2/10/2021

INTEGRATIVE TEAM PROJECT

- SECTION 30(GROUP 8)

GROUP MEMBERS

- JASHANDEEP KAUR (110047323)

- RICHERD EDWARDS (110042099)
- MOEED KHATTAK (110025090)
- DANILLO MEDIC (104328042)
- MADIHA SHAIKH (110025090)
CONTENTS
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ............................................................................................................................ 2
HISTORY .................................................................................................................................................. 3
DYNAMICS OF THE ORGANIZATION’S APPROACH TO VALUE CREATION ............................................... 4
COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE..................................................................................................................... 4
COMPETITIVE AND ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS.................................................................................... 6
PESTEL ANALYSIS..................................................................................................................................... 7
STRUCTURAL AND CULTURAL DESIGN: ................................................................................................... 9
ZOOM STRUCTURE AND CULTURE CHARACTERIZATION ...................................................................... 10
ZOOM STRUCTURE AND CULTURE VALUE CREATION .......................................................................... 12
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS............................................................................................. 12
REFERENCES .......................................................................................................................................... 14

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This report stems from the in-depth analysis of the organization- Zoom Communications Inc.

supplemented through research and analysis by the official website of the website and other

secondary certified resources, we have created a report in order to analyse the strengths,

weakness, company structure, value creation, competition and competitive edge.

Zoom Communications is a video conferencing software application which enables you to

interact with people online. Zoom came into recognition when the pandemic hit and one on

one interaction wasn’t possible. This was the main reason why we chose this company. It has

been recognised globally for the services it provides. We can say that Zoom has managed to

gather devoted potential customers and has established strong presence.

The major things we got to learn from this research is that the organization provides three value

proposition that is accessibility, performance and brand status. The key ingredient is the

customer service through which it aims to create value globally. Zoom has made many updates

since it became a prime user for many people. They put stress on the happiness of employees

as well as their customers.

Through our research and analysis on Zoom inc, we have concluded that it has, indeed, made

an impact in the world of Video and Web communications. From the many strengths they

possess, superior product quality, consumer-friendly features, customer-oriented business

environment, and employee satisfaction have resulted in their global success and value

creation. However, their compromised product security and torn down brand-image has proven

to be a considerable disadvantage to the organization. The company has potential unexplored

markets that they can take advantage of to increase their global approach. This can be done

through technological advancements or diversification in other complementary goods/service

industry.

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HISTORY
Eric Yuan was the VP of Engineering at online meeting company WebEx. When Cisco Systems

acquired WebEx, he joined the parent firm as a Corporate Vice President. While there, he

received feedback from clients about their video conferencing system challenges. These

included making the solutions mobile-friendly and integrating them with existing hardware-

based conference products.Yuan decided that he wanted to build an offering that would address

several of these problems. So in 2011 he left Cisco to found a company called Zoom Video

Communications. He was joined by former engineering colleagues at WebEx, and they were

able to receive seed funding from venture capitalists – starting with $3 million the first year.

For two years, the group developed their product.The solution was an all-in-one platform

combining online meeting, cloud video conferencing, and group messaging capabilities.

During the two-year period Zoom tested it with beta customers, including Stanford University’s

Continuing Studies department, which became its first paid client. By the time the firm

officially launched in January 2013, it had over 140,000 users. (Yuan, 2017)

MISSION–

Zoom aims to make communication a joyful experience for its customers. They pursue a vision

of uninterrupted video and web conferences.

VISION-

Video communications empowering people to accomplish more

Their vision and mission statements tie well into their core value which is to care. They care

about their “Community, Customers, Company, Teammates, Selves” (Video conferencing,

web Conferencing, Webinars, screen sharing, n.d.).

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DYNAMICS OF THE ORGANIZATION’S APPROACH TO VALUE CREATION
A comprehensive and meaningful strategic discussion that ties together the nature, means, and

dynamics of the organization’s approach to value creation and sustained competitive

advantage. A company's core values are their underlying set philosophy that guides and

influences their day to day business. It outlines how the company should interact with their

customers, stakeholders, and partners. If the company's core values align with their vision and

mission then they are able to create a positive environment of shared value for its customers.

Zoom prides itself on making sure that they bring happiness to their customers. They believe

happiness is increased by having seamless interactions with each other through video

conferencing. According to their official website their vision statement is “Video

communications empowering people to accomplish more” and their mission statement is

“Make video communications frictionless and secure”.

The company’s values are seen through their day to day interactions with their customers. Their

website states that they offer a frictionless communication platform to businesses and

organizations to connect and collaborate. Through their various channels such as video and

voice calls and chat run they aim to empower people to accomplish more effortlessly.

COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

According to the business textbook, a company's competitive advantage can be defined as,

"When it possesses capabilities that enable the company to perform critical activities better

than its rivals"(Bissonette, 2016). Companies often times strive to create an advantage over

their competitors since it establishes a preference for their product; this advantage is then

leveraged to create greater sales and, in turn, greater profits. An essential key to understanding

a company's competitive advantage is by understanding the company's competitive

environment. This can be achieved by determining which of the four competitive models a

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company fits into. Since Zoom is competing with various other companies in the video

conference market this places it in a purely competitive market.

Top 4 competitors in the video conference market

• Skype

• Microsoft teams

• Zoom

• Google Meet

Zoom Skype Microsoft Teams Google Meet

Price - Free option -Free option - Free option - Free option

- Pro: - $5-$25 for -Business basic: - Business
$149.9/year Mobile and $5/month/user starter:
For 1 license credit range -Business $6/month/user
-Business: -Subscription fee standard: - Business
$1,999/year For $8.39/month $12.50/month/us standard:
10 license er $12/month/user
-Enterprise: -Business 365 - Business plus:
$19,990/year For E3: $18/month/user
100 license $20/month/user -Enterprise:
Contract sales

Number of 100(free) 50 max 250(free) 25 to 100

participants 1000(Premium) 1000(Premium)

Encrypted No yes yes yes

communicatio
n

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 Recording yes yes yes yes

Video quality hd hd Vga/hd hd

Features -Recording:Yes -Recording:Yes -Recording:Yes -Recording:

Only if meeting
-Screen -Screen -Screen manager
sharing:Yes sharing:Yes sharing:Yes
-Screen
-Virtual -Virtual -Virtual sharing:Yes
Backgrounds:Ye Backgrounds:Ye Backgrounds:Ye
s s s -Virtual
Backgrounds:Ye
-Chats:Yes -Chats:Yes -Chats:Yes s

-Whiteboard:Yes -Whiteboard:Yes -Whiteboard:Yes -Chats:Yes

-Easy multi -Easy multi -Easy multi -Whiteboard:No

sharing:Yes sharing: No sharing: No
-Easy multi
-Live -Live -Live sharing:No
sub/translation:Y sub/translation:Y sub/translation:Y
es es es -Live
sub/translation:Y
es

(Arley Henry, T. (2020, November 20), (Singh, R. , Awasthi, S. (2020, August 16).

COMPETITIVE AND ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS

Through their customer friendly, and weak internet connection compatible software, Zoom has
won over their clients. Their business plan includes various purpose specific plans to target
diverse groups of audience. Starting from Pro, Business & Enterprise plans for small teams to
large business enterprises. (What Is the Business Modal Of, 2020)

Despite everything Zoom offers, it lacks from their competitors the advantage of collaboration
with other complementary goods. Microsoft Teams for example, is one of the biggest
rival products of Zoom. It thrives on the fact that it can be used along with other Microsoft
Office programs like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote and Outlook, slack etc. Zoom, for
now, has limited themselves in the world of web and Video conferencing. Integrating with
other businesses, and complementary-good-producing-companies can help them expand and
grow into larger markets. This has already been seen in action through Zoom’s collaboration
with their hardware partners- HP, Lenovo and Logitech.( Zoom Video Conferencing and Zoom
Room Solutions, (n.d.). These companies help their clients in installation and setting up a
conference room if required. If not, they can start Zoom meetings directly from existing
conference rooms. (What Is the Business Modal Of, 2020)

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 Their recent security breach issue has raised lots of questions in the eyes of their
audience. Although there have been some progressive steps taken in order to overcome this
drawback through their recent update released on May 30th in which they have introduced the
availability to set minimum meeting password requirements, longer meeting ID and turning on
password protection for all shared cloud recordings among other things, it has
been noticeable insufficient in regaining the confidence of their clients, the way, they once
had over them. This can be seen by the warning (advisory) raised by the Ministry
of Home Affairs of Indian to discourage their employees from using zoon for
government communication. (Zoom not a safe platform: MHA issues advisory on usage of the
app, 2020). (Ministry of Home Affairs, 2020), (Prasar Bharati News Services, Twitter 2020).

Microsoft Team’s recent update has been of little help. It currently enforces organization-wide
and team-wide two factor authentication, single sign-on with active Directory, encryption of
data in transit and at rest, Notes are stored in an app called OneNote and are backed with
OneNote encryption. (Microsoft, (nd)). Clearly Microsoft teams got competitive advantage
over Zoom due to its vulnerability towards cyber-attack.

After sustaining multiple cyber-attacks Zoom’s product image has taken a huge hit. The
organization must take steps to recover their brand image and come out a stronger and safer
platform for sharing data and holding conferences. (BBC News, 2020)

After the retirement of Skype for business on July 31, 2021, Zoom will have a new opportunity
to draw customers looking for a safe, high quality, easy to use and affordable platform to
continue their online meetings and conferences. (Microsoft, 2019) This should be a cue for the
organization to release a trump card which draws maximum customers towards them rather
than scatter in the pool of providers in the video and web Conference industry.

