SWOT Analysis of Virgin Media

Part 1 – SWOT Analysis

Virgin Media

Virgin Media is an advanced new media company that was formed as a consequence of a amalgamation between NTL and Telewest and so a re-branding as Virgin Media. Its chief strength lies in the stigmatization and the invention that the name Virgin offers. Internally, Virgin Media is the lone company in the United Kingdom that offers all four of the chief media services, i.e. digital telecasting, broadband, fixed line telephone and nomadic phone bundles. The ability to offer these merchandises all together in one package is the alone merchandising point of Virgin Media and clearly sets the company apart from its rivals.

In offering these combined services, the company has significant economic systems of graduated table as it is able to unite many of its generic functions such as disposal and finance, therefore leting the company to monetary value more competitively for the benefit of its clients. Due to its perceived prima trade name name in the media, Virgin Media has managed to procure an on-going contract with Sky, widening further still its inclusive offering to its clients.

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Technical ability and substructure are besides two of the cardinal internal strengths of the company, which have been exploited to bring forth a market taking place.

Despite this, the company does hold some internal failings that need to be managed. The amalgamation between NTL and Telewest is still comparatively new and there are cultural clangs between the two manners and the emerging Virgin manner. In recent old ages, there have been several redundancies and outsourcing of client services, in an effort to convey down costs.

This has resulted in a grade of unsettled behavior and deficiency of trueness from staff. Due to the size and complexness of the turning administration, there are likely to be ongoing struggles which will necessitate to be managed if this cultural displacement is non to impact on the client experience.

Externally, the chances and menaces confronting Virgin Media are of all time altering. The media sector is developing an exceptionally fast gait, ensuing in both chances and menaces for companies such as Virgin Media. Opportunities are widely available for Virgin Media, preponderantly in offering value added services such as on-line gambling or more dependable broadband connexions. Bundling these media services together, as Virgin Media has already done, offers yet farther chances within the media sector, in footings of hold oning greater market portion. Consumers like simple, one-stop shopping when it comes to the media options available ; this is something that Virgin Media can go on to work, peculiarly now that it has signed an understanding with Sky.

Menaces to Virgin Media semen from other similar media companies such as Orange or BT who remain as big participants in the market. In peculiar, Virgin Media is rumoured to hold troubles with its substructure dependability, which could potentially let rivals such as BT to increase market portion. The media sector as a whole is highly fast moving ; hence, the chief menace is that Virgin Media may neglect to maintain gait, therefore losing its client base to another more advanced company.

Sir Robert McAlpine

Sir Robert McAlpine is one of the longest established building companies in the United Kingdom. The company started trading in 1869 and now employs a sum of 1,500 people, bring forthing a turnover of ?1.1 billion. Sir Robert Mc Alpine covers a broad scope of technology and building undertakings such as petrochemical, power coevals, oil and gas production, pharmaceutical, chemical, excavation, H2O and atomic industries.

One of Sir Robert McAlpine’s cardinal strengths is the deepness of experience that the company can offer clients. It operates in a extremely proficient sector which is non peculiarly monetary value sensitive, but however does necessitate proficient excellence. Entering the heavy building industry is hard for new companies ; hence, the long standing name that Sir Robert Mc Alpine has developed is one of its primary strengths.

Due to the company’s superb and strong repute in the building industry, Sir Robert McAlpine has been involved in some of the highest profile edifices in the United Kingdom, such as the Millennium Dome, the Eden Project and the Emirates Stadium. It has late signed an understanding to construct the Olympic Stadium for the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Due to the continued enlargement of the company, there is a possible failing in footings of geographical disparity of the work force. Sharing information and proficient expertness is cardinal to the development of a company such as Sir Robert McAlpine. In add-on, holding a spread out work force is a possible barrier to this development. The undertakings that the company works on are by and large long term, binding up a big sum of labor and finance, before the undertaking is complete. Whilst payment strategies will take this into history, such long term planning can ensue in short term hard currency flow troubles.

Construction, as a whole, is undergoing a hard clip. It is threatened by the deficiency of available undertakings, intending that every company has to work that spot harder to pull the moneymaking contracts. Most big contracts are offered either by the authorities or by transnational companies which require that certain standards are met. Failure to run into these standards can ensue in the loss of a contract, even if the company is apparently the best for the function.

Cost force per unit areas are immense on a company such as Sir Robert McAlpine and, in this context, attention demands to be taken to guarantee that all staff are being used to their entire capacity. Furthermore, proficient expertness of the cardinal persons is at the bosom of the concern and any staff losingss could potentially be black for the company, peculiarly if these cardinal forces were encouraged to fall in a rival house.

However, Sir Robert Mc Alpine has a market taking repute and, as such, it can offer on some of the most esteemed undertakings available. Where standards in relation to size or expertness are used in the choice procedure, Sir Robert McAlpine will about ever perform good in comparing to its rivals.

It is the size and history of the company that presents both the chief chances, every bit good as the menaces that it is presently sing.

