AT & T Telecommunication Company
AT & T was started as southwestern bell Telephone Company which was by then a partner of the Bell telephone company, which was formed in 1887 by Alexander Graham. The company was later rebranded and named AT & T Corporation and presently is the world’s largest telecommunication company with the most significant providers of mobile telephone services and fixed telephone services in the United States. The company’s headquarter is in Downtown Dallas, Texas, where they operate in Whitacre Tower. The company also owns the warner media, making it one of the biggest media and Entertainment Company in terms of their revenue (“What is AT & T,” 2020). The company consists of four sections, which include the communication sector, the Latin America sector, Warner media sector, and Xandr sector. The communication sector is responsible for providing wireless and wireline telecom while the Xandr is the advertising unit. The Latin America segment is tasked with providing entertainment services in Latin America and also provides wireless services in Mexico. The largest segment Warner media is also divided into three units, namely Turner, Home Box office, and Warner Bros. They are responsible for developing and distributing films and televisions in digital format. They also develop games. Don't use plagiarised sources.Get your custom essay just from $11/page
The opportunities, threats, strengths, and weaknesses of AT & T Company
| Opportunities | Threats |
| Ø Penetrating in new markets because of agreements with state governments has given a chance to the company to enter new markets. Ø The company’s environmental policies will provide an opportunity for the company to showcase its new technology and therefore gain market share in this new product.
| Ø Stiff competition from other companies such as T-mobile and century link, therefore, reducing their market share. Ø The rising pressure on the number of payments, especially in China, where the demands are 15$ per hour, can significantly reduce the company’s profits. |
| Strengths | Weaknesses |
| Ø The company is among the biggest telecom companies in the world and therefore have a significant market share Ø The company owns valuable assets such as HBO and DC entertainment. Ø It is also among the largest providers of pay-TV services in the United States.
| Ø The company is mostly present only in the United States and therefore lack recognition in some countries especially in Africa Ø The company has low-quality performance in its wireless services. Ø The company also has big days inventory compared to competitors such as T-Mobile. This leads to the raising of more capital for investment in the channel, which can have a significant impact on the future growth of AT & T Company. |
Social responsibility and its impact on the competitive advantage of the AT & T Corporation
The idea of social responsibility argues that a company has duties in the making society better by raising the living standards of people other than making profits from them. In chapter three of the fourth edition of the strategic book management and business policy, Milton Friedman states that social responsibility is a function of business (Wheelen, n.d). One of the social responsibilities of firms is the ability to use their resources to organize activities that are designed to increase the profits in the long run as long without engaging in fraud or deception.
AT & T Company always hires many employees intending to lift the employee’s lives and assist them in finding opportunities in education and their respective careers. The company has more than two thousand employees and over a hundred retail partners. The company also employed more people in Chicago after realizing that they were affected by violence and a high rate of unemployment. The overall impact is increasing in sales of the company’s products, such as their cell phones in Chicago.
The company has partnered with organizations such as Girls who Code and other programs such as WB Access to Action in encouraging women to explore careers that they are usually underrepresented in, such as in engineering and technology. The company has over fifty employees that are responsible for reflecting on the company’s diversity and making sure that women are equally represented. They also champion the rights of black and Latino employees against any form of discrimination. This has positively impacted people’s view of the company, and many people are turning up to look for opportunities with the company knowing better that their rights are secured. Buyers also trust the company’s products because of this kind gesture of trust and respect to employees
The power of the buyers, suppliers, and substitutes of AT & T Company and barriers to entry
Porter’s five forces aim to analyze how AT & T Company can build and maintain a definite competitive advantage in the telecommunication industry. The directors of the company can also use the five forces to explore different opportunities in the telecom industry.
- Power of buyers
The power of buyers in the telecom industry is always high because the buyers often want to purchase the best products but use the minimum amount possible in the purchase. This leads to more pressure on the company’s profit in the long run because the customers will have the advantage of seeking discounts and offers in areas the company has a small base (Wheelen, n.d). The company can overcome this challenge by building a large customer base, which will assist in streamlining the company’s sales and the process of production.
- Power of suppliers
The telecom companies usually buy their raw materials from many suppliers, and the suppliers that dominate the market can decrease the margins that AT & T can earn from the market. The dominant suppliers use their mighty bargaining power to get higher prices from AT & T Company, and the overall result is that it lowers the profit the company makes. The company can overcome this power by building a supply chain with numerous suppliers.
- Power of substitutes
The substitute services that affect AT & T Company are like Google drive that substitutes the storage hard drives that the company manufactures. This leads to a decrease in profits because when a new product enters the market and meets the similar needs of customers differently, the customers always go for the cheaper one.
The telecom industry is easily penetrated through product innovations, which pose a lot of threats to AT & T Company. The company has to manage these challenges by reducing the costs of its products, such as data provision (Wheelen, n.d). The company operates in an intense environment accompanied by competition from companies such as Verizon Communications.
The competitive strategy used by AT & T Company
The rivalries that exist between AT & T Company and its competitors, such as T-mobile has made the telecom industry to become saturated, and the only new customers these companies attract are those with different carriers. The first strategy the company used is acquisition and mergers, such as the acquisition of Bellsouth in 2005. This makes the company expand its customer base and hence high profits in the long run. The company also builds its data and distributes it to its network (“AT&T Official Site – Unlimited Data Plans, Internet Service, & TV,” 2020). However, it may need the assistance of phone companies in selling its phones, but the AT & T Company enjoys an upper hand because of its broad customer base. Lastly, the company uses the demographic segmentation strategy to understand how the market runs and the ways of improving it.this has assisted the company in providing the communication services quickly and safely compared to its rivals such as T- mobile.
References
About.att.com.(2020).Retrieved2March2020,from https://about.att.com/ecms/dam/csr/sustainability-reporting/PDF/2019/ATT-Corporate-Responsibility-Summary.pdf.
AT&T Official Site – Unlimited Data Plans, Internet Service, & TV. AT&T. (2020). Retrieved March 2, 2020, from https://www.att.com/.
What is AT&T? (2020, February 19). Computer Business Review. https://www.cbronline.com/what-is/what-is-att/
Wheelen, T. Strategic management and business policy.