Verizon Communications

Verizon Communication’s Core Competencies: Verizon’s success stems from the core competencies in which it possesses that provides for its basis of competitive advantage. The company has really made it a primary focus to strengthen these competencies to their full potential and utilizing them in an effort sustain its competitive advantage and strive toward long-term business growth. Below you will find a list of the key core competencies that Verizon depends on for its continued success and the details entailed to each one:Corporate Citizenship: In 2005, due to an industry that was going through many changes, as well as technologies experiencing an extremely rapid evolving rate, Verizon decided that it needed to focus on the internal processes of the business. Verizon did this by creating what it calls â€Å"CR360†, which stands for â€Å"Corporate Responsibility 360 Degrees†. According to the Business Civic Leadership Center, Verizon’s CR360 model à ¢â‚¬Å"provides a framework that enables employees to look at an issue from an internal and external perspective.The model integrates Verizon’s core values with an understanding of stakeholder expectations into a responsible decision-making process. Verizon has been able to generate employee understanding and cooperation in the CR360 program by incorporating its framework into its employee orientation and leadership training, as well as creating an online training course. According to Kathryn C. Brown, Senior Vice President – Public Policy Department, â€Å"as a company we are becoming more accountable and more cognizant of stewardship and responsibility, and we think that’s important to the success of our business.Infrastructure & Strength and Reliability of the Verizon Network: With the strongest, most reliable network in the market, Verizon has distinguished itself among many other carriers in being a leader in the industry. According to Tony Melone, Verizon Wireless senior vice president and chief technology officer, â€Å"I can promise you that reliability will continue to differentiate Verizon Wireless in the marketplace. There will be no substitute for good old-fashioned engineering. † Verizon is implementing this strategic approach by building the most reliable ext-generation 4G LTE wireless network in the country, and one of the first on the globe. The development of this mobile ecosystem will be due in part to the collaborative initiatives that are taking/took place: †¢ Verizon LTE Innovation Center: Serves as an incubator for early development of both traditional and non-traditional products for use on Verizon Wireless’ 4G LTE network. The company actively works with several strategic partners to help the consumer electronics industry quickly bring products to the market. The Verizon Developer Community and V CAST Apps: A strong group of application developers are helping the company bring innovative applicati ons to its customers. V CAST Apps will allow developers to take advantage of the company’s scale and distribution to market their applications to Verizon Wireless customers. †¢ Join Innovation Lab: Collaborating with China Mobile, Softbank and Vodafone, Verizon Wireless is developing a software platform that will allow developers to create their mobile applications to run seamlessly across multiple operating systems.Experience in the Industry: Verizon has over 125 years of experience in the telecommunications industry. Over those years, Verizon has acquired and merged with other companies, causing a large body of knowledge and skills being integrated into the Verizon businesses. Training Employees and Customer Satisfaction: Verizon holds the facet of learning as a large aspect of their business. Verizon’s trainers are expected to tie instruction directly to the company’s objectives.According to Lou Tedrick, Staff Vice President of Workforce Development, thi s approach ensures executive buy-in, provides concrete benchmarks by which to measure success, and helps the company better serve its growing customer base. The establishment of a certification program was needed because giving sales and customer service reps the product information they need, and keeping customers happy is a clear necessity for business. The program has four steps[1]: †¢ Stage 1: â€Å"Learn It† o The employee receives initial instruction both online as well as in the classroom †¢ Stage 2: â€Å"Show It†: Includes an activity-based demonstration to managers of knowledge attainment followed by feedback †¢ Stage 3: â€Å"Prove It†: o Workers take the test that determines whether or not they’ve earned the certification, and also includes an examination of post-training performance indicators. †¢ Stage 4: â€Å"Earn It†: o This stage is devoted to recognizing those who gain certification. Verizon’s Tangible and Intangible Resources: Tangible Resources: †¢ Financial Stability: According to Verizon Communications 2009 Annual Report, the company has $227. 3 billion in assets, operating revenues of $107. billion, and cash and cash equivalents at the end of the year ranging from $1. 2 billion – $9. 