Shoe Manufacturing Industry “Mercury International”, Ltd

Mercury International, Ltd is already at the forefront of the shoe manufacturing industry being in direct competition with the world’s biggest names in shoes manufacturing. These include Nike, Reebok and Puma. Thus, what they have to do is to sustain there marketing output, yet continue enhancing the way they compete with the present market. Relative to other leaders in the industry, they are very near behind, although Mercury shoes are unheard yet in other parts of the world. Having the same technological edge with other brands, there is a possibility that it can surpass others given the chance to maximize its potential using new marketing techniques.

Several factors have contributed to Mercury International, Ltd’s performance. Although some of these are technological in nature, still the key factor to its growth is adhering to tested marketing principles. Some of these are; product innovations, making the most of market trend information, market expansion, and relying on concrete statistical data. But, to sustain the growth of a company, one has to remedy first the aspects or areas which keep the company grounded and not able to grow at the rate that it should be. Hence, an analysis on the factors prejudicial to the company and need to be improved is imperative.

On the operational side of things, we cannot see much of a problem because it expanded its market to other countries, and having also product-development centers in China, Taiwan and Indonesia. The combined production capacity of these centers can very well meet consumer demands, at least in Asia alone. So there is a need to put up production centers in Europe and Latin American countries alone, so that Mercury’s products will be well distributed, and at the same time gain exposure to new markets.

European and Latin American countries composed a very big share the shoe industry market, thus there’s a need for the company to capture these areas of the market. Its expenses can be further reduced by using technology. The fact that the company is at par with other company regarding the technology used in its production, it can reduced its expenses by mass-producing their products in a single period of time and later on put emphasis on its marketing, doing the production and marketing in phases. Eventually, all marketing processes could be covered, yet there would be no waste in effort and energy by doing different processes in a given time, thus big expenses can be avoided.

On the financial side of its operations, an analysis on its financial and management reports gives a picture as to how the company is faring in the worldwide market. By the end of the year 2005, its total market share was only 9.1%; this information explains that there is still a huge chunk of the market that needs to be covered. Seeing this in the negative, it seems that the company is far from other companies in terms of market covered. But profitability cannot be measured by the size of the market covered alone, but through the actual profit made. A closer analysis of its income statement showed that there was a deficit of $10.13 million incurred during 2003 alone, and the succeeding combined income for the years 2004 and 2005 was barely able to compensate the 2003 deficit, the combined income being only $13.08 million.

A growth of only $3.05 million was realized over the past three years. In essence, the company is not doing well financially.  Mercury Shoes, Ltd. can do much better that this. Yet, on the brighter side, we can glimpse from the financial reports that, at the least, there was a recorded growth between 2004 and 2005. This is enough for the management to persevere even harder to raise this notch to higher level. Perhaps, the company should put emphasis on the development of its operational system, because when its operations are exemplary, a good performance relating to its income will follow later.

A complete operational overhaul is not needed. The company excels in other areas far better than other companies do. It has a technological edge over others, and its research and development is exemplary providing products to consumers with innovative technology. Almost 98% of human labor in the actual production of shoes and apparel has already been eliminated by robotic technology. Manufacturing is in an automated mode. These factors alone don’t justify the need to overhaul the operational system of the company completely. If changes are to be made, it should be done in the human resource and marketing divisions of the company.

The brain of a particular organization lies in the management officials that lead the company. It is, therefore, logical to surmise that the failure of a company can be attributed to the leaders’ incapability. The marketing department also has the power to attract consumers to buy the company’s products, failure to do so justify their incompetence. The technological advantage, R & D programs, and the manufacturing process of the company should be retained. The rest should be change and improved for the benefit of the whole company.

Generally, Mercury International, Ltd. has a potential in being a leader of the shoe and apparel manufacturing industry. What is has to do is to align its operations and processes into a single output force looking at a single objective. Although, the company hasn’t yet reached this stage of organizational development, with patience, cooperation, and continuous development of its product with the use of cutting-edge technology, it will eventually. What the management has to do is to sustain the over-all output to maintain its position yet continue to strive and develop further.

The backbone of the company’s product line, the Boost Technology, TrailStep, and the Sweatless Training Apparel should further be strengthened, so that the company will have security on where to get its money for expenses when changes are to be made in other areas of the company.

With the managerial officers having already the skills to effectuate changes on the company, what they have to do only is to use their skills at the utmost and steer the company to where it grows the most.