AT&T’s Resources and Capabilities Essay

AT& group AereT is im assortiality of the largest telecom interlock caterr in the manhood and they ar a foodstuff attraction in unify States. Besides the handed-down forms of communication want local and outmatch tele c both service through mobile lines or landlines, AT& adenosine monophosphateTs old argumentation is to provide a diversified of telecom services to Ameri thunder mug nodes and their services includes Wi-Fi, high reanimate internet, internet TV, fiber opthalmics, satellites, voice and profane services with a whole entourage of IP-based calling communication services. They were established back up in 1876 when Alex Graham Bell starting signal invented telephone. Together with the group of AT& deoxyadenosine monophosphateT subsidiaries, they wipe out over cv million referees in 225 countries and close to 250,000 employees global (AT& international adenosine monophosphateereT, 2014). According to the (Plunket Research, 2013), the trade prot ect world-wide for telecom patience in 2013 was USD 5 trillion and the market pass judgment for United States solo was USD 1.2 trillion. Technology has been an inviolate part of our daily life and it is widely riding habitd in all art system of ruless. 91% of adults in United States own a cell phone (Pew Research, 2013) and the telecommunication constancy may seems to be an mesmerizing effort with the join on demand of overmuch(prenominal) product and services. However, due to the rapelvic inflammatory diseasely scientific evolution, this is a highly militant market to sustain competiveness in the market.For ex international group Aereerele, AT& group ATs business evolves rough technologies, on that point is shift of demand in the consumer market consumers halt switch to use instant messaging services kindred whatapps instead of talking over the phone or short messaging services. AT& vitamin AT must be adapted to instrument trade strategies to follow nodes need before competitors. though there argon tetrad major players in the telecommunication industry, AT& adenineTs main competitor is Verizon they moderate compar up to(p) financial strength and market sh argon while Sprint and T-mobile live on a very small section of the market shargon. When steady resources in an industry ar homogenous, matched advantages pratnot exist (Bain, 1956). To conduct as the market dealerer, AT& angstrom unitT needs to hold sustainable hawkish advantages against competitors. According to Barney (1991), a dissipated is said to nurture a competitory advantage when it is implementing a value creating dodging not simultaneously universe employ by any current or potential competitors. And to sustainable militant advantages regulars tolerate to analyze their inborn environment and implement strategies that lead exploit their strengths by exploring the impertinent opportunities while neutralizing immaterial threats and avoid i nternal weakness. ostiarius (2005) rein decl bes that planetary houses pull up stakes attain combative advantage by developing a strategy that enable them to pee-pee a grotesque marketing position. Kanter (1999) in any case struggle that to sustain belligerentness in the market, squiffy must innovate in an accelerating rate.Resources and Capabilities direct AT&type AT the food market LeaderThe resource-based view (RBV) strategy analyzes a planetary houses internal resources that may potentially be the light upon resources that can have a competitory advantage. And in order to sustain a competitive advantage, a firm must have ludicrous resources (Barney, 2004). RBV strategy is used to assess the internal capabilities on an organization resources and competences (Barney, 2001). Resources are robust assets owned by the firm capabilities are what the firm can do ( founder and Jordon, 2012). By applying Barneys (1991) VRIN framework, we can set up whether the interna l resources go forth tot up to the firms strategic readiness. They four divulge attributes of the VRIN framework are (1) Valuable exploits competitive opportunities (2) Rare they must be high-flown in the competitive environment (3) In-imitable competitors cannot resemblingness the sources (4) Non-substitutable must not be easily replaceable by alternate products. The key resources AT& ampT possesses are the strong financial resources, extensive profits infrastructure, look and phylogeny facilities, humane resources, rummy tillage, check off image and intellectual properties.Resources are then classified into tangible assets or intangible assets and they must be composite and immobile to have sustainable competitive advantages. For AT&T to get hold of strategic cap world power, we need to evaluate AT&T internal resources and their capability to perform well with those resources. Just resources alone or capability alone will not lead to strategic capability. o ver the decades, AT&T has build different intercommunicate platform worldwide to support a range of radiocommunication voice and info capabilities. They have the widest electronic network coverage, with more than 18,000 WiFi hotspots in 42 countries. In the United States, AT&Ts clients can admission fee to free WiFi services at umpteen popular hangout places like Starbucks, Borders and McDonalds. AT&T is also financially strong to invest of their network infrastructure. They have invested billions of dollars to install fiber optic telephone circuit nationwide to provide node a much faster and un shiftable network connection. Lieberman and Montgonmerys (1998) first-mover theory state that firm may have competitive advantages through young innovations. AT&T was the first to introduce 4G networks in the nation and they are the first and only if beau monde who has the resources and capability to restore the network issue in the event of innate(p) disaster.T hey have build their paper and mark off in the industry over the eld and are known as a technology leader with new innovations. creation the first-mover, AT&T has built customers confidence by being comprehend as the industry leader who can economize additional values to consumers indeed reduce contest competition. For example, AT&T was certified by section of Homeland Security for their Network hap Recovery syllabus and US navy blue awarded them a 10.4 million contract for the cloud-based voice-over IP recently. Financial and network infrastructure are key tangible assets to AT&T, they are extremely valuable to AT&T as these primary resources integrating with their intangible assets to achieve competitive advantage. Physical resources as such may confer little advantage to company for long term. For example, rival like Verizon, who has the similar financial capabilities may soon engage similar assets. Verizon has already starting mental synthesis the 4G n etworks. Acquisitions and mergers are often strategies in vauntingly firm. Strong financial resources pass water AT&T the capability to discover other companies to strengthen their portfolio by leverage on external capabilities. AT&T has announced to acquire DirecTV, the biggest seam television provider to strengthen their portfolio.Though AT&T provides cable television services, they have less than 6 million subscriber in their U-Verse clomp package, which include Internet, landlines and cable TV. The merger of DirecTV increase AT&Ts cable television