Amstrad PLC

Amstrad is one of the original media and information engineering companies and was founded in its original signifier, in 1968. Alan Sugar founded the company and is still the pull offing manager of the company, 40 old ages on. Over the old ages, Amstrad has had to alter its merchandise mix but has retained a solid place in the market topographic point, as a whole. The company employs merely 85 people but produces gross of ?91 million, demoing the grade of efficiency that this company enjoys.

Amstrad’s chief internal strength is mostly its ability to stay at the head of the electronics market. Back in the early 1970s, Alan Sugar started to develop one of the first of all time home personal computing machines. This was radical and, although other companies shortly entered the market, Amstrad had gained the repute as being at the head of new developments ; a repute that has offered important market strength, over the old ages.

Another considerable strength for the company has been the consistence of the leading in the signifier of Sir Alan Sugar. Known for his frequently direct direction manner, he has led the company for the full continuance and this grade of consistence allows the company to maximize market chances, every bit shortly as they appear.

Despite the current place of strength that Amstrad holds within the electronics market, it has some built-in failings. As the electronics sector is traveling really rapidly, it is every bit easy for the offerings to go out-of-date, rapidly. Any perceptual experience of being outdated is improbably damaging to a company such as Amstrad, as was experienced during the 1990s when its personal computing machine scope was quickly overtaken in footings of public presentation by rivals.

Opportunities are everlastingly being developed in the electronics market. Presently, the chance in the market is in portable media and this has been exploited to the full by the coup d'etat of Amstrad by BSkyB. It has besides led to the stepping down of Sir Alan Sugar as Chairman, although he still remains involved in the company. Customers are acute to buy one-stop media merchandises and the confederation with BSkyB is a clear effort to work this type of client tendency. By come ining into this amalgamation, Amstrad has ensured that it retains a strong market place, while besides extenuating its somewhat outmoded repute by partnering with a company at the cutting border of engineering.

A amalgamation of this type, nevertheless, is besides a potentially baleful clip for the company. Different civilizations in footings of staff and besides direction squads will doubtless do a grade of clash. There will besides be a pressing demand to pull off costs in such as manner that ensures the merged company is able to stay competitory. Customers are going progressively cost witting and this will be a critical country of focal point for the freshly merged company. Similarly, the company is under changeless menace from lower cost rivals who may hold fewer operating expenses to postulate with.

Part 2 – Case Study

Virgin Media

Key Reasons for Virgin Media 's Success:

• One of the chief grounds for Virgin Media’s success came from the meeting of two of the chief influences in the media sector, NTL and Telewest. By unifying these two companies, Virgin Media ensured that it had the laterality, in footings of substructure, proficient experience and sheer size.
• Virgin Media spotted that consumers are acute to hold one-stop services. This led Virgin Media to market the merely four piece media offering, consisting digital telecasting, broadband, land line and nomadic phones. Recognizing the desire of consumers to hold one bundle that covers every media demand has allowed Virgin Media to derive first mover advantage, in footings of combined packages.
• By re-branding as Virgin Media, NTL and Telewest were able to agitate off any anterior hapless repute with consumers and piggy back on to the trade name name Virgin that is known for being a premium trade name offering excellence in client service.
• Virgin Media has managed to guarantee that it has formed strategic confederations with the likes of Sky and Setanta. This has been of import as portion of its all inclusive services to clients.
• Virgin Media, despite the convulsion of restructuring, has ensured that it retains its trade name repute for offering excellence of client service and an enviable corporate repute, something which its one major rival, BT, has late failed to accomplish.
• Virgin Media besides has the substructure laid down antecedently by NTL. This means that they do non hold to trust on BT phone lines to supply their services. This is of import as it offers a much wider pick to consumers and more control over pricing to Virgin Media.

Menaces and Problems Virgin Media May Face in the Future:

• Virgin Media operates in a really transeunt and fast moving sector. Any market portion that Virgin Media has established through its alone market placement could easy be lost if a rival decided to offer similar packages of merchandises.
• As Virgin Media relies on the substructure laid down by NTL, there are bounds to the geographical country which the company can cover, automatically restricting the volume of clients that can be attracted to fall in the company, as market incursion becomes greater.
• Pricing of all media bundles is going progressively competitory. Companies such as BT and Orange are continuously developing new merchandises and cutting costs in order to go more cost effectual and to drive down monetary values in the market, as a whole. This uninterrupted driving down of monetary values requires Virgin Media to work on cost salvaging attacks such as outsourcing client service squads.
• This determination to outsource the client service component of the concern is a necessary cost economy exercising, but it besides produces a possible hereafter job. Customers are peculiarly concerned about deriving entree to locally based aid from media companies. Therefore, the determination to outsource may ensue in estranging some of the current client base, unless a witting attempt is made to retain these relationships.

