Feasibilty Analysis

SWOT Analysis of Samsung Corporation in Technological industry

Wilmington University

Akshay Kotla

Introduction

Samsung Corporation is among the largest technological companies in the world. It is involved in the manufacture of various products such as TV, iron boxes and fridges among many other home appliances. In the recent past, it has been in the forefront in the manufacture of communication devices such as computers, Smartphone, and tablets. Most of it revenues, however, are from the sale of smartphones.

Samsung products have been doing well in the market due to a number of reasons. These reasons have the major source of Samsung's strength. One of its strength is the good management and leadership that the company enjoys. Among the most important primary stakeholders of Samsung is the South Korean Samsung founding Lee family, whose wealth is equal to 17 percent of South Korea GDP. They have been in the forefront in protecting Samsung's interest in various investments across the world (EBSCO Publishing (Firm), 2013)

The second strength is its strong financial base. This has enabled the corporation to invest heavily in research facilities. It has a total of 49 research facilities across the world with more than 50000 engineers and researchers. In addition, Samsung has a good pricing strategy which has enabled the company to enjoy the huge market. For example, in Smartphone industry, they have several phones with different features and prices. Lastly, they manufacture products of the highest quality possible. Their phones, for example, are ranked among the top three best products in by CNET.

Weakness

One of Samsung weakness is the over diversification of its products four different industries, with each industry producing many products. This has made it difficult for the corporation to focus its marketing practices on all its products. As a result of this inequality in marketing, a bigger proportion of Samsung revenues is from one line of products mainly Smartphone and phone. The other weakness, arise from the fact that some of Samsung's biggest competitor Apple are it, the main customer. Lastly, despite, the huge amount of funds allocated to research, Samsung has been known for infringing its competitor's patents.

Despite its weakness, Samsung has a number of opportunities. One of the main opportunities for Samsung is the production and use of their own Smartphone and computer operating systems. Secondly, since they are responsible for the production of most communication hardware, they should, therefore, expand their service to offering internet services. Thirdly, they can partner with African governments to construct manufacturing facilities in these regions thus expanding its market in Africa which is currently dominated by cheap products from china (Park & Sung-Jo, 2012)

Samsung is also facing a number of threats. In the mobile industry, Samsung is the main user of the android operating system from Google. If Google will produce their own hardware in the near future, they may opt to use a more superior version of android than the one used by Samsung. Secondly, the poor business relationship between Samsung and Apple might force Apple to look for other hardware manufacturers such as Intel, thus depriving Samsung most of its revenue. Thirdly, new Smartphone manufacturers such as Lenovo and Huawei from china are currently producing cheap and quality phones than Samsung product. This will eventually force Samsung to engage in price wars yet it cannot afford since has a low-profit margin. Lastly, more than 70% of Samsung revenues are from Smartphone industry.In a case of any technological innovation which might challenge the use of Smartphone then Samsung will be forced to close most of its operations (Fox & Bloomberg News (Firm), 2013).

References

EBSCO Publishing (Firm). (2013). Samsung Group SWOT Analysis. S.l.: s.n.

Fox, P., & Bloomberg News (Firm). (2013). 72andSunny's role in the Apple vs. Samsung battle. New York: Bloomberg.

Park, & Sung-Jo. (2012). The Samsung Miracle: Visionary Leadership and Human Resources. Lit Verlag.