Management – Swot Analysis (on Maker Studios of Youtube)

The Assignment (Question) Management paradigm today is all about the contingency or situational approach based on the ever changing business environment. Organizations are constantly affected by the external environment and must adapt or influence the environment in order to be efficient and effective. Choose any international or local MNC or SME. Make a SWOT analysis of this organization and explain how it is affected by the external environment. Write on how this organization can utilize the 4 functions of management in order for it to be efficient and effective. Include conclusion and recommendations.You must use terms found within the study of management and are encouraged to look up various textbooks and journals to find these terms and to gain additional knowledge on management through exploration. Introduction of the company If you were to be familiar with the functions of Youtube and have been surfing the site for quite a while, you might have heard of the company named †Å"Maker Studios† quite a bit. This company consists of major Youtube celebrities like ShayCarl, LisaNova, KassemG, iJustine and even the top subscribed Youtube content maker, RayWilliamJohnson.To the audience who uses Youtube for other functions such as â€Å"how-to† videos or music videos of their favourite stars, they might wonder, what does this company actually do? On the other hand, to people who have shown much interest into killing mainstream television programmes with internet through Youtube would understand the major functions of Maker Studios. Maker Studios specifically is talented in creating videos of the two widely accepted genres: Comedy and Music. They create filming sets, music studios, green screen areas and even an editing office for their employees in Venice, California and the upcoming New York City branch.As quoted from their website, it was mentioned that they receive 70 million subscribers and 650 million monthly views across more than 400 channe ls (Cited: http://www. makerstudios. com/about/ ) and thus is one of the Youtube Partner Channels in the Internet Media Business in the States aside Vevo, the top partnership channel with more than 59, 709 thousand unique views in the year 2011 after generating over 844 million videos in the site itself according to Will Richmond on the 22nd of August 2011 on videonuze. com. (Cited: http://videonuze. com/article/comscore-vevo-is-top-youtube-partner-channel-by-far) SWOT Analysis of the company |Analysis | |Strength |The strengths of Maker Studios is such that they gather all the talents throughout the internet media and help them | | |make their videos and find sponsorships and viewership for their creations thus allowing people to fulfill their | | |dreams yet not having to worry about making a living. As quoted from one of their investments portfolio in | | |greycroftpartners. om, â€Å"the company has developed unique insights into what kind of content works best with YouTube | | |audiences and how to cross-promote and move audiences around its network† (cited: | | |http://www. greycroftpartners. com/2011/04/maker-studios/), it thus supported the efficiency in catching up with the | | |constantly shifting trends of the internet and intelligence in hiring talents into the company in its complicated | | |business sector which attempts to forge deep connection with audiences all over the globe. Cited: | | |http://www. hollywoodreporter. com/lists/maker-studios-280389) | |Weakness |An evident weakness of the company is such that they have limited branches (Venice and upcoming New York) reaching out| | |to the content creators online thus only able to work with people in certain areas of the States. Another is that | | |there might be a high possibility of the competitors of this internet business catching up on the innovations that the| | |company could have been roducing as â€Å"there aren't going to be any drastic programming changes — this i s about | | |expanding on existing success,† as quoted from former Disney’s Digital Division’s Executive – now Chief Programming | | |Officer of Maker, Chris Williams on variety. com. (Cited: http://www. variety. com/article/VR1118052288) | |Opportunities |The internet community is getting larger day by day and having Hollywood catching their eye on the industry’s | | |productions once in a while is also creating more viewership for the audiences all over the world.For example, there | | |are artistes looking for help from the Maker productions for causes which they hope to help and thus film videos like| | |Jane Lynch (popular from Glee series) and Steven Tyler in ShayCarl’s video in attempt to â€Å"Save The Arts! † (cited: | | |http://www. youtube. com/watch? v=IKzUZ7KvAnI=UU77WzpPRrYr0W5oeFjVIqwQ=1=plcp) or even being on