Global Communications Benchmarking

GLOBAL COMMUNICATIONS: BENCHMARKING

Global Communications: Benchmarking

University of Phoenix

Global Communications: Benchmarking

The purpose of the Global Communications Benchmarking Research Paper is to assist students in the development of alternative solutions for Global Communications. First, each student selected two companies that were faced with issues that were similar to the issues faced by Global Communications; a synopsis was prepared for each company that was selected. The synopses include the issue the company faced, the company response to the issue, and the outcome of the company's response. Next, the information from the synopses was used to write an analysis that contains key course concepts and to compare and contrast the practice of each company related to those concepts.

Company Synopses

Six companies were selected for the Global Communications Benchmarking Research Paper; each company is faced with one or more issues that are similar to the issues that were faced by Global Communications. The company synopses portion of the paper will address how the company responded to the issues and the outcomes of the company's responses to these issues. The company's selected for the synopses portion of the paper are Blockbuster, DuPont, Google, Ford Motors, Google, and McDonald's.

Blockbuster- prepared by Jennifer Singer

The issue of fierce competition in the marketplace and the need to react to the competition are problems of both Global Communications and Blockbuster. As investor's confidence started to diminish due to weak sales results, both companies knew a change was needed. Both Global Communications and Blockbuster were late in the game to gain competitive advantage in market trends. When rivaling companies in the telecommunications industry were offering complete solutions, Global Communications was a step behind in making their product assortment appealing to the new industry standards. Hand in hand, for global company Blockbuster, customers no longer wanted to go into video stores to rent movies, they were renting online. Blockbuster and Global Communications needed to react to this new trend and look for ways to stay competitive as the movie renting industry was changing.

The benefit that Blockbuster has over the competition is a trustful name in the industry with leading market position. Their revenues were adversely affected due to increased downloading of movies from the Internet, as well as the decreasing popularity of VHS tapes (MarketLine, 2006). When the marketplace was seeing huge success from rival company, Netflix, Blockbuster belatedly entered the online DVD rental arena. Blockbuster offers one distinct difference that puts the competition at a disadvantage. Blockbuster offers a service called "Total Access" which allows online customers to either return DVDs through the mail or exchange them at stores for free in-store movie rentals.

"Entertainment lovers now have an added benefit with BLOCKBUSTER Total Access," said Shane Evangelist, senior vice president and general manager for BLOCKBUSTER Online" (PR Newswire, 2006). Company executives and investors are looking forward to the profitable growth such programs with a unique point of difference will release. Blockbuster is showing hope and a worthy outlook for the company with these new programs that have a competitive advantage.

The outcome of the Blockbuster's response of lagging competitiveness in the marketplace by offering an online rental program has been largely successful. The company has had positive results in each quarter last year and in the year ahead, they expect to double their online subscriber base (Blockbuster Reports, 2007). The point of difference of "Total Access" service was enough for Netflix to lower their full-year revenue outlook due to stiff competition from Blockbuster (Pruitt, 2007).

DuPont- Prepared by Monique Magazine

Business leaders at DuPont decided agreed to a $4 billion deal outsourcing deal with Computer Sciences Corporation and Anderson Consulting. DuPont's issue is similar to the issue faced by Global Communications as both companies decided to outsource segments of the business. Global Communications decided to outsource some of the company's call centers in order to reduce unit costs for handling calls. DuPont wanted to outsource the Information System (IS) department in order to cut costs that were being generated by the company's 3,100 person IS professionals. DuPont and Global Communications faced similar issues, but used different levels of organizational communication to during the outsourcing process.

DuPont responded to their issue by "putting people issues near the very top of the priority list" (Mead, 1997, ¶2). Dupont's leaders communicated with employees throughout the outsourcing process. DuPont communicated with employees throughout the 18 months that it took to finalize the outsourcing deal. Business leaders used the company's size, resources, and the fact that almost all the IS organization would be outsourced, to broker the deal. This allowed DuPont to have a great deal of control over the outsourcing plan. DuPont leaders recognized the importance of retaining employee knowledge and skills. "DuPont leaders believed that even top outsources such as Computer Sciences Corporation and Anderson Consulting, could hope to meet their service level requirements only if they started with IS employees who already knew DuPont's business and core systems" (Moad, 1997,¶9).

DuPont leaders did not tell employees the specifics of each proposal that was submitted; employees were told how the selection process was progressing. The employees were also told about the guidelines that DuPont set in place concerning no lay-offs, no pay cuts, or no benefit cuts. DuPont went one-step further than telling employees about the outsourcing process; DuPont allowed employees to participate in the outsourcing process. DuPont used different modes of communication in order to reduce barriers to effective communication.

The manner in which DuPont communicated with employees concerning outsourcing led to about 97 % of the workers who were affected by the outsourcing to transition into positions with Computer Sciences Corporation or Anderson Consulting. Because of the large number of DuPont employees who remained with the outsourcers, DuPont