Atal Bihari Vajpayee Indian Institute of Information

Technology and Management, Gwalior

Case Assignment on Rosetta Stone Inc.

Submitted By: Submitted To:

Rishabh Agrawal ( 2018IMG-046 ) Dr. Vishal Vyas

Q1. What are the firm’s most important external opportunities and
threats?

Ans. The External opportunities for rosetta stone are

1. If Rosetta Stone Inc can establish a strong online
presence through various social networking platforms,
the advent of e-commerce and social media marketing as
a trend can be a great opportunity.
2. The government's incentives and other initiatives aimed
at improving the market climate are a positive external
environmental factor for Rosetta Stone Inc.
3. Rosetta Stone Inc. has gained a new distribution
platform as a result of this investment. In the coming
years, the organization will capitalize on this
opportunity by better understanding its customers and
meeting their needs through big data analytics.
4. The ability to invest in neighboring product segments
is made possible by stable free cash flow. With more
cash on hand, the company will be able to invest in new
technology and product segments. This should provide
Rosetta Stone Inc. with new opportunities in other
product categories.
5. As the market develops, competitor advantages will
dwindle, allowing Rosetta Stone Inc. to improve its
competitiveness in comparison to its rivals.
The External Threats for Rosetta Stone Inc. are
1. New technological developments by a few competitors
within the industry pose a threat to Rosetta Stone Inc
because customers drawn to this new technology may
switch to competitors, reducing Rosetta Stone Inc's
overall market share.
2. Since the company operates in a variety of countries,
it is subject to currency fluctuations, which are
exacerbated by the uncertain political situation in
several markets around the world.
3. Numerous entrants have joined the market and are
gaining market share by acquiring market share from
established companies.
4. Globalization forces organizations to cross national
borders and contend with cultural diversity, which can
be problematic if the organization lacks cultural
intelligence.
5. Constant technological advancements necessitate
workforce training, as failure to keep up with these
changes will result in Rosetta Stone Inc. losing
company.
Q2. What are the organization’s major strengths and weaknesses?

Ans. The major strength of Rosetta Stone Inc.

1. Rosetta Stone Inc is a well-known brand that has been on the
market for many years.
2. Rosetta Stone Inc has a diverse workforce, with people from
various regional, ethnic, cultural, and educational
backgrounds contributing to the company's success by
bringing in new ideas and methodologies.
3. Rosetta Stone Inc is in a good financial position, with five
years of consecutive earnings and tax reserves that can be
used to fund potential capital expenditures.
4. Strong Free Cash Flow –Rosetta Stone Inc. has strong free
cash flows, which enable the business to grow into new
ventures with capital on hand.

The weakness of Rosetta Stone Inc.

1. As compared to rivals, Rosetta Stone Inc has a higher
employee turnover rate. This means that more workers are
leaving the business, and as a result, more money is being
spent on training and growth as employees leave and enter.
2. Rosetta Stone Inc. needs to invest more in technology to
automate processes across the board, given the size of its
growth and the various geographies it plans to enter.
Currently, technology spending is not keeping pace with the
company's vision.
3. Poor customer service (such as ineffective customer
complaint handling) may cause the negative word of mouth
about a company and stifle development.
Q3. How would you describe the organization’s financial condition?
Ans. The company has strong financial position to conduct the
research and development for making new and advance software for
language learning. Revenue has increased from 25.4 million to 252.3
million dollars. The company also has 58% compound annual growth rate
which is exceptional to sustain for a long time in the world market.

Q4. What are the firm’s existing strategies and objectives?

Ans. Rosetta Stone Inc’s goal is to strengthen its position as a
leading provider of language learning solutions through the following
strategies:

1. Extend Technological and Product Leadership: To retain

product leadership, they intend to implement new
technologies. They are actively working on several product
creation projects. For example, they're working on a new
web-based service that complements their existing language
learning solutions by providing opportunities for practice
with dedicated language communication coaches and other
language learners. They intend to provide this web-based
service mainly as part of a package with our software and
audio products. In addition, they're looking at ways to
bring their learning solutions to mobile devices, and they
intend to keep developing their proprietary software
platform and speech recognition technology.
 2. Expand Core Product Portfolio: They plan to broaden their
product line by adding advanced course levels to their
existing languages, as well as new languages, skill growth,
and remediation courses for advanced language learners.
Furthermore, they believe there could be opportunities for
them to launch new language learning solutions with
industry-specific content.

