Diagnosing Strategic Problems
According to porter for a firm to be successful, it should select vigorously pursue a strong strategy. That is, a firm must deliberately choose an identifiably distinctive position in the industry, in order to be perceived as an industry-wide cost leader, an industry differentiator. This industry must defend his position by erecting entry barriers.
As an example of company which suffers too many customer complaints due to the fact that their network was so welcome compare to the competition has to offer such as (AT&T, Verizon) is T-Mobile. T-Mobile strategy was not able to deliver a set of benefits different from those offered by AT&T and VERIZON. Because, T-Mobile strategy is neither a quest for the best way of competing nor an effort to be all things to every customer.
T-Mobile USA has built its subscriber base in part through the acquisition of regional carriers. In 2008, the company made a move to strengthen its presence in the southern US with purchase of Suncom for $2.4 billion. The deal added over a million customers in the southern US and Caribbean region to T-Mobile's books. Here this strategy was not well implemented; it doesn’t define a way of competing that delivers unique value in a particular set of uses or for a particular set of customer.
The second symptom that indicate T-mobile may have strategic problem is that T-mobile slow to introduce new products in a fast changing environment compare to AT&T which enable the magnificent phone with all in one Option meaning a i-pod and a phone in only one component: i-phone. Product that carries thousand of customers the first week of appearance. T-mobile was expected to fit not only increases competitive advantage but also makes a strategy harder to imitate by the competitors, therefore the company will lack any disadvantage.
7 comments:
As a former T-Mobile customer I definitely agree with the second symptom you mentioned about the introducing of new products to the market. T-Mobile can do much better with the devices it carry and by that enlarge it market share. I am not talking only on the I-phone, but there are many different devices with the 3G network that are still not available to T-mobile customers. As a gadget lover I moved to AT&T which has so much more to offer, and in better prices. This was a good example of a symptom that causes a company to lose customers.
I am also one of the people that have many complaints about T-Mobile.
There reception is average and their customer service is awful.
But to say that they are slow to introduce new technology is harsh (even though I am not an expert). They are one of the cell phone providers that use BlackBerry, which has been used by business people for many years.
They come up with new ideas such as the “Fave 5”, if I am not mistaken only they have that service.
As a whole, T-Mobile is one of the leading cell phone providers, so I guess they are doing a good job somewhere
As a current T-Mobile and in the pst few years I must say that I had no problems with the service, I do however, havwe heard many of my friends and coleagues complaining about the service and many of them as soon as their contract was done had transfered to a different provider. I must agree with your second comment, I think that in our day and age the technology is stunningly rapid, T-Mobile it seems have an enormous difficulty to follow, their devices are not as nearly as advanced as those of AT&T or Verizon and they are behind and falling in that area, which makes it even harder for them to keep up with the competition.
Customer Service is extremely important now days. Better customer service makes a huge difference especially when you are in the service sector. Complaints happens when there are BAD customer service. And complaints does spread like wild-fire. For the iphone part, I think AT&T wanted to be the sole service provider of iphone. AT&T must have spend a lot of money to buy that contract. It cant be blamed on T-mobile. There is a lot of iphone that are cracked and use for T-mobile service. T-mboile actually gain from iphone. Haha
T-Mobile is regularly regarded as having the best customer service among the major 4 cellphone carriers according to JD Power and Associates, although I do agree with you that they are slow to introduce new products, I am only to able to do so half-heartedly. T-Mobile has introduced HotSpot@Home which allows one to talk using WiFi without using one's minutes. Also T-Mobile introduced myFaves which gives their customers the ability to talk to any five people without using ones minutes. This week T-Mobile started their roll out of the 3G network, which is very late compared to the competition but they do not differentiate themselves by being on the cutting edge (even though they have some innovative services) but through affordable prices and good customer service.
I understand where you are coming from with selecting T-Mobile for your example. A lot of people complain about their service compared to the other cell phone providers. I have been a T-mobile customer for several years now and from experience, I feel that they compensate their weaknesses with excellent customer service and plans with abundant minutes for reasonable prices. I actually have to disagree with T-mobile being slow to introduce new products. I feel that T-mobile phones are excellent and focus on the younger generation who is more tech savvy. I do admit that they need to maybe come out with a phone that beats the ever so popular i-Phone, but prior to that, they have been pretty much on par with technology.
Post a Comment