Swot Analysis
Vodafone Group Plc is a British-based company operating in the mobile industry. Vodafone is the biggest mobile company in the world when it comes to turnover and has a market value of £86 million. Although it had 186.8 million customers (world’s second behind China Mobile) in 27 markets all over the world last June, the group is faced to a deep crisis. (Wikipedia, 2007) The incredible loss £14.9 billion last year forced the CEO Sarin to put into perspective recent years strategy as far as acquisitions and participation in firms are concerned. However, emerging markets and the development of new technical possibilities will ensure growth potential in the industry.
Strengths
Vodafone signed a partnership with Microsoft as part of their three-platform strategy in order “to reduce operational costs while improving services to customers” (Vodafone, 2006)
Alliance with Yahoo concerning phone advertising. (BBC News, 2006)
“Excluding one-off costs, Vodafone made an £8.8bn profit and it said it had added 21 million new customers.” Hence, even though the company suffers from losses, the activity in its own is highly profitable. (BBC News, 2006)
Vodafone will probably be the first service provider to offer a HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access, quicker than 3G) service. Samsung is currently developing the first HSDPA mobile exclusively for Vodafone for February 2007. (BBC News, 2006)
Very good results from its US investment in Verizon Wireless in which Vodafone owns 45%. Its share grew by 25% in the US while adding 3 million new customers in 2006. (BBC News, 2006)
Vodafone launched its own branded handset as part of its strategy to increase its bargaining power over ODM (Original Design Manufacturers): the Vodafone 710. (Vodafone, 2006)
Weaknesses
Pressure from shareholders against the re-election of Arun Sarin, the current CEO of the company. For instance in November, the share price dropped to 111.25p from 150p. Last year, the former CEO had already...
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