Strategic Management: Intel Organization
MGT6047 Strategic Management Assessment
Assessment Task: Strategic Management Report
Maximum Word Length: 3500
The word count is for the main body of the text and excludes the reference list. The
word count includes text in Figures and Tables. If you exceed the word length you will
be penalised. For details see Management School Handbooks. No appendices are
permitted for this assignment.
Type: Individual
Submission Instructions:
Electronic submission only through Blackboard
You are now allowed to utilise the Turnitin Check before the assignment deadline
which can be accessed via the information room. This allows you to generate an
originality report and use this to improve your referencing and citation skills.
Please note: Turnitin Check is NOT the final submission - you still need to
submit your work to the Assignment Link on the module Blackboard site,
otherwise it will be marked as Not Submitted.
You should note that the time of submission is taken from once the document has
been successfully uploaded and confirmed - this may take more than five minutes
during busy periods. Late penalties will be applied to any work submitted from
12.01pm on Thursday 27th May 2021 onwards. Details of how to calculate a late
penalty can be found in the PG Handbook. It is the student's responsibility to ensure
the document/file has uploaded successfully.
When submitting you must:
1. Include a completed cover sheet (available from Blackboard)
2. Use 'Student Number, MGTXXX-1' (e.g. 190011001) as the document's file
name and also as the Assignment Title in Turnitin.
Requirements: Strategic Management Report
You are required to submit a strategic management report focussing on ONE of six
given organisations. These organisations are: (1) The British Broadcasting
Corporation (BBC); (2) Danone SA; (3) ExxonMobil; (4) Intel Corporation; (5) Marks &
Spencer Group Plc; and (6) Renault Group. Each organisation is facing strategic
issues. Strategic issues are those that impact upon the competitive advantage,
success and/or long term survival of the organisation. Information on these
organisations, and the strategic issues they each face can be found in the
‘Assessment’ area on Blackboard.
For your selected organisation, you are first to perform a strategic analysis to examine
in-depth the nature of the strategic issues they face. You should then propose TWO
strategic options for addressing the organisation’s strategic issues. You should
critically evaluate the pros and cons of these different strategic options before
choosing ONE option that you think is most appropriate for addressing the
organisation’s strategic issues. Finally, you will explain how the organisation should
implement the chosen strategic option, reflecting upon any potential barriers and
challenges and how these might be overcome. Your report should draw upon relevant
strategic management concepts, theories and frameworks, and be supported with
evidence. You should use a combination of academic literature and (credible)
practitioner sources to support your work.
You should NOT collect primary data for this assignment. The material provided
in the ‘Assessment Guidance’ area on MOLE should be supplemented with your own
research from secondary sources. Your report should be structured as follows:
Section A: Strategic analysis (1500 +/- words)
In this section, you should identify your chosen organisation and analyse the strategic
issues it currently faces. In your analysis, you should make appropriate use of strategic
management concepts, theories and frameworks (e.g. you might utilise the PESTEL
or Porter’s five forces frameworks, the VRIO framework, the Mitchell et al (1997)
framework for stakeholder mapping and salience, you might draw upon Porter’s
generic strategies, or with reference to corporate and global strategy frameworks etc.).
Section B: Strategic option (1000 +/- words)
In this section, you will propose and evaluate TWO different strategic options
(alternatives) for the organisation to address the strategic issues it faces. These
options should be identified clearly. They should be discrete/non overlapping. You
should evaluate the pros and cons of the different options before making a strategic
choice about which option you think is most appropriate for addressing the strategic
issues faced by the organisation. The justification for your choice should be clear and
fully supported by your critical evaluation.
Section C: Strategy implementation (1000 +/- words)
In this section, you should discuss how your selected organisation should implement
the chosen strategic option. Identify: key activities to be undertaken, timelines for work,
resources needed, and how progress will be monitored and controlled. Reflect on any
possible barriers and challenges to implementation. For example, there may be
stakeholder issues, a culture that is not conducive to change, or limitations in existing
resources and capabilities. As far as practicable, your recommendations for
implementation should be tangible, realistic and specific.
You are NOT expected to use all strategic management theories, concepts and
frameworks introduced in the module, only those relevant to your chosen organisation,
its specific situation, and the strategic issues it faces. You can draw upon theory and
concepts from other modules if relevant and correctly referenced. However, the lens
through which you examine your organisation and its issues should be one of strategic
management.
Referencing: You must reference your work correctly using the Harvard system.
Failure to do so will result in the deduction of marks and possible proceedings under
the University's Regulations as to the Use of Unfair Means. Support with referencing
and use of the Harvard system is available via the University library:
https://librarydevelopment(dot)group(dot)shef(dot)ac(dot)uk/referencing/harvard.html
Independence of working: You are reminded of the University's Regulations on the
Use of Unfair Means and academic integrity which are outlined in the School's
Handbooks. If there is a suspicion that your work is not your own and that you have
used unfair means or there is suspicion of a breach of academic integrity in writing this
assessment then you may be referred to our unfair means officers to consider your
work. Therefore, you are advised to ensure that you undertake the relevant guidance
on the module site or programme level sites that you have access too. If you cannot
access these, please contact the Student Experience Office.
