ATT Breakup
Our book talks about managing strategy and strategic planning. I chose to write my paper on AT&T's recent breakup into four satellite companies. I intend to show how their past planning was not well-suited for their rapidly changing industry, and how they are now adjusting strategies and preparing for the uncertainties that the future holds. AT&T's voluntary breakup marks the end of the bigger-is-better era. For much of the 20th century, business strategy was relatively simple - scale up operations and expand market share. The greatest opportunities lay in providing standardized products, with incremental improvements, to a middle-class market. But the simple pursuit of scale and market share lost its effectiveness as the 20th century ended. Another prime example of this is what is happening to Microsoft. Even though they have different legal problems, their days of gobbling up any and all businesses that got in their way is over. Smaller firms - particularly those with innovative, customer-centric business designs became the most profitable. This is evident with the popularity of the dot.com's and how well they are doing in the market. AT&T had not predicted that their stranglehold on the market would be
Shortly after announcing on October 25th that AT&T was going to split into four units, Michael Armstrong, the company's chairman, was asked in an interview if anything good would be lost as a result of the overhaul. He considered the question for at least 10 seconds, then responded, "I can't think of anything." But in fact, AT&T may be losing something that if not necessarily good, has been a powerful force in its favor for more than 100 years: the fear that its size and power has inspired in competitors. This will hopefully weaken the level of competition that AT&T has faced in the past. The AT&T-brand companies that remain after the breakup plan is completed by 2002 will be smaller than the AT&T the communications the world has known. And the competitive landscape will change accordingly. The local phone companies, already formidable in wireless and eager to expand into long distance while continuing to roll out high-speed Internet services, will be countering AT&T region-by-region and business-by-business. Even the merged AOL and Time Warner could end up as an AT&T antagonist under certain circumstances, if AT&T plans to dive into their market. sacrificed because of new start-up companies. Scale no longer p
Some common words found in the essay are:
AT&T Breakup, Michael Armstrong, Wall Street, Warner AT&T, AT&T Lucent, Mike Armstrong's, wall street, wall street investors, start-up companies, street investors, long-term plan, bought vision, 20th century, market share,
Approximate Word count = 825
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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