External and Internal Factors: At&t

One of the leading companies in phone, internet and cable television today is AT&T. Internal and external factors affect this company everyday yet the four functions of management still have to be carried out. The major five factors that affect the functions of management are globalization, technology, innovation, diversity, and ethics. However, managers can still use delegation to impact the factors of management.

AT&T (American Telephone & Telegraph) is the largest supplier globally of telephone, wireless, and internet services. AT&T started in 1983 as Southwestern Bell Corporation (SBC) and the main center was in St. Louis, Missouri. Southwestern Bell moved their headquarters to San Antonio, Texas and changed the name to SBC Communications, Inc. The decision to change the name was to become nationally and internationally known (AT&T, 2008).

SBC bought Baby Bell, SNET, and Ameritech. In the organizing stage management collected information on other companies to merge with. They placed headquarters in different areas and provided the best management there also (AT&T, 2008). SBC finalized their business with the purchases of AT&T for $16 billion, Cingular Wireless, and Yellowpages.com. SBC now has 11 mergers of AT&T and BellSouth and are planning to globalize even more in the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Latin America (AT&T, 2008).

Over the years technology in AT&T and in the world has grown more than anyone could have imagined. AT&T has been serving so many people, for example, cell phones have music, cable, and even the internet. AT&T has one of the most advanced networks in the world. AT&T provides local and international communication services to practically everyone in the country. It’s said that, “AT&T delivers the widest international coverage of any U.S.-based wireless carrier, giving customers the ability to make calls using an internationally enabled phone on six continents and 195 countries, with wireless data-roaming in more than 140 countries for laptops, hand-held devices and other data services” (AT&T, 2008, Corporate Profile: AT&T: Your world delivered).

Innovation is what keeps AT&T at the top of their game. AT&T is known for adapting quickly to the changes in consumer demand and to new competitors. “AT&T embraces creativity in order to rapidly convert ideas into useful products and services,” (AT&T, n.d. Governance). The factor of