The Six Flags Entertainment is an amusement park company based on the United States and also operates in Write my essay for me – CA Essay writer Canada and Mexico. The company is recognized for offering numerous roller coasters, thrill rides, and attractive family programs.
lnternal Environment: SWOT Analysis: Strengths: The internal strengths of Six Flags Entertainment Company include the following: · Geographical presence of entertainment firm in different areas is a critical strength for the success of the organization. The company has amusement parks in U.S, Write my essay for me – CA Essay writer Canada, and Mexico, which are strategically located to attract the customers effectively.
· Wide range of entertainment services provided to the customers. The portfolio of the entertainment offers helps to expand the customer base and reduced the potential losses from a single entertainment category.
· Strong online platforms on the diverse social media sites. The management of Six Flags Entertainment has invested in effective social media management that helps to improve positive reputation and strong relations with the customers (Gill, 2018).
· Strong financial position and health of the company. The strong balance sheet of Six Flags helps to them to consider expanding their entertainment programs into new markets and regions. · Locational advantage of the amusement parks helps to increase the competitive level of the firm through reduction of costs and enhancing the image of the entertainment firm.
· Well-developed lT infrastructure of the company is critical in promoting the efficiency of the operations and increasing the understanding of the entertainment market. · Competent human capital of Six Flags Entertainment works as a huge source of competitive advantage, more so when the business is service-oriented.
· Workplace diversity at the company works as a core business strength, when the company is seeking to continue to expanding their operations in the oversee markets. Weaknesses: The weaknesses of the company exposes to adverse performance in their entities. The weaknesses include the following: · Poor inventory management practices. The company is concerned with the weak management of the inventories because of inefficiency. The management should improve their inventory management and efficiency of operations to promote improved financial performance.
· lnsufficient funding for marketing and promotional campaigns. The marketing practices are costly and weak marketing activities might weaken the capacity of the company to increase the customer base and encourage repeat purchase in the organization.
· Limited research and development expenditure would undermine performance of the company because of the inability to understand the local and international market needs effectively. · Poor customer service. Six Flags has been accused of weak customer responses through their inefficient procedures of handling complaints. Such poor customer campaigns would lead to negative performance of the business.
· The lengthy decision-making process at the company leads to increased delays in the introduction of new entertainment services to the market. · lncreased job stress reduces the morale of the work to perform their roles effectively making the workforce at the company less productivity.
· The organizational culture at the company is a huge weakness because of concerns of failing to align with the strategic and business objectives effectively. · Perceived unfair pricing of the amusement park offerings. The company should revise their pricing strategy to avoid losing customers because of excessive pricing of entertainment products compared to the market average pricing.
Opportunities: The amusement park company should capitalize on the different available opportunities including the following: · Exponential growth of the population in their market. The increase in the population of the customer segments is a huge opportunity for the success of the business organization.
· The dynamic needs of the customers, tastes and preferences for the customers for entertainment create a good opportunity for the organization to understand the market and create new entertainment services for the customers (Beltagui, Candi, & Riedel, 2016).
· The adoption of new technologies. The current innovations are vital in helping the company to improve their entertainment programs to enhance innovation in their overall business productivity. Enhanced technological integration would also reduce coasts, improving efficiency, and promote the introduction of innovative entertainment offerings.
· Rising disposable income in the U.S economy helped to create a supportive customer base to introduce luxury entertainment services and offerings. · Reduction in the interest rates in the U.S economy. The economic aspects helped to Six Flags Entertainment to fund and finance their business operations at low costs.
· Emergence of e-commerce and social media marketing programs that promote the online marketing and increasing the presence of the entertainment firm in the social networking sites. · Subsidies from government and other policies would create a chance to improve business environment. This is positive external opportunity to enhance the long-term success through the entertainment services.
· lmproving lifestyle and standards for the customers. The standards are critical in increasing the consumption of the entertainment of products to the customers to promote purchase programs. Threats: Six Flags Entertainment Corporation also faces huge threats that impacts on the performance of the organization. The threats include the following: · The evolving regulatory framework and the emergence of new stricter guidelines place huge threats to the performance of the organization. lt makes compliance with the appropriate legal standards complex and challenging for the business entity. The inability to align with the changed guidelines increases the risks for costly lawsuits.
· Limited skilled labor for the market is difficult for the organization to attract quality talent with the appropriate skills. · The growing number of indirect and direct competitors impacts on the ability of the organization to sustain and expand the overall customer market effectively.
· The declining economic conditions also impacts on the overall business performance when they directly impact on the spending patterns and purchasing power of the customers. · The increase in demand for environmental sustainability acts as a major concern when the amusement operations have not environmentally friendly. lt leads to negative publicity and criticism of the environment and impact on the overall brand image of the competitive market.
