Opportunities For Samsung's Growth In The Electronic Market Essay.

You are required to identify and evaluate

Opportunities
Options
Improvements

to positively impact the effectiveness and/or efficiency of an organisation, explaining and justifying your thinking concerning exploiting the opportunities. 

Opportunities to Grow in the Market

Samsung Electronics is a South Korean company and was established in 1969. It is one of the largest producers of electronic devices. Currently the company became one of the bestselling smartphones in the world. In 1990 the company expanded it’s operations in the electronic market. It operates four divisions comprising digital media, information and communications, semiconductors and home appliances (Lee, 2014). Samsung launched range of galaxy smartphone series in 2000. In this report the situation has been discussed which the company faced regarding battery in it’s Galaxy S7 model. The opportunities have been identified to grow in the market. The options available to expand and the situations have been discussed to improve efficiency.  Further the research is also conducted to investigate the issue.

Samsung can grow by the opportunities available in the market. The company has strong presence in the smartphone’s market. It expects to consolidate it’s market share by innovative products and services. The company expects sale over 125 million. Samsung launches ‘Never Mind’ offer in the festive season which provides one time screen replacement. The consumers can replace the broken screen within the warranty period by paying the genuine prices. This offer is applicable on Galaxy J, A and C series. Samsung can grab opportunities by focussing on innovations and superior products and services. Such schemes are equally beneficial for the company as it can help to attain loyalty of customers (Spender, 2014). Replacing screens at lower prices can attract and give solution to the problem of customers. 

The company has opportunity to expand in the market by focussing on software and services. The company can attract customers by using fastest processors and bright screens. The incorporate novel and high tech features can be important in increasing sales. It is enough to bring customers back by using new material. The software, hardware and services are successful in appealing customers. The version of android used by company could be more sophisticated and attractive. It can make more investment in software and hiring new engineers which can actually result in increasing productivity of company. The company can make changes in the design of touch wiz layer on the top of Android which has not changed much in the last years. It can also make changes in the group play app which has not worked well. Samsung can involve partners to accomplish the aim of giving customers a smooth and seamless experience (Dove, 2016). Now a day’s customers run for the new software and technologies so it is biggest advantage for the company to attract customers by enhancing software version. Hardware is also equally advantage for the company. It can make experiment and modification in the designing of smartphones.

Expanding through Software and Services

Samsung has completely acquired Harman in 2017. It created extensive growth opportunities and delivered benefits to customers. The company has further scope of expansion by acquiring and merging expert companies. Such achievements result in captivating cash value to customers and provide new opportunities to employees and can give benefit to customers. In addition to this acquiring companies can help in increasing market penetration. It can expand the business platform by delivering differentiated audio and visual experience to customers. Samsung can attain access to the software of acquired company and can deliver end to end service through merging of design and service. Such initiatives can provide new offering to the customers. Acquisition has a great role in the expansion of business (Kim, 2016). The company can increase it’s market size by acquiring expert companies. It also helps companies to acquire new talent, technologies and customers. So, the acquisition has great importance in the growth aspect of company.

Samsung is a leader in the supply of OLED displays. It provides OLEDs to Apple Inc. Apple has huge dependence on Samsung for OLEDs. Samsung is the only company which supplies to Apple and has volume and best quality (Jie &Hasan, 2017). It pays $130-$140 per screen to Samsung. The company has opportunity in the global market. It can supply screens to the new mobile companies. It is going to help new companies and Samsung can increase it’s business share (Uhl & Gollenia, 2016). Everyday new companies are entering in the mobile industry. Samsung can make contract with such companies. It can actually increase side business of company other than the supply of mobiles. The company has generated good revenue from OLED displays which has been discussed in the appendices 3.

International diversification is the strategy which can be used by Samsung to increase profits by selling products in the new market. It can enhance the value of the organisation. The organisation can sell products in the developed market by the establishment of new enterprises. It helps organisation to achieve economies of scale. The company can diversify through the internal expansion and modification of products (Najrani, 2016). It can expanse externally through expansion and strategic alliances. The company can achieve international standards by the expansion of products globally. Such opportunities impart profit to the company and the profits of Samsung over years have been discussed in the appendices 1. 

