Management’s Decision and Analysis

Global Market conditions

The new technologies had made possible the transfer of voice data and non-voice data: in
effect, mobile video telephony. The cell phone market has been influenced by lot of factors
which directly affect the players in the market. A few among them would be intense
competition, technological advances, Price, Production, R&D facilities, Demand and supply.
Due to these factors, many players had got hit in their margins and returns which had proved
to be the reasons for three players in the universe having negative returns while one had zero
returns. Given that these players were virtually bankrupt; the next step would be them
leaving the battlefield which in turn will improve the other players to improve their returns.
With 8 players remaining in the market, it would be an intense competition between them
for returns

Product Portfolio
Mark’s Infinity offers its customers wide range of technologically advanced products with
focused manufacturing and logistics facilities in technology 1 and technology 2 as the pace of
change in the industry has been rapid and great expectations have been set for new
technologies. The overall trend is towards increased mobility with tested communication
speeds of the 4G technology at 1 Gbit/s while stationary and 100 Mbit/s while moving. The
overall growth potential of the industry is good but development can vary heavily from one
market to another. The biggest challenge for a mobile handset manufacturer may be keeping
up with technological evolution since R&D requires continuous large investments Mark’s
Infinity focused more on having the production cost advantage by going for the contract
manufacturers in the other two technology areas.

Foreign Operations
Mark’s Infinity manages its global operations inn Asia, Europe and Africa and the growth in
these global markets will probably create momentum for establishing more production
facilities at least in Asia. As the mobile industry evolves into new applications and services,
co-operation among industry players has intensified, facilitating a faster adoption of mobile
services as well as market growth for the entire mobile industry. USA market has demand
which is expected to grow at 5-10 % for the next 2-4 years with demand shooting up to 15-
20% per annum. Mobile technologies and networks tend to be a couple of years behind
Europe and Asia. Also, additional features are in general more appreciated here than in Asia
and less than in Europe. Mark Infinity’s market share in Asia is 8.47% , 7.27 in Europe while it
has 8.78% in Africa.

Research and Operations

Mark’s Infinity always has its goals clear, one among which is the reduction of costs in terms
of production, logistics, forecasting and other factors that usually influences high costs in
manufacturing facilities. R&D team at Mark Infinity has been used to its fullest potential by
investing optimally in those technologies which had a greater growth potential and demand.
The amount spent on improving facilities in the plants always attributed to R&D facilities as
is it as important as reducing costs. Amount spend on R&D facilities was always above average
of spending on the same by opposition.
Market Share
Mark’s Infinity is focused on maintaining the largest aggregate market share in the technology
1 and technology 2 segments. Having the largest market share in these two market segments
increases the control of the market. But the concern is that we tried to reduce the
investments in Technology 3 and 4 which had lead to minimal market share in those areas.
Mark’s Infinity has a total of 8.31% of share in the global market in spite of the intense
competition.

TOTAL
Emerald, 5.41
Brown, 9.19 Red, 4.97
Mark infinity, 8.31
Blue, 13.26
Mia's Spectacular
6, 11.82

Orange, 5.76

Grey, 8.55
MAVRKS, 13.76

Ochre, 9.54
Zod's 5, 9.44

Mark Infinity has a whooping 24.25% market share in the Technology 1 and close to 21% of
market share in Technology 2. Both the markets are the highly prevalent markets and thus by
getting huge market shares in these segments, Mark infinity tried to establish its foray in the
global scenario.

TECH 1
Brown Emerald, 12.61
Red, 1.6
Mark infinity,
24.25 Blue Orange, 6.28
Grey
Ochre

Zod's 5

Mia's Spectacular
6, 17.91
MAVRKS, 37.36
Production costs in both the technology areas 1 and 2 for Mark Infinity has been on the high
end while the outsourcing costs in the technology areas 3 and 4 had been the highest as well.
Mark Infinity tried to consolidate the market shares in 3 and 4 by outsourcing it to the contract
manufacturers.