Zoom’s CEO was already aware where the major video conferencing platform
providers lacked as he worked in WebEx. It was this critical information which gave rise to
Zoom. It covered all the loopholes the industry giants had lacked. All the previous platforms
were created to serve primarily as an audio-first conference which was later adjusted to host
video conferences as well. Zoom on the other had the advantage of being created as a video-
first platform from the very start which made it cost efficient. (What is the business Modal of,
2020)

With this information the company was able to meet an unsatisfied

market eventually taking over the industry through its demand specific product. This gave
Zoom an advantage over its competitors despite being newcomers in a well-established
market.

PESTEL ANALYSIS-
Political: This includes the effect of government policy/regulations on a company or industry.

New programs such as the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (to avoid job losses), workers

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being allowed to work from home whenever necessary and companies being temporarily forced

to close in order to reduce the spread of COVID-19 are current examples. Many political or

governments are also using the application for discussing their important reforms and decisions

to be made amidst this pandemic as a physical meeting is not something possible.

Economic: Considerations here decide how an organization is impacted by developments in

the UK (and often global) economy. Current examples include loss of profit; a possible increase

in unemployment due to redundancy; economic downturn recently predicted; instability of the

supply chain and less disposable income for the public. Lower confidence of consumers as

many of them are doubting their loss of privacy and leakage of their confidential information

being passed via the same majorly when it is a business based video conferencing is a high

concern in using the platform for conferencing. This is also highly applicable when being done

in personal perspective with the loved and near ones.

Social: Social factors are based on evolving social patterns, which may include lifestyle

changes, population rise or decline, and even people's movement. Current examples are:

locking down an imposed government, a shifting attitude towards workplace travel and a

massive change towards homework being the new norm. This would also involve the increased

number in the usage of the platform as most the people are telecommuting or working from

home due to the pandemic hit and making it convenient to continue the business operations

without hindrance. And many people being stuck away from family due to the same are also

using Zoom on an extended basis.

Technological: Tech factors concentrate on the rapidly evolving effect on an organization of

technology and innovation. Depending on their ability to adapt and implement new

technologies, these types of improvements may either be beneficial or detrimental for an

organization. Examples of change in this sector include the shift to use video conferencing

tools such as Zoom to communicate with staff or companies to increase their participation in

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social media to connect and expand their customer base. The major opportunity here is being

advertised through the social media platforms grabbing attention of a number of prospective

customers located remotely across the globe despite the barrier of the country during this

pandemic.

Environmental: Considerations here relate to the environment and the overall impact it has on

an entity, including the climate, emissions, and any environmental regulations they need to

comply with. Current examples here may include the marked emission reduction seen during

the global lockdown of COVID-19 or the implementation of new agricultural legislation by the

UK Government to boost the agricultural industry. Extended usage of the technologies and

equipment’s increasing the greenhouse gas emissions and extensive or over usage of energy.

There is no such protection policy being displayed by the company yet which should actually

be put in forefront by the company.

Legal: This includes any government regulations or rules that an entity must adhere to in order

to comply with, such as the laws of the European GDPR that became enforceable in 2018.

Current examples could include modifying trade laws and controls and easing the rules of the

customs authorities to help companies. Also the company has received a backlash from security

experts, privacy advocates, lawmakers and even FBI regarding their weak settings making it

vulnerable to the hackers and others intruding to the privacy of the users of the platform and

their personal information

STRUCTURAL AND CULTURAL DESIGN:

Upon examination of Zoom Inc. Communications, the company’s current organizational and

structural design depict a culture that is geared toward the happiness and satisfaction of its

customers and employees through personal work-relations and interactions as the company

“Encourages employees to bring loved ones to work so teammates and colleagues can meet the

people behind the scene of their working lives, the people they’re inspired by, and who they’re

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working for,” (Austin, 2020). The company also states in their S-1 Registration statement that

“Our culture of delivering happiness drives our mission, vision, and values and is fundamental

to everything we do at Zoom,” (Amendment No. 2 to Form S-1 Registration Statement Under

the Securities Act of 1933, 2019). Evidently, the culture of Zoom Inc is that of positive mental

health, innovation, and effective collaboration regardless of distance as Zoom promotes the

well-being of its participants- customers and employees alike- in all aspects of the service that

Zoom provides and throughout their company as their main goal to provide high-quality

conferencing and collaboration to all. Zoom Inc, company structure and implementation of

culture is founded through its core beliefs which have allowed great success for the company

with the following titles; “A video-first cloud architecture, recognized market leadership, viral

demand, an efficient go-to-market strategy, and robust customer support.” (Amendment No. 2

to Form S-1 Registration Statement Under the Securities Act of 1933, 2019). Zoom Inc, also

structures the company through the use of Zoom’s happiness crew located in every company

building- used to promote and maintain the company culture of happiness through the

celebration of current events and or company/individual achievement, through props and

company gear randomly placed within offices and public spaces within the company buildings,

through opportunities of community involvement and volunteering and through activities that

orient activity and collaboration, (Nordli, 2018). This team dedicated to the wellness of Zoom

employees is an integral part of the company structure as it reinforces a positive, motivated,

and social environment for employees which overall benefits the employee experience and

customer experience of the company, but also reminds individuals working in the company

that at the end of the day, being happy is most important.

