Recent news published by the BBC and the Financial Times shows how the cell phone market is exposed to constant changes. Both media hubs have stated that HTC, a Taiwanese smart phone maker, has had a significant drop of 79% in its profits. The BBC attributes the notable fall in profits of HTC to the fast growing popularity and success of its competitors, Apple and Samsung. Both rivals recently released their new smart phones that seem to be taking over the market. What is interesting about this news is that it portrays how business’ and mainly cell phone business change. Early this semester we were encouraged to read a and article from The Economist that emphasized the fast growing popularity and high profits of the same company, HTC. The article published in April of 2012 described the high number of sales happening then that seem to be gone now. From this comparison we are able to understand how important it is for a company to stay up to date with products that can fulfill the needs of the consumer and compete with other brands because the lack of these elements can lead to a loss of almost three thirds in profits.

Image: http://www.htc.com/www/smartphones/

United Health, largest American health insurer, has bought 60% of Brazil’s Amil for $4.9bn. According to the BBC, United Heath is looking to expand overseas and Amil’s $5bn annual profit motivated the American company to begin its expansion.

The most interesting aspect of the news were not the fact that United Health will own, by the first half of 2013, 90% of Amil’s shares but the reason behind why United Health decided to expand, and the role that a SWOT analysis could have played in making this decision. The part of the grid we will be focusing on is the ‘opportunity’ one.

The BBC mentions in their report of United’s purchase that the Brazilian middle class is growing. By a quick research we can see that it represents more than 50% of the country’s population. We can draw the conclusion that United Health was not just looking to fulfill the demand of health care in Brazil but settle in a country that is going through a significant growth in potential consumers. Such opportunity could have been included in a simple SWOT grid that would list the growing market of another country as an external factor.

The changes in football driven by globalization motivated the arrival of private capital from foreign investors into EU football clubs. The way in which investors acted upon the clubs was very much like any other business. The first step taken by the clubs was to expand their markets, looking for consumers outside Europe. East and Southeast Asia were the main target of clubs. Membership, gear, TV broadcasting of matches and even special channels focused exclusively in one club (Ex: Chelsea TV) and even pre season tours where teams would fly into several countries playing friendlies and giving the consumers the opportunity of getting close to the club were attributes that each club needed to have in order to match competitors (PoP).

Manchester United in in the summer of 2005 stood out from the rest by purchasing Park Ji-Sung, Korean footballer. If Man U chose to buy Park in order to profit is an ongoing debate but the result of this transfer was a growth in popularity and consumers in the Asian market. Due to the presence of Park in United’s squad, consumers could associate themselves with the brand unlike any other (PoD). Although Park left United’s squad after six years the club signed with Shinji Kagawa, Japanese midfielder, in the 2012 transfer window.

image: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1273360/Champions-League-finalists-Bayern-Munich-target-Manchester-Uniteds-7m-Ji-Sung-Park.html