Executive Summary
History
Las Vegas Sands Corporation was formerly called Sands Hotel in the early years of 1970s, Adelson and his partners acquired Sands hotel in the year of 1989 at a cost of more than $ 800 million.
A year after the acquisition of Sand Hotel, Adelson and his partners opened the Sands Expo and Conventional Centre from the profits generated by the Sands Hotel. In the year 1996, stiff competition from other hotels in Las Vegas Strip forced Sands Hotel to seek for new markets in Venice, which had less competition and a more serene environment (Sands 2).
Traditionally, hotels used to keep few guest rooms; the main aim was to encourage guests to spend more time in casinos and bar lodge, however, Las Vegas Sands Hotels had more hotel rooms, which were furnished with gorgeous furniture, large screen televisions, and big workspace, this created a paradigm in Las Vegas hospitality industry.
In the year of 2004, Las Vegas Sands Incorporation saw a potential market in Asia and opened a branch at Macao; this branch was branded Sands Macao. In the same year, Las Vegas Incorporation was renamed to Las Vegas Sand Corporation in 2004 (Sands 2).
In the year of 2008, there was a global financial crisis, which at some point saw Las Vegas Sands Corp. loss $ 1,000 per second, and its stock fell by 57 % within a period of 52 weeks. In the year 2009, the hotel opened a new branch branded Sands Casino Resort in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
In the year of 2010, Las Vegas Sand opened Marina Bay Sands in Singapore; Singapore had a stiff competition from other hotels, however, Marina Bay Sands posted an operating profit of $ 600 million in the first 8 months after commencing its business.
At the beginning of the year of 2012, Las Vegas Sands opened a branch called sands Cotai Central in Macao. Currently Las Vegas Sands investigates the possibility of growing to other countries such as Spain, Japan, Vietnam, Taiwan, India, Madrid, Thailand, and South Korea (Sands 4).
Products offered
Las Vegas Sands Corp. offers quite a wide range of products and services to its customers; these products and services include accommodation, bars, entertainment, shopping, and dinning. Las Vegas Sands Corp. has build an air strip which holds ninety Boeing and 747 jumbo jets, exhibition centers in Asia which can hold 15,000 people, and a 550,000 square foot gambling casino.
Additionally, the Sand Casino Resort in Bethlehem provides a perfect gaming centre, Sands Sky Park offers a lush vegetation, several restaurants, infinity swimming pool, conference rooms, and observation deck, and lastly Marina Bay Sands has an Art Science Museum, which is lotus-inspired (Sands 4).
Size
Las Vegas Sands Corp. has grown to a big empire, its size can be estimated by the use of the financial records, its properties, and its employees. Las Vegas Sands Corp. properties in United States are two AAA Five Diamond luxury Resorts build along the Las Vegas Strip: The Palazzo and The Venetian Las Vegas.
The Sands Expo is in The Palazzo and Venetian Resorts. Sands Bethlehem in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania is another property of Las Vegas Sands Corp and it occupies 126 acres, it is in United States. In Asia, Las Vegas Sands Corp. owns the Iconic Marina Bay Sands in Singapore.
In China, Las Vegas Sands Corp. through its subsidiary that is, China Sands owns more properties in Macao, China. These properties include The Venetian Macao, The Sands Macao, The Plaza Macao, and Four Seasons Hotel Macao, Sands Cotai Central, Conrad, Sheraton, and Holiday Inn hotels.
This shows how Las Vegas Sands hotel has grown because it has a big territory with huge markets extended to almost each major tourist’s destinations to net each tourist.
Target Market
Market targeting involves selecting a specific class of clients, which a corporate aims its goods and services at. Las Vegas Sands Corp. targets the markets, which are romantic in nature and attract couples for their honeymoon or provide a serene relaxing environment.
Las Vegas Sands Corp. targets both local and international markets; local markets are the markets in the country of its origin. The local markets and branches include Las Vegas, which is a city in America.
International markets include Asia, Europe, Venice in Italy, China, Singapore, Spain, Japan, Vietnam, Taiwan, India, Madrid, Thailand, South Korea, Sands Expo, Sands Macao, Palazzo Las Vegas, Boulevard Las Vegas, Venetian Macao, Sands Casino Resort in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and Marina Bay Sands.
