Maryam Tahririha GSB576 L. Grant Swatch and the Global Watch Industry Case Analysis July 13‚ 2005 THE SWATCH GROUP: COMPETING IN AN INCREASINGLY GLOBAL MARKET FOR WATCHES Nicholas Hayek and Ernst Thomke formed the Swatch Group (the Group) in 1983 by merging two bankrupt watch-making groups. The merger gave the Group ownership of many of the Switzerland’s dominant watch brands. Swatch‚ their first product initiative‚ was so successful that it helped pull the squandering Swiss watch industry
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the fully automated assembly line is implemented without the human intervention. In addition‚ to keep Swatch competing with low cost manufacturers‚ the capital-investment is applied as a result of decreasing in costs. The lean and flat hierarchies help enhancing the innovativeness and creativity throughout the company. The hybrids of centralization and decentralization management allow Swatch to yield the benefit from the local knowledge while maintaining the control over the distribution and management
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Swatch Revolutionises Watch Manufacture Answer 1. What do you think has been the contribution of the marketing function‚ the product design function and the operations function to the success of Swatch? Swatch is a good example of the way three sets of competitive abilities in a company relate to each other. The three key contributions to Swatch’s success (or the three important micro operations) are • the way they have developed their products and services. • the way they have positioned
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1. What changes in the production and marketing of watches led to Swatch? Before 1950s - “home-made” effect Starting from 1950s watches were considered as very precious goods that only few people could afford. The production of watches was a craft that required accurate skills and mastery of jewels making techniques. Watches were considered as a luxury good as well as a “financial investment”. People spent a lot on them‚ had great care of them and used to hand them down from generation to generation
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THE BIRTH OF SWATCH Summary by Stefan Jonathan Susanto – MM 2015 Ten years ago‚ bankers and suppliers thought the idea of the Swatch team were crazy and would ruin the industry. The people on Swatch team wanted to design a striking‚ low-cost‚ high-quality watch and built it in Switzerland. The team overcome the resistance and in 1993 Swatch was the best-selling watch in the history. Prior to 1950‚ watchmaking required the skills of a master jewelry maker and micromechanical engineer. Watches were
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UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS SCHOOL CASE STUDY SWATCH AND THE GLOBAL WATCH INDUSTRY International Strategic Management 1st year master’s degree student: Inarkaeva Lamara Supervisor: Ekaterina Makhnovskaya Moscow 10.12.2014 Key strategic issue The Swatch Group is the world’s leading manufacturer of watches with 14 per cent share of the world market‚ which was the first Swiss company started to compete in a low price segment. In 1998 Swatch increased its net profit by 7
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1) Why was the Swatch so successful? In what way was this watch different from others in the industry? The first main reason why Swatch managed to gained so much popularity in the watch industry is because they managed to cut costs. Heyek had started a low-end product initiative and was fully committed to vertical integration‚ that is‚ he intended to build and assemble the low-price quartz watches entirely in Switzerland. This‚ along with the decision to encase the watch with cheap plastic‚ helped
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1. Prior to the introduction of the Swatch‚ what kind of watches were popular among consumers? In what ways was a Rolex different from a Timex‚ or from a gold-plated Seiko? How did consumers make buying decisions? Initially watchmaking was almost an art. Watches were luxury goods‚ produced by skillful jewelry makers and micromechanical engineers and consisted of a lot of little mechanical movements. Made in Switzerland they automatically became symbols of status‚ prestige and a very high Swiss
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he Swatch Group Ltd.‚ which is based out of Beil‚ Switzerland‚ is the world largest watch company. It was estimated that in 1998‚ it has produced about 119 million watches with consecutive yearly sales of over 3.2 billion Swiss francs. The Swatch group has produce the product all over 50 locations throughout the world‚ including France‚ Germany‚ Italy‚ USA‚ the Virgin Islands‚ Thailand‚ Malaysia‚ and China‚ with its main facility in Switzerland. Since the beginning of the Swatch Group‚ it has
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Case Analysis: The Swatch Summary: In 1978‚ when Dr. Ernst Thomke became managing director of ETA‚ the position of this Swiss flagship industry had changed dramatically. Especially with the presence of a strong competency (Japan and U.S). Macro-environment: (PESTEL Analysis) * Economic: Threat: The market share had fallen from 56% to a mere 20%. Opportunity: The production had grown from 61 million to 320 million pieces and movements annually. Opportunity: the decline of the dollar was
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