Samsung have option to regain it’s image through the launch of Galaxy S8 and S8+ and new and efficient models. The former devices are bigger and better. The specifications can help company to overcome issues of Galaxy S7. It includes the beloved features like IP68 water and dust resistance. It also includes the features like fast wireless charging and Samsung DeX. The Samsung DeX is a feature which transforms smartphone into desktop computer. It allows display and edits data from phone. It also contains the Bixby button which enables personalized help. It is based on the interest, situation and location over time (YIN, YE & HUANG, 2017). Other additional feature includes Samsung Pay which turns phone into digital wallet and can be used instead of debit and credit card. It has more than 870 banking partnerships worldwide. It has also improved the security. Now the devices are built on a defence grade security platform known as Samsung Knox.

Acquiring and Merging Expert Companies

Samsung can solve the battery issues which Samsung faced in the models of Galaxy note7 by options such as new protocols like multi-layer safety measure and eight point battery safety checks. It can also form an advisory group during press conference. The company can publish details for the battery checks. It can also conduct investigation to ensure no leakage of battery. The issue observed with the batteries is design and manufacturing (Aiello &Cacia, 2015). So company can make required changes with the battery to overcome catching fire and overheating.

Battery replacement is also the option which can be used by the company to improve efficiency of organisation. The battery should be replaced by the company if the smart phone needs to charge more often, over heat during charge or usage even if the phone discharges in a short period of time. Charge cycles are a series of battery training which is designed to accept power as the battery can hold. It defines requirement of full discharge for memory training (Henry, 2015).

Never mind offer is one of those options. It replaces broken screen at fewer prices during the festive season. It can be beneficial for the company to make available such offers frequently. Innovations are also the option which can be used by the company to bring expanded batteries and new design of phones (Zuoming, Wei & Ming, 2014).

The company has further option to increase investment in research and development to overcome battery issue and bring efficiency in the organisation. The company can enter in the cloud business segment and increase presence in the evolving markets. Samsung can also enter into strategic alliance with the affiliated businesses. It can grow it’s business by online channels such as Amazon.com. It can use features which makes customers to switch on smart phones. The company can acquire new companies which are good at tech (Thompson, Peacock, Western& Batterham, 2015). It ensures future growth. The recent acquired firms have brought growth in the organisation such as Harman, New Net communication and Viv. Acquisition brings fresh talent and techniques in the organisation. So, company can further plan to acquire firms for the efficiency of organisation. 

The price of Samsung smartphones is 1.5-2 times more than the price offered by the cheap brands with the similar specifications. When it comes to comparison then the phones offered by Samsung are overpriced. So the company can concentrate on the price of products and services. It can help in improving performance of company. The other problem with Samsung is that it does not innovate and copy design of phone from others (Kline & Hutchins, 2017). The company need to focus on innovations. Such innovations can improve efficiency of organisation.

Supplying OLED Displays to New Mobile Companies

The performance of company can also be improved by utilising fewer resources on the Touch wiz UI. The company has recently faced issue regarding battery as the Samsung’s galaxy S7 drains very fast and becomes hot. The defective batteries caused various devices to explode.  The battery life has reduced from 15-18 hours to 5 hours even if the phone is rarely used. The same issue is found in Galaxy Note 8 and Galaxy S8+. These issues are affecting latest flagship by Samsung. Such issue is also known as deep discharge and can affect devices with lithium-ion batteries. Samsung has been making efforts to investigate the issue. It has been suggested by the company to recharge phone before the battery is completely drained (Shin, 2017).

The company can solve complications related to Galaxy S7 problems, bugs and malfunctions to improve performance. Solving problems in a smooth way can attract customers. Samsung can make efforts to work Galaxy S8 like other phones. The users report that their phones do not charge completely. The company need to remove issue with the finger print scanner. The iris scanning technology can be made accessible as it is much faster and usable. The facial recognition is also not properly working in Galaxy S7 models. It takes various attempts at scanning. The company can easily improve facial recognition through the software updates. It can get better over time (Jeong, Yoon & Lee, 2017).

