Research On D.R.HORTON, An American Home Construction Company

Industry Overview

Industry description: 

Construction reflects a process for developing infrastructure and buildings within the specific geographical region. Construction sector heavily differs from typical manufacturing businesses that focus on mass production of similar items. However, construction sector focuses on developing each product separately and uniquely. Over the years, significance of construction sector has grown massively. Specifically, developed countries like UK and USA have seen huge growth in the construction sector. Presently, construction industry encompasses 8 to 10 percent of gross domestic products (GDP) of the developed economies (Horta & Camanho, 2013). Construction sector requires huge amount of planning, financing and designing technique for ensuring effective execution. Preciously, large scale construction requires huge amount of investment for ensuring that it can able to collaborate across different disciplines. As highlighted by Ball (2014) logistic sector heavily depends on the overall economical condition of the community. It has been assessed that developed economies have higher business potential for the construction companies compared to any other developing countries. Construction sector plays a prime role in developing infrastructure of different economies. Moreover, effective utilization of construction sector requires specific knowledge and skills from the people.

According to Khosrowshahi and Arayici (2012) construction industry represents a sector that transforms different resources into social infrastructure and physical economic development. For that reason, physical infrastructure is designed, procured, planned and altered for effective fulfilment of construction objective. Construction sector includes infrastructure, buildings and industrial sections that organizations from construction sector targets. Development of infrastructure includes transportation facilities like subways, bridges, transit system, harbours, pipelines and transit system. For that reason, it can be assessed that effective development of construction sector would eventually help a particular economy to fulfil all the requirements of the people (Buvik & Rolfsen, 2015). Moreover, construction sector includes different companies like contractors, sub-contractors, working consultant, component or raw material producers, builders and merchants. For instance, increasing business opportunity in the construction sector will eventually influence cement and other raw material producing industry to sale more in the market. Thus, it will allow supporting organizations to enhance its sales volume in a major way. For that reason, construction sector eventually creates major impact on the job opportunity level in a particular economy. It has also been assessed that evolution of construction sector has played significant role in economic growth of different countries. It has been assessed that USA construction sector has achieved growth rate of 16% for past 5 years. As a result, several organizations dealing within the construction sector have emerged recently. The growth of construction sector has increased the job opportunity by up to 10% in USA market. As a result, government also has become very careful regarding in order to provide effective support for the enhancement of the construction industry.

As highlighted by Liu and Tsai (2012) construction has been a major existence in life from the beginning of human existence. Specifically, as the population on the entire globe is increasing at a rapid rate, effective use of construction department has become necessary for every entity. This trend related to increasing growth of population has influenced construction companies to focus towards industrialization and modernization in USA. In fact, construction sector in USA market is viewed as prime indicators of strengths of the American economy, unemployment trends and consumer confidence level. It has been assessed that any decline in the unemployment rate allows economies to invest more on the development of the both commercial and residential aspects (Sousa, Almeida & Dias, 2014). Now, USA is regarded as the most developed countries where majority of the people leads a high standard of life. Now, high per-capita income allows businesses to focus on the development of the superior level of infrastructure, which can allow other businesses to grow up in the economy. Moreover, greater investment has allowed economies to enhance the capacity of other establishments in a major way. However, The Great Recession in 2008 has affected the growth of the construction industry in a huge way. It has been assessed that the Great Recession in 2008 has reduced the income level of the economy, which eventually has created negative impact on the investment level (Hanus & Harris, 2013). Therefore, in this session entire construction sector has gone through restructuring process, which has affected the GDP rate of the economy. With time, USA market has able to recover from the adverse impact of the recession process to provide effective enhancement opportunities in a major way.

Evolution of the Industry

As per the report of US Census Bureau, all the major cities are facing challenges associated with the increasing rate of population. For that reason, USA market has achieved higher investment rate in the residential sector for the past few years. On the other hand, business sectors are looking to include advanced technologies for fulfilling all the requirements in a major way. Therefore, it also provides additional business opportunities for the construction sector to increase its revenue in a greater way. As per the article by Smol et al. (2015) residential construction sector is expected grow by 8% for the next few years. It also has been assessed that commercial building sector is expected to increase by 12%, as different businesses are looking to develop we-structured office premises in the prime areas in USA market. Moreover, business opportunities in transportation and educational facilities are also expected to increase in the near future. As a result, several business entities have achieved success in the global market. Therefore, it would encourage construction companies to enhance its business level further. On the other hand, business opportunities in the commercial sector are also expected to grow in next few years. As opined by Dadhich et al. (2015) new construction opportunity is expected to increase by 6% in next few years, which has estimated value of around $710 billion. Thus, it highlighted the fact that construction sector will continue to expand in future as well.      