the | | |news like ShayCarl’s 4th child, most commonly called â€Å"Rocktard†, who showed faced in a video did (cited: | | |http://www. outube. com/watch? v=AyXsZJwzIrQ ), are opportunities to expansion of the company’s network in creating | | |bonds with the internet community through bonding in use of comments or video responses or even simply joining the | | |company’s forces in using their talents thus creating opportunities not only for themselves but the company’s in | | |developing differentiated content through new, personalised and innovated ideas that sometimes the television isn’t | | |capable in providing for the audiences expectations. |Threats |Threats of the company consists of other major competitors such as VEVO (which generates content from famous | | |celebrities or musicians) and promotes them on Youtube through main pages or dominated the rights towards usage of the| | |contents such as music or even portions of the film.As well, the media is currently still competing with the | | |traditional media such as television and even tho ugh they are probably even ahead of them in the entertainment sector | | |but is beaten down (by people who did not know of the facts and begin cyber bullying the Youtubers’ content) due to | | |mere fame and acknowledgement of the society like LisaNova’s impersonation of Sarah Palin. It was mentioned on | | |nytimes. om that â€Å"She uploaded her Palin video more than a week before  Tina Fey  did her impersonation on ‘Saturday | | |Night Live’. † And that her response towards which was that â€Å"trying to get on TV would be going backwards in my mind. | | |It’s a waste of time. † | | |(Cited: http://www. nytimes. com/2011/04/11/business/media/11youtube. html? agewanted=all) | A Macro-Environmental Analysis o Law and Politics Law and politics with the Maker Studios is not part of any problem that the company could be facing now as the company started up in 2006, they personalize their services to the creators and aid them through their specific earnings after creation. As well, they hire to produce their content (music, digital, filming and etc) in videos hence not entitled to copyright law bridging. o Economy On allthingsd. om it was said that, transparency towards their earnings is through and able to be checked by their partners hence they would be reliable to the investments of the money in their company as well as being honest to their employees in the functions and well-being of the organization. (Cited: http://allthingsd. com/20120309/exactly-how-much-did-that-skateboarding-dog-earn/) As this is an internet business, the company will be affected if the economy fails in terms of people being able to enjoy their productions or not thus earning them money.However, with this current upscale of the internet committee, the company is in safe hands through the advancement era. o Technology Technology is crucial to the business. As it is one of the factors to which whether or not the audiences tune in becaus e of the graphics, the quality of sound and the editing of the videos to the stunts in a film, the professionalism of sets, Maker’s standard of productions as mentioned by nytimes. om was that â€Å"the green screen, film crew, actors and expensive cameras and lights, it went far beyond the typical one-man YouTube videos filmed in a basement with a webcam† hence, once again, supporting their constant follow-up with technology to suit the needs of their mass of talents who are eager to please their audience with great standards of film. (Cited: http://www. nytimes. com/2011/04/11/business/media/11youtube. html? pagewanted=all ) o DemographicsAs the internet is more than common amongst people of almost all ages, Youtube contains a very much a wide amount of audience to capture and Maker managed to curb these differences with its gathered talents and their abilities to pursue different crowds. For example, they have â€Å"The Mom’s View† by mothers with diff erent talents and background, catering and supporting to the vast amounts of parents in the internet community; they also have â€Å"Polipop†, featuring Entertainment and Politics Network which is intended to give people who are interested a good laugh at the political factors without having to move away from their computers. Cited: http://www. tubefilter. com/2011/10/29/maker-studios-youtube-original-channels/) o Social Issues and the Natural Environment The internet community is a fast-paced and ever-changing environment for the business to survive in as there are constant evolvement of trends, updates or even jokes appealing to the vast society is one of the constant issues that the business should be updated about. But as the talents in the company increases from the 200 initial partners in August 2011 (cited: http://www. variety. com/article/VR1118040686? efCatId=1009), they