Irobot
iRobot is a very competitive firm in the robotics industry that creates many types of robots from consumer cleaning robots to drones used for military applications. In the last few years, the sales of the consumer products have been driving the majority of iRobot’s revenues. The company has a few, albeit experienced, competitors in the consumer market while in the military robotics market the company has battled with industry veterans such as Lockheed Martin. The financial structure of the company had been strong until the worldwide economic crisis hit in 2008.
With sales declining and credit hard to come by in 2009, iRobotics started eyeing other sectors to exploit. With the lack of competitive pressures in the consumer market, the challenge that iRobot faces is to keep producing innovative robots to satisfy customer needs while persuading them to spend their hard earned income in light of the economic recession. iRobot supply chain is also an issue for them as by only having only 2 manufacturers in China. The hope was that the manufacturing agreement with Jabil Circuit was going to take manufacturing pressures off of those plants in China. iRobot can also do a better job promoting the products, especially the Looj model. By scanning the environment for opportunities and threats, iRobot will be much better prepared to handle the uncertainties of the marketplace. In creating strategic alliances with firms, the company is in much better position to keep creating innovations for an expanded marketplace. Competitive intelligence will be crucial to the firm so that competitors do not come out with a product that could potentially become substitute products for their own. The firm’s success depends on it.
iRobot environmental scanning:
Currently, iRobot (NASDAQ: IRBT) is manufactures home robotic appliances and robots for defense and military use. It is fighting on two fronts, the home appliance market and the more lucrative defense technology market. In
With sales declining and credit hard to come by in 2009, iRobotics started eyeing other sectors to exploit. With the lack of competitive pressures in the consumer market, the challenge that iRobot faces is to keep producing innovative robots to satisfy customer needs while persuading them to spend their hard earned income in light of the economic recession. iRobot supply chain is also an issue for them as by only having only 2 manufacturers in China. The hope was that the manufacturing agreement with Jabil Circuit was going to take manufacturing pressures off of those plants in China. iRobot can also do a better job promoting the products, especially the Looj model. By scanning the environment for opportunities and threats, iRobot will be much better prepared to handle the uncertainties of the marketplace. In creating strategic alliances with firms, the company is in much better position to keep creating innovations for an expanded marketplace. Competitive intelligence will be crucial to the firm so that competitors do not come out with a product that could potentially become substitute products for their own. The firm’s success depends on it.
iRobot environmental scanning:
Currently, iRobot (NASDAQ: IRBT) is manufactures home robotic appliances and robots for defense and military use. It is fighting on two fronts, the home appliance market and the more lucrative defense technology market. In