As mentioned by Pauwels and Terkaj (2016) USA represents the second largest construction market with the expenditure has crossed more than $900 billion. From the beginning, government has focused on providing enough support to the construction sector so that they can able to able to establish its presence in the market. It has been assessed that construction sector has achieved more business opportunities in the prime cities or popular areas of an economy. For instance, New York has seen the most investment for developing the construction facilities in the country. On the other hand, other economies also have seen that majority of the investment related to construction sector has been initiated for the prime cities (Siang & Ali, 2012). For that reason, government of different economies also have initiated different strategies for fulfilling specific requirements of community effectively.

According to Rostami et al. (2015) private construction spending has crossed $850 billion marks in 2015, which is more likely to cross the trillion marks in next few years. It highlights the fact that it has provided opportunities for new business entities to establish its presence in the global market. For that reason, it can be mentioned that size of construction sector is massive that has the capability of affecting the GDP growth in a major way. Furthermore, it has been assessed that majority of the economies have focused on developing effective long-term plan for providing sustainable development opportunities in the market. For that reason, construction sector of different economies has developed several policies for fulfilling social requirements in an appropriate way. For instance, construction companies have focused on restricting public sector intervention at the certain level so that they can work accordingly. It has been assessed that economies have developed investment policy, land policy, agricultural policy, housing policy and energy policy for developing an ethical guidelines for construction sector. As a result, it would create direct positive impact on continues expansion of the business reach.

Current Industry Size

As per the article by Schwatka, Butler and Rosecrance (2012) construction have to focus on evaluating several factors for fulfilling business objectives in an effective manner. GAAP has formed particular niche for construction contractors for generating required amount revenue effectively. It has been assessed that majority of the construction process is long-term in nature. Therefore, perceived expenses for any particular construction project can vary hugely. For that reason, construction sector has focused on using completed contract and percentage of completion technique. As described by Cheng et al. (2012) financial condition of a particular economy plays major role in the development of construction industry. Better the financial condition of an economy, higher is the growth or profit rate. For that reason, construction sector will always have higher profit level in the developed countries like UK and USA compared to any developing countries. Secondly, availability of skilled labour force is another prime factor that can have major impact on the revenue level of the construction organizations. It has been assessed that cost associated with labour force varies in different geographical boundaries. As a result, it can have major impact on the revenue level for the construction industry. It has been measured that lack of labour force would influence construction companies to recruit people from outside of the country, which will also create adverse impact on the revenue level of the organizations. Moreover, availability of skilled employees also can have serious impact on the profit level. It has been assessed that skilled employees like engineers and planners have to be present at the optimum level for fulfilling all the requirements of the construction industry.

As expressed by Fulford and Standing (2014) availability of raw materials and other supporting industry can also have major impact on the revenue level of the organization. For instance, effectiveness of construction industry heavily depends on the growth rate of cement sector. For that reason, it is necessary for the economy to focus on developing associated sector also for achieving desired level of revenue level (McDermotti & Khalfan, 2012). On the other hand, government rules and regulations play critical role in handling all the requirements of the construction sector. It has been assessed that restrictions of including foreign help or consulting services can actually create major impact on the revenue level. Moreover, the entire globe is looking to conduct more strong and complex constructional projects for enhancing the revenue level in a major way. Therefore, it has induced construction companies to include foreign help in order to achieve higher revenue level. Horta et al. (2013) have highlighted the fact that environmental changes have emerged as major issue for the construction companies to handle in order to sustain the revenue level at desired order. It has been assessed that construction sector has focused on including different advanced technologies for handling increasing pressure in the sector. Therefore, it would increase initial challenges that construction companies will have to face at the time of fulfilling all the requirements of any particular project. Thus, it might create negative impact on the short-run revenue level. In long-run, construction companies will able to increase the present level of revenue in a major way.         

Factors for Profit and Growth

Porter five forces analysis:

As mentioned by Pink, Tutt and Dainty (2012) Porter five forces help organizations to understand the present market condition in a proper way. It would help to understand the positive as well as negative impact that a particular sector is going through recently. The Porter five forces analysis is described as follows:

Bargaining power of suppliers represents the ability of the suppliers to influence the price level. In case of construction industry, huge amount of suppliers is available all across the world. As a result, it would reduce the power of the suppliers in affecting the price level in a major way (Goulding et al., 2012). Moreover, increasing business level in the construction sector has also increased the available number of consultants and planners. Therefore, it also would not affect the price level of the construction industry in an effective way. Moreover, switching costs for construction firms are relatively low, which also has reduced the power of the supplies in a major way.

Buyers bargaining power reflects the ability of the buyers to affect the price level. Now, increasing business level of the construction sector has influenced organizations to focus on the development of businesses (Bemelmans, Voordijk & Vos, 2012). As a result, companies do not have the power to increase the price level in a major way. Moreover, buyers also have focused on developing superior quality of information regarding the different trends in the construction section. As a result, they do know the costs required for completing any particular project. In addition, commercial buyers often try to develop strong foundation with specific organizations for completing the project effectively (Latiffi et al., 2013). As a result, it enhances the bargaining power of the buyers in a major way.