Other Submission Details:
• Use the standard Management School cover sheet
• Include the word count on the cover sheet
• Present with 2.5cm margins all round
• Use Times New Roman or Arial, 11 or 12 point for the main body text
• Use 1.5 line spacing
• Have all pages numbered except the first
• Be properly spell checked
• Be made attractive with suitable use of headings, paragraphs and sections
• The use of figures and tables to support discussions is encouraged, but
such figures and tables should be appropriately captioned and referenced
in the text. Text in figures and tables that are in the main body of the
assignment is included in the word count – do not use these as a way to
try and circumvent word count restrictions.
• Be properly referenced to the Management School version of Harvard
referencing
• Use of appendices is not permitted.
Resit: The resit for this module will follow the same format but students MUST
examine a different organisation to that which was the focus of their first submission.
INTEL CORPORATION
Name
Course
Institution
Date
Intel Corporation
Business organizations are facing a changing operational environment, thereby demanding their adaptation lest they fail. Multiple political, economic, technological, legal, and social factors affect business operations globally. Such factors are dynamic, and managers barely understand what they will experience at any point. Such dynamism has motivated managers, especially in multinational organizations, to embark on strategic management to steer their organizations into sustainability. While businesses can set goals and hope to achieve those goals, there are always failures characterizing operations in attractive and dynamic environments. Intel Corporation is one of the organizations that are presently faced with the need to re-strategize or fail. Intel has been a market leader in its industry, and people who understand technology would attest to having used their products. This paper analyzes Intel through a proper strategic analysis to identify its primary problem before delving into strategic options that could help the organization regain its position in the industry. Implementing a futuristic growth strategy should help Intel’s advancements into new markets with new or more efficient products likely to help the organization in its growth trajectory.
Strategic Analysis
Intel Corporation is an American multinational technology company located in Santa Clara, Silicon Valley. It was founded in 1968 and has grown to become the market leader in manufacturing semiconductor chips (Hofmann et al., 2017). Currently, Intel is the market leader in the manufacturing of semiconductor chips by revenue. Most personal computers presently run on microprocessors from Intel. Some organizations that use Intel’s chips include HP, Lenovo, Dell, and Toshiba, among other leading global brands in computing. Intel has a wide range of product portfolios that consists of embedded processors, graphic chips, flash memories, server processors, integrated circuits, network interface controllers, and motherboard chipsets. All the above product categories have catapulted Intel into the most successful organizations in the US.
Intel’s historical growth has been anchored on specific strategies. Among the notable strategies was an emphasis on innovativeness. The 1990s marked the primary period for Intel’s growth with the advancements in the developments of personal computers (Hofmann et al., 2017). Intel advanced its semiconductors into computer chipsets that became popular with reputable brands in the computing industry. Intel is also highly diversified and has a wide range of product portfolios that have reduced its operational risks while advancing in the dynamic industry. Ultimately, Intel is known for its vertical integration and takes all the activities in their value. The manufacturing of Intel’s semiconductors and processors is in-house. With an advanced emphasis on vertical integration, the organization limits the costs that it undergoes in manufacturing. Also, it can control its prices considering the manufacturing opportunities. It is worth noting the Intel depended on its superior marketing strategy to gain market leadership. “Intel Inside” is a household phrase that eased the interactions between the organization with its customers or other stakeholders (Hofmann et al., 2017). Given the comprehensive understanding of its operational environment, Intel has traditionally stayed at the top of its industry. However, contemporary developments could steer Intel back to unrecoverable failures.
SWOT Analysis
A detailed understanding of Intel’s present challenges and how to overcome them should begin with an insightful analysis of the organization’s internal environment. SWOT analysis is a framework of organizational analysis that helps to understand the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that a business organization faces in its activities.
Strengths
Intel showcases multiple strengths in its present position. Primarily, Intel remains a leader in the technology industry. Its processors are legendary and used in various items, including gaming consoles, laptops, desktops, and servers. Its brand has grown extensively, and it is the one that is mostly associated with the computing world. Intel also has a reputable brand. With a revenue of $77.8 billion, Intel is the 7th most valuable brand among technology companies globally (Ouro, Lopez-Novoa and Guest, 2020). Fortune indicates that Intel’s brand is ranked 46th among the most admired companies in the world. Ethisphere also published Intel as among the leading organizations in ethics. With such a brand, Intel has managed to attract the inputs of a wide range of customers. The other strength that Intel has showcased through its years of presence is in research and development. Intel has invested heavily in research and development in an organization that operates in a highly competitive industry. The Global Innovation of 2020 ranked Intel as the 5th most innovative company globally (Calore et al., 2018). The other strengths that Intel has showcased include the market share in which it is the leading organization and presence where its operations are present all over the world.
