Essay - Strategic Management No Company Operates in a Vacuum. in Addition...

Strategic Management

No company operates in a vacuum. In addition to an *****ternal environment comprised of its hum***** resources, manufacturing and/or service philosophy, technological status and philosophies ***** more, each ***** is influence by (and has an influence on) factors in several external **********. One ***** these is the general environment: How does company X fit into world commerce, for example. Another ***** the industry environment: What effect does this ***** have on its competitors, and what effect do ********** ***** on it? Is it a leading company, an also ran, or somewhere in between? Finally, the competitor environment itself is a consider*****tion in the life of any *****. While competitors figure *****to the industry environment, they are so vital to a company's success or failure—not to mention its motivation to be an industry leader—they *****m an environment of their own.

Following is some commentary on these three envir*****ments for Motorola.

External environment: General

Motorola has recently ********** the target of some very pointed commentary in terms of its general external environment. Earlier this year, the new CEO ***** the company, Ed Z*****er, was taken to talks by Naguid Sawiris, chairman of Orascom Telecom, an Egyptian telecommunications company, over Mo*****rola's perceived failure to deliver ***** technologies such companies await.

***** said, during a wireless technologies conference in France, "We have been promised year after year that ***** ***** will deliver. And we want to believe [it], perhaps out ***** some sense of nostalgia. But there's no clarity on the future ***** this company" (Lashinsky, 2004). Specifically, Lashinsky noted, Sawaris ***** concerned ab***** the ********** of Motorola to ***** cell phones to distributors: Motorola had been late on the shift from analog to digital *****, and as a result had lost market sh*****. While this comment was made by an industry insider, it re*****d directly to Motorola's place in *****s external *****, ***** environment ***** which customers must be served ***** the company to retain its reputation.

External environment: Industry

Clearly, Motorola ***** experienced a slide in the reg*****rd of members of its general environment. In the industry, it has experienced the same slide. It has had, according to Lashinsky (2004) "one flop after another form the mid-1990s.) ***** *****ped on the cell ph*****e issue ***** above, and it also flopped on wireless infrastructure equipment, w*****h ***** market share sliding ***** 10 percent, says Lashinsky (*****).

***** were other flops, all with significant impact not only on Motorola but also ***** the reputation, arguably, of the telecomm industry as a whole. "Arguably, Motorola's biggest blunder was the ten-plus years and $2.6 billion it lost in now bankrupt Iridium, ***** satell*****e network famous for its brick-sized phones and dollars-per-m*****ute international calls. The company developed a reputation for owning killer technology ***** got stuck in its labs (Lash*****sky, 2004) A ***** Instruments executive who now runs ***** cell phone units ********** "*****re are endless examples of instances where this company has blazed a trail ***** *****one else ***** reaped the bene*****s" (Quoted by