Under Armour: Working to Stay on Top of Its Game

Business Strategy

Under Armour: Working to Stay on Top of Its Game:

SWOT ANALYSIS FOR UNDER ARMOUR

Under Armour: Working to Stay on Top of Its Game

Background

Under Armour is an entrepreneurial sport venture founded by Kevin Plank in Baltimore. The company is a supplier of a wide range of sportswear and casual apparel; mainly focusing on hi-tech sportswear for professional athletes. It has now broadened its horizons and Under Armour began offering footwear in 2006, it continues to expand its offerings. In fall of 2010, Under Armour began offering its first line-up of basketball shoes.

What is the company’s strategic direction?

The strategy goal of Under Armour is to grow to a level that can produce annual revenue larger than Nike and all other competitors within the industry. In order to accomplish this, it requires UA to expand and continue their upward trend of success. The major goal, and overall focus of the company, should be to solidify all of the logistics and external factors involved with Under Armour operations. Those external factors include, but are not limited to, securing suppliers so UA can continue to stock their shelves on a larger scale, hiring and developing more employees to manager operations, working with the international community to ease entry into new markets, etc. It may be easy for a firm to build more stores and produce additional items, but what is not as simple is creating a process and establishing contracts and relationships to sustain the surge in operations. The development of this sustainable process could be one of the most challenging aspects of Under Armour’s growth and success into the future.

Is there support of managers and peers for training activities?

Under tires to hire the right employees have been recruited, selected, hired, and finally assigned in their respective units and jobs, the management ensures that they ready and are equipped with knowledge and skills to perform productively. Also using mentors through the help of senior or experienced employees in the organization. The trainee is usually a relatively new or a lesser experienced employee. The focus of the training is to teach job skills while at the same time provide support and encouragement to the trainee.

Are there training resources, including money, time, and expertise?

The company through its human resource department conducts training and development activities. These two activities differ. Training refers to enhancing the knowledge and skills to help the employee perform his current job better; development aims to improve the intellectual or emotional abilities not