As opined by Madter, Bower and Aritua (2012) profitable markets that have the capability of providing high returns will induce other organizations to enter into the market. Now, construction sector has seen extreme growth over a sustainable time period. For that reason, it has induced several new business entities to focus on grabbing the major share of the market. In fact, increasing demand for raw materials also has helped different new business entities to develop their business successfully. Thus, threat of new entrants can be regarded as high in the construction sector (Kamal, Kong-Seng & Iranmanesh, 2014). However, customers are generally very loyal towards the construction industry. Moreover, capital requirements for construction sector are also very high, which has eliminated some threats related to new market entry.   

As emphasized by Aloini et al. (2012) threat of substitute reflects the existence of a particular product out of the realm of popular product. Now, construction sector has seen several changes in its operational process over the past few years. For instance, new innovative methods have been initiated by different construction companies, which have reduced the cost level largely. As a result, it has increased the probability of substitute in the construction sector. Moreover, customers possess very low switching cost that has increased the threat associated with substitution greatly.   

Industry Analysis

As mentioned earlier, construction sector has grown rapidly over the past few decades. Moreover, it is expected that the overall business level of the construction sector will increase further in the near future. As a result, it has increased the competition level in construction sector in a major way (Sarhan & Fox, 2013). In fact, many studies have mentioned that construction sector is actually overcrowded, as majority of the market captured by the prime players. On the other hand, others are just focusing on rest of the market. Specifically, big projects in the construction sector always captured by the market leaders, as small business entities do not have the capital power to fulfil all the requirements.

According to Choudhry and Iqbal (2012) PEST refers to the political, social, economic and technological factors that can have serious impact on the performance level of a specific industry. The objective of PEST analysis is to highlight the kind of business environment a particular sector is receiving currently. Now, the PEST analysis for construction sector is as follows:

Construction sector often has to go through different permits and documentation procedure for fulfilling all the requirements of any projects. As a result, it often creates more barriers for the construction companies to complete a massive project within the stipulated time period. For that reason, both government and political parties have focused on developing several rules and regulations in order to ensure construction companies operational procedure does not go beyond the ethical limit (Ahn, Annie & Kwon, 2012). Moreover, it also plays crucial part in smoothing the operational process of the construction sector in order to ensure all the requirements can be fulfilled in an appropriate manner. For instance, political factors play a massive role in providing Building Commencement Certificate, Floor Space Index and Occupation Certificate for ensuring successful completion of the project.

According to Bin Zakaria et al. (2013), economical factor also plays a crucial part in fulfilling all the responsibilities related to construction projects. Specifically, as the entire major construction project requires heavy funding, it will heavily depend on the GDP growth rate of the economies. It has been assessed that any decrease in the GDP rate would directly create adverse impact on the investment pattern in the construction industry. For instance, USA market has seen immense fall in the investment pattern during the economic depression time. On the other hand, inflation rate is another prime economic factor that can have major impact on the successful completion of the construction projects.

As mentioned by Lavender (2014) proper evaluation of the social factors is also necessary for understanding the pattern related to construction industry. For instance, social factors like age profile, population growth rate and housing backlog can actually have major impact on the overall business opportunities in the construction sector. Borys (2012) have highlighted the fact that USA presently has 8% population growth rate, which has actually created more pressure on the housing segment. In fact, population growth has created major impact on the countries like India, as it had to undergo through extreme restructure procedure. On the other hand, proper assessment of the age profile allows construction companies to understand the availability of labour force within the construction sector that can also have major impact on the business perspectives.  

Industry Conclusions

Technological advancement is another critical aspect of the construction sector that can actually create massive impact on the business perspectives (Chen et al., 2012). Over the years, several new technologies have been initiated within the construction sector for minimizing the required time for successful completion of any project. Moreover, it has also reduced the cost associated with the operational project. For that reason, technological advancement has induced construction companies to make some adjustment in the operational procedure in order to fulfil all the requirements within the given time period. As per the article by Rhodes (2014), Japan arguably has the best construction technologies that have helped to develop advance infrastructure within the economy.

From the above discussion, it can be assessed that construction sector has huge potential to enhance the present condition of the economy. Moreover, it can be mentioned that proper utilization of construction sector would provide optimum atmosphere for other businesses to fulfil all the requirements in an appropriate manner. It has been assessed that the value of the construction sector is likely to cross the trillion dollar mark value within next few years. Moreover, it is also likely to grow at a rapid rate, which will provide more business opportunities for the construction sector. On the other hand, the above analysis also has assessed the fact that construction sector is going through several changes in the operational procedure with the inclusion of new technologies. For that reason, majority of the construction companies are focusing on enriching their capital level for conducting all the complex projects successfully. However, the study also has highlighted the fact that construction sector has to go through several political and social obligations in order to fulfil all the operational requirements. It has also highlighted the fact that construction companies have to focus on GDP growth and inflation rate in order to ensure all the requirements are fulfilled in the desired order.

