MGM Mirage's Bid for Mandalay Resort Group (A): Communicating During the Merger Process SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Communication
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of MGM Mirage's Bid for Mandalay Resort Group (A): Communicating During the Merger Process
After MGM Mirage decides to announce publicly its bid for Mandalay Resort Group, both companies face vital decisions about how to communicate with their various stakeholders during the merger negotiations.
Authors :: Gregory S. Miller, Michael D. Kimbrough
Swot Analysis of "MGM Mirage's Bid for Mandalay Resort Group (A): Communicating During the Merger Process" written by Gregory S. Miller, Michael D. Kimbrough includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Mandalay Mgm facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in MGM Mirage's Bid for Mandalay Resort Group (A): Communicating During the Merger Process case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Communication, Market research, Mergers & acquisitions, Strategic planning and Communication.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the MGM Mirage's Bid for Mandalay Resort Group (A): Communicating During the Merger Process casestudy better are - – banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, technology disruption, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing commodity prices, wage bills are increasing,
increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of MGM Mirage's Bid for Mandalay Resort Group (A): Communicating During the Merger Process
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in MGM Mirage's Bid for Mandalay Resort Group (A): Communicating During the Merger Process case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Mandalay Mgm, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Mandalay Mgm operates in.
According to Harvard Business Review, 75% of the managers use SWOT analysis for various purposes such as – evaluating current scenario, strategic planning, new venture feasibility, personal growth goals, new market entry, Go To market strategies, portfolio management and strategic trade-off assessment, organizational restructuring, etc.
SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix
SWOT analysis of MGM Mirage's Bid for Mandalay Resort Group (A): Communicating During the Merger Process can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in MGM Mirage's Bid for Mandalay Resort Group (A): Communicating During the Merger Process case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Mandalay Mgm
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Communication field.
4. Making a Communication topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Mandalay Mgm
Strengths MGM Mirage's Bid for Mandalay Resort Group (A): Communicating During the Merger Process | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Mandalay Mgm in MGM Mirage's Bid for Mandalay Resort Group (A): Communicating During the Merger Process Harvard Business Review case study are -
Learning organization
- Mandalay Mgm is a learning organization. It has inculcated three key characters of learning organization in its processes and operations – exploration, creativity, and expansiveness. The work place at Mandalay Mgm is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in MGM Mirage's Bid for Mandalay Resort Group (A): Communicating During the Merger Process Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Strong track record of project management
– Mandalay Mgm is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Mandalay Mgm in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Ability to lead change in Communication field
– Mandalay Mgm is one of the leading players in its industry. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in its segment but also across the whole industry. The ability to lead change has enabled Mandalay Mgm in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Diverse revenue streams
– Mandalay Mgm is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in MGM Mirage's Bid for Mandalay Resort Group (A): Communicating During the Merger Process case study a diverse revenue stream that has helped it to survive disruptions such as global pandemic in Covid-19, financial disruption of 2008, and supply chain disruption of 2021.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Mandalay Mgm in the sector have low bargaining power. MGM Mirage's Bid for Mandalay Resort Group (A): Communicating During the Merger Process has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Mandalay Mgm to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Innovation driven organization
– Mandalay Mgm is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in MGM Mirage's Bid for Mandalay Resort Group (A): Communicating During the Merger Process Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Mandalay Mgm are driving operational speed, building greater agility, and keeping the organization nimble to compete with new competitors. It helps are organization to ideate new ideas, and execute them swiftly in the marketplace.