get more and more efficient in finding out and dispersing their information as well as being an i nfluence in creating trends for people to follow. An example could be the â€Å"Super Note Challenge† in 2008 (cited: http://www. youtube. com/watch? v=v6kaSqGjbk8 ) where several Youtube personalities such as iJustine, Smosh, Rhett as well as ShayCarl and many other Youtubers hosted, encouraging their viewers to post video responses featuring the longest note that they could make (in terms of time) and hence creating a bond and an interest into watching updates of the challenge constantly.As for their efforts in reminding the audiences in saving the environment, Maker Studios also took part in the Ecomagination Challenge – Tag Your Green hosted by GE and they produced videos of their forte in efforts of it. For example, DaveDays, as a musician, wrote a song in reminder of people to â€Å"Turn Off The Lights† (cited: http://www. youtube. com/watch? v=xzBV2ZvQfQw ) and ShayCarl brought his children out for a hike while talking to them about recycling and also tau ght them about the environment (cited: http://www. youtube. com/watch? =dAiCGkRoowo=fvst ) thus showing the viewers that they, too, show an example in doing good for the environment. The Competitive Environment Analysis of the company o Rival Firms Rival firms such as VEVO, Machinima. com, blip, Revision3 Internet Television could give threat to the company in terms of their partnership with Youtube and their stand and sponsor to events such as VidCon, DigiTour but the transparency of Maker’s finance gives it a high competitive advantage to win over more talents and variety to channels instead of mere technology and games for which other companies wins at. New Entrants New entrants might find it difficult to sustain without funding in this sector of business as the expectations of viewers are constantly increasing and thus they might, in the end, need help from major firms such as Maker to help them produce films for their channels or get bought over in view of profits. o Cus tomers Maker, as a company which helps one-man video producers find a team to build up his channel, does not call their clients â€Å"partners† and instead, call them partners.So as they proceed on with their moving-image business, the channel owners have full power over their videos and Maker only act as a service provider as well as an opportunity seeker for the Youtuber himself. The bargaining power for customers only lies in the percentage of the money which they receive from the advertisements that Maker could get in return and it was also mentioned in the terms and conditions of the Maker’s contract that this factor would be personalized as according to the client himself. o Substitutes and ComplimentsSubstitutes of Maker would be as valid as the fact that MySpace managed to take over Xanga and Facebook over MySpace. Therefore, it still contains a possibility where Youtube could be substituted by upcoming new video hosting websites online that might turn into a h it overnight like Facebook. On the other hand, like how a replenishing act could aid the sales of the original product, the compliments of Maker is definitely its networking in the Youtube community as they introduce each other on their videos and hence creating the acknowledgement of each other through their channels.Like for example how LisaNova introduced KassemG on her channel by impersonating his comedy and giving people a pre-show towards how Kassem’s humor will be like on his channels and directing people to watch his videos. (Cited: http://www. youtube. com/watch? v=bKJ3bVR8Jxg) o Suppliers The suppliers to produce such films on a daily basis at such large quantities is the talents for which the company hires and other than the Disney’s former Executive of the Digital Division, Chris Williams, it is also proven true that they have hired Courtney Holt, the former president of MySpace Music as their COO on hollywoodreporter. com. (Cited: http://www. ollywoodrepor ter. com/news/courtney-holt-myspace-music-president-255341) This thus proved their high recognition and high expectations in their talents to hire hence providing professional content for the online viewers. In relation through application, to what extent planning, organizing, leading and controlling can be applied to the company In relation to application of the management of the company, the company would have to define fixed and strictly accomplishing goals to achieve in terms of the number of views, unique viewership count, the creation of new content as well as the amount of videos to be produced in a business year.However, it might be difficult to manage with the ongoing trends like Hunger Games, Justin Bieber’s new album or even some new celeb-gossip going around in the world of