Design for Business Share in the Global Market

Question: Describe about the Design for Business for Share in the Global Market. Answer: A1. A huge range of the audio system, televisions, telephones, loudspeakers is sold by the BO in the April 2006. The successful selling of the DVD players, cordless telephones, home theatre system and many others showed a great interest towards using of latest gadgets among customers. The competitors like Sony, Thomson took a large competition with customer preferences, as did the outsider's company such as Apple, Microsoft, and many others with their huge marketing budget. According to Austin and Beyersporfer (2007, p.18), BO is best at their production strategy which protects their share in the global market. Many small companies have tried to imitate them but they never succeed due to the complicated understanding strategy for others, their unique materials and too expensive techniques used by BO. The other rivals are trying to catch up the position of BO by producing the new technology gadgets at a cheaper price than BO. This illusion may make the customers switch to the other companies. Moreover, the political instability and economic disorder may cause of big fluctuation risk in currency as they presently operating more than 150 countries. Therefore, they need to think about the currency fluctuation risk before entering a new market, as this is one of the main problems to be worried about. A2. The designing process of BO starts with coming up with new ideas which are mainly brought by their engineers. The engineers constantly search new idea with new technology with proper interpretation and right concept. However, BO resurfaces the rejected ideas and give those around of second or third. The second step is substance, which refers a personality with uniqueness. Usually, BO brings some cardboard to sketch their thinking. Once they pass the initial process, they go for a hardware process with the software-based environment of prototyping, which is hardly used by other companies. Then they figure out what items to be produced in what manner with the help of artisans, engineers, managers and designers. The designers get involved throughout the development. Unlike the competitors, they put the things open for applying the idea if it arises even at the end of the production line. Austin and Beyersporfer (2007, p.20) has commented that BO produces a large number of home elect ronics products at a cheaper rate, whereas the other competitors use to produce high volume products with long life and this benefit of cost segmentation share in the market makes BO unique worldwide. The firm is an 80-year-old company with a very successful design process, which changes the winning approach in the global market. A3. Strength: The greatest strengths of BO are the high-quality performance and the unique technologies, which bring their products a brand value. For their technical solutions and great designs, they have won some awards. The other main strength is the customer care and customer relationship. Usually, they offer their customers from B1 shops for which they receive the choice of getting their desired products from the spot. Moreover, they build a strong relationship with the suppliers also. A good relationship with them and retention of them decreases the complexity of searching high quality of product at a certain price without bargaining for price changing. Weakness: In 2008, they faced a huge financial crisis for which the cost of the products got higher. Nevertheless, due to the presence of other cheaper products in the market, the customers are moving to the rival companies as everyone wants to be the first in the race for the intense competition growing in the world. Moreover, the cost of labour, the stock of raw materials, higher shipping cost are also the cause of higher price of BOs product. The competitors take this advantage by offering the customers at a cheaper cost of product unlike the BOs extreme expensive items, which is gradually snatching the position of BO in the market. A4. Idea Lab was located to change the approach of designing process of BO as the number of rivals increases day by day. Everything is going digital so, the process of designing also be changed and more inspirational. Idea Lab realised that to diminish the demerits, they firstly have to communicate with the engineers and the designers. Therefore, in the eight months, they tried to find the proper way to communicate and then started cardboard models and tangible methods for designing. Idea Lab took the graphics initiative and visualisation method to build a demo facility which featured in the customer's kitchen, living room, and bedrooms. They generate new BO media techniques, which are supportable for their product integration and new interface concept. It will definitely work as it has many advantages and it is showed in the past years that the market share also has increased for adopting this policy. Nevertheless, the traditional producers are mainly from the backgrounds of cross-product software concepts. New software solutions are needed to be learned failing which the Idea Lab team would lose the software-designing link as well as the customer preferences. Moreover, they need to think about the currency fluctuation risk before entering a new market, as this is one of the main problems to be worried about. A5. BO have managed their product range into virtual space, but not totally, they have reached as the market is becoming very competitive. All are trying to invent new product with high technology at a cheaper rate. Austin and Beyersporer (2007, p.22) has commented that though they are one of the superior companies selling products physically, but are facing problem virtually. The techniques they adopting are very expensive and time taking also and in that time gap, the rival companies take the entry in the market. For an example, BO is very well established in the sound and design market both in physical and in the virtual market for their lots of experience in the past decades. Despite having so experiences, they cannot cope up with the mobile and tablet market, as there exists a much rapid change; every day something new is coming in this technology. Therefore, it is very hard for a company to remain the same position in the competitive market. In addition, the shipping charges, g overnment rules, and regulations, cost of labour, logistics of raw materials make an incensement in the cost of production. The competitors take this advantage by offering the customers at a cheaper cost of product unlike the BO's extreme expensive items, which is gradually snatching the position of BO in the market. Reference list Austin, R. and Beyersporer, D. (2007). Bang and Olufsen: Design Driven Innovation. Harvard Business School. 1(1), pp.17-22.