SWOT Analysis - Sun Microsystems

9 Pages 2314 Words

I. CURRENT SITUATION
A. Financial Performance – Sun Microsystems has managed to have at least 10% sales growth over the last several years. Net revenue in fiscal 1998 increased to $9.7 billion, or 13% compared to $8.6 billion in fiscal 1997. Sun has one of the strongest balance sheets in the industry, with $822 million in cash in the bank. Revenues grew an average of 34.1% annually between 1988 and 1998. Approximately 49% of the total revenue was generated from outside the United States. Its net income grew 41% annually on average over the same time period.
B. Strategic Posture
1. Mission – enable customers to create breakaway business strategies by using their network computing products, solutions, and services. Allow individuals or entire organizations to access information from anywhere to anything on any device.
2. Objectives – Sun would like a networked computing future driven by the needs and choices of the customer. It is a vision in which every man, woman, and child has access to the collective planetary wisdom that resides on the network.
3. Strategies
a. Putting its expertise in high performance system design enabled the company to lower the price of advanced workstations and graphics technologies.
b. Reach the ultimate goal of harnessing the Internet to stop Microsoft from swallowing them.
c. Break Microsoft’s cash cow, Microsoft Office.
d. Improve, change, and implement several new business practices, processes, and a series of related information systems.
e. Work extensively to transform Sun’s product line in order to capitalize on networking.
4. Policies – One of any Java licensee’s most significant contractual obligations was to pass the Java compatibility tests. These tests determine if a licensee’s technology conformed to the Java specifications and APIs.

II. CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
A. Board of Directors: Scott McNealy, the CEO and Chairman of the Board of Director’s at Sun...