ZOOM STRUCTURE AND CULTURE CHARACTERIZATION

Moreover, the organization's culture and structure can be best characterized not only through

words but through actions, the company has taken to give back to the community and or critical

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service it has provided for those most in need. During the pandemic, life was abruptly changed

and required students of all ages to remain indoors and not attend their institutions of education

because of severe health risk factors. This physical absence from school left parents, students,

and teachers bewildered as to how education could continue without risking the lives of those

involved. Appositely, Zoom Inc, is a cloud-based company whose founding factor is

communication abroad and whose service immediately became imperative to the well-being,

and development of students, teachers and many businesses worldwide as its service allows for

the collaboration, conferencing, and content broadcasting of individuals and groups ranging

from 1-1,000 people in one Zoom meeting session (Antonelli, 2020). With the increasing

demand for Zoom services, the company is able to create value from providing this service at

a cost. However, this service has become increasingly demanded by students and teachers,

specifically K-12 educators who have no other choice but to teach online. Zoom Inc, gaining

significant fraction as being the leading source of collaborative broadcasting, was ever aware

of this situation and chose to take action. “Zoom made headlines for its generosity during a

time of crisis. In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Zoom announced free licenses of

Zoom for K-12 educators. It was a forward-thinking and community-minded act during a time

of need, and one that would make life harder for the Zoom team. But it was the right thing to

do,” (Austin, 2020). Such acts of consideration, charity, and awareness are those that set a trend

in other organizations to adapt and do their part in such unprecedented times and are actions

that create mindsets to those who work in Zoom that the company is not only successful but

care for the greater good of society and for the minds of tomorrow. Such actions lead to strong

brand awareness, increased employee morale, and more loyal customers-knowing that they

support a good company who would in turn support them. Through the contributions of the

company in its most recent rise in popularity, it has leveraged this success to gain support,

brand awareness, and recognition of help in a time of need which gives the company a

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competitive advantage over other companies offering similar services due to brand awareness

and customer favourability which enhances value creation due to popularity of the brand.

ZOOM STRUCTURE AND CULTURE VALUE CREATION

Furthermore, the structure and culture of the company Zoom Inc were created around the

importance of the happiness of their employees and customers, which has allowed Zoom to be

a household name and first-choice option in video-conferencing and broadcasting services. As

Zoom is a company that has created value from offering this service and have become the most

popular and recognizable company offering this service, the company’s approach to value

creation has excelled in efforts of creating a brand name, and this success can widely be

attributed to the company’s culture and structure- making Zoom a favorable place of work for

individuals, therefore increasing the overall employee experience as happiness is the main

focus of the company. The significance of company culture is reinstated during a business

conference as Tim Chi (2016) states. This exclaims the significance of a favorable employee

experience, which arguably increases the customer experience as well. All in all, the structure

and culture of Zoom Inc, have allowed the company to thrive within its market, create

significant brand awareness and employee happiness which benefited the company’s strategy

to value creation.

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Through close examination of the comparison between Zoom and their competitors, it is clear

that Zoom offers a great product, but it does not have a clear competitive advantage. For Zoom

to achieve a competitive edge, it must create itself an opportunity for a competitive advantage.

This can be done by improving upon its innovation, customer responsiveness, quality, and

efficiency. Firstly, Zoom's efficiency needs to be improved, even though Zoom does not lack

in offered features compared to its competitors; however, it does cost more. This can become

a problem since, in a purely competitive market, price plays a significant role in determining

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what product a customer is going to purchase. Since Zoom's competitors offer a similar

product, customers are most likely going to choose other companies.. Inspecting the data, it's

clear that Zoom is the only of the four platforms that do not offer encrypted communication.

This can have a significant negative impact on their sales since companies would most likely

opt for using other safer platforms for their business. By adding encrypted communication,

Zoom would improve the reliability, in turn improving the quality of their product. If Zoom

were to improve upon these two flaws, it would create a competitive advantage for itself. This

is because they would offer a better overall product since it will have no drawbacks and offer

features customers can enjoy that they can't get on other platforms, such as the easy multi-share

option. We conclude from our research that Zoom has indeed put an impact on the world of

communication.

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