D.R. Horton represents the largest home construction organization present in USA market. The organization was established by Donald R Horton in 1978 with the objective of becoming the premium name in the household production sector in USA market (drhorton.com, 2017). Presently, D.R. Horton has established its presence in the more 24 states of America with the inclusion of more than 50 divisions. The business objective of D.R. Horton has always focused on expanding its reach into the American market in order to enhance the present level of revenue in a major way. In 2015, the estimated revenue level of the organization was $10.7 billion, which is likely to increase in coming years. D.R. Horton works with three separate branded divisions including Express Homes, Emerald Homes and Freedom Homes (drhorton.com, 2017). D.R. Horton has developed this brand division to deal with different levels of the customers appropriately. For instance, Express Homes is specifically developed for the entry level buyers who are looking to purchase a specific small size households. On the other hand, Emerald Homes has focused on the luxury real estate department (Goh & Abdul-Rahman, 2013). Thus, it focuses on achieving contract of developing big and complex construction projects. Freedom Homes is the most recent division of D.R. Horton, which was established on July 2016. It has been assessed that D.R. Horton has still not able to establish its business in the northeast and west coast are of USA.  Thus, it reflects the fact that enough business development opportunities are left for the organization. Around 90% of the sales volume for D.R. Horton comes from the single family detached homes. Moreover, D.R. Horton has also focused on expanding their financial arm by providing ancillary and mortgage financing services to different business entities. However, the operational process of D.R. Horton closely followed by the National Labour Relation Board, as it has faced different issues related to providing level of wages and benefits to the labour force.  

Company Overview

According to Chi, Lin and Ikhwan (2012), proper assessment of the customer profile is necessary for achieving target sales volume from the market. Moreover, selection of appropriate customer profile would allow the business to increase the effectiveness of the initiated strategies. Now, as the largest home construction company, D.R. Horton has focused on utilizing demographic, geographic and psychographic segmentation strategies. In case of democratic segmentation, D.R. Horton would have focused on targeting single house separated market of USA economy. It has been assessed that majority of the sales volume of D.R. Horton has come from the single separated household market. Therefore, D.R. Horton has focused on targeting all the families looking to purchase detached homes. The company has focused on developing detached homes on different price level for ensuring it is affordable for different income group customers. D.R. Horton has also focused on developing attached homes such as duplexes, condominiums and triplexes for grabbing the attention of all section of the market.

Moreover, three division of D.R. Horton has focused on targeting three different income groups’ people. As a result, it has helped organization to target people beyond the financial barriers. In fact, it has also helped D.R. Horton to achieve competitive advantage in the market. In case of geographical segmentation, D.R. Horton has focused on establishing its business all across the USA market. It has been measured that D.R. Horton has able to expand its business across the Mid-Atlantic, West Coast, Southeast and Southwest. However, it still has not able to expand its businesses in the Northeast and Midwest areas. Still, D.R. Horton has able to establish itself as the biggest name in the home construction company in the USA market. Till now, D.R. Horton has not focused on developing customer profile outside the USA market. Therefore, it has huge amount of business expansion opportunity in the global market.

On the other hand, D.R. Horton has also focused on utilizing psychographic segmentation procedure for fulfilling all the business objectives efficiently. As per the article by Hosseini et al. (2013) psychographic segmentation allows businesses to divide market based on the differences in traits, personality, interests, attitudes and lifestyles of the consumers. As construction sector involves heavy investment, it always has to focus on assessing the psychological perspectives of the potential customers. For instance, people section of households heavily depends on their lifestyles and personality. Therefore, D.R. Horton has focused on assessing all popular aspect of lifestyle in order to create maximum impact on the markets. Moreover, D.R. Horton has also focused on assessing the traits, values and attitudes of the people in order to understand kind of design or structure they will prefer for the homes. The effective development of customer profile has helped the organization to focus on the development of proper structure for completing all the requirements of the operational process. In fact, it has also helped D.R. Horton to increase the penetration power of the different initiated strategies.

According to Samuelson and Björk (2013), all the businesses have to focus on appropriate utilization of strategies for fulfilling all the aims and objectives. Specifically, as the competition level is increasing in the construction sector continuously, D.R. Horton will have to focus on the development of different strategies in order to achieve competitive advantage in the market. In fact, D.R. Horton has focused on functional, business and growth strategy for keeping the growth level in the optimum order. The operational as well as business strategies of D.R. Horton are described as follows:

Customer Profile

According to Lu, Zhu and Cui (2012), corporate strategy is primarily concerned with the process through which organizations create value across different businesses. Thus, it highlights the fact that it is essential for all the business entities to add value to the provided goods and services in order to sustain position for longer timeframe. D.R. Horton has also focused on developing strategies to provide additional value to the customers. For that reason, D.R. Horton has invested valuable set of resources like the business portfolio, craft and organizational structure for fulfilling all the requirements efficiently. Moreover, D.R. Horton has focused on developing clear-cut strategies for all the divisions of the organization in order to eliminate any possibility of confusion within the business process (Ajayi et al., 2015). As a result, it has allowed D.R. Horton to complete all kind of home construction projects within the stipulated timeframe. It has helped the organization to provide additional value to the customers. Moreover, the business strategy of D.R. Horton has always focused on providing superior quality of products at the best price in order to ensure they do not have compromise at all. Thus, as corporate strategy of D.R. Horton has focused on maintaining the satisfaction level of the customers, it will definitely able to increase the satisfaction level in a greater way.

