Case Study - Acer's Growth Strategies
In 2007, Acer Inc. (Acer) was the third largest computer company in terms of world-wide personal computer (PC) shipments. With 2.43 million units shipped, the company enjoyed a market share of 7.6%. Its growth rate stood at 31% against the 30% of Hewlett-Packard Company (HP) and 21% of Lenovo Group Ltd.
In the first quarter of 2008, the company sustained its performance and its market share grew to 9.5%. Its growth rate of 25.2% was higher than that of Dell Inc. (Dell) and Lenovo.
Analysts felt that the company had come a long way since 1994 when it was the number eight player in the global PC market.
According to analysts, Acer's rapid growth could be attributed to the restructuring efforts…show more content… According to the company, in the year 2008, Acer's focus in India would be on education, youth, and retail. For the education segment, it was building solutions which fit the needs and budget of the students. On the retail front, it intended to tie up with large format retail stores such as Croma, Home Solutions, Next, and Metro.
Acer's turnover in India in the year 2007 was Rs. 12 billion which it intended to take up to Rs. 18 billion in the year 2008. In India, Acer trailed HP, HCL Infosystems Ltd (HCL), and Lenovo in the overall PC market but had a significant share (10%) of the fast growing notebook segment in India, after HP (37%) and Lenovo (16%).
The growth in India was spurred by an increase in the consumer demand for notebooks, which accounted for 27 percent of PC shipments in 2007. IDC had predicted that the Indian PC market would grow at a compound annual growth rate of 20 per cent through 2012.
According to Piyush Pushkal, manager for PC research at IDC India, the growth in the market would be fueled by an increased demand for PCs by large enterprises, their increased usage in education, and the Indian government's push toward automation. In addition to this, the increase in wages in India would also help in driving PC sales in the consumer market, analysts felt.
However, there were certain challenges that Acer faced in India.
In addition to intensifying competition, the company had to deal with challenges