Organizational Resilience of Mandalay Mgm
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Mandalay Mgm does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Mandalay Mgm has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive segment. Secondly the value chain collaborators of the firm in MGM Mirage's Bid for Mandalay Resort Group (A): Communicating During the Merger Process HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Training and development
– Mandalay Mgm has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in MGM Mirage's Bid for Mandalay Resort Group (A): Communicating During the Merger Process Harvard Business Review case study by analyzing – employees retention, in-house promotion, loyalty, new venture initiation, lack of conflict, and high level of both employees and customer engagement.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Communication industry
– MGM Mirage's Bid for Mandalay Resort Group (A): Communicating During the Merger Process firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Mandalay Mgm to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Communication industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Mandalay Mgm to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Weaknesses MGM Mirage's Bid for Mandalay Resort Group (A): Communicating During the Merger Process | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of MGM Mirage's Bid for Mandalay Resort Group (A): Communicating During the Merger Process are -
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As MGM Mirage's Bid for Mandalay Resort Group (A): Communicating During the Merger Process HBR case study mentions - Mandalay Mgm takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the industry in last five years.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Mandalay Mgm has created an environment where the organization is dominated by functional specialists rather than management generalist. This has resulted into product oriented approach rather than marketing oriented approach or consumers oriented approach.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Mandalay Mgm has some of the most successful products in the industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. firm in the HBR case study - MGM Mirage's Bid for Mandalay Resort Group (A): Communicating During the Merger Process should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Mandalay Mgm has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Mandalay Mgm has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the industry over the last five years. Mandalay Mgm even though has strong showing on digital transformation primary two stages, it has struggled to capitalize the power of digital transformation in marketing efforts and new venture efforts.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study MGM Mirage's Bid for Mandalay Resort Group (A): Communicating During the Merger Process, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Communication strategy. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Mandalay Mgm has not been able to do capital spending to the tune of the competition. This has resulted into fewer innovations and company facing stiff competition from both existing competitors and new entrants who are disrupting the industry using digital technology.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Mandalay Mgm is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study MGM Mirage's Bid for Mandalay Resort Group (A): Communicating During the Merger Process can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study MGM Mirage's Bid for Mandalay Resort Group (A): Communicating During the Merger Process, in the dynamic environment Mandalay Mgm has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Mandalay Mgm has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Lack of clear differentiation of Mandalay Mgm products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Mandalay Mgm needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study MGM Mirage's Bid for Mandalay Resort Group (A): Communicating During the Merger Process has high operating costs in the. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Mandalay Mgm 's lucrative customers.
Opportunities MGM Mirage's Bid for Mandalay Resort Group (A): Communicating During the Merger Process | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities highlighted in the Harvard Business Review case study MGM Mirage's Bid for Mandalay Resort Group (A): Communicating During the Merger Process are -
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Mandalay Mgm can build a diversified supply chain model across various countries in - South East Asia, India, and other parts of the world. This reconfiguration of global supply chain can help, as suggested in case study, MGM Mirage's Bid for Mandalay Resort Group (A): Communicating During the Merger Process, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Mandalay Mgm can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Mandalay Mgm can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Mandalay Mgm operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Communication sector.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Mandalay Mgm has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in the sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled, as illustrated in the Harvard case study MGM Mirage's Bid for Mandalay Resort Group (A): Communicating During the Merger Process - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Mandalay Mgm to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Communication industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Mandalay Mgm can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Identify volunteer opportunities
– Covid-19 has impacted working population in two ways – it has led to people soul searching about their professional choices, resulting in mass resignation. Secondly it has encouraged people to do things that they are passionate about. This has opened opportunities for businesses to build volunteer oriented socially driven projects. Mandalay Mgm can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Loyalty marketing
– Mandalay Mgm has focused on building a highly responsive customer relationship management platform. This platform is built on in-house data and driven by analytics and artificial intelligence. The customer analytics can help the organization to fine tune its loyalty marketing efforts, increase the wallet share of the organization, reduce wastage on mainstream advertising spending, build better pricing strategies using personalization, etc.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Communication industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Mandalay Mgm can take advantage of these changes in consumer behavior to build a far more efficient business model. For example consumer regular ordering of products can reduce both last mile delivery costs and market penetration costs. Mandalay Mgm can further use this consumer data to build better customer loyalty, provide better products and service collection, and improve the value proposition in inflationary times.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Mandalay Mgm to increase its market reach. Mandalay Mgm will be able to reach out to new customers. Secondly 5G will also provide technology framework to build new tools and products that can help more immersive consumer experience and faster consumer journey.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Mandalay Mgm can still utilize the low interest rates to borrow money for capital investment. Secondly it can also use the increase of government spending in infrastructure projects to get new business.
Buying journey improvements
– Mandalay Mgm can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. MGM Mirage's Bid for Mandalay Resort Group (A): Communicating During the Merger Process suggest that firm can provide automated chats to help consumers solve their own problems, provide online suggestions to get maximum out of the products and services, and help consumers to build a community where they can interact with each other to develop new features and uses.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Mandalay Mgm can leverage digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate the production process, customer analytics to get better insights into consumer behavior, realtime digital dashboards to get better sales tracking, logistics and transportation, product tracking, etc.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Mandalay Mgm in the consumer business. Now Mandalay Mgm can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Threats MGM Mirage's Bid for Mandalay Resort Group (A): Communicating During the Merger Process External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study MGM Mirage's Bid for Mandalay Resort Group (A): Communicating During the Merger Process are -
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Mandalay Mgm can face downward pressure on margins from increasing competition from international players. The international players have stable revenue in their home market and can use those resources to penetrate prominent markets illustrated in HBR case study MGM Mirage's Bid for Mandalay Resort Group (A): Communicating During the Merger Process .