As emphasized by Chi, Han and Kim (2012) functional strategy reflects organizational plans and preparation for different areas like financial and production strategy in order to accomplish business strategies. As the largest home construction company in USA market, D.R. Horton has also focused on developing separate departments for fulfilling all the responsibilities comprehensively. From the beginning, D.R. Horton has focused on utilizing strategies in such a way so that it can able to achieve specific opportunities for expanding the business all across the USA market. In fact, the vision statement of D.R. Horton focuses on to emerge as the most popular home construction company in the entire globe. For that reason, D.R. Horton has always focused on including advance technologies in the operational process for reducing the required time for completing a project successfully. Therefore, it has invested massive amount at the time of installation of advance technologies. As a result, it has affected the profit level of the organization in short-run. However, D.R. Horton has focused on achieving long-term business objectives with the effective utilization of functional strategies. Moreover, D.R. Horton has also focused on maintaining healthy working environment for the employees so that they can give their best at the workplace. D.R. Horton has focused on evaluating the performance level of each employee in order to provide proper benefits and appraisals. However, it has also faced allegation regarding lesser payment to the employees for enhancing the profit level at a greater rate.

Business strategies focus on evaluating the best possible way to maximize the profit level. D.R. Horton also has focused on enhancing the effectiveness of the business strategies for achieving success in the market. For instance, D.R. Horton has invested big amount on the marketing or promotional campaign in order to provide in-depth information to all the potential customers. D.R. Horton has targeted display media and direct marketing campaign to communicate the kind of services it provides to the customers. It has also targeted online and social media platforms for enhancing the acceptance level among the potential customers (Abdel-Wahab, 2012). The business strategy of D.R. Horton also has focused segregating the entire business into different divisions or departments so that it can able to handle all the tasks effectively. Moreover, D.R. Horton has also tried to include best available talents so that all the complex projects can be completed successfully. As highlighted by Ofori and Toor (2012) proper utilization of market research technique is also a necessary process for maximizing the profit level of the organization. For that reason, D.R. Horton has also initiated market research strategies in order to identify trends related to needs and preferences of the customers.

Company Strategy

Thus, D.R. Horton has tried to cover all possible aspects of the business by introducing different innovative strategies. As a result, it has helped D.R. Horton to grow in the extremely competitive construction market of USA. In fact, appropriate use of marketing and financial strategies has helped D.R. Horton to increase its market share in a great way. Moreover, inclusion of market research technique has helped the organization to identify continues changes in the needs and requirements of the customers appropriately. As a result, it does not have to face any major obstacles in completing all the construction projects within given time period.

	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016
Revenue (USD Million)	11,297	6,646	3,657	4,400	3,637	4,354	6,259	8,024	10,824	12,157
Gross Margin (%)	7.2	-24.6	3.3	17.6	16.9	19.8	22.5	21.9	21.1	21.8
Operating Income (USD Million)	-966	-2,640	-556	100	54	247	634	790	1,102	1,335
Operating Margin (%)	-8.6	-39.7	-15.2	2.3	1.5	5.7	10.1	9.9	10.2	11.0
Net Income  (USD Million)	-713	-2,633	-549	245	71	956	462	534	751	886
Earnings Per Share USD	-2.27	-8.34	-1.73	0.77	0.23	2.77	1.33	1.50	2.03	2.36
Dividends USD	0.60	0.45	0.15	0.15	0.15	0.15	0.04	0.14	0.25	0.32
Payout Ratio (%)	—	—	—	19.5	65.2	5.8	6.1	5.1	13.5	13.4
Shares Mil	314	315	316	319	319	359	364	367	370	375
Book Value Per Share * USD	18.03	8.95	7.12	8.20	8.29	10.87	12.09	13.62	15.27	17.46
Operating Cash Flow USD Mil	1,356	1,880	1,141	709	15	-298	-1,231	-661	700	618
Cap Spending USD Mil	-39	-6	-6	-19	-16	-34	-58	-100	-56	-86
Free Cash Flow USD Mil	1,316	1,873	1,135	690	-1	-331	-1,289	-762	644	531
Free Cash Flow Per Share * USD	4.36	5.93	3.58	2.17	—	-0.33	-3.60	-2.02	0.02	1.40
Working Capital USD Mil	7,701	1,226	4,757	3,982	3,557	5,123	6,512	6,972	7,798	8,200

