First Solar’s Business Strategy Case Study

First Solar takes energy from the sun and converts it to electricity to keep your refrigerator running, and your smartphone charged. The company's photovoltaic (PV) modules do the conversion using a thin-film semiconductor process. First Solar's manufacturing process converts a piece of glass into a complete solar module in less than three hours. The technology is cheaper and produces more electricity under real-world conditions than conventional solar panels with similar power ratings. First Solar also provides project development services for planning, building, and operating solar-power generating systems. The company makes 87% of sales in the US.

Social impact:

Life changing: provides hope, self-actualization

Emotional: rewards me, design/aesthetics, badge value, attractiveness, provides access

Functional: integrates, connects, reduces risks, reduces effort, reduces costs, avoids hassles, quality, simplifies

Integrator:

A systems integrator is an individual or business specializing in integrating component subsystems into a unified whole and ensuring that those subsystems work correctly together. A process is known as system integration. Gains in efficiency, economies of scope, and less reliance on suppliers result in cost reductions and may improve the stability of value generation.

Performance-based contracting:

Performance-based contracting (PBC), sometimes referred to as performance-based logistics (PBL) or performance-based acquisition, is a method for achieving quantifiable supplier performance. A PBC strategy focuses on developing strategic performance measures and the direct correlation of contract payment to success against these criteria. Availability, dependability, maintainability, supportability, and total cost of ownership are all standard criteria. This is accomplished mainly via incentive-based, long-term contracts with precise and quantifiable operational performance targets set by the client and agreed upon by contractual parties.

Trash to cash:

Trash to cash may be an extremely profitable business strategy. It entails collecting old goods and repurposing them or reselling them to other areas of the globe. It may be very lucrative for two reasons. The first reason is that most of these goods can be obtained for little or no money, dramatically boosting the profit margin. Furthermore, companies pay to have their garbage collected, which may be a lucrative revenue stream. It may be a double whammy for a business that is compensated to remove debris.

Sustainability-focused:

Companies that manufacture fast-moving consumer goods and services and are committed to sustainability do ecological impact assessments on their products and services. While research-based green marketing needs facts, green storytelling requires imagination and location. Employees responsible for the brand definition and green marketers collaborate with product and service designers, environmental groups, and government agencies.

Lease:

The item that's being sold is now available for rent on an hourly/daily/monthly/yearly basis. A lease is a contract that specifies the terms under which one can rent a property. It ensures the lessee, the tenant, access to an asset, and the lessor, the property owner or landlord, receives monthly payments from the lessee for a predetermined period of months or years. Both the lessee and the lessor risk penalties for breaching the contract's conditions.

Energy:

Energy development is an area of study concerned with adequate primary and secondary energy sources to satisfy society's requirements. These activities include those that promote the development of conventional, alternative, and renewable energy sources and the recovery and recycling of energy that otherwise would have been squandered.

Knowledge and time:

It performs qualitative and quantitative analysis to determine the effectiveness of management choices in the public and private sectors. Widely regarded as the world's most renowned management consulting firm. Descriptive knowledge, also called declarative knowledge or propositional knowledge, is a subset of information represented in declarative sentences or indicative propositions by definition. This differentiates specific knowledge from what is usually referred to as know-how or procedural knowledge, as well as knowledge of or acquaintance knowledge.

Signature for rent model:

The rental model for signatures was developed in response to the widespread use of monthly fees to generate income in businesses that primarily deal in leasing. The subscription business model is when a customer pays a monthly fee to access a product/service. Although magazines and newspapers pioneered the concept, it is currently utilized by a wide variety of companies and websites.

Take the wheel:

Historically, the fundamental principles for generating and extracting economic value were rigorous. Businesses attempted to implement the same business concepts more effectively than their rivals. New sources of sustained competitive advantage are often only accessible via business model reinvention driven by disruptive innovation rather than incremental change or continuous improvement.

Solution provider:

A solution provider consolidates all goods and services in a particular domain into a single point of contact. As a result, the client is supplied with a unique know-how to improve efficiency and performance. As a Solution Provider, a business may avoid revenue loss by broadening the scope of the service it offers, which adds value to the product. Additionally, close client interaction enables a better understanding of the customer's habits and requirements, enhancing goods and services.

Supply chain:

A supply chain is a network of companies, people, activities, data, and resources that facilitate the movement of goods and services from supplier to consumer. The supply chain processes natural resources, raw materials, and components into a completed product supplied to the ultimate consumer. In addition, used goods may re-enter the distribution network at any point where residual value is recyclable in advanced supply chain systems. Thus, value chains are connected through supply chains.