An Analysis Of Robert Waterman And Tom Peters

a. Under Armour’s approach towards innovation is very unique, they think and plan out their projects thoroughly in order to create a one of a kind product that could be appealing to their consumers. The company has been extremely progressive throughout the years in order to stay ahead of the other competitive companies in their targeted industry. By constantly updating and coming up with different product lines, such as compression shirts and cleats, Under Armour is able to compete with other top athletic wear company’s in their market. If

Strategy refers to the plan or action taken to achieve organizational goals. When Ellen took over Tufts-NEMC, the hospital was struggling with payroll and scale. Ellen had to focus on meeting payroll, a short-term strategy, and could not focus entirely on the longer term. She took some immediate measures to help cut cost

Mind Tools (2017) describes the McKinsey’s 7S as having a hard elements, which are easier to identify and leaders can influence them directly like Strategy, structure and system and soft elements are more with as being hard and shared values, style, staff and skills as being soft. Strategy is the plan of the organization objectives that will build an advantage over the competitive opposition opponents (Singh, 2013, Mind Tools, 2017). Next is the structure is the dynamics of the organization structure, for instance, the organization chart or chain of command (Singh, 2013, Mind Tools, 2017). Then there is the systems which are the procedures and activities that are conducted daily by staff in order to get the job done (Singh, 2013, Mind Tools, 2017). The shared values are the superordinate goals, like the core values of the organization are next and the style is the adopted leadership style (Singh, 2013, Mind Tools, 2017). The last two are staff which is the employees and their abilities to perform their job duties and skills which are the capabilities and competencies that each employee has to achieve the objective of the organization (Singh, 2013, Mind Tools, 2017).

Under Armour is a very famous sportswear company in the world. It sold products in three categories: apparel, footwear, and accessories. It had a wide variety of innerwear and outerwear in the apparel segment, a broad line of footwear, and a line of accessories for both men and women. Kevin A. Plank, the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Under Armour (UA), was a walk-on special team’s player for University of Maryland football team. As an athlete, he knew what kind of sportswear material would be popular for athletes. Under Armour created a new category of sports apparel: “performance apparel” which focused on the athlete’s performance. In this segment, it had a 78% market in 2009. Because, it paid more attentions on quality, performance

Under Armour’s (UA) current CEO Kevin Kant founded the company in 1996, which has witnessed the company grow in recent years to become a key player in the sporting gear and apparel industry. UA focuses its products and marketing efforts towards the youth, men, and women. The amount of resources that are allocated to each group of customers differs in that initially, UA primary source of revenue was from men even if youth and women products were also produced and sold. The specificity of UA’s products and their sporting activities selectivity can be attributed to UA’s limited global market share in the sporting gear and apparel industry. The company’s mission statement is inspiring, but in order to gain competitive advantages against larger

Under Armour, Inc. is ranked among the established sports Kit producers across the globe. It thus enjoys massive sales in several markets. Under Armour has its headquarters Baltimore, Maryland with Kevin Plank as the current Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Robin Thurston as the Chief Finance Office. The company is committed to developing its brand continuously through advertisement. It is presently listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) market with a share price of $46.99. The company through its CEO believes that for the company to remain viable in the market, it has to ensure that that its products satisfy the taste of the consumers (Thompson, 2015). Clearly, this has bored fruits, basing the argument on the high consumer

The athletic industry is a demanding market where brands battle for consumer’s attention and try to hold on to them through brand loyalty. To compete with one another, companies have to come out with new trends regularly. Nike is a leading competitor in the market and has been for the last fifty years. However, Under Armour, an up and coming competitor is challenging Nike through new styles and lower prices. These two companies look fairly similar; however, Under Armour’s strategy is different and it should be putting Nike on edge.

Other clothing brands have the ability to start manufacturing athletic apparel to take away market share and diversify their portfolio. Thus, existing apparel companies could enter the performance apparel market if they decide to invest capital for advertising and building product demand. Under Armour has weak patent protection over its product; hence, there is a threat of different unexpected entrants who want to reiterate on their proven formula. Overall, the threat is less imperative to their continued success since other issues are more pertinent and likely.

