Introduction

American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T) is a

American multinational telecommunications corporation, headquartered at Whitacre
Tower in downtown Dallas, Texas. In March of 1885, AT&T was founded by
Alexander Graham Bell who was an eminent scientist who is credited with the
invention of first practical telephone. Today, AT&T is one of the world’s largest
communications companies. As of May 2014, AT&T is the 23rd-largest company in
the world as measured by a composite of revenues, profits, assets and market value. It
is also the 20th-largest mobile telecom operator in the world, with over 250 million
mobile customers. Besides, it is the second largest provider of mobile telephone and
the largest provider of fixed telephone in the United States.

AT&T is bringing it all together for their customers, from revolutionary

smartphones to next-generation TV and broadband services and sophisticated
solutions for multi-national businesses. For more than a century, it is consistently
providing innovative, reliable, high-quality products and services and customer care.
Furthermore, it also provides the nation's most reliable 4G LTE network. It is the
largest international coverage of any U.S. wireless carrier, offering the most phones
that work in the most countries. AT&T owns and operates more than 34,000 Hot
Spots at popular locations such as restaurants, bookstores, hotels and more. Also,
AT&T customers able to enjoy access to more than 1 million Hot Spots globally
through roaming agreements.

On the other hand, AT&T U-verse is TV inspired by their customers, with

tons of cool features and capabilities. AT&T U-verse multiscreen promise is now a
reality for millions of U-verse TV customers, with compelling content available on
the TV, smartphone, tablet and online. AT&T also offers the U-verse Wireless
Receiver, which allows customers to watch TV virtually anywhere at their home, even
where there is not a TV outlet.

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 Today, AT&T mission is to connect people with their world, everywhere they
live and work, and do it better than anyone else. They are fulfilling this mission by
creating new solutions for consumers and businesses and by driving innovation in the
communications and entertainment industry. Also, AT&T exploits technical
innovations for the benefit of AT&T and its customers by implementing next-
generation technology and network advancement in AT&T's services and operations.

On the other hand, AT&T’s vision is to design and create in this decade the
new global network, processes, and service platforms that maximize automation,
allowing for a reallocation of human resources to more complex and productive work.
The AT&T global network was born of the ingenuity of AT&T Labs networking
specialists who made disparate systems work together. Being the world's fastest and
most reliable global network, its network is the standard against which all others are
measured. To maintain AT&T leadership in this arena, they focus on the future and
aggressively pursue innovations including connection, solutions, innovation, and
doing all of it better than any other telecommunications, wireless, or entertainment
company.

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Sun Zi’s Art of War Theory

According to Sun Zi, the conduct of war is a matter of vital importance to the
nation. It is a matter of life and death to the country, the people and the ruler. It is a
road either to prosperity or to being destroyed. Therefore, it is a subject which must
not be neglected. Initial planning and assessment are essential. There are five constant
factors to consider, namely, moral influence, the weather, terrain, generalship and
doctrine and law.

Moral influence indicates the measures and policies that align the people with
the sovereign so as to be in complete agreement and harmony with each other. In this
way, the people will be prepared to co-exist with as well as die for the sovereign
without any fear of dangers. Secondly, weather refers to the contrasting changes of
night and day, the coldness of winter and the heat of summer, and seasonal changes of
the battleground. Thirdly, terrain refers to the assessment of the route and its
condition, whether the route to be taken is long or short, whether the ground is
treacherous or safe, wide or narrow with regard to ease of movement, and whether the
ground will determine the death or survival. Fourthly, generalship of a commander
refers to his qualities of wisdom, trustworthiness, benevolence, courage and discipline.
Lastly, Doctrine and law refer to organization and control, management systems and
procedures, and the command and control structure for the deployment of resources.
This is to ensure that roads are maintained in order that supplies may reach the army
and military expenditure is controlled.

In short, comparison of these five fundamental factors with their enemies as

well as rivals is vital to ensure a company’s sustainability. It allows a company to
understand the changing conditions and circumstances and to assess the chances of
victory.

