Strengths, weaknesses, and e-commerce opportunities for Dresser-Rand

SWOT Analysis: Dresser-Rand

Dresser-Rand is a compressor company that is world-renowned and aims to please its customers any way that is necessary. It also makes steam turbines and several other products (www.Dresser-Rand.com).It has made a name for itself, and its reputation is based on the quality and reliability of its products. Since it has been around for over 100 years, this reputation has carried it from one technological age into another, and now it has a Web site where customers can learn about and purchase products (Products and Services).

Like every company, it has both strengths and weaknesses. It also has opportunities for growth, and threats to its business and market share. The purpose of this paper is to discuss these different areas and provide a statement of opportunity (or problem statement) for Dresser-Rand that deals with e-commerce and development in that area, since it is an area of business and technology that continues to grow.

Strengths

The biggest strength that Dresser-Rand has is its reputation. Since the company has been around so long, they have made a name that people recognize. This is important because companies that have recognizable names tend to do more business then companies that many people have never heard of. Dresser-Rand has given much to their customers, and their philosophy of making sure that the customer is happy has helped them build into a company that people enjoy doing business with.

Another important strength of Dresser-Rand is that they have changed over time to keep themselves at the forefront of technology and innovation. They make several products, and this helps keep them in a large area of the market, since the more diversity they have, the more areas of the market they can sell to. Those businesses that diversify can usually keep their market share at a reasonable level, provided that their quality and service stay at a level that is as high as or higher than their competitors.

Opportunities

Even though Dresser-Rand has weaknesses that are roughly equal to their strengths, they have opportunities that can help to keep them a competitor well into the future. The Internet is the main opportunity that Dresser-Rand has right now. They can take ideas for e-marketing and study what their competitors are doing to help them work toward a better e-marketing strategy and a higher market share.

The Internet is great opportunity for Dresser-Rand to communicate with customers in a much quicker time period, 24 hours a day. They can also send things through the Internet and therefore exchange information about orders, shipping, and any problems that may arise (Frost and Strauss, 2000). Because all of this can be done so easily, the Internet affords Dresser-Rand a great opportunity for growth in the age of technology.

Another opportunity that Dresser-Rand has to look at is the segmentation of the market and their position in it. This is where the concept of search engine optimization comes in, and the company needs to make sure that the top search engines recognize their Web site so that customers searching for products will locate them (Search Engine, 2003). Another way to get recognized is to partner with other sites (such as vendors and others that the company does business with) and provide links to their Web site on the partner sites (Web positioning, 2000). Obviously, they would have to pay for this service, or trade off and allow their partners to a free link on their site as well. Many companies are willing to do this to ensure that more people are offered a chance to view their site, and Dresser-Rand could use this as another opportunity to get their name out there in front of people who would potentially buy their products.

Threats

Dresser-Rand does not suffer from a great many threats in the area of competition. Instead, their threats are more technology-based. They will do damage to their own company if they fall behind on technology, and this doesn't mean just in the way that they market, but in the way their Web site looks and performs, and in the way that they build their products and deal with their customers. Those who do not know how to use technology to their advantage will often be left behind by those who do.

Opportunity/Problem Statement

Dresser-Rand should look at what all of their competitors are doing, even the small ones that they don't see as a threat. Small companies can become big quite quickly if all of the conditions are right, and Dresser-Rand needs to determine what their competition is doing. They also need to ask their customers what they want from them, and what they get from other companies that Dresser-Rand doesn't offer. By asking these kinds of questions and doing this kind of research, the company can discover any problems that they have and turn them into opportunities for growth and development.

Conclusion

Dresser-Rand is really doing quite well for a company that doesn't e-market effectively. It could be doing better by spending more time on its marketing campaigns and by observing the competition. If the company will do these things, and then implement the ideas that it sees being used by others, it should continue to be a leader in the industry for a long way into the future. Technology will give the company the extra edge it needs to accomplish this goal.