of the company. The business cannot compete now and in the future in the presence of the weak brand. Sony 902 is not enduring proposition hence cannot drive continuous improvement and development of the entity.
In the recent years, the sale of all the products of the company is seemingly declining. This would result in low profits hence limiting company’s business expansion.
The company lacks sense of direction and it is being mismanaged.
There is lack communication between the functional departments of the company and this has resulted in decrease productivity.
The costs of Sony mobile phones are expensive hence priced higher than those of competitors in the market.
Sony has realized little profits from the sale of the Playstation 3.
High cost of business operations has paralyzed entity to keep money for emergencies. Therefore, Sony is not in a position to raise money for any contingencies or emergencies.
The high costs incurred during production processes will render the company unable to stand price pressure imminent in the global markets.
In the last five years, Sony stock prices have been fluctuating in the market. Chances are high that the company will loose customer confidence in the stock market.
Opportunities
Sony has a better competitive position in the market due to its quality products and services. Therefore, it can take this advantage to expand its products in the international markets.
The company has the capacity to expand into overseas countries. There still exists greater market for Sony’s products in the overseas countries.
The internet technology can be utilized to market the products thus enabling the company reach more customers.
The company can employ new technologies to allow innovation of new products which meet the needs and demands of the consumers.
Modern technologies and innovation can help the company lower the cost of production.
Sony has ability to improve its business operations, products and services and inventory management by employing by improving the efficacy of the workforce. The company can make drastic improvement in these areas by embracing advanced but less expensive technologies.
Employees are valuable assets of any business organization and Sony is not exception. The corporation can achieve a lot by boosting employees’ moral through various incentive plans. The company may opt to offer better rewards or salaries for good performance.
The company can lower costs of production by demanding better prices from some of its major or potential suppliers of materials useful during business undertakings.
The success of the company in the competitive business environment depends entirely in its abilities to attract and retain customers. The company can achieved through better customer relationships. By doing so, the company will be able to earn constant cash flow through maximum sales of products or services.
The company can move up the value chain by expanding its business operations and product lines.
Sony can access new business opportunities through acquisition of Apple.
The company has large number of workforce which has resulted in huge costs. The company can reduce the number of employees until it remains with competent ones.
Threats
Sony does not have sufficient reserves to withstand sudden changes in the business environment. The competitors might capitalize on these weaknesses.
Sony mainly deals with electronic and entertainment products. Globally, this industry has been faced tight regulation following rampant piracies in the markets. This has the effect of derailing various business operations of the company (Chang &. Rosenzweig, 20).
Some of the company’s products do not have strong brand equity hence cannot withstand the pressure of price competition in the international business environment. Therefore, the company is likely to loose customers to its competitors.
The company lacks capacity to keep with the changes in technology in the business environment. This limits its abilities to produce quality products and services. Consequently, the company will not be able to attract customers hence decline in volume of sales (Sony Company, 1).
The company is facing stiff competition in the market. For example, key players such as Sanyo Elec Ltd, Panasonic Corporation and Koninklije Philips Electrs are taking a new shape in the market. They are eating away the market share of Sony Corporation.
Sony has limited training and education programs for employees. The workforce lacks the necessary skills in the modern working environment. Therefore, their efficiency is declining every day. This would adversely affect business operations of the company both now and in the future (Chang &. Rosenzweig, 22).
Employees are running away from the company on the basis of being a poor employer. The company does not provide training and educational programs that would help them advanced their skills. It is very dangerous that Sony is loosing quality employees to other companies (McCurry, 7).
Sony has centralized its major business operations in United States. Therefore, the company is famous in United States and some other few countries. The company has not put up major business plants in African and Asian countries (Sony Company, 1).
The profit margin of the company is under pressure due to high operations costs. Noticeably, the company incurs great deal of resources on production of certain products (Chang &. Rosenzweig, 23).
Up to now, Sony still uses the conservative accounting and financial techniques. These are ineffective and inefficient hence hindering accountability and transparency.
Sony is not in position to properly manage the internal accruals when the business environment becomes unfavorable. On such conditions, business operations decrease drastically (Sony Company, 1).
Illiquidity of company’s finance.
Due to high costs, the company has been decreasing the size of business transactions. This implies that profitability is likely to go down in the near future (Sony Company, 1).
Works Cited
Chang, S. &. Rosenzweig, P. “Industry and Regional Patterns in Sequential Foreign Market Entry.” Journal of Management Studies, 1998.Dogruer, B., Ferzly, H., Roach, D. & Ward, R. Report on Sony Corporation. 2009.
HYPERLINK “http://web.mit.edu/course/15/15.249c/Sony.pdf.(8” http://web.mit.edu/course/15/15.249c/Sony.pdf.(8 November, 2010).
Hartline, D. & Ferrell, C. Marketing Strategy. New York: Cengage Learning Publishers, 2008.
McCurry, J. “Sonny to Cut 8,000 Jobs Worldwide”. 2008.
HYPERLINK “http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/dec/09/sony-job-cuts (8” http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/dec/09/sony-job-cuts (8 November, 2010).
Sony Company. “Sony’s History — Through the Eyes of the Company’s Leaders.” 2010.
HYPERLINK “http://news.sel.sony.com/en/corporate_information/sony_brand (8” http://news.sel.sony.com/en/corporate_information/sony_brand (8 November, 2010).