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SWOT Analysis

SWOT Analysis is a useful technique to understand AT&T’s strengths and

weaknesses, and for identifying both the opportunities open to it and the threats it
faces. By understanding AT&T’s SWOT framework, it enables the management team
to start crafting a strategy that helps them to distinguish themselves from their
competitors, and sustain in communication market.

Strengths

AT&T has geographically diverse business and the revenue of the company
help shield the business from shocks in any one part of their business. Since different
countries or locations around the world possess different characteristics, it does not
always match. Therefore, AT&T lowered their risk by investing in part of the world
with low correlations. This lower risk enable AT&T to increase the value of the
business over the long-term.

Besides, having exclusive access to Apple's iPhone allows AT&T to obtain

millions of new customers. With the tremendous sales of Apple iPhone, the number
customers had significantly increased. These customers became familiar with AT&T's
products and services mostly from the use of iPhone. Hence, iPhone exclusivity has a
significant impact and a long-term positive impact on this entity. AT&T analyst,
therefore, has put more weight into it which adds to its value.

AT&T has done a great job leveraging its core competencies of providing
wireless services to its customers. All of their key businesses exhibit synergistic and
complimentary services and products and can easily be bundled together or sold
separately. Also, they do not need an extremely wide range of technicians to service
or maintain their networks due to the interconnectedness of all of them.

Lastly, AT&T has an advance information system to support their business

activities. AT&T also has an automated system in order to track for all client’s issues
and their concerns. The person entering the ticket information receives automatic
responses on the status of the issue as well as an estimated time to complete the
request.

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Weaknesses

AT&T is more leveraged than competitors within the industry. Hence,

AT&T’s accounting ratio is rather unfavourable as compared to the others as its
financial reports shows that the current liabilities superior than its current assets. Only
AT&T and T-Mobile have current ratios below "1", although it appears Sprint is very
close to this as well. Such unfavourable numerical information may affect the
company in every aspect especially its share capital.

Customer service in AT&T can be a challenge. The customer service is not

ideal and has a not educated staff in the telecommunications industry. The numbers
on the invoice are sometimes incorrect or route incorrectly and it may take several
attempts to get the appropriate customer service representative. Also, the duty to
handle customer services may vary due to the difference in regions and operating
companies within AT&T.

Besides, the saturation of the company is one of their weaknesses. Any new
customers that AT&T gathers are going to have to be done by taking them from
another carrier. This makes it harder to get new customers and the industry becomes
extremely competitive.

Also, a lot of people are not entirely happy with AT&T wireless carriers. The
biggest problem respondents had was the high cost of cellular service. About one in
five readers cited that the highly priced AT&T cellular service as their top
complaint, far more than for any other issue. In such competitive era, expensive
cellular service has drawn the customers’ concern to discard AT&T service.

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Opportunities

AT&T has plenty of opportunities that are available for growth and
improvement. It is pretty much the same thing with further industry consolidation and
acquisitions have paved the way for AT&T to become an emerging market with
global expansion. The most valuable opportunity is the merge with T-Mobile
acquired by AT&T. As of now, the German provider Deutsche Telekom has exclusive
rights over T-Mobile USA. T-Mobile customers basically exist because of its great
customer service, not to mention the pricing plans are much more affordable and
flexible.

As of now before the T-Mobile merge was announced the latest wireless
growth attribution is accredited particularly through its partnership with Apple/iPhone.
Another opportunity for growth is to reconsolidate a partnership with Apple
iPhone products exclusivity. AT&T leads the race from 2007-2011 because this year
Verizon wireless also picked up a partnership with Apple’s iPhone making them the
first CDMA carrier to sell the iPhone. The company will enjoy higher customer
satisfaction and their customer loyalty by providing less.

Furthermore, the increase in 3G and 4G coverage will increase the number

and sophistication of the services offered by wireless companies. New services can
bring in new customers and also will have a long-term positive impact on this entity,
which adds to its value. In the wireless sector; they can expand their 4G LTE network
to cover more potential customers across the United States. These statements will
have a short-term positive impact on this entity, which adds to its value which will
decrease its costs and increase its profits.