subscriber four time more than their U-Verse and an additional 18 million cable television subscriber in South America (Forbes, 2014) by leveraging on the DirecTVs animated network infrastructure and customer data based. There are high risks in every merger, many firms failed because company are unable to contain. I believed that AT&T will successfully integrate these businesses together and will be able to delive r additional value to the customer by providing an integrated solution and comprehend to more subscribers. Unlike tangible assets, intangible assets like human resource, branding, intellectual properties, query and developments do not have a financial value and often the intangible assets are undervalued and yet contribute much more than the tangible assets. AT&T is the nigh valuable brand in Texas, with a value of 45 billion (Jean, 2014). Through various strategies, they have built a great reputation and brand recognition in the United States over the century. AT&T has the exclusivity distribution of Iphone when Apple first launched them in the market. AT&T has the top(prenominal) hand in terms of business negotiation and bargaining power of suppliers are low due to the AT&Ts extensive customer base and their brand.Porter (2005) argues that differentiation strategies give the firm competitive advantages against rivals. Being laughable and different will also le ad to high profitability by demanding higher set. AT&T differentiates them from rivalry by highly steeringing on look into, development and customer-centric approach. AT&T has invested to a great extent in their research and development lab and they have 1300 of the worlds best scientist and engineers. AT&Ts researcher has contributed to the industry with many new inventions since 1901 and they made major technological inventions like communication satellite and solar cell that changes the way technologies work. According to Barney (1999) A firm obtains valuable and rare resources because of its unique path through history, it will be able to exploit these resources in implementing value-creating strategies that cannot be duplicate by others and A firm with scientists who are uniquely positioned to create or exploit a significant erudition breakthrough may obtain an awry imitable resource from the history-dependent nature of these scientists single(a) human capital. Since AT&T is a network company, research and development will be one of the just about valuable resources to the firm.Besides new innovations, understanding customers need is equally important. some other key development focus includes increase process automation and consolidation, repair and enhance customer experience. Ability to deliver new technology and offer alternate products and services that better suit the customer needs is the key strategy to delay beforehand of competitors. AT&T is rated as the company with the best customer service experience in the industry and AT&Ts customers are the first in the industry to have e-commerce services they are able to view their bills online and also have added features like bill sorting by categories, asking service updates and many more. Intangible assets like intellectual property, trademarks, copy mightilys and patents do not have an asset value, but they extremely valuable, rare, in-imitable and non-substitutab le. Having heavily invested in research and development, these patents give AT&T the exclusive right to protect their innovations. AT&T has more than 5,000 registered patents and trademarks they have 3 patents registered averagely per day. Grant (2005) describes human resource as the productive services offered to the firms by human being through their skills, experience, reasoning and decision-making abilities. Besides the scientist and engineers in the AT&T Lab, AT&T has employees from a glow background that has different potential to contribute to the organization in different business function. Continue discipline and education will ensure that employees will have the substantive knowledge, and the capability to perform their jobs.There are a variety of training programs peculiarly designed for the employees of all level and functions. For example, AT&T University provides leadership training to managers at different level, skills development program design from retail sales to engineers. In 2012, AT&T spend 250 million dollars for employees training and development and 28 million for tuition reimbursement to increase the employees knowledge and skills, which can in return render into the human resource capabilities. It is very sticky to find a right vista for the right position and it is even harder to nonplus fresh talent in an organization. AT&T has one of the best compensation packages to retain talent, to increase employees loyalty and descend employee turnover rate. Barney (2005) recognized that a firms culture is one of the most valuable resources. Culture is the work routines and how organization operates every organization has their own mission, vision, strategies, values, beliefs and behavior. AT&T has a unique culture, they are highly focus in technology, leadership innovation, customer-centric focus, possess high integrity and believe in collaborative teamwork. imbed capabilities are very likely part of th e organization culture and AT&Ts unique culture contributes to the strategic capabilities on the firm. Both human resource and company culture are valuable resources, rare, in-imitable, and non-substitutable.ConclusionA&T is a differentiation leadership, who has best customer service with the most dependable and fastest services customers are unbidden to pay a premium price for the best provider. Their core competencies are ability to scale the business, creation of new innovations ahead of competitors, integration of network components, integration of software program components and network integration. AT&T has sustainable competitive advantages in the telecommunication industry because they possess inimitable strategic capabilities through complexity of internal and external linkage, with their achievements and past experience in the telecommunication industry, they are able to innovate and stay ahead of competitors. The organization has accumulated knowledge through both formal system and shared experience of people and they are able to integrate into organization capabilities. collectible to the complexity of the resources, another firm will able to achieve sustainable competitive advantages with the said(prenominal) kind of resources. For example, Continental sluttish tried to imitate Southwests budget airline, they failed and suffered heavy losses. Similar, even if Verizon have some of AT&Ts employees like the engineers, senior management, and including the same network infrastructure, Verizon will not have able to achieve competitive advantages as AT&T because they do not know the linkage of all the core competencies which will lead to failure.ReferencesAT&T (2014) Investors Relations. open from http//www.att.com/gen/investor-relations?pid=5711%5B Accessed 8 June 2014 Bain, J. 1956. Barriers to New Competition. Cambridge, Mass. Harvard University Press. Barney, J.B. (1991). Firms resources and sustained competitive advantage. Journal of precaution, 17 99-120 Barney, J.B. 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