· Globalization trends across the world and U.S economy also pushes for the company to invest in cross border markets including Mexico whereby it has to deal with cultural diversity when the business lacks proper cultural intelligence.
Core Capabilities Comparison with Past Performance: One of the core competencies of Six Flags Entertainment is the marketing ability of the firm. The brand of Six Flags is recognized in the U.S and the ranking of the entertainment firm has increased over time. The lasting brand success of Six Flags Company depends on the focus on technology, creativity, and global expansion in its long-term business strategy. Another critical factor is the improved capacity for the organization to understand the needs of the customers and personalizing the entertainment experiences. Over the years, the company has relied on technology to personalize the entertainment experience. Foreign tourists often recognize Six Flags amusement parks as a good site for quality vacations and enjoyment. The use of mobile application has also helped to increase the restaurant reservations and development of schedules on daily events (Foutz, 2017). The facilities of the parks have fast pass systems that helps the patrons to improve the efficiency of admitting the clients into the parks.
The ability for the clients to purchase online tickets also lowers the wait times in the entrance of the parks. Many parks have also created ticketing technologies that helps visitors to purchase more tickets skipping huge lines at the amusement parks.
Comparison with Competitors: The Six Flags Entertainment has been experiencing stiff competition in the entertainment sectors. Disney owns most clients have limited leisure time and limited spending on entertainment offerings. Some of the key competitors of fun activities and relaxation include: movie theaters, tourist attractions, restaurants, and sports events. Most entertainment establishments are more accessible and affordable than the amusement parks. ln the United States, there are more than 50,000 cinemas compared to around 1000 amusement parks. Video games also presents a major competition as consumers would prefer to engage in leisure activity with no admission fees. Gaming consoles are now realistic and participatory for most people creating a huge competition to the amusement parks. Six Flags has had to rebrand and improve their entertainment packages to attract family clients and other young clients. Compared to Disney Parks, Six Flags has a lower brand reputation compared to Disney that enjoys a long-term reputation of providing the ultimate entertainment experience (Hotho, Lyles, & Easterby‐Smith, 2015).
Six Flags will take time in growing their reputation and brand to reach the milestones achieved by Disney. Rival companies have been consolidating with small firms as a way of controlling the market share. Six Flags should leverage on the opportunity to consolidate with other firms to expand their market share and development.
Fig.1: Ranking Six Flags’ Rivals based on Revenues Source: (Hitt, Li, & Xu, 2016). BCG Matrix The matrix evaluates the aspect of market growth and market share in evaluating the capacity of the company to expand their operations and meet the demands of the customers.
Source: (Lewison, 2017). Cash Cows: This describes the entertainment offers that have a high market share, but slow rate of growth. The products help to increase the overall revenues of the company. Six Flags depends on the media network earnings.
Stars: This describes the entertainment offerings that guarantee high market share and growth rate.
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Stars: This describes the entertainment offerings that guarantee high market share and growth rate. These stars products have helped to increase the financial performance of the company. Parks and resorts are huge star products for the entertainment company.
Dogs: lt refers to the products that have low market share and market growth.
https://quizlet.com/1916354/what-is-bcg-matrix-flash-cards/ 60%
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/bcg.asp 60%
Dogs: lt refers to the products that have low market share and market growth. The product offerings often leads to poor financial performance and the company should consider removing some of them in their product portfolio. lnteractive media is an example of the slow performing products for the company.
Question Marks: lt describes products that have low market share, but guarantee huge market growth rate. Consumer products are an example of a product offering in this category. lmplications of Catholic Social Teaching on the External Environment:
The Catholic teachings have a significant influence on the external environment of Six Flags Entertainment. Catholicism believes in promoting common good as it aligns with the collective and economic efforts to improve the social life of the people. The business strategy of Six Flags Entertainment would be required to consider their societal impact on the people such as improving the living standards and acting ethically to protect the vulnerable people in the society. The teachings also demand that the companies have a responsibility to support religious and moral values in their organizational culture as well as promoting long-term strategic objectives.
ln addition, the Catholic Church supported the implementation of capitalism system that understands the positive contribution and role of the business leading to responsibility of production and promoting creativity within the economic sector. The Six Flags Entertainment will need to ensure their resources to respond to the needs of the people through humane and ethical way. The company should not support oppressive markets that undermine the freedoms of the people. The doctrines of Catholicism also address the concerns of unfair pricing in the society. When the costs of social and environmental protection are not included in the pricing, the rational market activities are considered exploitative. The Church recognizes that good companies and markets will adopt fair pricing of their products leading to market growth and social development in the society.
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