Strategic Flexibility of Charter Communications: Acquisitions

This essay examines the strategic flexibility of Charter Communications, a leading broadband communication services provider in the United States. It highlights the company's successful acquisitions of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks as key examples of adapting to the evolving business environment. The analysis focuses on how Charter Communications leverages its resources to meet changing consumer demands and enhance its market position, including its partnership with Comcast to challenge US Cable Corporation. The essay underscores the importance of strategic flexibility in maintaining a competitive edge in a dynamic industry, showcasing Charter's proactive approach to leveraging its brand, core values, and market positioning.

Running head: STRATEGIC FLEXIBILITY OF CHARTER COMMUNICATIONS 1
Strategic Flexibility of Charter Communications
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation

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Strategic Flexibility of Charter Communications
Background
The modern business environment is characterized by intense levels of industrial
competition and transformations. Such a scenario makes it hard for organizations to enjoy
sustainable leadership. However, this factor has not impeded major international business
organizations from continuously dominating their respective industries: exemplary firms include
Amazon Inc., Google Inc., and Charter Communications among others. The commendable
performance by such organizations is highly attributed to the concept of strategic flexibility
(Sapolsky, Crane, Neuman, & Noam, 2018). This framework is grounded on the notion that an
organization’s business strategy is insufficient. According to its advocates, a strategy does not
assure sustainable growth inasmuch as it gives an organization a competitive edge. This line-of-
thought is inspired by the intrinsically competitive business environment (Bourgeois, et al.,
2017). For this reason, the strategic flexibility model suggests that organizations should be
capable of adapting to the emergent micro- and macro-environment needs through strategic
deployment of their resources. Note that this process can be either proactive or reactive
(Sapolsky, et al., 2018). Most importantly, it allows businesses to leverage their desirable aspects
including the brand, core values, and market positioning. By default, strategic flexibility is
applied in two levels: decision-maker and organizational. The first application requires the
leaders to generate and explore new and alternative strategic management options. Meanwhile,
the second revolves around a firm’s ability to effectively adapt to environmental transformations.
At this juncture, it appears wise to explore how Charter Communications applies strategic
flexibility in its operations.
Charter Communications’ Application of Strategic Flexibility

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Charter Communications is United States leading broadband communication services
provider. The company offers a broad range of services including Charter Spectrum Voice,
Charter Spectrum Internet, and Charter Spectrum TV. Note that the brand is also among the
leading cable operators in the country. In the recent years, Charter has made the headlines for its
high profile acquisition of Time Warner Cable (2015) and Bright House Networks (2017) at 55
and 10.5 billion dollars respectively (Bourgeois, et al., 2017). Its recent acquisition presents a
perfect demonstration of successful implementation of strategic flexibility. Before the purchase,
Bright House Networks was the sixth-largest cable services provider (Sapolsky, et al., 2018).
The brand’s outstanding performance is highly attributed to its investment in innovative
(customizable) solutions for cloud-based, video, and voice data services. The acquisition was
quite strategic as it positioned Charter Communications as the second-largest cable provider in
the United States.
When placed into perspective, Charter’s management understood the transformative
environment dynamics. For instance, the modern consumer is highly inclined toward experiential
consumption. This implies that organizations should invest heavily in customer satisfaction
(Brozovic, 2018). The acquisition of a company (Bright House) that had advanced its value
proposition in the same allows Charter to meet this emergent need. Also, the acquisition allowed
the brand to advance its market position. For the sake of this argument, the reader is urged to
reflect on the succeeding partnership project with Comcast. By agreeing to jointly resell service
over Verizon’s Mobile Virtual Network Infrastructure, Charter is challenging the country’s
leading provider US Cable Corporation. Note that the company is utilizing its financial resources
to adapt to the transformative business environment.

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References
Bourgeois III, L. J., Goodman, N., Wynne Jr, J. O., Bourgeois III, L. J., Hammaker, P. M., &
Doe, L. (2017). Comcast Corporation's Merger with AT&T Broadband. Darden Business
Publishing Cases, 1(1).
Brozovic, D. (2018). Strategic flexibility: A review of the literature. International Journal of
Management Reviews, 20(1), 3-31.
Sapolsky, H. M., Crane, R. J., Neuman, W. R., & Noam, E. M. (2018). The Telecommunications
Revolution: Past, Present and Future. London, UK: Routledge.