Zipcar Case Study Analysis

Discount Tire Co. (2016) SWOT summarized the following analysis of the company, “Strengths: Comprehensive product and service portfolio, robust store operations and brand image and online shopping with interactive wheel system. Weaknesses: Private ownership and limited geographical spread increases its business risks. Opportunities: Positive outlook for the United States new cars market and establishment of new stores for business expansion. Threats: Intense competition and growing retail operations of other tire manufacturers” (Discount Tire Co, 2016, p. 12). This SWOT analysis if used properly, can help organizations make decisions that align their vision with their goals.

It has everything a consumer leaving in a busy area of a metropolitan area can ask for. Convenience, cheap, and accessibility. This is everything that a customer living with out a vehicle in an area that a car is needed periodically can ask for.Weaknesses: To start up a business like this as Chase realized you need a lot of capital. Finding the money and investors that believe in your company is going to be the hardest thing to do. To lease new cars or not have enough cars for the demand of new customers can also be a hindrance in the growth of this company. Other areas of concern that need to be addressed are the costs and insurance and liability exposure that renting a car to somebody can have. With multiple of even a few wrecks or fatalities can easily close the doors to a company like Zipcar that is just getting started. Opportunities: The Zipcar company is a company that can be very easily started once the right infrastructure is in place and can even be pitched to investors as a franchise store. That can be duplicated in other areas of the country. There is not current niche for the type of people that Chase is targeting and is untapped market place with the proper marketing plan.Threats: Rental car companies can also offer rental of cars on an hourly basis. They can pick up customers as well. This is not advertised but can be done. Most importantly if Boston or New York, or Chicago have a very efficient Public

Enterprise Rent-A-Car has started its operations in 1962 by establishing and successfully developing a new niche in the car renting industry. The business had strictly focused on replacing local citizens’ cars due to repairs. Later on Enterprise started to serve two additional segments, leisure & discretionally rentals and business rentals. Newly launched segments were successful; however the main focus of Enterprise continued to be the initial business stream – the Replacement Rentals. This business section takes up 78% of Enterprise’s resources, which enables the company to capture approximately 55% of the US replacement rentals market share. Yet, the total replacement Rent-A-Car

These number will be used for predicting future financial statements later in this case study.

Zipcar needs additional funding if it hopes to survive and expand. In order to gain additional funding they would have to bring in there best arguements to why they should be funded by outside investors. On pages 1 and 11 it states that Chase needs to work on a pitch that will get investors to invest. In other words, she needs to look at revising the current business model so investors will want to buy in.

There was a crash cart that was brought to my attention. This crash cart number #13 that was exchanged from PICU because of a code was called around or about 1530. The information that was passed indicated that the crash cart was ready to be returned into rotation. I noticed and Mr. Jackson, QA noticed items missing from the top of the crash cart #13, such as pediatrics and adult zolls. After futher inventory of the crash cart Mr. Jackson the QA for the crash cart noticed many items missing from the crash cart. This is unacceptable due to the sensitive of these crash carts. The document was not completed nor items was replishmish. If we would have not inspected this crash cart and put it into rotation and a code was performed, we as a whole

This report intends to analysis the macro and internal environments and financial position of the Travis Perkins plc by conducting the PESTLE and SWOT analysis. In the beginning of this report, it introduces the mission of Travis Perkins plc. After that, this report presents the PESTLE analysis to show the company’s external environment. Then, it depicts the SWOT analysis of Travis Perkins plc to show the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of this company. It follows by the financial strategy analysis and results of Travis Perkins. The balance sheet analysis will be presented in the appendix. In conclusion, the comprehensive environments are favorable to Travis

However, Zipcar still has an advantage over these competitors due to their advanced technology and patented wireless technology. Other car rental companies like Avis and Hertz can be defined as potential powerful competitors. They have a strong presence and financial ability in the car rental industry which makes them unable to enter the car sharing market. On the other hand, advertisements, offers and promotions can be communicated through the network of Zipcar members. In order to sustain a competitive advantage Zipcar might try moving to a new market where they provide luxury vehicles such as limousines. In addition, Zipcar can promote its green service or hybrid cars and how it helps in protecting the environment from the increase in cars

Whether you are designing a Bentley Continental GT Speed or a website for Zipcar, usability matters. To ensure that a website is functional and easy to use, it should undergo usability testing. While the primary goal of usability testing is the same for all usability tests—can the user easily complete the necessary tasks, each product and iteration of testing involves unique tasks and questions. In analyzing the usability test video of Zipcar’s website created by Steve Krug, it is clear that even websites created by successful companies need usability testing after the website has been launched.

