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Today, AT&T mission is to connect people with their world, everywhere they
live and work, and do it better than anyone else. They are fulfilling this mission by
creating new solutions for consumers and businesses and by driving innovation in the
communications and entertainment industry. Also, AT&T exploits technical
innovations for the benefit of AT&T and its customers by implementing next-
generation technology and network advancement in AT&T's services and operations.
On the other hand, AT&T’s vision is to design and create in this decade the
new global network, processes, and service platforms that maximize automation,
allowing for a reallocation of human resources to more complex and productive work.
The AT&T global network was born of the ingenuity of AT&T Labs networking
specialists who made disparate systems work together. Being the world's fastest and
most reliable global network, its network is the standard against which all others are
measured. To maintain AT&T leadership in this arena, they focus on the future and
aggressively pursue innovations including connection, solutions, innovation, and
doing all of it better than any other telecommunications, wireless, or entertainment
company.
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Sun Zi’s Art of War Theory
According to Sun Zi, the conduct of war is a matter of vital importance to the
nation. It is a matter of life and death to the country, the people and the ruler. It is a
road either to prosperity or to being destroyed. Therefore, it is a subject which must
not be neglected. Initial planning and assessment are essential. There are five constant
factors to consider, namely, moral influence, the weather, terrain, generalship and
doctrine and law.
Moral influence indicates the measures and policies that align the people with
the sovereign so as to be in complete agreement and harmony with each other. In this
way, the people will be prepared to co-exist with as well as die for the sovereign
without any fear of dangers. Secondly, weather refers to the contrasting changes of
night and day, the coldness of winter and the heat of summer, and seasonal changes of
the battleground. Thirdly, terrain refers to the assessment of the route and its
condition, whether the route to be taken is long or short, whether the ground is
treacherous or safe, wide or narrow with regard to ease of movement, and whether the
ground will determine the death or survival. Fourthly, generalship of a commander
refers to his qualities of wisdom, trustworthiness, benevolence, courage and discipline.
Lastly, Doctrine and law refer to organization and control, management systems and
procedures, and the command and control structure for the deployment of resources.
This is to ensure that roads are maintained in order that supplies may reach the army
and military expenditure is controlled.
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SWOT Analysis
Strengths
AT&T has geographically diverse business and the revenue of the company
help shield the business from shocks in any one part of their business. Since different
countries or locations around the world possess different characteristics, it does not
always match. Therefore, AT&T lowered their risk by investing in part of the world
with low correlations. This lower risk enable AT&T to increase the value of the
business over the long-term.
AT&T has done a great job leveraging its core competencies of providing
wireless services to its customers. All of their key businesses exhibit synergistic and
complimentary services and products and can easily be bundled together or sold
separately. Also, they do not need an extremely wide range of technicians to service
or maintain their networks due to the interconnectedness of all of them.
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Weaknesses
Besides, the saturation of the company is one of their weaknesses. Any new
customers that AT&T gathers are going to have to be done by taking them from
another carrier. This makes it harder to get new customers and the industry becomes
extremely competitive.
Also, a lot of people are not entirely happy with AT&T wireless carriers. The
biggest problem respondents had was the high cost of cellular service. About one in
five readers cited that the highly priced AT&T cellular service as their top
complaint, far more than for any other issue. In such competitive era, expensive
cellular service has drawn the customers’ concern to discard AT&T service.
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Opportunities
AT&T has plenty of opportunities that are available for growth and
improvement. It is pretty much the same thing with further industry consolidation and
acquisitions have paved the way for AT&T to become an emerging market with
global expansion. The most valuable opportunity is the merge with T-Mobile
acquired by AT&T. As of now, the German provider Deutsche Telekom has exclusive
rights over T-Mobile USA. T-Mobile customers basically exist because of its great
customer service, not to mention the pricing plans are much more affordable and
flexible.
As of now before the T-Mobile merge was announced the latest wireless
growth attribution is accredited particularly through its partnership with Apple/iPhone.
Another opportunity for growth is to reconsolidate a partnership with Apple
iPhone products exclusivity. AT&T leads the race from 2007-2011 because this year
Verizon wireless also picked up a partnership with Apple’s iPhone making them the
first CDMA carrier to sell the iPhone. The company will enjoy higher customer
satisfaction and their customer loyalty by providing less.
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Threat
The threat that has been found on the AT&T is the fierce competition in the
communication market with other wireless providers. Over 97% of the U.S.
population lives in an area with at least three mobile telephone operators. When a
company is synergies between the wireless and broadband customers, there must
compete against cable companies, which can provide three key customer services TV,
broadband and phone against any company, which only offers two services. This
highly competitive market puts pressure on AT&T to offer low prices, which
diminishes their margins.
Lastly, one of the problems AT&T will be face in the near future is the threat
of a strike among wireline employees. AT&T hopes to receive concessions on
healthcare cost and retiree healthcare benefit, since wireless employees pay
substantially more for healthcare than wireline employees. However, there is no
financial decision to solve the problem that AT&T faces regarding employee health
care.
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Conclusion
Other than that, one of the best ways to develop a picture of any company is
with its SWOT analysis, capturing a company's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities,
and threats. A careful analysis of the AT&T’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities,
and threats provides a forecast of the likeliness of the company living up to their
mission.
On the other hand, the opportunity of AT&T consists of the emerging market
with global expansion, reconsolidation of a partnership with Apple iPhone, increment
in 3G and 4G coverage, and increment in mobile telecoms-related services. It allows
AT&T to explore the untapped opportunities in order to consider ways to grow and
expand the company’s value. Sadly, external environment brings threats to AT&T too.
It takes into account of fierce competition, government regulation, loss of iPhone
exclusivity, and strike among wireline employees. AT&T therefore understands the
external threats in order not caught off guard. It affects AT&T’s allocation of the
resources used for the business and change threats into opportunities.
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From the SWOT analysis process, it allows one to incur little or no cost to
gather and organize information from different sectors of the AT&T’s business in a
coherent and cohesive manner. Also, it allows one to analyse and evaluate of the four
areas of AT&T individually and use it for individual projects or potential ventures.