At&T Case - 1
Chris Olang
AT&T Case
Issue to be solved:
Nick Stevens, the vice president of manufacturing at AT&T Consumer Products, was considering selecting a site for a new answering systems manufacturing facility. He had a few options to choose from. However, there were more significant factors other than cost that needed to be taken into consideration while making the final decision. AT&T had to think about those factors because of the company’s mission of being concern about its role in society.
Case Background:
Until January 1984, AT&T had been the largest employer in US employing one million people and representing 2% of the US GNP with annual revenue of $70 billion. AT&T was having a kind of monopoly on telephone equipment business until the Carterfone ruling went into effect in 1980. AT&T was charged with monopolizing the market for telephone equipment and long-distance services. Following a divestiture in January 1, 1984, AT&T was divided into two major sectors - AT&T Communications and AT&T Technologies. AT&T Consumer Products belonged to AT&T Technologies. AT&T Consumer Products (CP) had never designed its telephones to be marketable. There was always demand for its products. The company was facing a new situation of tough competition, declining revenues and unacceptable profit levels. AT&T had to react to this new situation. AT&T invested tens of millions of dollars to upgrade and automate their production facility to decrease costs and become more competitive. This, however; did not help because the company found that their labor costs were still so high.
During 1985 – 1986, CP began to transform its very inelastic production to a highly flexible. “Business Passion” and “Shared Values” were two primary CP mottos established as the new foundation. “Business passion” signified their commitment to “Be the Best” for their owners, customers and people and “Shared Values” reflected to create an
AT&T Case
Issue to be solved:
Nick Stevens, the vice president of manufacturing at AT&T Consumer Products, was considering selecting a site for a new answering systems manufacturing facility. He had a few options to choose from. However, there were more significant factors other than cost that needed to be taken into consideration while making the final decision. AT&T had to think about those factors because of the company’s mission of being concern about its role in society.
Case Background:
Until January 1984, AT&T had been the largest employer in US employing one million people and representing 2% of the US GNP with annual revenue of $70 billion. AT&T was having a kind of monopoly on telephone equipment business until the Carterfone ruling went into effect in 1980. AT&T was charged with monopolizing the market for telephone equipment and long-distance services. Following a divestiture in January 1, 1984, AT&T was divided into two major sectors - AT&T Communications and AT&T Technologies. AT&T Consumer Products belonged to AT&T Technologies. AT&T Consumer Products (CP) had never designed its telephones to be marketable. There was always demand for its products. The company was facing a new situation of tough competition, declining revenues and unacceptable profit levels. AT&T had to react to this new situation. AT&T invested tens of millions of dollars to upgrade and automate their production facility to decrease costs and become more competitive. This, however; did not help because the company found that their labor costs were still so high.
During 1985 – 1986, CP began to transform its very inelastic production to a highly flexible. “Business Passion” and “Shared Values” were two primary CP mottos established as the new foundation. “Business passion” signified their commitment to “Be the Best” for their owners, customers and people and “Shared Values” reflected to create an