Essay Sample Analyzing the Cases of the Montes Calcados and Blackberry Companies

Montes Calcados Case Study

Challenges for Montes Calcados

The first main challenge that MC faces is lack of diversity in its products. The company's products primarily portray the Brazilian fashion. Even after expanding to other countries, the company has not designed strategies that encompass the fashion tastes of diverse areas, which has led the company to experience low sales in countries that may not embrace the Brazilian style (Heskett & Kindley, 2018). In addition, the aging population poses a challenge, as far as market segmentation for the company is concerned. As already pointed out, the company's products focus on women aged between 18 and 35 years, and this poses challenges in targeting other customers, with such debating raising a varied reaction from the company circles (Heskett & Kindley, 2018). The company's global position is another challenge for the company; the company needs to be more "international" in its products and break the shell of being a "Brazilian brand." To address these issues, the company needs design products that reflect other fashion tastes of other countries as well and consider expanding its market to all customers, other than just young women.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

Solutions for the above Challenges

It is important for a company to embrace diversity in the products that it produces. Diversifying products and service lines provides an effective pathway to past growth. The company is able to sell more products to a wider range of customers and establish into new markets as well. MC should consider diversifying its products to a wider range of customers and stop relying solely on young women, who are hungry for fashion (Alford & Bebensee, 2010). The challenge that is posed by the aging population can affect any business in production. It is time that MC focuses on producing shoes for both genders, and that cover all ages. The company should widen the age range as far as the target market is concerned. The aged can provide a formidable market for the company as well, therefore, the management should engage in producing shoes for the aged and the old as well to counteract the aging factor of the population (Alford & Bebensee, 2010). Lastly, diversification will also put the company in a better global position. The company should start producing shoes that do not only portray the Brazilian culture, but also other cultures as well. This will ensure that all the parts of the globe have been included in the company's brand.

Things to Learn From the Case

One of the lessons to learn from the case is the importance of diversification of products. Businesses diversify for a number of reasons, but perhaps the most important reason is for survival. Engaging in products that target a particular segment means that a company may have access to a finite number of customers (Dubey, Goel, & Sahu, 2013). International businesses must, therefore, seek to diversify their products to increase their customer base and competitive advantage as well. Also, the case teaches that international companies must manufacture goods and services that covert all areas they operate. In other words, an international business should not be confined to produce goods that depict the cultural composition of its origin only, but must embrace other cultures as well (Mahmoud, 2014). Further, it does international companies a lot of good by ensuring that their products are tailored to cater to the needs of all people, regardless of their ages. This feature increases the customer base and profitability as well.

The Rise and Fall of Blackberry

Problems at BlackBerry

The primary cause of the fall of BlackBerry is competition, especially in the smartphone segment. Many companies advanced the operating systems and included email capabilities in those devices and added more multimedia features as well (Ghosh, 2011). Companies such as Nokia, Samsung, Motorola, and even Apple increased competition in the market. In addition, the company was too slow to react to changes in the market. The company had been atop in the market because of the email features and QWERTY keyboard it provided in the handset. Albeit it being easy to forget, touch-screen phones were few back then, and people were comfortable using button phones. The introduction of smartphones led Apple and Android devices made it difficult, but the company failed to react promptly to these challenges (Robertson, 2018). Further, the company's customer base was too narrow, as it focused on the business side of smartphones. They made a smaller screen and maintain a physical keyboard, and thereby lost a tremendous market share. The company reluctance to innovation and change also became a huge problem for it to catch up in the market.

Solutions for the Decline

The slowing growth and continued competition meant that the company needed a major strategic and technological leap to stay afloat in the market. In 2011, the company unveiled BBX, a new platform for future BlackBerry smartphones, but the platform got a new name: BlackBerry 10 (Ghosh, 2011). Although it was enough, the platform gave the company some competitiveness, but more still needs to be done to increase its market share and compete with the rest. Further, the company needed to be more flexible to change in the smartphone market. Change management is vital in international business; the company should have reorganized for technological advancement. Also, the company should also diversify its products to suit a wider customer base, other than the business use only. Lastly, innovation is key to sustainability and profitability of any business, and this should be a top priority for BlackBerry as well.

Things to Learn From the Case

Due to the rapid development of technology and the introduction of new ways of accomplishing tasks, change management is vital in international business. If a business needs to be on the cutting edge, then change must be managed diligently as well. It is vital that business administrators determine that gone are the days when a change was only needed occasionally, and that it is a crucial process in international businesses (Ghosh, 2011). Another lesson from the case is that international businesses must be ready to deal with continuous competition in the global market. One of the ways through which competition can be dealt with is through being different. Differentiating a company's brand from the other creates a competitive advantage and client base that is strong as well. The case teaches that for a company to maintain its sustainability in the global market then it should be prepared to deal with stiff competition (Ciochinaru, 2013). The other lesson that is drawn from the study is that international businesses must have the capacity for the latest technology in their ranks, especially when dealing with network and smartphones. Part of the reason why BlackBerry failed was that it did not employ the technological demands of the market (Ghosh, 2011). Its competitors took advantage of that and employed the latest technology to tailor their products to suit the tastes and preferences of their clients. BlackBerry could not recover from that, which has resulted in a big gap between it the likes of Apple, Google, and the likes.

References

Alford, J., & Bebensee, M. (2010). Managing workplace ethics can generate competitive advantage. Journal of Business & Economics Research (JBER), 8(1). doi: 10.19030/jber.v8i1.662

Ali Jamali, M., & Md Nor, N. (2012). Growth of firms in manufacturing sector. Global Business Review, 13(1), 51-68. doi: 10.1177/097215091101300104

Ciochinaru, S. (2013). Globalisation and global transformations in the 21st century. International Journal of Academic Research, 5(6), 46-51. doi: 10.7813/2075-4124.2013/5-6/b.9

Dani, D., & Khajuria, A. (2012). Buying behaviour of blackberry customers in India. Paripex - Indian Journal of Research, 2(2), 191-194. doi: 10.15373/22501991/feb2013/68

Dubey, A., Goel, G., & Sahu, G. (2013). Effective implementation of competitive advantage and sustainable competitive advantage: a conceptual model. International Journal Of Business Innovation And Research, 7(5), 519. doi: 10.1504/ijbir.2013.056176

Ghosh, A. (2011). BlackBerry's success in India | Forbes India. Retrieved from http://www.forbesindia.com/article/big-bet/blackberrys-success-in-india/29132/1

Heskett, J., & Kindley, J. (2018). Montes Calcados: A Step ahead. Retrieved from https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=54001

Mahmoud, A. (2014). The emergence of strong global companies originating in emerging markets. SSRN Electronic Journal. doi: 10.2139/ssrn.2543965

Robertson, J. (2018). The socialist world in the second age of globalization: An alternative history?. Markets, Globalization & Development Review, 03(02). doi: 10.23860/mgdr-2018-03-02-05

Walker, D. (2018). Leading and managing professional service firms in the infrastructure sector. International Journal of Managing Projects In Business, 11(4), 1105-1107. doi: 10.1108/ijmpb-09-2018-168