CASE application Shifting

Direction
As the global leader in satellite navigation equipment, Garmin Ltd.
recently hit a milestone number. It has sold more than 100 million of its
products to customers— from motorists to runners to geocaches and more
—who depend on the company’s equipment to “help show them the way.”
Despite this milestone, the company’s core business is in decline due to
changing circumstances.54 In response, managers at Garmin, the biggest
maker of personal navigation devices, are shifting direction. Many of you
probably have a dashboard-mounted navigation device in your car, and
chances are it might be a Garmin. However, a number of cars now have
“dash- board command centers which combine smartphone docking
stations with navigation systems.” Sales of Garmin devices have declined
as consumers increasingly use their smartphones for directions and maps.
However, have you ever tried to use your smartphone navigation system
while holding a phone to look at its display? It’s dangerous to hold a phone
and steer. Also, GPS apps can “crash” if multiple apps are running. That’s
why Olathe, the Kansas-based company, is taking explicitly aggressive
actions to team up with automakers to embed its GPS systems in car dash-
boards. Right now, its biggest in-dash contract is with Chrysler, and its
Uconnect dashboard system is found in several models of Jeep, Dodge, and
Chrysler vehicles. Garmin also is working with Honda and Toyota for
dashboard systems in the Asian market.

Despite these new market shifts, customers have gotten used to the GPS
devices, and they’ve become an essential part of their lives. That’s why
Garmin’s executive team still believes there’s a market for dedicated
navigation systems. It’s trying to breathe some life into the product with
new features, better designs, and more value for the consumer’s money.
For instance, some of the new features include faster searching for
addresses or points of interest, voice-activated navigation, and highlighting
exit services such as gas stations and restaurants.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1- What role do you think goals would play in

planning the change in direction for the
company? List some goals you think might be
important. (Make sure these goals have the
characteristics of well written goals.)

When a company makes a decision to

change direction and develop
strategic plans to achieve the

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 required change, the goals -set as
part of these plans- play a major and
important role in governing the entire
process. Communicating clear goals
all over the company; from executive
and top management down to the
ground-level employees, will ensure
keeping all aligned to achieve them.
The ground-level employees will work
more efficiently and better utilisation
of resources when they are directed
towards tasks in light of clear goals.
Setting Clear goals and pursuing
them will keep shareholders,
executives and top management
confident in the company's potential
for continued success and financial
prosperity. Important Goals for
Garmin change of direction: 1:
Maintain and grow customer base. 2:
Incorporate in products new
technologies as they emerge. such as
Augmented Reality (AR), 5G, etc. 3:
Maintain reasonable prices. 4: Target
new markets. 5: Integrate products to
automakers
Now a day, the GPS system is installed in the dashboard of the car. You
don’t need to look at. You can command it by your voice, and it will
work accordingly. It will also speak its result and guide you the direction

they have started developing their technology. It’s a demand of time.

People don’t have that much time to waste on looking to GPS. You have
to change with time to make your customer happy. Garmin is developing
their design, outlook, smoothness, adding new features, and overall

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 minimizing customer money. Otherwise customer have other option in
hand .

Goals that made Garmin change their direction in planning are:

- Competitors in the market.

- Faster revenue and earnings growth.

- Advancement In technology

- Smoothness

- Higher dividends and Wider profit margins

- Busy life of customers

- Rising stock price and recognition as “blue chip “company

- Minimizing cost of customers

- More diversified revenue base

- Stable earnings during recessionary periods

2- What types of plans would be needed in an

industry such as this one? (For instance,
long-term plans or short-term plans, or
both?) Explain why you think these plans
would be important.

They should use both long- and short-term plans. In the short term, need
to be up to date with the latest technology, examine the competitors’
strategies, and concentrate on the people's needs. They could also expand
to the global market to outstand the competitors.

For the long-term plans, they may first focus on their current customers
to earn their loyalty, second, they should concentrate on being the
markets’ leaders which eventually could lead to increasing their market
share.

Companies that are shifting their direction such as Garmin, will have to
develop short-term and long-term plans. Having both plans will enable

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 the company to introduce the change in a phased approach, track the
progress towards the overall goals, and measure the effectiveness of the
change. Shifting the direction of a world leader company with such a
huge customer-base will require three to four years to complete the
change, and hence short-term plans help in offering yearly milestone
change. It is important for companies that produce electronic related
products to announce a new product each year, and the short-term
planning comes to play. The sum of short-term plans makes the overall
long-term plan. Combining both planning approaches will help maintain
flexibility of the overall long-term plan. It can be altered, amended,
changed without worrying of losing the direction towards the overall
goals.

3- What contingency factors might affect the

planning Garmin executives have to do? How
might those contingency factors affect the
planning?

They have to create a long-term plan to turn the company to a better

level. by maintaining their flow in the market through enhancing their
weaknesses and using their strength to face the challenges and external
factors (which considers an example of the degree of environmental
uncertainty). This is also will make them in line with their objects.

In planning whether it is strategic planning or just short-term planning,

contingency factors impact the execution of the plans and may lead to
failure, unless special attention was made during the planning process.
Factors such as natural disasters, economic crisis, pandemic outbreak,
and other out of control events. For example, the COVID-19 pandemic
outbreak, which was unexpected, definitely impacted all companies;
small or multi-national, and it might have forced many organizations to
abandon plans or at least alter them to accommodate this disaster.
Garmin executives should pay attention to these contingency factors
during the planning process and they must have plan B's ready for
substituting part or whole of the overall plan. Contingency factors are
critical to the success of any plan and omitting them during the planning
process is seeds for failure.

The major contingency factors that must be considered during planning

process are: 1: Change in consumer behavior as a result of new products.
For example: iPhone emergance in 2007. It was a killer of Blackberry

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 and other products as well. 2: Financial crisis like the 2008 crisis. 3:
Pandemic outbreaks like the COVID-19 outbreak.

4- What planning challenges do you think

Garmin executives face with continuing to be
the global market leader? How should they
cope with those challenges?
They must be the leaders of innovation by keeping up to date with the
latest technologies, try to use the data in recognizing the rising pattern,
and lastly they should stay one step ahead of their competitors by
expecting their next step.

By reviewing the portfolio of Garmin's products, it appears that they

have gone so far in producing a huge list of products and services. They
have more than 32 applications and more than 20 hardware products.
These products enabled them to be the market leader. The challenges
Garmin have to deal with during the planning for direction change is
huge. They must plan to stay at the top while at the same time
introducing the change. The challenges Garmin has to deal with are:

1 Reinforce strategic partnership with allied companies.

2: Look for other partners in the field of automakers and transportation

industries. 3: Keep an eye on new technologies and allocate invest in
R&D

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