Competition
Business competition is rivalry between two or more sellers offer the same but differentiated product or service to the market at different prices to win customers. Las Vegas Sands Corp. is facing a stiff competition from its competitors though Sands has several competitive advantages.
Sands has opened numerous branches in the local and international markets, this helps the hotel in diversifying its competition risks. A company with several service and products outlets maximizes its sales in the less competitive outlets hence diversifying its competition risk.
Sands hotel competitors include 7 Days Group Holdings Limited, Ameristar Casinos Incorporation. Boyd Gaming Corporation, Caesars Entertainment Corporation, Century Casinos Incorporation, China Lodging Group Limited, Choice Hotels International Incorporation, Full House Resorts Incorporation, Home Inns and Hotels Management Incorporation, Hyatt Hotels Corporation, Intercontinental Hotels Group, Isle of Capri Casinos Incorporation, The Marcus Corporation, Marriot International, Melco Crown Entertainment Limited, MGM Resorts International, Monarch Casino, and Resort Incorporation among others (Hoovers 2).
SWOT Analysis
SWOT analysis is an exceptionally useful instrument for evaluating and making decisions for all situations affecting the business and organizations. SWOT is a short form word for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.
Strengths (S), and Weaknesses (W) analyze the internal factors, which the company can control, and Opportunities (O), and Threats (T) analyze the external factors, which the company cannot control.
SWOT analysis is used to audit the general position and the environment, which the company is operating in (Walker 90). It is the responsibility of the managers to supervise the process of carrying out SWOT analysis and implementation of the recommended solutions.
SWOT analysis helps a company identify the main factors affecting the company’s performance but the analysis rarely provides solutions to the factors. Companies can carry out SWOT analysis regularly because it is cost effective to the company; companies do not finance for SWOT analysis to be carried out by external firms (Walker 94).
Limitations of SWOT analysis are SWOT analysis does not prioritize the factors affecting the company’s operation, the analysis does not offer solutions or alternative decisions, the analysis can produce different ideas but does not choose the best, and the analysis generates a lot of information and not all of the information is useful to the company (Griffin 2).
Las Vegas Sands Corp. has strength over the main market position in the tourism and hospitality industry. Las Vegas Sands Corp. faces no significant new competition up to the mid-decade within Asia and Las Vegas (Griffin 3).
The Sands is best placed to exploit expansion opportunities in the Asia, with a leading position in Singapore (about 50% of market share) and a sturdy competitive position in China (about 15% of market share) (Sands). The Sands has a sturdy economic command, it possess one of the only two licenses to run casinos in Singapore and one among the six licenses to run casinos in China.
The Sands is an excellent operator of integrated hotels that generate high returns on invested wealth, and The Sands record place it in a position to win casino gambling legalizing licenses for new markets (Sands 6).Strengths are the characters that enable a company to accomplish its mission.
Strengths are the special and distinct feature, qualities, and traits that a company posses; these features give a company its consistency in service or product provision (Griffin). Strengths beneficial to a company include financial resources, human competencies, customer goodwill, products, and services, and brand loyalty.
Las Vegas Sands strengths include potential financial resources, broad product line, committed human resource, and reputable public relation. Las Vegas Sands Corp. is opening new hotels in different regions in annual basis.
Other strengths are main market position, strategic partnerships, and performance across segments, and increasing operating efficiency. Las Vegas Sands Corp. has strength of strategic partners for carrying out business together.
In china markets, The Sands has partnered with sands China Limited and build The Venetian Macao, The Plaza Macao, The Sands Macao, and Four Seasons Hotel Macao, as well as the most recent addition: Sands Cotai Central, which glorifies the world’s largest Sheraton, Conrad, and Holiday Inn hotels.
Strategic partnerships give Las Vegas Sands Corp. leverage in accessing a foreign market with ease because their partners are aware of the trends of the market (Sands 6).
Weaknesses include the qualities that harbor a company from accomplishing its mission hence slowing the company’s success and growth (Griffin). Weaknesses in a company may be caused by inadequate research facilities, poor decision-making, thin product range, and depreciating machinery.
A Las Vegas Sands Corp. weakness is the narrow product range; the corporation specializes in hotel services only without any outdoor services, awaiting legal actions, and high leverage (Hoovers 3).