Table 1: Present financial condition of D.R. Horton

(Source: As created by the author)

Margins % of Sales	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016
Revenue	100.00	100.00	100.00	100.00	100.00	100.00	100.00	100.00	100.00	100.00
COGS	92.82	124.61	96.75	82.44	83.13	80.21	77.54	78.11	78.86	78.16
Gross Margin	7.18	-24.61	3.25	17.56	16.87	19.79	22.46	21.89	21.14	21.84
SG&A	11.47	13.42	16.43	13.76	15.30	14.11	12.24	12.03	10.96	10.86
R&D	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
Other	4.27	1.68	2.04	1.54	0.08	—	0.08	—	—	—
Operating Margin	-8.55	-39.72	-15.22	2.26	1.50	5.68	10.14	9.86	10.18	10.98
Net Int Inc & Other	0.13	0.12	—	—	-1.16	-0.10	0.37	0.29	0.19	0.16
EBT Margin	-8.42	-39.60	-15.22	2.26	0.33	5.58	10.51	10.15	10.38	11.13

Table 1: Key ratios of D.R. Horton

(Source: As created by the author)

The above ratios have highlighted the fact that D.R. Horton has able to grab major share of the market. In fact, it has able to achieve continues growth in the USA market, as the revenue level in each year has increased proportionately. Moreover, it has also highlighted the fact that D.R. Horton focused on investing huge amount to achieve superiority from all its competitors. Therefore, it has helped D.R. Horton to emerge as the pioneer in the single home construction company in USA market. In fact, the superiority in the financial ratio segment has allowed D.R. Horton to create strong brand loyalty within USA market.  

As per the article by Boktor, Hanna and Menassa (2013), suitable use of operating model is essential for achieving competitive advantage in the market. Over the years, different operating models have been highlighted that organizations can follow to fulfil all the requirements of the operational process. However, D.R. Horton has not only focused on fulfilling all the operational requirements effectively but also tries to provide additional values to the customers. For that reason, operating model of D.R. Horton can be described through the Porter value chain model.

Figure 1: Porter value chain model

(Source: Hinze, Thurman & Wehle, 2013)

From the above figure, it can be established that D.R. Horton operating model has focused on developing effective relationship between all the departments. In fact, it has tried to initiate open communicational structure for ensuring all the departments have effective knowledge. Moreover, it has also reduced the possibility of confusion within the operating system. As a result, it has helped to increase the performance level of the employees. Lee and Hollar (2013) have highlighted the fact that close relation among the different department would allow organization to reduce the required lead-time for successful completion of the project. As a result, it has helped D.R. Horton to reduce the amount of cost required for fulfilling the entire operational requirements. Therefore, it has helped to enhance the value of the provided services in a major way.

As highlighted by Holte and Kjestveit (2012) effective use of manufacturing, marketing and after sales services are crucial for achieving success in the market. Now, as home construction organization, D.R. Horton does not have so called manufacturing unit. However, it does provide a lot of importance to the labour force and engineers for successfully establishing a construction project. As a result, employees feel motivated and responsible in fulfilling all the provided responsibilities effectively. Moreover, after sales service of D.R. Horton has helped to enhance the satisfaction level of the customers to another level. Therefore, it has worked as value drivers for the organization. On the other hand, D.R. Horton has to face challenges associated with increasing cost of raw materials and advance technologies in order to fulfil all the objectives efficiently. It has been assessed that increasing cost of the operational process has influenced D.R. Horton to provide different changes in order to maintain the profit level at desired rate.     

Financial Profile

The above discussion has highlighted the fact that D.R. Horton has able to initiate appropriate strategies in order to achieve major share of the market. In fact, D.R. Horton has tried to include different divisional structure so that it can eliminate all possible confusion from the operational process. Moreover, effective use of different departments has allowed organizations to recruit people with specific knowledge and skills, which have helped to add value to the provided services. In addition, specialized job responsibilities have helped organization to enhance the motivational level of the employees, which also has helped to increase the effectiveness of the operational process. As a result, D.R. Horton has able to achieve continues progress in the extremely competitive USA construction market. Moreover, effective evaluation has also helped to identify the trend related to the business level of the organization. It has highlighted the fact that D.R. Horton is expected to maintain the growth rate in the near future as well. For that reason, it is crucial for D.R. Horton to assess the kind of impact all the value factors and cost factors can have on the overall business level of the organization.

A profitable business always requires a comparative analysis with the help of which the business experts would be able to evaluate their position in the current market. The overarching term comparative analysis implies making an effective comparison of a particular business organization with its competitors. However, competitive assessment is the market planning tool based on which a particular business organization attempts to make a market analysis as per the current position of its competitors (Rothaermel, 2015). In this particular part, an effective competitive analysis has been conducted in order to highlight the current market position of D.R. Horton. D.R. Horton being one of the largest construction companies residing a recognizable place in the US market. By highlighting the current market position of D.R. Horton and its positioning map the study has focused to deal with the expected target market for making competitive analysis.    

