Executive summary
Company profile provides brief information about a company. The information includes the company vision, mission, goals and objective and how the company has used them in attaining its market objectives. The company profile also gives information on leadership structure and in relation to the leadership style of a company. In the current world where consumers have become more informed and with the current high competition brought about by globalization it is important that a company profile reflects its mission and should contain enough information for customers to analyze.
This report is going to take a critical examination on Research Motion Corporation. RIM Company also does license technology to other industry handset and also software sellers so as to facilitate these companies to be able to offer wireless data services by use of Blackberry enterprise server and blackberry internet services. The company technology also various third-party manufacturers and developers to improve their services and products by use of wireless connectivity. RIM Company is one of the leading companies in telecommunication and underscore the corporation activities, its financial information and also review the market segments where the corporation is carrying out its business. Figures, graphs or tables will be incorporated to give a summary of the financial position. Other information from an external source about the company will have to be reviewed to get the views of how the company is depicted outside. The main competitors of the company will also be highlighted so that a comparison can be made. This will help in knowing the current position of Motion Corporation in relation to its competitors.
Introduction
Company analysis is a vital tool in getting important information about a specific company. In company analysis, the profile of the company is examined in order to provide relevant information about the company being analyzed. As Barney (1997) observers, a company profile is important in giving specific and important information about the company operations. This report is going to examine Research in Motion Corporation, one of the currently multinational companies that deal in communication technology products.
Profile
Research in motion (RIM) is a technological designer, producer and marketer of inventive wireless solutions meant for world wide mobile communications market. The company was founded in 1984, and its head office and main manufacturing plant is in waterloo, Ontario Canada. The company has other offices in Ottawa, Mississauga, and also in United Kingdom. Currently the company has a workforce of 1950 employees
The company organization is structured as a distinct reportable business unit. By use of integrated hardware and software together with services which support numerous wireless network standards. The company provides solutions and platforms for flawless access to email, SMS, personal organizer, phone, internet and intranet based company data applications. (RIM, 2007)
Relevant news
Product overview
The company main product line is the Blackberry which is various in types is outlined below;
- Blackberry 950
- Blackberry 5810
- Embedded radio modem
The current products of RIM list mostly lie on the blackberry product and the supporting cast for blackberry. The company in style 950 and also 957 blackberry pagers which have a standard aspect of text email are still highly on demand. The most modern models 5810, 6710, 6720, and 6750 comes with additional features such like voice capabilities, attachment viewing and electronic calendar. RIM Company is offering blackberry software license to other sellers including its competitors such as Nokia to operate on some other products. This has ensured the company of steady income and at the same time helped the company to strengthen its market share. (Brown & Harper, 2004)
Customer profile
The company’s current customers are mainly
- Corporate clients
- Roaming users
- Early adapters
Since the products and related services seem to be expensive for individual clients, blackberry is mostly demanded by corporate users. Users of blackberry pagers pay for the product, licensing, backup services and maintenance of the network services which is expensive for an individual. The product is meant for those users who travel a lot and are not able to access their email that happens to be important daily communication mean. Using blackberry products the users can be kept connected and be able to stay update on the latest issues in the office. (Brown & Harper, 2004)
However, there some other individual who use blackberry services to access their personal e-mail information through the blackberry pagers. Never the less whether the customer is a corporate or an individual, the users fall in the “early adopters category” since the RIM blackberry pagers have not yet become mainstream. By extending the product service support to various standards (GPRS, 1x), the company market is still open to include Europe, and Asia, though the main market of the RIM company currently is North America (Brown & Harper 2004)
Main suppliers of the company
Blackberry’s popularity has enabled it to attract many internet providers and also telecommunication service providers who support different features e.g. CMDA, GSM, GPRS. Many service providers become able to manipulate their present networks to be able to provide more attractive services to both corporate and individual clients. Same as in the mobile phone industry, these provides do also sell the real blackberry pagers and also operate as channel distributors and service providers for RIM company.
RIM Company has also created partnerships with other various service providers in Europe, North America and Asia pacific and more recently in Africa. The company has also entered into agreement with software vendors so as to support their platform for example SAP, IBM, Cognos, MS and others. Since the company manufactures both their hardware and software there are not put under any pressure by any suppliers on the value chain. (Dyer and Ernest 1991)
The table bellow shows the different suppliers of blackberry product in different continents.
Corporate culture
The company structure of the company is;
- Young
- Internet company type
- Casual fast- paced advancing environment
- Informal
- Product-functional teams
- Centralized decision making
RIM Company is a young company that is slowly going through the maturity stage, thus the company depends on centralized decision making procedures. (Brown & Harper, 2004)
Research in motion has been doing well in the market according on the statistics on the stock market. This is attributed to the new technology that the company has undertaken which has ensured that it produces new attractive products on the market. Research in Motion Company has been able to raise the unexpected levels in its earning after sales of blackberry went up. According to market financial reports the company was able to add almost 1.2 million new subscribes in the first quarter of 2007, surpassing even the anticipated figure of 1.15. The company earning for the Ontario branch in Canada went up by 73% to 223.2 million.
