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Garmin 2019

Published 28 Jun 2019
Reference 6356
Topic Strategy
Region Global
Length 30 page(s)
Summary

Garmin 2019 is the second in a two-part case. Case A reviews the history of Garmin from 1991 to 2008, when the personal navigation device (PND) industry is disrupted by the entry of smartphones with mapping applications. Garmin 2019 covers the decade until 2019, describing how Garmin and other major players responded to shifting consumer preferences, new developments in digital mapping and satellite networks, and the race to develop self-driving cars. In the face of a massive decline in the PND market in this period, Garmin staged a remarkable recovery, shifting focus to spread over diverse products segments, each with its own threats and opportunities. The core of the case is management’s reassessment of corporate strategy across the portfolio of businesses.

Teaching objectives

Whereas Case A offers a close-up view of an industry moving from growth to maturity to decline in a short timespan, forcing incumbents to reanalyse their strategy, Garmin 2019 (Case B) explores how companies faced with disruption respond according to their capabilities, their respective choices, and the role of corporate strategy in securing competitive advantage. It generates discussion of the influence of strategic repositioning on a firm’s scope, the need to reassess that scope and then decide whether its business units remain integrated or seek alternatives like strategic alliances and long-term contracts.
Part B can be taught together with Part A or as a stand-alone case.

Keywords
  • Garmin
  • Industry decline
  • Smartphones
  • Smartwatch
  • Disruption
  • Global positioning, GPS
  • Digital maps, HD
  • Repositioning
  • Corporate advantage
  • Corporate strategy
  • satellite network
  • wearables
  • outdoor
  • fitness
  • Q41819