{"id":4428,"date":"2014-05-08T19:35:23","date_gmt":"2014-05-08T19:35:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.marketingteacher.com\/ibm-swot\/"},"modified":"2015-07-03T08:33:54","modified_gmt":"2015-07-03T08:33:54","slug":"ibm-swot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marketingteacher.com\/staging\/5483\/ibm-swot\/","title":{"rendered":"IBM SWOT"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>IBM SWOT<\/h1>\n<p class=\"author\">Dr. Jill Novak, University of Phoenix, Texas A&#038;M University {Contributing  Writers: Jaime and Jennifer Hermann)<\/p>\n<p>In 1924, The Computing-Tabulating-Recording  Company adopted the name International Business Machines Corporation.\u00a0 IBM has been involved in many technological advances  since the early twentieth century from tabulating countries\u2019 census reports to  sporting event analysis to developing computer software and e-business.\u00a0 IBM today is not just the Hardware giant that  we have come to know.\u00a0 Most of their  revenue comes from software and consulting and leads the world in technological  achievements. Would you like a lesson on <a href=\"https:\/\/marketingteacher.com\/staging\/5483swot-analysis-marketing-tools-from-marketing-teacher\/\">SWOT<\/a> analysis?<\/p>\n<h2>Opportunities<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Increased globalization is an  important opportunity that can be exploited by IBM in order to balance the  fluctuations in different economies. <\/li>\n<li>Their brand image is synonymous  with \u201cbig\u201d and \u201cold\u201d they need to create products appealing to a younger  generation and reposition their company. <\/li>\n<li>IBM needs to maintain a  competitive edge in the marketplace and innovation is key and working with  IT-related companies to create new products in the ever changing market; use  patents to generate revenue.\u00a0 <\/li>\n<li>IBM\u2019s love of open source  operating systems, specifically Linux, benefits IBM in both the short and long  term.\u00a0 IBM can sell its i-series  platforms with Linux to respond to the growing demands of the operating systems  (OS).\u00a0 Also, IBM can also use Linux on its  Z-series mainframe line and even its p-series machines which mostly uses IBM\u2019s  own AIX which usually competes against the UNIX operating system.\u00a0 Open architecture is key to creating and  maintaining market share. <\/li>\n<li>IBM\u2019s small-medium business  (SMB) has improved over the years but there is definitely a need to increase  its market share to have an overall competitive edge.\u00a0 <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Threats<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The fact that they are  completely dependent on Microsoft (in their computer services division) could  be a huge problem if anything ever happened to them. <\/li>\n<li>Hackers and sensitive  information can be exposed and exploited by individuals and IBM needs to be  innovative with regards to firewalls and protective software. <\/li>\n<li>The supply chain has very few suppliers,  leaving IBM very little to negotiate with or switch to.<\/li>\n<li>HP, Sun Microsystems are all  competitors and are all threats to IBM\u2019s bottom line.\u00a0 Their competitors are able to create cheaper  products and make more a considerable profit. Smaller companies that can move  faster and provide less expensive products and services than IBM can become  very costly to IBM\u2019s more lucrative bundles focusing more on larger companies  with big budgets. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>History of IBM<\/h2>\n<p>When you look at our history, you see that we have had a real and lasting impact on the world because of our unique character \u2014 our core values, our behaviour and our performance as IBMers. Take a look back at the innovations, people and values that have defined IBM for nearly a century. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ibm.com\/ibm\/us\/en\/\">More . . .<\/a><\/p>\n<h2>Strengths<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>IBM leads the world in  technological success with patents in the United States for 17 straight  years.\u00a0 In 2008 IBM earned 4186 patents and  in 2009 they increased that amount to 4,914.\u00a0  It published almost 4,000 technical inventions and products without  patent protection in 2009; this is a valuable intellectual property. <\/li>\n<li>They are the company handling  95% of all business in the 1000 most profitable companies in the US. <\/li>\n<li>In 2009 they were recognized as  the 4th most recognized brand name in the world and they have been  consistently in the top 10 for 20 years. <\/li>\n<li>IBM is one of the largest and most profitable companies in  the world, with a value of $66 billion. They have over 400,000 employees  worldwide. <\/li>\n<li>It is an old, established company, founded in 1896 as the  Tabulating Machine Company by Herman Hollerith, in Broome County, New York.<\/li>\n<li>In 1945 they were the first company to establish dedicated  research labs for the creation of technological innovation, which lead to the  creation of computers, voice recognition software and products that assist  those working in medicine and radiology. \u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Weaknesses<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>IBM\u2019s size is also its weakness.\u00a0 IBM\u2019s goliath size can make it slower to react  to customer\u2019s needs and wants as well as to the industry\u2019s fluctuations.\u00a0 And it\u2019s more than 400,000 employees can make  it difficult to find the support and services needed.<\/li>\n<li>Enormous operating costs and  competitors eating into their market share forced them in 2010 to buy back $8  billion in stock. <\/li>\n<li>Transferring jobs oversees has  been an option IBM is using more and more.\u00a0  At the end of 2009, IBM USA had a workforce of 105,000 down 30,000 in  just a few years. \u00a0In 2009, there were  rumors that IBM wants to get the US workforce down to 70,000.\u00a0 This is not a weakness for other countries that  are absorbing many of these US jobs.<\/li>\n<li>Communication across these  different countries can be very challenging. For example, having the helpdesks  in India creates language barriers in the US.\u00a0  Also, India has exported many engineers to the US because they are  cheaper to pay but also Indian Engineers do not have both the educational and  experiential accolades of their US counterparts.\u00a0 Many of them come over to the states and the  few US employees left in the department have to re-train them, wasting  countless hours that could be used in supporting their customers.\u00a0 <\/li>\n<li>The current recession has hurt  everyone and IBM is not exempt.\u00a0  Financial services, which accounts for 30% of IBM revenue, has  declined.\u00a0 It\u2019s riddled with subprime  mortgages forcing to mark down their portfolios to ridiculously low \u201cmarket\u201d  prices on packaged securities that are trading at a fraction of their  theoretical value.\u00a0 This, in turn, is  affecting the equity of banks, and therefore their ability to lend.\u00a0 <\/li>\n<li>Servers and Storage which  account for about 20% of IBM\u2019s revenue has declined to 16% and a 6% decline in  margins.\u00a0 <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>IBM SWOT is one of 50+ FREE examples of SWOT analysis on Marketing Teacher.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-swot-analysis-examples"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marketingteacher.com\/staging\/5483\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marketingteacher.com\/staging\/5483\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marketingteacher.com\/staging\/5483\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marketingteacher.com\/staging\/5483\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marketingteacher.com\/staging\/5483\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/marketingteacher.com\/staging\/5483\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4428\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marketingteacher.com\/staging\/5483\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marketingteacher.com\/staging\/5483\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marketingteacher.com\/staging\/5483\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}