3. To Captured large categories of customers : Rosetta Stone is

customer centric, It covers large area of users.Rosetta
Stone offers language and reading software solutions to
commercial and institutional clients, as well as to general
consumers.Consumers, comprising general consumers and
language learners around the world;Corporations, comprising
commercial entities across multiple business
sectors;Educational Institutions;Government and Non-Profit
Institutions

Q5. Who are the firm’s competitors, and what are their strategies?
Ans. The top competitors in Rosetta Stone's competitive set are
Duolingo, Babbel, Pimsleur, Busuu, GlobalEnglish Corporation, EF
Education First, powerspeak12, Mango Languages, Apex Learning,
SpeakingPal. and Memrise. Together they have raised over 279.1M
between their estimated 57.2K employees. Rosetta Stone's revenue is
the ranked 4th among it's top 10 competitors. The top 10 competitors
average 425.9M. Rosetta Stone has 1,147 employees and is ranked 3rd
among it's top 10 competitors.
Competitors Strategies :

Duolingo: The main strategy of duoligo is to teach the

languages less boringly and also promises free language
learning for everyone forever and to fullfill this they
developed a very impressive app which satisfy their goal.

Babbel : Babbel is a subscription-based app and website that

offers affordable and flexible language learning classes in 13
different languages for native English speakers.However, not all
the language classes are designed the same, and some languages
have better programs than others.

Pimsleur : The Pimsleur language learning system is an audio

based course that presents phrases in the target language first,
and then in your mother tongue for you to translate into that
language.The audio then gives you the answer so you can confirm
you were right or learn it better for next time.

Q6. What objectives and strategies do you recommend for this

organization? Explain your reasoning. How does what you recommend
compare to what the company plans?

Ans. Objective and Strategy That i recommend is

1. Marketing Technique : Rosetta Stone Inc. should build a

strong strategy for marketing.They should be able to present
a tightly controlled and unified message to the
marketplace.Marketing at international level will make them
strong and be accessible to global seekers.
 Reasons : Marketing is the Base for a business. The
Knowledege of a such product should be spread this is the
key point for growth and advancement , the more of costumes
the more of advancement and development

Company plan : Currently company is targeting the categories

of customer but not at global level.

2. Easy Platform: It is very important that users can easily

access and enjoy the services provided by the Rosetta Stone.
The software solutions they produces to teach the language
should be impressive and smooth process for learning.

Reason : Its very clear to understand that software solution

should impressive and smooth, because this is the front face
of their product and the main channel of interaction with
the interface .

Company Plan : They are providing so many facilities to

learn languages like audio books, learning offline softwares
but they are not working on delivering technique , online
market is also best way to do it

Q7. How could the organization best implement what you recommend?
What implementation problems do you envision? How could the firm
avoid or solve those problems?
Ans. Implementation for Strategy and objectives of recommendation

1. Marketing Technique : They have to includes a call to action

that drives customers directly to their websites and call
centers. They also should use the marketing data to
continuously improve the efficiency of their websites, call
centers, advertising and media planning and buying , they
should include the cultural techniques for global
advertisement this effects according to countries and stand
on their needs

Problem : Data acquisition require time which take the

company slowly compare to other competitors and
International ads require great understanding of country
cultures for better performance.

Solution : They should take the help of other established

company in that country for proper advertisement and Make a
Strategy according to previous results.

2. Easy Platform : For easy to access they have to increase the

quality of software solution. They have to increase the IT
skills for better business solutions. Enterprise resource
planning is best option to do so.

Problem : Better IT skills require. IT skilled employes

with high salaries which affects the company finance and
revenue

Solution: Its same like investing so it can be managed