SWOT Analysis Paper Example: Samsung Company

The origin of the Samsung Company is linked to a small trading company started by Lee Byung-chull in 1938 in Su-dong, South Korea. In this company, Byung-chull sold goods around Su-dong City. In 19747, his company experienced a significant and expanded its operations to Seoul. Unfortunately, the company was weakened by the Korean War but when the war ended Byung-chull expanded the company into the biggest woolen mill in the country. Significantly, the expansion led to a diversification of business within three decades into areas such as textile, securities, insurance, and retail (Kim, Lee, Kwon, Yu, & Jo, 2016). Later in the 1960s, Samsung ventured into the electronics industry. The venture formed four electronic divisions including Samsung Semiconductors and Telecommunications, Samsung Electro-Mechanics, Samsung Corning, and Samsung Electronic Devices.

Background

The company continued to enjoy success but when Lee died, the business split into four different business groups including the Shinsegae Group, CJ Group, Hansol Group, and the Samsung Group. This step has contributed immensely to its growth, and it is now one of the best companies in the industry and the whole world (Kim et al., 2016). Samsung Company deals with electronic devices such as Mobile phones, Televisions and audio devices, computers and laptops, home appliances, printers, and cameras, among others (Kim et al., 2016). The company competes with other multinational companies such as Apple, Nokia, Techno, IBM, and Sony among others. Apple is the largest threat and the only company ranked above Samsung in terms of profitability.

Mission Statement

Samsung Company does not have an official mission. However, the company expresses its mission through its philosophy. It devotes talent as well as technology in the company to creating superior services and products to realize a better global community (Kim et al., 2016. For the company to achieve the goal as set in this philosophy, it sets a relatively high value on its workforce and technologies.

Organizational Strengths

One of the Samsungs most outstanding strength is that it has the widest portfolio of product that includes home appliances, TV/Video/Audio, Mobile phones, PCs, tablets, printer, camcorder, and cameras among others. Samsung products range from low range to elite range and, thus, the availability of a good marketing mix of products gives the company a good edge over some competitors like Apple (Kim et al., 2016). The company serves different classes of customers and thus its popularity is spread across all demographics, economies, and corners of the world. The Samsung Galaxy S Smartphone series has helped increase the gain from the global market massively in the last seven years. For instance, Samsung had the largest market share as well as the highest growth rate, 266%, in early 2012 (Kim et al., 2016). The company also has strong advertising and promotion campaigns and strategies around more than 125 channel partners.

Regarding design and innovation, the company offers almost some of the best design technology and features on the planet. Televisions from Samsung have several innovative features such as applications based on internet and recommendations on programs based on the views of the users (Kim et al., 2016). The TV sets also come at different prices to satisfy all classes of consumers. Samsung became the first company first to develop LCD color phones, dual screen mobiles, rotating lenses in phones, handsets with polyphonic ringtones as well as the lightest and thinnest notepad (Kim et al., 2016). Samsung also produced cameras that have an Android OS from Google and, this was the first from the industry.

Organizational Weaknesses

Unfortunately, Samsung does not create its own software and OS. This makes the company remain depended on other parties for important components such as software to create its products. The company is losing a lot of money it could otherwise have saved or used for other important purposes such as innovation and creativity. The OS and the software could contribute a lot to an increase in the profit margin of Samsung as it producing their own components would increase integration and improve the loyalty of the companys products (Kim et al., 2016). This weakness has contributed to low brand loyalty and hence, fewer people across the globe are loyal to the Samsung as compared to those loyal to Nokia and Apple. For instance, Samsung is yet to make a significant mark in Indias rural market. Lastly, there is less focus by Samsung on B2B marketing across the world.

Organizational Opportunities

There are several opportunities that Samsung can exploit. First, Samsung Company, through its marketing team can design a promotional program detaining an activity that focuses on the rural or remote market (Albrecht, Albrecht, Holland, Holland, Peters, & Peters, 2016). This is because the company produces products such as handsets for the low class of consumers, but they are not aware of the existence of such products. The company should ensure that products designed for the rural market reach the market. This includes handset made for the elderly people; with fewer features but more durable and very user-friendly (Kim et al., 2016). Samsung can tie up especially with companies such as Capdase to make customized accessories for the company to improve its production rate.

Organizational Threats

There are numerous threats that Samsung faces today. The brand name which is being copied is hampered its operations as the company has to file the lawsuits to respond to various proprietors. This is damaging for the company in all aspects including financial, market base, and reputation (Kim et al., 2016). Additionally, the handset market is fast moving market especially the technology. This means that Samsung has to come up with a better plan for coming up with convincing innovations while there is time because popular companies like Nokia are bring about a threat (Albrecht, Albrecht et al., 2016). For instance, Nokia is staging a massive turnaround in different markets like India, America, and Africa. Similarly, there is high competition from the industrys major players such as Nokia and apple and new and low-cost players such as Micromax and Infinix.

Conclusion

There is a big opportunity for Samsung Company to improve based on the experience and current innovations and creativity. Samsung should ensure that it invests more in unique products and products and services that offer them greater opportunities for more success in terms of more sales, especially with handset such as the Smartphone. Additionally, the company should ensure that areas such as Africa and China that have been beneficial for their loyalty and sales respectively are maximized. In counteracting the threats, Samsung Company should invest in creativity and innovation to create unique products which are more affordable and highly efficient.

References

Albrecht, C., Albrecht, C., Holland, D., Holland, D., Peters, M., & Peters, M. (2016). Strategic revenue analysis. Strategic Direction, 32(7), 32-34.

Kim, S., Lee, H., Kwon, Y., Yu, M., & Jo, H. (2016, December). Our Journey to Becoming Agile: Experiences with Agile Transformation in Samsung Electronics. In Software Engineering Conference (APSEC), 2016 23rd Asia-Pacific (pp. 377-380). IEEE.