Las Vegas Sands Corp. faces the weakness of pending legal undertakings between the Sands and the United States justice department. Las Vegas Sands Corp. has several pending court cases, in one case one the Las Vegas Sands casinos was accused of money laundry by the United States justice department.
The above example is one among the pending legal actions awaiting The Sands and once determined may result into a heavy fine. Heavy fines or cancellation of the casinos operating licenses may cripple the operations of The Las Vegas Sands Corporation (Sands 7).
High leverage is another form of weakness faced by the Las Vegas sands Corporation. Leverage is the amount debts that a company owes. The business of gambling casino is highly risky, The Sands needs to maintain a large cash reserves to cater for the increasing risks in the market. Increasing debts results in to low profit share to the shareholders and poor payments to the employees (Sands 7).
Opportunities are offered by the surroundings within which a company operates. Companies can expand their competitive advantage according to the available opportunities; a company should grasp opportunities once they arise (Griffin 4). Las Vegas Sands Corporation opportunities arise from the market, industry or government, technology, and competition.
Las Vegas Sands Corp. opportunity is the increasing touring sites and tourist in the continent. Other opportunities are strategic development, growing demand for gaming in Macau, developed gaming, and resort destination in Singapore.
Las Vegas Sands Corp. has an opportunity of strategic development. Strategic development is brought about by Innovation, which is an important tool for business ventures. Businesses use strategic development to exploit changes as an opportunity arises for a different business (Alpha 2).
Strategy development has creative ideas that address the demand-side wants and generate products as the supply-side solutions. The operations and capability to implement the ideas effectively and regularly measure the business efficacy. The Sands has used the above ideas to grow its business by opening new branches and differentiating their services to gain the market edge (Alpha 3 ).
Threats occur when the external environment jeopardize the smooth running and cash inflow of a company. The external environment cannot be controlled by the company and it relates to the weaknesses (Griffin 4 ).
Threats faced by Las Vegas Sands Corporation include of threats are employees unrest, changing technology, increased competition from the other tourism and hospitality companies, world economy, and different trade laws governing different countries. Other threats are decreasing consumers spending, competitive pressures, and stringent regulations (Sands 8).
Competitive pressure is a threat to Las Vegas Sands Corp (Griffin 4). Increasing competition leads to reduced operating profits of a company because of the reduced amount of sales and cash inflows. The Sands expanded to Venice in Italy because of the stiff competition from other hotels in Las Vegas Strip (Hoovers 2).
The American market, China market, and Singapore markets competition is increasing without a significant increase in the target customers. Tourism and hospitality industry all over the world is receiving new entrants, which mean the products, and services offered are of high quality (Alpha 4).
Decreasing consumer spending is a threat to Las Vegas Sands Corp. because of the fluctuating economy (Griffin 4). Consumer spending is measured by analyzing the movement of goods from several sellers to the customers in a certain market. Companies in the tourism and hospitality industry are experiencing a reduction in the purchasing power of consumers.
This has affected the total turnover of Las Vegas Sands Corporation, a reduced turnover results in to losses on the part of the company. Las Vegas Sands Corp. has retrenched a total of 485 employees in the last two months because of increased debts and operating expenses (Alpha 3 ).
In my own view, Las Vegas Sands Corporation has a potential of expanding its territories and diversify its market risk more despite its increased leverage. The corporation has a competitive advantage over some of its competitors, this because of its management’s ability to make effective decisions about their new target markets that turn out to be a great success once ventured.
Las Vegas Corporation has made effective use of the SWOT analysis in making the most crucial decision. However, The Sands needs to reduce the rate of growth and allow the already constructed resorts and hotels gain a larger market share and win customer loyalty from its customers.
Works Cited
Alpha, Seeking. Las Vegas Sands: Macau Results Could be a Mixed Bag. 2012. Web.
Griffin, Ricky. SWOT Analysis: A Tool for Making Better Decisions. New York: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Risk Management Agency. 2008. Print.
Hoovers. Las Vegas Sands Corporation Competitors. 2012. Web.
Sands. Brief History of the Sands. 2012. Web.
Walker, John. Introduction to Hospitality Management. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2010. Print.