Question

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CASE QUESTIONS AND DISCUSSION > Analyze and discuss the questions listed below in specific detail. A minimum of 4 pages is required; ensure that you answer all questions completely Case Questions Who are the main players (name and position)? What business (es) and industry or industries is the company in? What are the issues and problems facing the company? (Sort them by importance and urgency.) What are the characteristics of the environment in which the company operates? What are the characteristics of the industry that the company is in and how is the industry changing over time? What is the firm's strategy, in terms of the five strategy elements, for competing in this context?

Answer 1

1. The main players in the case study are:
   • Nick Woodman (CEO): The Chief Executive Officer of the company, he established the company with name of woodman labs in 2004. He got the pain point of capturing quality shots while doing adventure sports during his trip to Australia. He decided to act on the white space after returning from Australia. In his Leadership GoPro had 21.6% market share in the US market by 2012.
   • Tony Bates (President): Tony reports to the CEO Nick Woodman, he was hired from Microsoft in 2014 after it went public in 2013. Under his leadership, the company sales performance rebounded in 2015.
   • Nina Richardson (COO): Chief Operating Officer Nina resigned abruptly in 2015 and positioned was left unoccupied until the compilation of the case.
   • Tony young (CIO): Chief Information Officer Tony was hired in 2015. Earlier tony used to work with Informatica corp.
   • Hero Camcorder (Products): The principle product, which GoPro sells to its customer, is Hero camcorder. Apart from these it also sells multitude of accessories like camera mounts on helmets, rechargeable batteries etc. It also provides free software to which can be installed on the smartphones and camera settings can be controlled through the software. The primary color in which these products available are white silver & black.
   • Sony, Samsung, Apple, Canon (Competitors): Although GoPro has the market share of 30% around the world, still it has various competitors like Sony, Samsung, Apple, Canon. Camcorder sales dipped from 2011 to 2013 due the arrival of cameras like apple iPhone.
2. The company is in a niche segment of proving cam coders to the sports enthusiast, which are into activities like scuba diving, rock climbing, hikers and snow skiers. The basic white space which company tries to fill is a no frill attached camcorder which is conveniently comfortable to hand hold which doing such activities as well as sturdy like water proof. The target customers are those who wants to have a basic smaller camera at affordable pricing. Apart from the only principle product which is Hero camcorder line. Company also sells host of other accessories like camera mounts for helmets, handlebars, roller bars and tripod mounts. Apart from these company also sells, batteries, charging accessories, cables, microphones, floatation devices, dive filters, anti-fogging strips.
3. There are broadly three issues which company is facing:
   • Product: The main characteristic of the company product is niche segment of sports activities enthusiast. However, company has captured other consumer space as well due to the affordability of the cameras plus the convenience, which the product provides like small size and point, and shoot capabilities. The industry dynamics has changed since 2011 after the arrival of integrated smart phones, which provides all in one option to the customers leading to products proliferation of such value.
   • Competitors: With competitors like Apple, Canon, Sony and Samsung who not only have deep pockets but host of other products as well which provides them with the option of Bundling. GoPro with its just one product like falls short of such expectations from the consumers. In addition, its plan of expanding into Drone industry has already a dominant player from China. Hence, the go to market strategy will have to be carefully crafted.
   • Company ecosystem: Other players in the space like Sony has well established sales and demand fulfillment capabilities. They are better equipped to handle any disruption in the domain. Go Po being new and expanding into new territories need hands that are more experienced in the business to be able to tackle such disruptions.
4. The characteristics of the environment are as follows :
   • Demand: Americans are becoming more health conscious each passing day, which is leading to the increase in outdoor recreation activities. Scuba diving industry is set t to grow at 3% and is now a $420 million industry. The ski resorts owners are expecting an increase of 2% in their revenues. The industry is directly correlated with the disposable income of the population as well as the snowfall. The total revenue of the industry totaled $3 Billion in 2014.
   • Competition & Future Planning: Currently the company has no competitor directly in the domain. However in the future, the competitors plans to venture into such product range. Also, with the arrival of smart phones the standalone sale of digital cameras has declined. GoPro has positioned itself as niche product to a segment of customers. Also, the white space in the same segments exist in Europe, south America and Asian region and Go pro has taken strides in fulfilling those demands by venturing into china and brazil.