Potential new entrants include existing car rental firms, companies that currently supply cars to car-sharing businesses (such as Volkswagen), and new start-up car-sharing ventures. As Zipcar is operating in only Boston, there are opportunities for new entrants (with sufficient resources) to establish themselves as dominant car-sharing service providers in other cities. This threat to the profitability of Zipcar’s planned future expansion activities would pressure Zipcar to expand rapidly in order to remain ahead of the competition. A major barrier to entry is Zipcar’s patented technology involving wireless transmission of usage data between the shared cars and a server. New

The use of ride-sharing applications has become a popular choice to travel from one destination to another. In the past, cities were dominated by the use of taxis as a means of ride choice. As technology and society has evolved, ride-share applications such as Lyft have become a dominating choice for travel. After completing a PEST and SWOT analysis, Lyft can analyze how to proceed going forward to continue its growth and success.

Firstly, Hertz faces low threat of entry from the competitors. As Hertz serves in the car rental and equipment rental industry it has low barriers to entry due to need of excessive amount of startup cost and through product differentiation. With the company’s excellent economy of scale the new entrants might find difficult to survive. By aiming at the product differentiate Hertz gained very good customer loyalty which new entrants might lack. To initiate a rental business one needs to have good financial resources. The likelihood of achieving profit in the rental industry may serve as a low barrier to the new entrants.

Upon receiving first round financing of $1.3 million, Zipcar is, as CEO Robin Chase describes, “poised for action”. The measures that the company intends to take moving forward will likely determine its future viability as the dominant player in the relatively untapped market of car sharing in North America. Currently, Chase is testing the concept in the single market of Boston, and has ambitious goals to break into other markets along the East and Mid-coast by the end of next year. Having received preliminary positive customer responses, Zipcar has potential to establish a secure market foothold and revenue traction; however, the start-up company is not without problems, namely the short lead time on their competitive edge, the

In considering the operational objectives, there are a number of potential system concepts that would satisfy these objectives. At the time of the conception of Zipcar, RFID technology was become widely available and less expensive. This presented a potential solution to the security concerns associated with Zipcar. Members and vehicles could be equipped with RFID technology in order to signal when the vehicle should unlock its doors. Additionally, internet was becoming accessible to the general population, so online membership did seem feasible. To allow for on-the-go reservation changes or to locate a Zipcar when customers are away from home, kiosks or reservation counters could be a potential solution around the city to offer customers the flexibility of the Zipcar system. With this analysis and the visualization of potential

Since the invention of smart phones, software application has been very popular from the year 2008 and beyond. It is certainly obvious that, the usage of mobile applications is on the ascendancy. This move by the inventers, has created enormous job opportunity for today’s youth and generation unborn. It has also simplified a more difficult task in this our world. According to Posen (2015), “The use of technology is an important part of this sharing economy. Technology has given rise to networks and cloud services that allow people to access resources only when they need them, connecting people to resources through the simple click of a button. People are now using technology to make money off of things they own by providing them as a service to those who do not own the item themselves.” Uber came to existence as a result software application with the aim of reducing transportation problems on travelers. Uber application software is a digital platform which when downloaded connect both the driver and the consumer. The application is so powerful that, it is able to locate the consumer. Transaction is completed at the click of a button since consumer credit card information is already filed in the system. Thereby making it safe for both the driver and the consumer. According to CRASER (2013), “The best car service on the market, Über quickly locates professional drivers in most major cities and instantly handles payments”. Uber initially started in San Francisco