Current market position of D.R. Horton:

As per the revenue report of 2015, it has been observed that D.R. Horton has earned $10.7 billion in the current market by creating an excellent demand in the construction market. As per the quarterly revenue growth, D.R. Horton has faced a major challenge in the fourth quarter of 2016. The rate of revenue in the last quarter has been decreased from $3000 to around $2700.

Fleisher and Bensoussan (2015) stated that one of the most effective reasons of devaluating the current market demand in construction industry is threat from competitors’ market strategy and policy. One of the most promising competitors of D.R. Horton in the market of US includes GE Johnson, Ryan Companies US, Lennar, Pulte Group, Toll Brothers, KB Homes and so on. As per the report of selling price from the year 2010 to 2014, it has been observed that the average selling price of Horton in 2014 has been raised from $249,400 (2013) to $272,200. Effective promotional activities, superior quality of products as well as services are one of the most important reasons for increasing the selling price of Horton. In comparison to other competitors, D.R. Horton is far behind in terms of selling prices. For instance, the average selling price of Toll Brothers in 2014 fiscal includes $725,000. This particular organization is possessed with most of the premium customers in the current market of US (drhorton.com, 2017). As a result, the company has already established their demand to the premium consumers. The selling price report of 2014 indicates that customers are flexible enough to purchase products and services of Toll Brothers despite the high range of product price. The promotional strategy as well as the quality of brands is primarily responsible for giving Toll Brothers a good market position.  

Operating Model

Zhang, Guo and Goes (2013) opined that homebuilding industry is extremely competitive in the soil of both national as well as regional market. The financial service of D.R. Horton successfully competes with mortgage lenders as well as other financial institutions.  The entire business process of D.R. Horton is constituted with three major segmentation including financial services, home sales, landlot sales.  In terms of financial services the company has gained organizational image and reputation by holding a sufficient number of market shares. The report says that D.R. Horton has improved the rate of market share approximately 0.7% in comparison to the previous year. On the other hand, in term of home sales, this particular organization has lost 25.68% market share in the last year. In addition, despite having the strong revenue growth in the landlot sales, the organization has lost 14.39% market share in 2016 in the US market. However, D.R. Horton has improved the rate of total market share approximate 21.18% in the market of US (drhorton.com, 2017). The customers are flexible enough to receive quality products in affordable price range. On the other hand, the product designers of D.R. Horton tend to focus on designing the products beyond going any religious biasedness. As a result, people from different geographical areas of America show their interest for purchasing the products and service process of D.R. Horton. Consequently, the market share of D.R. Horton in the construction industry is increasing in US market rapidly.

Competitive positioning map is the systematic tool with the help of which brands or products can be positioned as per current market value (Bienkowski et al., 2014). It has been observed that the market value of the products of D.R. Horton is high due to its quality product in affordable price range. On the other hand, while evaluating the current market position it has also been observed that D.R. Horton has been successful to increase their selling price due to high range of customers’ demands. In comparison to other competitors such as Ryan Companies US, Lennar, Pulte Group, Toll Brothers, KB Homes, Horton is one of the most recognizable companies that maintains product quality along with its low cost price strategy.

 The company like Toll Brothers has also occupied a dominant place in the current market. The difference between Horton’s market strategy and the market plan of Toll Brother is price range (Luo, Chakraborty & Sycara, 2012). The business objective of Toll Brother is to draw the attention of high cost customers only. Therefore, on one hand the company is possessed with low range of target market. On the other hand, the organization would have to face innumerable challenges for expanding the business process in global market. On the other hand, Horton’s business strategy implies that low cost strategy is the most effective ways to become a major threat for some of its competitors (Grant, 2016). At the same time, the service providers of Horton like to maintain superior quality of products and services for maintaining the recognition of organization. However, as per the current market status, the competitive positioning map of D.R. Horton is as follows: 

Company Conclusions

Figure 2: Competitive positioning map

(Source: Created by author)

While selecting the target market the marketing experts of D.R. Horton has decided to implement STP analysis in order to segregate the customers. The marketing managers have conducted market segmentation as per geographic demographic and psychographic areas (Wedel & Kamakura, 2012). D.R. Horton being out an out US based organization focuses to draw the attention of people from various geographical areas with the help of which people from different geographical areas prevailing in US. As per the demographic market segmentation, the people having average income level can afford the products and services of D.R. Horton due to its low cost strategy. On the other hand, people from 20 to 50 group of age have been marked as the target customers. The products that are designed within the organization are beyond any specific cultures and religious backgrounds (Riefler, Diamantopoulos & Siguaw, 2012).  As a result, people possessed with different beliefs, psychologies and faiths can easily purchase the products and service of D.R. Horton. The policy of psychographic market enables the organization to have a large number of target groups all over USA.

