Motorola, inc.: case analysis focusing on company strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats, strategy, and recommended action
1. Describe the salient opportunities and threats that exist in Motorola's external environment.
At the time of this case in November 2008, Motorola, Inc. had just announced a decision to postpone a planned split of the Company into two separate business enterprises. The decision to postpone the planned split of the Company was due in large part to conditions in the external environment of the organization. The United States and the world had just recently become aware of the onset of a severe economic meltdown and financial collapse. This situation created uncertainty for the Company, its competitors, and its customers. The strategic threats stemming from this situation were more numerous and more serious than were the opportunities that remained in the external environment of the organization. Uncertainty created a threat to the planned strategy to split the Company because consumer behavior related to two planned independent business enterprises could affect the two enterprises differently, an outcome that in turn could increase the risk of failure for one or the other. Maintaining the business organizational structure as is might provide a better liquid asset base the protect the all parts of the Company in the near term. Nevertheless, the opportunity to increase operational efficiency and improve market positions over the long-term by splitting the Company into two independent business enterprises continued to be present in the external environment of the organization (Christensen, Delagarza, Griggs, Robertson, Stuart, & Valverde, 2009; Ireland, Hoskisson, & Hitt, 2009; Motorola, Inc., 2009).
2. Describe the Company's most prominent strangths and weaknesses.
One significant strength of the Company was the global distribution of sales. For all of 2008, 48.8 percent ...