Palm Case Study
Case Study Report, Palm Inc.
BACKGROUND: Jeff Hawkins founded Palm Computing Inc, a hand-held computer business, in 1992 which has since changed names (Yoffie & Kwak, 2001). In 1999 it changed to Palm Inc (Yahoo Finance, 2006). The case study concentrated on Jeff Hawkins, the founder of Palm, and Donna Dubinsky the former CEO of the company. These two left Palm in 1998 and founded a company called Handspring, the only company as of 2001 to take a meaningful share of the market away from Palm (Yoffie, 2001). Currently the CEO at Palm, Inc is Edward T. Colligan. For the period ending May 31, 2006, Palm had sales of $1.578 billion and a net income in excess of $336 million (Yahoo Finance, 2006). This is a significant increase over the previous two years.
SWOT ANALYSIS: Strengths: The biggest strength that the case study focused on was strategy. Palm employed a judo strategy starting with the "puppy-dog ploy" (Yoffie, 2001, p. 56). This strategy allowed Palm to stay in business and stay undetected as a threat to their competition, especially Microsoft, for quite some time. Yoffie (2001) stated that strength of Palm was their "tightly integrated software and hardware design" (p. 59). Because they were so integrated, they were allowed to stay simple and move faster which was a definite strength.
Weaknesses: Ironically, their strategy also seems to be their biggest weakness. As Yoffie (2001) said, "By investing over time in specific skills and strengths, you create opportunities that perceptive rivals can exploit. In other words, you risk becoming the target of another and possibly better judo strategist" (p. 62). Another weakness was the slowing pace of innovation and the lack of coordination between marketing and production at Palm. Marketing announced the anticipated release of the m500 and m505 which caused a decrease in demand of Palm's older products (Yoffie, 2001, p. 62).
Opportunities: Palm had plenty of opportunities; the biggest of course was to
BACKGROUND: Jeff Hawkins founded Palm Computing Inc, a hand-held computer business, in 1992 which has since changed names (Yoffie & Kwak, 2001). In 1999 it changed to Palm Inc (Yahoo Finance, 2006). The case study concentrated on Jeff Hawkins, the founder of Palm, and Donna Dubinsky the former CEO of the company. These two left Palm in 1998 and founded a company called Handspring, the only company as of 2001 to take a meaningful share of the market away from Palm (Yoffie, 2001). Currently the CEO at Palm, Inc is Edward T. Colligan. For the period ending May 31, 2006, Palm had sales of $1.578 billion and a net income in excess of $336 million (Yahoo Finance, 2006). This is a significant increase over the previous two years.
SWOT ANALYSIS: Strengths: The biggest strength that the case study focused on was strategy. Palm employed a judo strategy starting with the "puppy-dog ploy" (Yoffie, 2001, p. 56). This strategy allowed Palm to stay in business and stay undetected as a threat to their competition, especially Microsoft, for quite some time. Yoffie (2001) stated that strength of Palm was their "tightly integrated software and hardware design" (p. 59). Because they were so integrated, they were allowed to stay simple and move faster which was a definite strength.
Weaknesses: Ironically, their strategy also seems to be their biggest weakness. As Yoffie (2001) said, "By investing over time in specific skills and strengths, you create opportunities that perceptive rivals can exploit. In other words, you risk becoming the target of another and possibly better judo strategist" (p. 62). Another weakness was the slowing pace of innovation and the lack of coordination between marketing and production at Palm. Marketing announced the anticipated release of the m500 and m505 which caused a decrease in demand of Palm's older products (Yoffie, 2001, p. 62).
Opportunities: Palm had plenty of opportunities; the biggest of course was to
References: Dess, G., Lumpkin, G., & Eisner, A. (2007) Strategic Management (3rd ed.). Boston: McGraw-Hill Irwin. Yoffie, D., & Kwak, M. (2001). Mastering Strategic Movement at Palm. MIT Sloan Management Review, 43-1, 55-63. Yahoo Finance, Edgar Online, Palm Inc. (PALM) (n.d.). Retrieved December 30, 2006, from < http://finance.yahoo.com/q/is?s=PALM&annual>.