7 billion over the last three years. With substantial assets, revenues with steady increase over the last three years, and substantial amounts of cash on hand consistently year after year, Verizon’s financial backbone is very strong. Intangible Resources: †¢ Reputation with Customers: Verizon’s customers know that when they are signing up with Verizon for any of the services that it offers, they are going to be getting a reliable product and/or service with substantial quality.Whether it is wireline or wireless services or products, customers know the Verizon Communications’ reputation precedes itself. †¢ Goodwill: Verizon Communications’ firmly b elieves in the concept of corporate responsibility and giving back to the community and environment. Verizon really encourages people to get involved and volunteer for something that they love. In 2009, Verizon employees volunteered over 700,000 volunteer hours and donated more than $12. 6 million, which was matched by the Verizon Foundation for a total donation of $26. 1 million invested in community causes.Verizon is also very involved with finding a cure for America’s epidemic in domestic violence. The company provided the Jenesse Center in Los Angeles with a $250,000 grant for a job-skills training program to encourage economic self-sufficiency for domestic violence victims. Also, Verizon provide the Pennsylvania Coalition against Domestic Violence with a $50,000 grant to build its capacity to educate people throughout the state about domestic violence. Another philanthropic effort that Verizon has made has been the establishment and launching of free legal services.These legal services are provided by the company’s legal department and focuses on providing free legal services to three areas: education, support for victims of domestic violence, and support for returning veterans. Verizon anticipates that their attorneys and legal staff will volunteer more than 5,000 hours in 2010. [2] †¢ Company Image and Perception to Customers: When you think of AT&T, you typically think of dropped calls, no service, or lackadaisical customer service. More often than not, this is usually the case.Verizon, on the other hand, has a known reputation for quality customer service, meeting and exceeding the expectations of customers, and providing a product that is reliable, efficient, and consistent. Capabilities: Strategic Business Relationships: Verizon and Microsoft have collaborated to enhance the system characteristics of the cloud-based communication networks. Verizon is able to leverage its financial stability and resources in order to meet the high requirements of capital in order to obtain the best technology. [3]Human Resources: Verizon’s HR department had a keen awareness to the change in industry that was approaching. It knew that rather than making substantial investments in tangible assets, the key to a successful and profitable organization was the investment and sustainability in intangible assets like intellectual capital. Industries are becoming more focused on knowledge management versus hard inventory management. The ways in which Verizon implements this strategy is by focusing on five sectors of their personnel[4]: 1.Talent: Investing in the development of their employees in order to grow its pool of talent, as well as providing for an environment that promotes adequate ethnic and gender diversity. 2. Leadership: Locating employees with potential and providing coaching, development, and rewards for behavior that reflects leadership characteristics. 3. Customer Service and Support: Promote a work environment that encourages collaboration and teamwork, as well as increasing the employees’ knowledge about the products that the company provides and the services that it offers. . Organizational Integration: Provide different avenues and better systems that allow other business units to share information efficiently. 5. HR capability: Focuses on identifying specific talent for different rotational assignments and instituting a measurement system that identifies specific human resources achievements. SWOT Analysis: †¢ Strengths: o A wide range of different technologies o Access to a large amount of qualified employees o A network that has established a bold presence in the market. †¢ Weaknesses: Dealing with an increasing number in workers retiring o Due to the recent merges and acquisitions, Verizon is continuing to deal with differing cultural issues that are present throughout the organization. †¢ Opportunities: o Trying to attack different growth markets o Leveragin g its brand identity in order to institute it into potential markets. †¢ Threats: o Increasing government regulation o Substitution of its products and services with other providers’. o An economy that remains weak due to the financial crisis.Four Criteria of Sustainable Competitive Advantage: 1. Valuable: By integrating its dedication to quality customer service, it adds value to the consumer by letting them know that Verizon is putting forth the effort to make sure all of their problems are solved and to increase employee satisfaction. 2. Rare: By leveraging its name and resources resources, Verizon’s strategic relationship with Microsoft is a rare capability that other competitors simply cannot implement due to their limited IT budgets and personnel that is considered to be less technically avvy. 3. Costly to imitate: Competitors simply cannot afford to make the same capital investments and budget expansions that Verizon is capable of doing. If T-mobile wanted to invest into cloud service technology with Microsoft, the budget for its IT services simply wouldn’t permit. 4. Non-substitutable: Verizon operates the most reliable network in the telecom industry as well as exercisingWorks Cited†Corporate Responsibility. † Verizon Communications Corporate Responsibility. Web. 26 Oct. 2010. http://responsibility. verizon. om/home/results/community/ Lewis, Debbie.