Strategic Analysis
Introduction
Under Armour Company is one of the leading organizations in the United States of America carrying expertise in the production of sports, footwear, and casual apparel. The headquarters of the company is situated in Baltimore, Maryland. The company has been delivering its products all over the world with the title of an international brand in countries such as the United Kingdom, South Africa, Germany, India, and China. The number of employees working at the company is total 15,800, the revenue of the company for the financial year 2018 was around USD 5.2 billion (“Under Armour,” 2019). This study will analyze the overall influence caused by globalization and technological changes on the company along with the determination of the most suitable model along with resource-based and industrial organization model. The study will also interpret the influence of vision and mission statement of the company on its overall success. Finally, the study will identify various categories of stakeholders at the organization and the role played by them towards organizational success.Impact of Globalization and Technological Changes on Urban Armour
Globalization involves the interaction of an economy with the other economies of the world in the form of politics, trade, production, and education. The up-gradation of technologies provided a great opportunity to the globalization for expanding at a rapid pace. Urban Armour is an international brand; therefore, it is essential to analyze the influence made by the globalization on the company (Blanton & Peksen, 2017). The globalization brought positive results for the company in the form of the free flow of goods and services. The company is importing its raw materials from various countries of Asia, and China while exporting its finished products to some countries like the UK and Australia. Therefore, it has become much convenient for the organization to carry out its process in a smooth manner with low resistance (Kolodko, 2006). Moreover, the leadership of the company can travel to its branches all over the world freely to maintain appropriate standards.
Globalization benefited the company in the process of hiring a diversified workforce in all of its branches to bring innovation and creativity in its overall production process (Blanton & Peksen, 2017). The company has been able to maintain a continuous flow of communication with all of its franchises to tackle all the problems or risks positively and proactively. The company has been utilizing the resources and supplies from other countries to add to its profile instead of relying on the resources and amounts available in their country only (Kolodko, 2006). Moreover, the diversification of the market and optimum operation has benefitted the company in avoiding reliance on any single economy. It means that the company will be able to bear financial pressure coming from any single economy by earning from other economies. Globalization benefitted the company in improving its revenue and operating income greatly (Blanton & Peksen, 2017). However, it has come up with a certain set of drawbacks for the company, such as enhanced competition in the market as the company has to compete with local as well as international rivals. The company has to ensure compliance with the legislation of each country to avoid any legal pitfall.Evaluation of Industrial-Organizational and Resource-Based Model on Urban Armour
It is necessary to understand the purpose of each model before declaring which model is more beneficial for the company. Industrial Organization Model compels the economies of the company to deal with strategic behavior, antitrust policies, regulatory policies, and market competition. The economic regulations, laws, and theories compliance are quite essential as per this model (Cawley & Synder, 2012). They force the company to provide regular training to its employees and maintain an equal set of policies and procedures in all of its branches without demographic considerations to deliver best results to the customers.
The second model is the Resource-Based Model that requires the company to identify its internal perspective by making use of its internal resources and capabilities to develop a foundation for setting value-creating strategies. Resources are inputs provided by the company in the form of talented managers, finance, brand names, patents, and employee skills. The capabilities of the company are a set of organizational capacity to carry out any task or activity appropriately (Hayduk & Walker, 2017). This model requires the company to identify both of its factors to develop appropriate strategies to combat the market conditions and characteristics in an excellent manner enabling the company to achieve success.
From the explanation mentioned above, it is clear that the resource-based model is more beneficial for the Urban Armour Company as compared to the industrial-organizational model because the economic, technological, political, environmental, legal, labor, market, and social conditions in all of the operative countries are different from one another. These factors make it almost impossible for the company to operate with the same strengths in every demographic region (Cawley & Synder, 2012). Therefore, it is more beneficial for the organization to identify its strengths and weaknesses in each of its branches to develop an appropriate strategy for combating appropriately (Hayduk & Walker, 2017).Impact of Mission and Vision Statement on Under Armour’s Success
The vision of the company is to inspire the individuals by delivering them performance solutions that are still unknown to them. The mission of the company is to improve the capabilities of the individual (“Under Armour,” 2019). The proper communication of the vision and mission benefits the company in managing all of its stakeholders under an umbrella where they are aware of their current position and future direction to exert their pressure and input in the right direction (Cueva, 2019). Moreover, the clarification of the vision and mission benefits the company in developing appropriate strategies to meet business needs and customer’s requirements (Spear, 2017). The company does not have to worry about the individual decision making at the workplace as all the stakeholders will be able to receive an informed decision as per the communicated vision and mission. Therefore, it comes with less doubt that the vision and mission plays a considerable role in the success of an organization (Cueva, 2019).Impact of Stakeholders on Under Armour Success
There are three types of stakeholders related to the Under Armour Company, including Capital Market, Product Market, and Organizational Stakeholders. The investors and shareholders are the capital market stakeholders of the company supporting them in the business ventures and activities and enabling the company to bring a maximum possible return on the investment (Lamin & Zaheer, 2012). The company has a decent history of sharing its profit ratio with all of its shareholders transparently; therefore, they always pursue them to invest in their business ideas for gaining reasonable profit. The product market stakeholders comprise of suppliers, customers, and vendors. These stakeholders are quite essential for the company as their input and efforts benefit the company in developing appropriate products as per the need and desire of the market (Moretz & Giapponi, 2019). If the supplier or vendor does not provide the required level of services to the company, they will not be able to deliver effective products to the company. Finally, the organizational stakeholders of the company comprise of manager and employees. Their input and efforts benefit the company in streamlining and optimizing all of its operations to achieve economies of scale with the attainment of desired results (Lamin & Zaheer, 2012).Conclusion
Under Armour is a leading company in the United States of America that has been positively affected by globalization in the recent past. It can use effective strategies to minimize the influence of negative factors. The resource-based model is more beneficial for the company as compared to the industrial-organizational model for developing an effective strategy as per the market needs and conditions. The vision and mission statement of the company carries particular importance towards success; therefore, it must be adequately defined and communicated with all of the stakeholders. The stakeholders play a significant role in the success of any company; therefore, the company must take regular actions for engaging them to witness overall success.
References
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Under Armour Inc. Details. (2019). Retrieved July 22, 2019, from https://about.underarmour.com/about