The industry that will be analyzed in the following paper will be the athletic wear industry. The firm in particular that will be analyzed will be analyzed is Under Armour. Assessing the athletic wear industry using Porter’s 5 forces, New Entrants is the first thing analyzed. The threat of new entrants within the industry is low. It is medium because there are already many well-established brand names; including Nike, Adidas, Rebook, Puma, Champion, Patagonia, and The North Face are just a few examples of these brands. Triefs Under Armour analysis shows these companies can create competition by joining sub industries that Under Armour is involved in that they are not as competitors. Also there is often large capital cost within the industry for branding, advertising and creating demand. When analyzing the rivalry within the industry Under Armour faces , Triefs

Under Armour, Inc. is ranked among the established sports Kit producers across the globe. It thus enjoys massive sales in several markets. Under Armour has its headquarters Baltimore, Maryland with Kevin Plank as the current Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Robin Thurston as the Chief Finance Office. The company is committed to developing its brand continuously through advertisement. It is presently listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) market with a share price of $46.99. The company through its CEO believes that for the company to remain viable in the market, it has to ensure that that its products satisfy the taste of the consumers (Thompson, 2015). Clearly, this has bored fruits, basing the argument on the high consumer turnover that the company enjoys. Moreover, the company has various opportunities to expand in the American markets. All the employees in the organization have to undergo a form of training on the operations of the company. The company is appreciated by several consumers across the globe as a result of the high-quality products it produces and the unique marketing strategies. It is founded on the slogan “protect this house.”

The significant factors that caused Under Armour’s slow and declining sales growth as well as the company’s rising expenses were the inability to expand the market online and in traditional stores as well as the lack of marketing in not only the target demographics but also the struggling demographics that the company was trying to reach. In the case presentation, Under Armour was entering the market as an underdog under athletic powerhouses Nike and Adidas, so the company needed to not only create but sustain a viable marketing strategy that imposes on existing markets and captures new audiences consistently to continually increase sales. While a portion of this strategy was done during the company’s early years, recent numbers show a continuous decline in sales and market share to not only the industry powerhouses, but also to international companies as well. Under Armour has great and innovative products, but falls short in presenting those products to a broad and general audience, in area where competitors are most successful and

Henry Mintzberg has defined the definition of strategies in academic ways and in practice in 1988. After examing the strategic process, he found that it was more unpredictable than early thoughts. Thus, it couldn’t refer to one process that be called strategic planning. Instead of that, he concludes the following five types :(1)Strategy as plan – a directed course of action to achieve an intended set of goals; similar to the strategic planning concept;(2)Strategy as pattern – a consistent pattern of past behavior, with a strategy realized over time rather than planned or intended. Where the realized pattern was different from the intent, he referred to the strategy

Founded in 1996, Under Armour has succeeded in gaining the number 2 spot in the sports apparel, footwear, and accessories industry yet, as of 2016, back in 3rd. The threat of new entrants shaking up the industry is a daily reality facing the industry participants. Technology and innovation within and outside the industry changes the playing field and results in companies scrambling to protect its market share. However, to protect the industry, Under Armour, as well as the other competitors, are quick to release innovative products, new designs, product enhancements value priced to keep up with the always changing minds of the consumers.

Developing or making a strategy for a management is very complex in nature. It needs to be made in the uncertainty situations and may also affect the operational decisions. New strategy developed may also involve the change in present culture of an organisation which is difficult and may adversely affect the performance of the organisation. Strategies usually exist at a number of levels in an organisation. Let’s distinguish different levels of strategies and analyse it using Burberry’s strategies. The strategic themes of Burberry are: Leveraging the

Johnson, Wittington, Scholes, Angwin and Regnér (2014, p. 3) defines strategy as ‘the long-term direction of an organisation’.