The company deals in wireless technology which is one of the most modern technologies on the market and it is expected to grow rapidly since the support of modern services keeps on increasing. A good example of how a market can grow fast is the cellular phone which in 5 years only has grown tremendously. The driving force behind the growth of the cellular phone is technology, the standards in the industry and the affordability of it. Many of the cellular phones provides support
- Text messaging
- Wireless LANs which, enables people to move with their laptops and receive wireless internet.
- Another feature of the wireless industry was enhanced by the large market of personal digital assistants (PDAs) which currently are very popular. Wireless customers have continued to demand more functionality since they have become more used to depending on their services.
- The benefits of wireless equipments are obvious; less restrictive (anywhere and everywhere), convenience. (RIM, 2007)
When RIM Company introduced its blackberry pager, it looked like a straightforward and simple idea. However, the popularity of blackberry spread so fast. Blackberry product did appeal to innovators who relied too much on email and required to be connected always. The portability of blackberry and its small yet full of various wireless options and an attractive keyboard become addictive to many users. Currently, RIM proud itself of the huge market share for wireless e-mail having around 400,000 users. (Investor guide 2007)
Peers; Competitive analysis
The main competitors of RIM are;
- Motorola
- Nokia
- Handspring
Motorola
This is a huge communication organization which produces as sells a number of different electronic components and equipments. The products that the company sells include but are not limited to communications systems, electronic engine controls, computer systems and semiconductors. It is estimated that the company has a market capital of $ 22.02 Billions. (Investor guide 2007)
Nokia
This is a very big communication corporation which does supply telecommunications systems and also equipments. The company also is involved in the manufacture, development and supply of mobile cellular phones, fixed lines and IP networks. The market capital of Nokia is $81.5 billions. (Investor guide 2007)
Handspring
This is a small company that is offering direct competition to RIM, its market share in the wireless market is second to RIM with 15% market. The company is involved in personal communications together with handheld computing equipments. Its products are Treo 90 organizers and Treo wireless communicators. Others are “Visor flexible handheld computers” and also server and client software for swift web access. The market capital of the company is estimated to be $ 171 million. (Investor guide 2007)
Table showing the comparison between RIM and the main competitors of the industry. Source; Investor guide (2007):
Financial ratio and performance
The profitability of the company is still low despite the fact that the company reports very good revenues. This is a characteristic of a company that is coming from early growth stage and trying to overcome its competitors through wining the largest market share by shakeout, (Investor guide 2007)
Leverage= balanced
Liquidity= about right
Financial conditions and results of operation of RIM for a period of nine months, Source RIM (2007).
After viewing some helpful financial information on RIM Company, it is clear that RIM Company at present is making fine revenue, with a possibility for high increase in the future. However it remains to be noted that the revenue being collected has not been translated to profit. RIM is a star company that has its primary product lines in a market that has a high growth rate. It is fortunate that the company entered the industry early on and presently has the biggest market share in the industry.
Conclusion
Company analysis is a vital tool in getting important information about an organization. In company analysis, the profile of the company is examined in order to provide relevant information about the company being analyzed. RIM Company is a young star company that has its primary product lines in a market that has a high growth rate. The company has been able to penetrate the market quickly because of its high technology in communication which is currently being highly sought. Even though the company is experiencing competition from other well established companies such as Motorola and Nokia the company market share remains stable and continuous to grow. However, the current challenge the company is facing is how to reach the new markets that are still untapped.
Recommendations
From the information it is clear that RIM Company has a high potential of growing in terms of market share and revenue collection. It is important thus that the company uses its technology advantage by exploiting new markets in other regions of the world for example Asia, Africa and South America. As many people adopt the use of blackberry with is proving to be vital in the world of communication the company need to enter into more partnerships with other companies to ensure that it expands its technology and the market share. Also the company has to improve on technology and try to create products that can be affordable to a lot of people as currently it seems that their products are highly priced. Though its organization structure and culture is well, the company should expand its leadership structure and the general structure in relation to the rapid growth the company is witnessing. (Dyer and Ernest 1991)
References
Barney, J. B. (1997): Gaining and Sustaining Competitive Advantage. Reading, MA: Addison- Wesley.
Brown, N. Green, B. & Harper R. (2004): Wireless World: Social and International Aspects of the Mobile Age, Computer Supported Cooperative Work, London: Springer-Verlag.
Dyer, R. F. and Ernest H. F (1991): An Analytical Approach to Marketing Decisions. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
Investor guide (2007): RIM Company; Web.
Ling, R. (1987): Mobile Communication and the Renegotiation of the Public Sphere, Grimstad, Norway.
RIM (2007): Company profile; Web.
Appendices
The chart shows trading performance of RIM shares on the New York stock exchange it can be seen that the share of the company are increasing gradually.