D.R. Horton is one of the largest home based construction company in the market of USA. Along with providing quality of products and services, this particular organization likes to maintain effective promotional activities to reach their product and service process to the doorstep of the customers (Sharma & Lambert, 2013). Both the offline and online media vehicle is used for promoting the products of D.R. Horton. People from different age group are flexible with electronic media. On the other hand, this particular organization is highly dependent in promoting their products and services with the help of social media as well for expanding the business in different geographical market. In order to impress the customers of different remote areas, social media is the only platform to communicate with the people (Muhamad et al., 2012).   

In order to make effective operational strategies, the organization like D.R. Horton has to evaluate its strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats.  The primary strengths and weakness of the company have been provided below:

Strengths	Weakness
Ø D.R. Horton is very much flexible in running three sectors with equal priority. The three sectors include financial services, home sales, landlot sales. Ø The superior quality of products in affordable price range the primary USP (unique selling point) of D.R. Horton.	Ø D.R. Horton after following low cost strategy fails to draw the attention of premium customers. On the other hand, Toll Brothers by increasing their selling price in the market has attracted most of the premium customers in the current market. Ø The limited number of workforce strength is one of the most significant weaknesses of D.R. Horton. Comparatively, Toll Brothers is endowed with sufficient workforce strength with the help which the employees can make a balance between supply and demand of the customers.
Opportunities	Threats
Ø D.R. Horton is having opportunity to expand their entire process of business beyond going the specific geographical market Ø After implementing brand value strategy the organization can have the opportunity to draw the attention of premium customers as well. Ø D.R. Horton is having the opportunity to enhance their budget behind promotional activities in order to increase the rate of market.	Ø Competitors’ market strategy has become a serious threat for the company like D.R. Horton. After implementing high selling price the competitors of D.R. Horton such as GE Johnson, Ryan Companies US, Lennar, Pulte Group, Toll Brothers, KB Homes have become a matter of threat. Ø Industrial change towards green construction can be considered as a major threat to the business.

Table 3: Strengths and Weakness of D.R. Horton along with its opportunities and threats

(Source: Weinstein & Cahill, 2014)

As per the annual report of 2015 of D.R. Horton, it has been observed that the net income of this organization has been raised up to 6. 9%. As per the industry standard 6.9% net revenue is remarkably poor for running a business organization successfully in the current market (Barzuza, 2012). In order to overcome this crisis, the organization should focus on implementing new strategies and policies for enhancing the net profit of D.R. Horton. On the other hand, it has been observed that the overall revenue of D.R. Horton has been raised up to $10,824 million. In comparison to the year 2011, the company has improved immensely for evaluating their overall performance of the organization. The implementation of low cost strategy has become very much effective for D.R. Horton to enhance target market. On the other hand, Hassan and Craft (2012) opined that low cost strategy is not devoid of some of its negative effects as well. After implementing low cost strategy the organization fails to draw the attention of premium customers. D.R. Horton has faced the same. One of the biggest competitors of Horton that is Toll Brothers has drawn the attention of most of the premium customers in US market.

Competitive Assessment

The gross profit of home sales has been raised from 16.1% to 19.8% in the year 2015. Providing quality products and services is not the only primary mission and vision of the business experts (Häusermann and Schwander, 2012). In order to enhance the rate of gross revenue the organization has decided to enhance their budget behind promotional activities. With the help of effective promotional activities the organization like D.R. Horton gets scope to draw the attention of customers from different geographical boundaries. As a result, D.R. Horton would spread their entire business process in global market as well. At the same time, it has also been observed that while running the business process D.R. Horton has to face some of the major challenges as well. Apart from competitors’ strong market strategy and policy, Horton business experts have faced one more threats from the market (Hollensen, 2015). . The supply of raw material has become a major threat for the business organization. With the current market demand, the trend of customers’ needs and expectations are changing gradually. The organizations have to depend on the green construction for fulfilling the demands and needs of the customers (McDonald, 2012). As a result, the business experts have to invest a large amount of money for raw materials. It has become a major threat for D.R. Horton to maintain their organizational reputation in the current market.

Competitive Conclusions: 

After evaluating the entire competitive assessment it has been observed that D.R. Horton is possessed with a familiar place in the realm of US construction industry. The market position of this particular organization implies that D.R. Horton has faced some turmoil for maintaining customers’ attention in the current market. As a result, the growth of revenue has been fluctuated time to time. As per the effective competitive analysis of D.R. Horton it has been observed that Toll Brother is the most promising competitor of this organization. The marketing strategy of Toll Brother has become a major threat for D.R. Horton with the help of which the business experts had to face innumerable difficulties to maintain customers’ attention. While discussing the market position of Horton, the study has focused to highlight the selling price strategy of some of its competitors. The brand value strategy of Toll Bothers draws the attention of most of the premium customers. In order to overcome this threat Horton has focused to invest sufficient amount of money for maintaining active promotions to enhance range of target customers.

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