The company has conducted investigation with 700 employees testing 200,000 phones and 30,000 additional batteries. It has been reported that the issue was caused by the irregular size battery. After the investigation on second battery it was realised that there is nothing wrong with the design of battery and the manufacturing issue resulted into welding defect that caused battery to short circuit. Such investigations help in building authenticity of company. The company also commissioned three outside test labs like UL, Exponent and TUV Rhea inland. These companies also ended up with the similar results. According to the report of wall street journal the issue was caused by an irregular size battery. The company has made initiative with telecom carriers for the issue of software update. It could disable the Galaxy note 7’s charging ability (Shamsi, Ali & Kazmi, 2017). It has also improved volume and speed of returned units. The company can also create battery advisory group for the safety. It is going to include leaders from recognized universities. The safety system can include: 

International Diversification

Durability test: It conducts additional durability tests including battery securing, pressure testing with extreme temperature and charging too much.

Visual Inspection: In the visual inspection the battery is compared with the standards. It defines the criteria.

X-ray test: The x-ray test can be conducted to inspect issues related to battery such as refraction of the electrode. This is one of the causes of Note 7 issue.

Take to pieces test: Take to pieces test also known as disassembling test carries a detailed check of the quality including tab fusing and isolation tape conditions. These are the main issues found in Note7.

TVOC test: A sensing test is conducted to detect leakage from battery component and complete device.

Open circuit voltage test (OCV) test: The OCV test is performed to inspect the condition of battery by checking the change in voltage in the normal temperature.

Charge and discharge test: The large scale charge and discharge tests are performed to all the devices which were initiated in the investigation which were found in the investigation conducted for the Note 7.

Faster usage test: The company engaged in 2 weeks of real life usability circumstances, which the company shortened to five day test period.  

Conclusion 

From the above report it can be concluded that Samsung is performing well and is the second leading brand. The opportunities have been discussed in the report that helps in expansion of company. These opportunities help in international diversification, acquisition, focusing on software and services and by supplying OLED displays to other companies. Further the options have been discussed by which company can regain it’s image by launching of new and efficient models. The battery replacement option can be used to solve the battery issue faced by consumers. Expansion of Never mind scheme can be beneficial in attaining loyalty of customers. The company can attain more options by research and development. Innovations can be successful in creating more growth opportunities. The company can improve it’s performance by utilising less resources on Touch Wiz UI. The company can easily improve by removing complications of Galaxy S7 models. For this Samsung has conducted research and implemented the safety system for batteries. Such complications are just the chance to bring efficiency in the organisation. 

References

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Henry, C., 2015. Doing well by doing good: opportunity recognition and the social enterprise partnership. Journal of social entrepreneurship, 6(2), pp.137-160.

Jeong, B., Yoon, J. and Lee, J.M., 2017. Social media mining for product planning: A product opportunity mining approach based on topic modeling and sentiment analysis. International Journal of Information Management.

Jie, C.T. and Hasan, N.A.M., 2017. APPLE VERSUS SAMSUNG PATENT LAWSUIT: AN ISSUE AND CRISIS MANAGEMENT APPROACH. International Journal, 2(5), pp.1-12.

Kim, C., 2016. Samsung, Media Empire and Family: A Power Web (Vol. 34). Routledge.

Kline, J.J. and Hutchins, G., 2017. Enterprise risk management: A global focus on standardization. Global Business and Organizational Excellence, 36(6), pp.44-53.

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Najrani, M., 2016. The endless opportunity of organizational agility. Strategic Direction, 32(3), pp.37-38.

Shamsi, A.F., Ali, M.H. and Kazmi, S.S., 2017. Samsung Note 7-An Unprecedented Recall That Created History: Exploding Phones Recovered–Exploded Trust?. International Journal of Experiential Learning & Case Studies, 2(1), pp.44-57.

Shin, J.S., 2017. Dynamic catch-up strategy, capability expansion and changing windows of opportunity in the memory industry. Research Policy, 46(2), pp.404-416.

Spender, J.C., 2014. Business strategy: Managing uncertainty, opportunity, and enterprise. OUP Oxford.

Thompson, D., Peacock, O., Western, M. and Batterham, A.M., 2015. Multidimensional physical activity: an opportunity not a problem. Exercise and sport sciences reviews, 43(2), p.67.

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