Coach Roy Williams: What Next? (A) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Coach Roy Williams: What Next? (A)
Roy Williams, head coach of the Kansas University Men's Basketball Team, was facing a major decision. The recent resignation of the coach at the University of North Carolina (UNC) had lead to speculation that Williams, a UNC alumnus, would be named as its new coach. Williams had actually been offered the head coaching job at UNC in 2000, but he turned it down to remain at Kansas. However, circumstances had drastically changed in the past three years, making the impending decision substantially more complicated. Recently, Williams had grown increasingly frustrated with his boss, whose philosophy on college athletics drastically differed from his own. Meanwhile, UNC, an institution with an unparalleled history of college basketball success, had suffered from several disappointing seasons and was in search of a new leader to restore the program to its original stature. For Williams, the opportunity to return to his beloved alma mater and rescue the program from its recent woes was both electrifying and humbling, but it was offset by his deep loyalty to Kansas. Williams knew that the upcoming championship game would be difficult, but he recognized that it paled in comparison to the decision he would be forced to make after the game. Williams must not only confront the decision but struggle with issues of succession planning, career development, and leadership.
Authors :: Thomas J. DeLong, Christopher Chang, Scott Schweitzer
Swot Analysis of "Coach Roy Williams: What Next? (A)" written by Thomas J. DeLong, Christopher Chang, Scott Schweitzer includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Williams Unc facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Coach Roy Williams: What Next? (A) case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Customers, Decision making, Leadership, Succession planning and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Coach Roy Williams: What Next? (A) casestudy better are - – technology disruption, there is backlash against globalization, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing energy prices, increasing commodity prices,
wage bills are increasing, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Coach Roy Williams: What Next? (A)
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Coach Roy Williams: What Next? (A) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Williams Unc, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Williams Unc 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 Coach Roy Williams: What Next? (A) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Coach Roy Williams: What Next? (A) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Williams Unc
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Leadership & Managing People field.
4. Making a Leadership & Managing People topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Williams Unc
Strengths Coach Roy Williams: What Next? (A) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Williams Unc in Coach Roy Williams: What Next? (A) Harvard Business Review case study are -
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Williams Unc in the sector have low bargaining power. Coach Roy Williams: What Next? (A) has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Williams Unc to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Williams Unc digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Williams Unc has successfully integrated the four key components of digital transformation – digital integration in processes, digital integration in marketing and customer relationship management, digital integration into the value chain, and using technology to explore new products and market opportunities.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Williams Unc has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in, as mentioned in case study Coach Roy Williams: What Next? (A) - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
High brand equity
– Williams Unc has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Williams Unc to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– Coach Roy Williams: What Next? (A) firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Williams Unc to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Williams Unc to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Strong track record of project management
– Williams Unc is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Williams Unc has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Williams Unc has effective processes in place that helps in exploring new product needs, doing quick pilot testing, and then launching the products quickly using its extensive distribution network.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Williams Unc has built up over years in its products and services combo offer has resulted in high retention of customers, lower marketing costs, and greater ability of the firm to focus on its customers.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Coach Roy Williams: What Next? (A) Harvard Business Review case study comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the industry, building diversified operations across different geographies so that disruption in one part of the world doesn’t impact the overall performance of the firm, and integrating the various business operations and processes through its digital transformation drive.
Diverse revenue streams
– Williams Unc is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Coach Roy Williams: What Next? (A) 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.
Analytics focus
– Williams Unc is putting a lot of focus on utilizing the power of analytics in business decision making. This has put it among the leading players in the industry. The technology infrastructure suggested by Thomas J. DeLong, Christopher Chang, Scott Schweitzer can also help it to harness the power of analytics for – marketing optimization, demand forecasting, customer relationship management, inventory management, information sharing across the value chain etc.
Organizational Resilience of Williams Unc
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Williams Unc does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Weaknesses Coach Roy Williams: What Next? (A) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Coach Roy Williams: What Next? (A) are -
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Coach Roy Williams: What Next? (A), it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Leadership & Managing People 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Williams Unc is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Williams Unc needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Williams Unc to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Williams Unc needs to come up with a strategy to reduce the workers concern regarding automation. Without a clear strategy, it could lead to disruption and uncertainty within the organization.
