An Analysis Of Robert Waterman And Tom Peters

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

After thorough examination into Under Armour’s (UA) strategies, evidence suggests the company has experienced exponential growth lead by high-profile endorsements and exceptional product quality. Furthermore, after comparing key financial ratios and other metrics to industry standards, UA remains destined not only to be a leader domestically, but internationally as well. However, both external and internal assessments indicate the company’s financials pale in comparison to their main competitor Nike. For example, after examining the apparel and textile’s industry profitability drivers, a Competitive Profile Matrix (CPM) was conducted to determine UA’s strengths and weaknesses compared to their main competitor Nike, which produced weighted scores of 3.2 (UA) and 3.8 (Nike) (Global Edge, 2016; David & David, 2015). Additionally, an Internal Factor Evaluation (IFE) Matrix is provided to first identify UA’s internal strengths and weaknesses, rate the degree of success the company sustains in each factor, and weigh it against its importance as it relates to success within the industry (David & David, 2015). Therefore, the ensuing paragraphs expand each factor within each of the matrices and whether or not each factor represents a strength or weakness for UA.

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

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.

Under Armour is one of the leading manufacturer, marketer and distributor for branded sports apparel, footwear and accessories, for both men and women. The company was founded in 1996 by Kevin Plank, a former football player for University of Maryland. The company has its headquarters at Baltimore but sells its products in most countries across the world. Additional regional offices are located in Amsterdam 's Olympic Stadium, Hong Kong, Guangzhou and Denver among others. Despite beginning from humble backgrounds, the company employs 2,200 workers and reports sales exceeding 700 million dollars. Currently, the company 's vision is to empower athletes everywhere; the mission is to make all athletes better through passion, design and relentless pursuit of innovation. Therefore, this essay examines Under Armour 's business environment and suggests recommendations and opinions on the strategic direction of the company.

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

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

An enemies weak spots are natural targets and the flank attack focuses on attacking those natural weak spots through geographic dimensions and segmental dimensions. In this case, Under Armour uses the segmental dimension. The segmental dimension serves the market’s uncovered needs. As a matter of fact, according to the Flank strategy, the purpose of marketing is to discover needs and satisfy them. This is exactly what Under Armour has done and what it continues to do. It has been the fuel that steers this ship to success. Under Armour is deliberately planning its future according to its consumer base. For example, Under Armour is has recently entered the cross-training footwear market by releasing a very specific product which I will explain later in the paper. When CEO Kevin Plank was asked as to why he was pursuing the cross-training category, his answer was simple: “It’s the same reason we went after football cleats, because our customer asked us for it.” (Olson 2008) This marketing concept has not only helped Under Armour grow exponentially, but it has helped Under Armour separate itself from other sportswear giants like Nike. Nike’s philosophy which believes in telling the athlete what’s best for them portrays them as being the loud, stubborn, know-it-all type whereas Under Armour portrays themselves as the player-friendly coach, who listens to its player’s feedback and adjusts its game-plan accordingly.

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, 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

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

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

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.

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