Sunday, October 28, 2012

Economic Problems faced by Proton


            Automobile is considered as one of the fast consuming product all around the world. The first vehicle to move under its own power is designed by Nicholas Joseph Cugnot and constructed by M.Brezin in 1976. Now, automobile was created with design, innovation even with style. Automobile had evolved into one of the biggest industry in the world of creating various products of cars from low range to a extreme high range series of cars. In the 20th century, majority of 70% household purchases automobile for transportation purposes, for business users they would make use of automobile to earn their income such as taxi and bus. Transportation would be a very big issue for people all around the world, people would purchase automobile just for their private transportation like to work, class or even meeting people. Therefore automobile plays a very big role for the public to achieve their personal needs.

            Malaysia had their own automobile industry and one of it is named as Proton. The full name of Proton is Perusahan Otomobil Nasional Berhad and it is formed on May 7 1983. Its is use to manufacture, assemble and sell motor vehicles and related products, including accessories, spare parts and other components of their own automobile. Proton then produced the Malaysia’s first car the Proton Saga. It is officially launched on July 9th of 1985, and it is the first Malaysian car which is promoted by our Prime Minister Dato’ Seri Mahathir Mohamed. Its model then continue producing such as the Wira, Waja, Satria, Iswara, Perdana and the Juara. Proton focus on the engine range from 1.0, 1.3, 1.5 , 1.6 , 1.8 and 2.0 litre. Proton was then well known in Malaysia and a lot of people purchase it because it is cheaper compared to the other entire automobile because of the tax that had been raised by the government for non-local automobile. Proton then marked their products to internal and external countries. It had then became worldwide for all the people around the world to purchase but unfortunately, Proton faces some quality standard problems. Proton faces trouble and had lost a lot of fortune due to a few factors which is when the automobile release the price is quite high and people is expecting standards from the industry. Secondly the quality doesn’t reach the standard of the price and consumers will start to neglect Proton products. Thirdly, due to lack of technology, Proton can’t follow up other automobile company’s creation, material and innovation to give the public a surprise.

            One of the main causes that make Proton in trouble is because of their competitor Perodua. Perodua has surpassed Proton in sales and become number one, and because of this Proton had to be compared to them due to the pricing and quality they gave in to automobile industry. Just one example, Myvi launched by Perodua reach limits where all the consumers feel satisfy because of its pricing and quality. It is all around Malaysia and had been awarded the most teen usage vehicle in Malaysia. Proton should develop more on their research team because they somehow produce vehicles that people don’t really desire. Here is a graph of protons financial income statement from the year 2006 to the year 2010:

This is a graph from the year 2006 to 2010 about proton. From the day proton launched in 1983, proton had been rising highly until the year 1995, but from that year it had continue its dropping until 2003 and had been going up and down until 2006. There were a lot of factors that causes this to happen. First is the financial crisis during the year 2000 and then people had lost interest to Proton because of its quality. Proton had struggled in survive by keep upgrading their automobile and even come out new automobile. Second is the competitors such as Perodua Berhad, this automobile industry killed a lot of Proton consumers because their quality is slightly better than Proton and even cheaper compared to some of the Proton vehicles. Based on the graph since 2006 the revenue dropped rapidly in the year 2007 and slowly raised back until the year 2010. You can see from the owners equity in the balance sheet in the year 2007 which dropped a lot then going up and down until 2010. Based on the shareholders graph, the shareholders leaked a lot of interest towards Proton since the year 2000, the share price had been going down rapidly then rise back by the promotions or event that Proton made. In the year 2006 to 2007, the shareholders earning had lost had dropped approximately 15%. In the year 2008 it had raised back a 5% but unfortunately in the year 2009 it dropped another 10%. In 2010 they manage to save it up back another 8% but for the shareholders they still faces loses and this would cause them to doubt whether Proton will do good in the future or not.

            In conclusion, Proton should analyze more on their consumers or even carry out a better research on the consumers nowadays. They should come out with a strategy of market their products. For the economic situation, their currently doing better than before, but they would have to put in much more effort to win people’s heart as Malaysia’s number one car brand. Here are a few more suggestions for myself for proton to improve. First they should hire a professional from automobile industry to give them an advance training on their innovation and designing to win people’s heart. At the same time improve the services in every Proton outlet for the consumers that had already purchase Proton to enjoy after buying services better than other automobile industry. Besides that, proton could go in other fields like giving out sponsorships to people who need them to increase Proton’s fame to create a better brand image. Lastly, use better materials to produce Proton’s automobile to create a better quality of vehicle and make Proton the best car company in Malaysia.


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