High dependence on existing supply chain
– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of Williams Unc supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Coach Roy Williams: What Next? (A), it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Williams Unc vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Coach Roy Williams: What Next? (A) HBR case study mentions - Williams Unc 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Coach Roy Williams: What Next? (A), in the dynamic environment Williams Unc has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Williams Unc has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Williams Unc 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 - Coach Roy Williams: What Next? (A) should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Williams Unc has borrowed money from the capital market at higher rates. It needs to restructure the interest payment and costs so that it can compete better and improve profitability.
Lack of clear differentiation of Williams Unc products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Williams Unc needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Thomas J. DeLong, Christopher Chang, Scott Schweitzer suggests that, Williams Unc is facing high bargaining power of the channel partners. So far it has not able to streamline the operations to reduce the bargaining power of the value chain partners in the industry.
Need for greater diversity
– Williams Unc has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.
Opportunities Coach Roy Williams: What Next? (A) | 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 Coach Roy Williams: What Next? (A) are -
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Williams Unc can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Leadership & Managing People industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Williams Unc 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. Williams Unc 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Williams Unc can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Coach Roy Williams: What Next? (A) 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Williams Unc has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Williams Unc to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Coach Roy Williams: What Next? (A) case study. Williams Unc can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Williams Unc can make experimentation a productive activity and build a culture of innovation using approaches such as – mining transaction data, A/B testing of websites and selling platforms, engaging potential customers over various needs, and building on small ideas in the Leadership & Managing People segment.
Manufacturing automation
– Williams Unc can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Leadership & Managing People segment. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.
Developing new processes and practices
– Williams Unc can develop new processes and procedures in Leadership & Managing People industry using technology such as automation using artificial intelligence, real time transportation and products tracking, 3D modeling for concept development and new products pilot testing etc.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Leadership & Managing People industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Williams Unc can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Williams Unc in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Leadership & Managing People segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Williams Unc is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Coach Roy Williams: What Next? (A) case study suggests that firm can utilize new technology to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Reconfiguring business model
– The expansion of digital payment system, the bringing down of international transactions costs using Bitcoin and other blockchain based currencies, etc can help Williams Unc to reconfigure its entire business model. For example it can used blockchain based technologies to reduce piracy of its products in the big markets such as China. Secondly it can use the popularity of e-commerce in various developing markets to build a Direct to Customer business model rather than the current Channel Heavy distribution network.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Williams Unc to conduct training and development for its employees across the world. This will result in not only reducing the cost of training but also help employees in different part of the world to integrate with the headquarter work culture, ethos, and standards.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Williams Unc to expand its talent hiring zone. According to McKinsey Global Institute, 20% of the high end workforce in fields such as finance, information technology, can continously work from remote local post Covid-19. This presents a really great opportunity for Williams Unc to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Threats Coach Roy Williams: What Next? (A) External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Coach Roy Williams: What Next? (A) are -
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.
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 Williams Unc in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Williams Unc has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Williams Unc needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Leadership & Managing People 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Williams Unc can face lack of demand in the market place because of Fed actions to reduce inflation. This can lead to sluggish growth in the economy, lower demands, lower investments, higher borrowing costs, and consolidation in the field.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Williams Unc in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The Leadership & Managing People industry is already at various protected from local competition in China, with the rise of trade war the protection levels may go up. This presents a clear threat of current business model in Chinese market.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Williams Unc with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Increasing wage structure of Williams Unc
– Post Covid-19 there is a sharp increase in the wages especially in the jobs that require interaction with people. The increasing wages can put downward pressure on the margins of Williams Unc.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Williams Unc is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Leadership & Managing People field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Williams Unc can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Williams Unc 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.
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 Williams Unc business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Environmental challenges
– Williams Unc 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. Williams Unc can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
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. Williams Unc 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Coach Roy Williams: What Next? (A) 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 Coach Roy Williams: What Next? (A) 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 Coach Roy Williams: What Next? (A) 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 Coach Roy Williams: What Next? (A) 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 Coach Roy Williams: What Next? (A) 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 Williams Unc needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