In addition, a further increase in mobile telecoms-related services is that

driven by geographical areas, where there is a fast-growing demand in
communications services, but a poor landline- style infrastructure. Unique subscriber
penetration is only 30 per cent, meaning there is a potential growth area of over two
thirds of the 875 million populations. Currently, there is massive investment by global
telecoms organizations to increase the mobile infrastructure capacity to help drive this
expansion.

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Threat

The threat that has been found on the AT&T is the fierce competition in the
communication market with other wireless providers. Over 97% of the U.S.
population lives in an area with at least three mobile telephone operators. When a
company is synergies between the wireless and broadband customers, there must
compete against cable companies, which can provide three key customer services TV,
broadband and phone against any company, which only offers two services. This
highly competitive market puts pressure on AT&T to offer low prices, which
diminishes their margins.

Besides, government regulation increases the risk to the underlying business

and thus increases the risk factors. Government regulation can limit business growth
and increase the risk of future cash flows. Regulation increases risk to a business by
increasing future uncertainty. New rules, resulting in new expenses, may negatively
affect the operations of a business. Government regulation is always an issue with
generic companies. The more government regulation, the higher that safety standards
of products, but the lower output of new drugs, because government hurdles are too
large.

Moreover, the loss of iPhone exclusivity is also another to AT&T. According

to Broadpoint Amtech and other telecommunications experts, the Apple – AT&T
exclusivity deal is expected to end mid-2014. Should this occur, a significant
downside to AT&T’s 3wireless and data sales is foreseeable. Losing the exclusivity
deal will negatively impact AT&T in several ways including, loss of strong
incremental growth rates, reduction in high revenue iPhone customers, and loss of
brand cache through losing the exclusive relationship with an innovator such as Apple.

Lastly, one of the problems AT&T will be face in the near future is the threat
of a strike among wireline employees. AT&T hopes to receive concessions on
healthcare cost and retiree healthcare benefit, since wireless employees pay
substantially more for healthcare than wireline employees. However, there is no
financial decision to solve the problem that AT&T faces regarding employee health
care.

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Conclusion

Initial planning and assessment are vital to establish a well-built company in

this era of advanced technology. Therefore there are five constant factors that need to
be taken into account, namely, moral influence, the weather, terrain, generalship and
doctrine and law.

Other than that, one of the best ways to develop a picture of any company is
with its SWOT analysis, capturing a company's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities,
and threats. A careful analysis of the AT&T’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities,
and threats provides a forecast of the likeliness of the company living up to their
mission.

A well-established company like AT&T possesses plenty of strength,

including geographically diverse business, iPhone exclusivity, leveraging competency,
and advance information system. Through this, it allows AT&T to understand firmly
about its core market advantages. Hence, AT&T typically makes core strengths the
focal point of marketing messages in trying to create differentiation from competitors.
AT&T, however, has its weaknesses too. The area comprises of the unfavourable
accounting ratio, poor customer service, saturation in the company, and expensive
wireless carrier. Hence, it make known to AT&T of the areas that competitors may
criticize for. Also, it allows AT&T to understand their weaknesses to decide what
areas they should improve on.

On the other hand, the opportunity of AT&T consists of the emerging market
with global expansion, reconsolidation of a partnership with Apple iPhone, increment
in 3G and 4G coverage, and increment in mobile telecoms-related services. It allows
AT&T to explore the untapped opportunities in order to consider ways to grow and
expand the company’s value. Sadly, external environment brings threats to AT&T too.
It takes into account of fierce competition, government regulation, loss of iPhone
exclusivity, and strike among wireline employees. AT&T therefore understands the
external threats in order not caught off guard. It affects AT&T’s allocation of the
resources used for the business and change threats into opportunities.

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 From the SWOT analysis process, it allows one to incur little or no cost to
gather and organize information from different sectors of the AT&T’s business in a
coherent and cohesive manner. Also, it allows one to analyse and evaluate of the four
areas of AT&T individually and use it for individual projects or potential ventures.