Weaknesses
Intel also showcases notable weaknesses in its operations. One of the biggest weaknesses of the organization is overproduction. Intel has the habit of overproducing its semiconductor chips. Besides flooding the market, such a habit also runs the organization through a high cost of production. Diversity is another weakness that Intel faces presently. The organization is majorly present in the computer market segment, which has limited its growth. The other notable weakness of Intel is decreasing profits. While the organization still stands among the most profitable companies globally, the rates are dropping, and the increasing competition is not helping. Ultimately, Intel has a problem with its services in developing economies (Fasi et al., 2021). While Intel has shown efficiency in servicing its developed markets, such as the US and the UK, it casually addresses the needs of its developing markets, which could hamper its growth considering the impacts that the developing world instills in the growth of industries.
Opportunities
Intel can still grow through the multiple opportunities that it faces presently. The first opportunity comes with the computer era, and the demand for computer products and services keeps increasing (Calore et al., 2018). Intel can take the opportunity to diversify into more product portfolios and stay assured of sustainability. The other opportunity comes with the advancements in smartphones. Smartphones have become essential to many consumers. As a developer of chipsets/semiconductors, Intel can advance into the smartphone industry. Drones also provide a new platform for Intel’s growth. In the future, drones will be useful in surveillance and logistics. Such systems will need chipsets that only organizations such as Intel can be trusted to make. Ultimately, the motor vehicle industry is opening an opportunity for Intel products (Adamski et al., 2017). Processors for automatic cars will be needed, especially with advancements in electric vehicles. Taking such opportunities will help Intel to advance its growth agenda deep into the future.
Threats
Intel is facing multiple threats that it must address for future stability. The first threat is dependency. Intel is too dependent on the singular product line, which can be risky. In an industry where advancements are inevitable, focusing on a single product line could lead to easy failures (Calore et al., 2018). Intel also faces threats in China. China has grown to become a manufacturing hub of the world. While the Chinese products have reliability issues, they are advancing fast and are extremely cheap. That eases their market penetration compared to more stable brands such as Intel (Sorokin et al., 2020). The other threats that Intel is facing include the growth towards hands-free devices that it has ignored and the emerging price wars with more companies advancing their development of chipsets.
Competition
The SWOT analysis above outlines competition as the biggest challenge that Intel is poised to face currently. Intel’s competitive edge is crumbling on three fronts. The first front is the competition with consumers. Intel’s chips are built on the x86 architecture, which is different from the ARM chips. The difference between the two chips is simple (Ouro, Lopez-Novoa and Guest, 2020). That is, as Intel chips are built for high performance, ARM’s are designed for efficiency. ARM chips are also characterized by customization that Intel chips have failed to match. Building on ARM-efficient chips is easier for most consumers as they can add their customizations for better outcomes. With the advent of ARM chips, organizations that were Intel’s consumers have grown into their competitors. Amazon started the wave when it replaces Intel chips in the Amazon Web Services data centers. Amazon reported that the custom chips perform 40% better than Intel’s when set into different benchmarks (Adamski et al., 2017). Apple followed suit by ditching Intel processors for their M1 processors that they believe are better performers. The latest organization to join the new wave is Microsoft that is beginning to develop its ARM-based processors. The fact that most of Intel’s consumers are established organizations with the ability to advance and become cost-efficient, Intel must re-strategize.
The last fronts of competition that Intel faces are competition with NVIDIA and AMD. NVIDIA and AMD remain the primary competitors of Intel. NVIDIA’s graphics processing units (GPU) have become more efficient in accelerating heavy workloads such as artificial intelligence than Intel’s chipsets. NVIDIA has shown its intent in becoming a market leader, especially with the acquisition of Mellanox in 2020 (Fasi et al., 2021). With Mellanox in place, NVIDIA has become a competitor both in chipset development and networking. NVIDIA is also planning to acquire ARM, which could pose the biggest problem to Intel if approved. With the acquisition of ARM, NVIDIA will boost ARM’s high energy-efficient CPUs, Mellanox’s high-performance networking, and NVIDIA’s best accelerators. The move could hamper Intel’s growth. Intel also faces competition from AMD. AMD Ryzen processors are becoming more popular and cheaper, which is bad news for Intel. Compared to Intel’s 10th generation processors, Ryzen 500 processor has proven to offer better outcomes in multi-threaded computing, single-threaded computing, and gaming (Ouro, Lopez-Novoa, & Guest, 2020). All such competition can hamper the growth trajectory of Intel.
Strategic Options
Strategic Alliances
Intel has to explore a range of strategic options to overcome the challenges that it presently faces in operations. The first strategy is the pursuance of strategic alliances. Intel’s biggest challenge, as noted in the strategic analysis, is competition. Even with its resources, Intel has not managed a faster development towards new and more efficient products. Intel keeps struggling to develop 7nm chips that are more efficient and high performance while competitors such as NVIDIA and AMD have integrated their development int...