Mark infinity, TECH 2 Blue, 0

Brown, 0 Orange, 0
20.09
Emerald, 5.78
Red, 0

Mia's Spectacular Grey, 47.27

6, 19.22

MAVRKS, 0

Zod's 5, 7.64 Ochre, 0

Competitor Analysis
The Mobile phones market is known for its intense competition in terms of technology,
production facilities, consumer preferences other factors that influence the market stay of
any firms. In order to tackle the same, all the firms operating should be focused more on
identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the other firms in the market for sustainable
position. Mark Infinity focused more on anticipating how its strengths and weaknesses may
effect its own strategic position in the market. This strategy had helped Mark infinity to reach
a considerable position in the global market.

Mark Infinity has built considerable production cost advantage over the competition by
focusing more on its own production capabilities in more competitive markets rather than to
go for contract manufacturers. Globally, the market share of Mavrks is the highest of 13.76%,
while Blue had got 13.36% followed by Zod’s 5 has 9.44% , Ochre has 9.54%, Brown has 9.19%
and Gray had 8.55 %. Mark Infinity had got 8.44% which is the eighth largest player in the
global market. Team Blue and Mavrks has significantly more productivity than the other
players while Ochre, Brown and Gray had got around the same production capability as Mark
Infinity. These Companies focused on increasing the manufacturing capabilities while
reducing the usage of contract manufacturers in the technologies that are less prevalent in
the market. Team Blue and Mavrks had used its large production capacity that has a liability
during the times of less demand which in turn becomes an advantage during the strong
demand. With larger capacity they are able to forecast the demand and cater to the growing
demand in the market
Business Outlook

Mark Infinity forecasts that the industry demand for the products tends to increase right from
the start of next year while the strategy of Mark Infinity would remain the same in which the
production capabilities in Technology 1 and 2 would remain the same while the production
capabilities in Technology 3 and 4 would be improved by investments in R&D and other
factors that influences the markets in those technologies. Mark Infinity has higher levels of
production level in Technology 1 and 2 which is higher than the optimum production level of
75% to 80%. Mark will try and improve the production levels in the other two technologies
which will help them to cater to the varying needs of the customers. Mark Infinity always
focused on shifting production to its higher margin products. This had been done by moving
away from technology 3 and 4. But Mark will now try and penetrate in to the technology 3
and 4 to improve the overall margins.

Simulation Learning Outcomes

Logistics
In the current market situation of the intense competition scenario, products with short life
cycles, varying expectations of the customers, high investments in the production capabilities,
logistics planning and requirement analysis are very much helpful in determining the
optimum usage of all the resources in order to develop a sustainable model for strategic
planning, distribution and other factors involved with production logistics. Logistics prove to
be the most important factor which influences the development of distribution management
and production facilities. By proposing a strategic logistics plan for the manufacturing units,
we can manage the acquisition, storage of the materials and its movement through the
various channels and most importantly in inventory management.

Demand
Demand forecasting is the optimal way to tackle the weak demand that prevails in the global
mobile phone market and by effectively planning the demand and forecasting the demand
for various geographical regions would prove to be the best possible way to achieve positive
returns in times of intense competition. This simulation had provided us few insights to
understand how consumer’s demand will behave which in turn helped us to strategize our
decisions accordingly

Competitor Activities
Unpredictability is the thing that determines the mobile phone market as a whole. Mark
infinity focused on improving its market share especially in Technology 1 and Technology 2
while leaving the other two technology areas 3 and 4 with minimal market share. Four out of
12 players in the market has the negative profits/returns by the end of the time period while
one had got zero operating profit. With these companies going out of the competition, Mark
Infinity and other players would tend to improve the profit/return.
Learning
Mark Infinity has got the understanding of the market in such a way that the strategy with
related to unpredictable demands have been met in this intensively competitive
environment. This enabled us to avoid repeating its own mistakes and the mistakes of the
competitors

Final Remarks
The Global Simulation provided an excellent opportunity for Mark Infinity to build managerial
skills. By forcing students to make decisions in a dynamic environment, the global simulation
was able to build business skills in ways traditional textbooks are not able to do.