entertainment. Therefore, constant monitoring of progress is needed and more than frequent updating about movement of internet community is important for the growth of the company to expand on their current business in terms of coverage and audiences’ capturing.As well, it is important to have organized teams or crews on a specific project or channel dedicated to the advancements – which is their current system now. With her interview on tubefilter. com, Maker’s founder, Lisa Donovan mentioned that the model of Maker is comparable to the company United Artists back in 1919, first led by Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford and many other artists where it is the first talent-led studio (cited: http://www. tubefilter. com/2011/04/21/maker-studios/).For example, the fixed team whose professionalism is in that particular genre of film, would be sent to RayWilliamJohnson’s â€Å"Equals Three† and â€Å"Your Favourite Martian† would have separately a music team, digital team as well as a team which, at the set, helps him with the humor content for which is going to be in his film. With such a unique form of business, the company requires a ta ll organization which has narrow span of control over the employees and manager rate as they would work in small teams in order to be efficient and effective in discussion and production.It would also thus have to be decentralized, where the employees are able to freely share creative ideas just like in Google, the unformalized manner of generating imaginative content. This would thus allow the company to be able to constantly be attentive to minute matters which might affect the company’s â€Å"originality† competitive advantage as compared to the rival firms. General Conclusions Maker is one of the very few companies around the globe, for which looks at talents in a manner that some companies would not be able to cherish.Even in one of their interviews, they mentioned to even have a criteria for joining in their firm: â€Å"When I am meeting talent, the first thing I want to know is, how committed are they to it? † said Lisa Donovan to Daniel Miller of hollywo odreporter. com. (Cited: http://www. hollywoodreporter. com/lists/maker-studios-280389) Therefore, their accomplishments not only as a firm, but as a big family with similar goals (not only because their own family is associated in the videos) just as ShayCarl have mentioned in one of his videos, is what they have built up and grown together over the years along with the Youtube creator’s fame.Recommendations for the company in the next 5 years As much as the company has accomplished throughout the years, not only expanding on their own success, they have also managed to raise funds with investments as well as convert television celebrities into internet sensations just like Bobby Lee of MADtv having his own channel and being to do crazy things like he would in his previous shows as well as entertain people without having to worry about the technicalities. (Cited: http://www. tubefilter. om/2012/01/30/bobby-lee-maker-studios-the-station/ ) Therefore, in hopes that the new SON Y internet-television could allow people to be in touch with their desired genre of film, Maker should create even higher viewership through making internet-original movies with their professionalism and make the bonding with audiences into even better sensations through movies and interactive comments thus improving themselves thus far. Reference List †¢ Bladwin, D. , October 29th, 2012, Maker Studios Scores Three Channel Deal with Youtube Originals, http://www. tubefilter. com/2011/10/29/maker-studios-youtube-original-channels/ Bladwin, D. , January 30th, 2012, Maker Studios Reboots The Station With Bobby Lee, http://www. tubefilter. com/2012/01/30/bobby-lee-maker-studios-the-station/ †¢ DaveDays, October 31st, 2010, Dave Days – â€Å"Turn Off The Lights† (Music Video), http://www. youtube. com/watch? v=xzBV2ZvQfQw †¢ Grey Croft Partners’ Investor’s Portfolio, April 15th, 2012, Maker Studios, http://www. greycroftpartners. com/2011/04/mak er-studios/ †¢ Hustvedt, M. , April 21st, 2011, Maker Studios Raises $1. 5M For Creator-Founded YouTube Studio, http://www. tubefilter. com/2011/04/21/maker-studios/ †¢ Kafka, P. March 9th, 2012, Exactly How Much Did That Skateboarding Dog Earn? , http://allthingsd. com/20120309/exactly-how-much-did-that-skateboarding-dog-earn/ †¢ Lamp4137’s Youtube Channel, June 30th, 2011, Rocktard On Some Weird Local News Thing, http://www. youtube. com/watch? v=AyXsZJwzIrQ (Original Shaytard’s) Excited Baby! http://www. youtube. com/watch? v=JrKT4eYHwiM †¢ LisaNova, November 17th, 2010, Tripping Bros! (LisaNova does KassemG UNCUT), http://www. youtube. com/watch? v=bKJ3bVR8Jxg †¢ Maker Studios (About Maker), April 15th, 2012, http://www. makerstudios. com/about/