Grand Strategy Matrix

Rapid Market Growth 

Slow Market Growth 

Evaluation 

Samsung has a strong competitive position and has achieved market leadership in some of its products because of its products, innovation, and technology. Due to the company's strong commitment to retaining the top position, the firm has acquired sustainable competitive advantages over its competitors. The company easily replicates features from its competitors and then introduces similar features on their products. Specifically, Samsung has easily replicated and designed various features from its main competitor, Apple. The company has strong brand equity because of their efficient marketing strategy and branding (Park, 2015). The strategy has improved its customer's relationship in a manner that has led to higher brand equity. Samsung's product strategy began paying off because of their focus on designs and research. Their positioning strategy ensures that the company makes adequate sales across their broad product portfolio that addresses various needs of their clients. Their strong competitive position is also attributed to new product development. The company has about 36 R&D centers in the entire world so that they can secure the best technology for the future. The essay will evaluate the grand strategy matrix of Samsung Electronics Company. 

The market growth for Samsung's products is rapid especially in China, India, and Africa. Recently, the company expanded into four new markets within two days. The company expanded into Switzerland, Sweden, United Arab Emirates, and Hong Kong. In 2016, the company shipped over 300 million smartphones. The growth is attributed to the high flexibility. The company can easily change its business strategies according to the external business environment. Few people have acknowledged the growth of Samsung since their inception in 1938 as a grocery store. In 1940, the company switched to noodles and in 1950, they shifted to sugar production. It then invested in securities and insurance in 1956. The company produced its first black and white TV in 1960 (Park, 2015). Since 1960, the company began establishing itself as one of the key technology companies in the world. The features of Samsung business strategy include new product development and frequent change of direction. The company constantly searches for business gaps in the local and global market and then exploits and invests in the opportunity. The decisions have had a positive impact on the growth of the company, especially in the electronics segment. 

The company strategy is based according to the products in each quadrant. The smartphone market is experiencing a rapid market growth, and the company is in a strong competitive position because of the high quality and innovative features. Furthermore, the company replicates features from its main competitors and replicates them in their smartphones. There is a rapid market growth for laptops, but the company is in a weak competitive position because their competitors such as Apple, HP, Dell, Acer, and Lenovo are way ahead of the company in the design of computer hardware and software (Choi, Kim, & Yoon, 2014). However, Samsung is attempting to improve R&D of its laptops so that they can compete favorably in the global market. In the third quadrant, the company is in a weak competitive position and a slow market growth. The products are new, and there is little demand for home routers. However, the company is aligning its strategy to ensure people realize the importance of proper internet access through home routers (Choi, Kim, & Yoon, 2014). In the fourth quadrant, the products have a strong competitive position but a slow market growth. Unlike smartphones where each person is required to own one gadget, refrigerators, ovens, and washing machines can be shared among various people (Choi, Kim, & Yoon, 2014). Therefore, the company is marketing the products to families and homes to boost their sales. 

Some of the changes that the company should implement are improving their research and development segment so that they do not only focus on replicating the features from its competitors but also come up with new products. Moreover, the company is facing stiff competition from Apple, Lenovo, Google, HP, Microsoft, and Dell. Therefore, the company should develop its competitive advantages to avoid redundancy and the reputation that the company can only replicate new features from its competitors. The company may also develop a new operating system that will challenge Android OS, Microsoft OS, and iOS (Choi, Kim, & Yoon, 2014). The company should also penetrate the emerging markets such as Brazil, India, and China where there is a large population of young middle-class people who are technology savvy and desire luxurious products. Furthermore, they should improve their ability to recognize gaps in the market and come up with new features in the already established markets to boost their earnings (Choi, Kim, & Yoon, 2014). 

Conclusion 

The essay evaluates the grand strategy matrix of Samsung Electronics Company. Its products are designed to appeal to varying demographics. Their smartphones have eaten into the iPhone's market, and the company is expected to continue their strong competitive approach. Samsung has a strong competitive position and has achieved market leadership in some of its products because of its products, innovation, and technology (Choi, Kim, & Yoon, 2014). The market growth for Samsung's products is rapid especially in China, India, and Africa. The company strategy is based according to the products in each quadrant. The company's business strategy has ensured the company receives stable profits over the past decade. The company is facing various challenges in every quadrant, and it should address the challenges if they desire to retain their position in the technology industry (Park, 2015). 

References 

Park, S. O. (2015). 23. Samsung: restructuring, innovation, and global networks: Handbook of Manufacturing Industries in the World Economy, 362. 

Choi, J., Kim, B. J., & Yoon, S. (2014, June). UX and Strategic Management: A Case Study of Smartphone (Apple vs. Samsung) and Search Engine (Google vs. Naver) Industry: In International Conference on HCI in Business (pp. 703-710) Springer, Cham.