Resources and Capabilities Assessment of Chipotle

SiriusXM Key Strengths 

Several of the key strengths include owning its own satellites & equipment, existing  infrastructure, and its proprietary technology & trademarks. One of the most obvious and consequential strengths is that they own their own system of satellites and satellite equipment.  SiriusXM has five orbiting geostationary satellites currently with two satellites set to launch in the  coming year to update some existing ones along with over 1,000 terrestrial repeaters to support the  quality and signal of their service offerings. Given the infrastructure and equipment, SiriusXM has  the competitive advantage when it comes to the satellite radio and broadcasting industry with their  relative strength being highly rated. They are one of very few companies left that have satellites in  orbit and an abundance of facilities and office locations in order to maintain their network and  hardware. However, as the world becomes more technologically advanced and gravitates towards  Internet of Things, online and on-demand streaming, and data usage through mobile devices, the  infrastructure will soon rely heavily on computing power, data centers, network data, and ISPs. At  that point, this strength for SiriusXM could end up being a detriment since their infrastructure and  radio spectrum or equipment will become obsolete in the competitive market space of online and  on-demand streaming. 

Looking at the infrastructure, according to the company's 10K report, the satellite radio  systems are designed to provide clear reception in most areas of the continental United States  despite variations in terrain, buildings and other obstructions. They continually monitor the  infrastructure and regularly evaluate capital improvements in technology. The satellite radio  systems have three principal components. The satellites, terrestrial repeaters and other satellite  facilities. In order to provide additional and exclusive content, SiriusXM owns its own recording  studios. This original content and programming is created in various studios in Los Angeles, New  York City, and Washington D.C. 

Another strength of SiriusXM relative to the strategic importance is its technology &  trademarks. To gain competitive advantage, it is very important for companies to have protected intellectual properties, such as patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets. Given  SiriusXM’s long standing industry experience and its current stage in the industry life cycle  compared to its competitors, SiriusXM has the upper hand with having already established  trademarks and patents for both business units, SiriusXM with 92 and Pandora with 33, and further  adding to the list of applications for more legally protected IPs in the works. One of the challenges  with live streamed satellite radio is that a listener can only listen to one channel at a time, making  the user have to choose between the two. According to the United States Patent and Trademark  Office, in January 2020 SiriusXM was issued a patent for “content caching” services in satellite  and IP content delivery (SiriusXM, 2020). Content caching allows live broadcasted content to be  available to a user for local playback at a later time via a user interface menu. The listener could  then listen to one live and then playback the other at their own convenience. This concept is similar  to that of a DVR for television programming, wherein you watch one channel program while  simultaneously recording another for future playback. 

SiriusXM Key Weaknesses 

Some of the key weaknesses of SiriusXM is its financial status (cash flow), organizational  structure and management, and customer service. Although SiriusXM has industry experience and  has been around for many more years than its competitors, SiriusXM fails to increase its market  share by offering superior products that its competitors who were quicker to respond to the  changing times. SiriusXM was a dying company close to filing bankruptcy, until Liberty Media  made a huge investment to get them out of the water. However, with this investment, it provided  Liberty Media to beneficially owned, directly and indirectly, approximately 72% of Sirius XM  Holdings. Furthermore, their inability to satisfy the customer experience levels and acted in  dishonesty had cost them $4 million settlement which required the need to revamp their business practices and compliance (Dinges, 2014). The process of having to cancel the subscription is not  well defined and can be time consuming while on the other hand, the product packaging comes in  a plethora of options with add-ins and hidden fees which causes a lot of confusion for consumers  who are looking for convenient, ease-of-use, and fair price. 

Given the competitive landscape and the rapidly changing world, SiriusXM needs to focus  heavily on their customer service and the ability to continuously improve their product and service  offerings. The first step in doing so, however, SiriusXM needs to really focus internally and build  a foundation and environment within themselves that consist of trust, learning, and innovation.  Without such backbone for the company, the negative energy will emanate through to the customer  experience and service offerings which can be detrimental to the success of SiriusXM.