Environmental challenges
– Mandalay Mgm needs to have a robust strategy against the disruptions arising from climate change and energy requirements. EU has identified it as key priority area and spending 30% of its 880 billion Euros European post Covid-19 recovery funds on green technology. Mandalay Mgm can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Communication industry.
Aging population
– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study MGM Mirage's Bid for Mandalay Resort Group (A): Communicating During the Merger Process, Mandalay Mgm may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Communication .
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Mandalay Mgm has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Communication industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Mandalay Mgm needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Communication sector. According to Mckinsey study top managers believe that the adoption of technology in operations, communications is 20-25 times faster than what they planned in the beginning of 2019.
Backlash against dominant players
– US Congress and other legislative arms of the government are getting tough on big business especially technology companies. The digital arm of Mandalay Mgm business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Regulatory challenges
– Mandalay Mgm needs to prepare for regulatory challenges as consumer protection groups and other pressure groups are vigorously advocating for more regulations on big business - to reduce inequality, to create a level playing field, to product data privacy and consumer privacy, to reduce the influence of big money on democratic institutions, etc. This can lead to significant changes in the Communication industry regulations.
New competition
– After the dotcom bust of 2001, financial crisis of 2008-09, the business formation in US economy had declined. But in 2020 alone, there are more than 1.5 million new business applications in United States. This can lead to greater competition for Mandalay Mgm in the Communication sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Instability in the European markets
– European Union markets are facing three big challenges post Covid – expanded balance sheets, Brexit related business disruption, and aggressive Russia looking to distract the existing security mechanism. Mandalay Mgm will face different problems in different parts of Europe. For example it will face inflationary pressures in UK, France, and Germany, balance sheet expansion and demand challenges in Southern European countries, and geopolitical instability in the Eastern Europe.
Capital market disruption
– During the Covid-19, Dow Jones has touched record high. The valuations of a number of companies are way beyond their existing business model potential. This can lead to capital market correction which can put a number of suppliers, collaborators, value chain partners in great financial difficulty. It will directly impact the business of Mandalay Mgm.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Mandalay Mgm is facing in Communication sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
High level of anxiety and lack of motivation
– the Great Resignation in United States is the sign of broader dissatisfaction among the workforce in United States. Mandalay Mgm needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Communication industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Mandalay Mgm demand
– There is a high probability of declining consumer confidence, given – high inflammation rate, rise of gig economy, lower job stability, increasing cost of living, higher interest rates, and aging demography. All the factors contribute to people saving higher rate of their income, resulting in lower consumer demand in the industry and other sectors.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of MGM Mirage's Bid for Mandalay Resort Group (A): Communicating During the Merger Process Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers in the HBR case study MGM Mirage's Bid for Mandalay Resort Group (A): Communicating During the Merger Process needs to zero down on the relative importance of each factor mentioned in the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants.
We can provide the relative importance to each factor by assigning relative weights. Weighted SWOT analysis process is a three stage process –
First stage for doing weighted SWOT analysis of the case study MGM Mirage's Bid for Mandalay Resort Group (A): Communicating During the Merger Process is to rank the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. This will help you to assess the most important strengths and weaknesses of the firm and which one of the strengths and weaknesses mentioned in the initial lists are marginal and can be left out.
Second stage for conducting weighted SWOT analysis of the Harvard case study MGM Mirage's Bid for Mandalay Resort Group (A): Communicating During the Merger Process is to give probabilities to the external strategic factors thus better understanding the opportunities and threats arising out of macro environment changes and developments.
Third stage of constructing weighted SWOT analysis of MGM Mirage's Bid for Mandalay Resort Group (A): Communicating During the Merger Process is to provide strategic recommendations includes – joining likelihood of external strategic factors such as opportunities and threats to the internal strategic factors – strengths and weaknesses. You should start with external factors as they will provide the direction of the overall industry. Secondly by joining probabilities with internal strategic factors can help the company not only strategic fit but also the most probably strategic trade-off that Mandalay Mgm needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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