Sir Robert McAlpine

Key Reasons for Sir Robert McAlpine 's Success:

• Sir Robert McAlpine has been established for about 150 old ages and, in this clip, has developed a market taking repute amongst both clients and rivals likewise. Sir Robert McAlpine’s repute in the industry has allowed the company to offer on big scale undertakings that can be charged at a premium, due to the degree of expertness required to finish them successfully.
• Over the old ages, Sir Robert McAlpine has moved into new countries such as atomic power and excavation, which is extremely specialist, with really small in the manner of competition. Investing clip in developing these engineerings has enabled Sir Robert McAlpine to derive full benefit from this moneymaking countries of building.
• Staff squads are located around the UK, with local expertness in their ain specific countries. This is priceless as building frequently requires local geographical cognition. By holding the local bases yet the national construction, Sir Robert McAlpine has ensured that it has the necessary specific cognition, backed up by a immense bank of information gathered over the old ages.
• Equally good as being at the head of building development, the company has invested considerable clip and money in its ain internal substructure. For illustration, the company has province of the art information engineering systems to let staff to work smarter, non harder. It besides uses national picture conferencing installations to let for the sharing of information, rapidly, between the assorted offices.

Menaces and Problems Sir Robert Mc Alpine May Face in the Future:

• Presently, building is non a fast moving sector. More specifically, building is one of the most delicate sectors as companies fail to derive funding for big edifice undertakings. This will doubtless set cost force per unit areas on the company to guarantee that it remains appropriately competitory to pull clients, but besides to do long term net incomes.
• Expertness is at the bosom of Sir Robert McAlpine ; in peculiar, there are cardinal persons in every undertaking who are seen as cardinal to the whole issue. These persons could easy go forth the administration, perchance fall ining a rival. Without their expertness, Sir Robert McAlpine may happen that retaining the relevant clients is hard. For this ground, even the big contracts can be peculiarly delicate and dependent on one or two cardinal relationships.
• Such a big company has significant operating expenses, which can rapidly render the company unprofitable, if the company fails to pull a regular watercourse of contracts. It is perfectly indispensable, hence, that a regular supply of contracts is provided, which given the graduated table of the building undertakings undertaken is non ever easy, peculiarly during times of economic convulsion.
• Whilst Sir Robert McAlpine has justly developed a repute as being able to undertake the largest, most complex building undertakings available, this can sometimes turn out a long term failing. Some companies would be loath to near Sir Robert McAlpine for fright that their undertaking is non sufficiently big or profitable. This may ensue in Sir Robert McAlpine losing out on some moneymaking contracts.

Amstrad PLC

Key Reasons for Amstrad PLC 's Success:

• Amstrad will ever hold the benefit of being known as the first company to offer moderately priced personal computing machines and besides, subsequently in its history, portable computing machines. This allowed Amstrad to set up itself as a film editing border leader in the electronics market, a repute from which it has benefited for the past four decennaries.
• Furthermore, Amstrad was at the head of the fast moving development of the personal computing machine market that occurred throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Bing one of the chief names involved with this development has allowed Amstrad to be recognised as one of the most sure and preferable trade names, even when rivals entered the market.
• Many electronic companies have a moderately short lifecycle, ensuing in a loss of religion in the industry, as a whole. Amstrad has bucked this tendency by being in being ( and productively so ) for 40 old ages. Army for the liberation of rwanda from being a ‘one hit wonder’ , Amstrad has proved its remaining power, therefore guaranting a greater grade of client trust in its merchandises.
• Internally, one of the chief strengths that the administration has had is that of a consistent leader. This has allowed the civilization and manner of the company to develop in a consistent mode, without invariably altering and viing direction thoughts. Although Sir Alan Sugar has now stood down as a consequence of the BSkyB coup d'etat, the power of consistent direction has already been enjoyed by Amstrad.
• More late, Amstrad has recognised and acted upon the demand to organize strategic confederations with cutting border companies so that it can keep its repute of being at the head of technological developments. This pooling of cognition and resources is critical for the long term wellness of the company, traveling frontward.

Menaces and Problems Amstrad PLC May Face in the Future:

• Although the new confederation with BSkyB is a good move for the company, there is a danger that there will be a clang of civilizations, peculiarly with those employees who have worked under the way of Sir Alan Sugar entirely, for several decennaries.
• Amstrad had first mover advantage in the personal computing machine market which, although advantageous in many ways, has however meant that Amstrad now has a repute for being slightly behind the times and out-of-date. As engineering becomes more complicated, this repute may turn out hard to get the better of with certain possible clients.
• Electronicss, as a whole, are going progressively competitory with more and more rivals come ining the market. Pressures on costs will doubtless take to a bead in net incomes for companies such as Amstrad. Efficiency and careful investing in footings of staff clip and attempt will go critically of import, over the coming old ages.
• The market is besides traveling quickly, which requires a extremely tuned sense of clocking where new merchandise launches are concerned. Amstrad will non be able to trust on its long standing, solid repute ; it will necessitate to go advanced, if it is to retain impressive grosss as it has achieved, historically.