Integration of Wachovia and Golden West (A) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Organizational Development
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Integration of Wachovia and Golden West (A)
In July 2007, Wachovia Corporation's CEO is pleased with a report that shows the firm's record-setting second quarter results. In the past three months, Wachovia has doubled its earnings and posted record revenues, mostly attributable to the large consumer real-estate loans related to the Golden West Financial acquisition that has contributed to the bank's growth. The transition of Golden West into Wachovia's platform had been quick and smooth, despite their cultural, geographic, and product-offering differences. The CEO was excited that the acquisition provided new opportunities for lending in what were perceived as less risky markets, particularly single-family home mortgages with adjustable rates. But he wondered if there were any adjustments necessary to extract ultimate value from Golden West.
Authors :: L.J. Bourgeois, Dave Maher, Matt Jackson, Adam Schwarzschild
Swot Analysis of "Integration of Wachovia and Golden West (A)" written by L.J. Bourgeois, Dave Maher, Matt Jackson, Adam Schwarzschild includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Golden Wachovia facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Integration of Wachovia and Golden West (A) case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Financial markets, Growth strategy, Mergers & acquisitions and Organizational Development.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Integration of Wachovia and Golden West (A) casestudy better are - – geopolitical disruptions, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing transportation and logistics costs, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing energy prices,
increasing commodity prices, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Integration of Wachovia and Golden West (A)
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Integration of Wachovia and Golden West (A) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Golden Wachovia, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Golden Wachovia 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 Integration of Wachovia and Golden West (A) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Integration of Wachovia and Golden West (A) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Golden Wachovia
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Organizational Development field.
4. Making a Organizational Development topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Golden Wachovia
Strengths Integration of Wachovia and Golden West (A) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Golden Wachovia in Integration of Wachovia and Golden West (A) Harvard Business Review case study are -
Organizational Resilience of Golden Wachovia
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Golden Wachovia does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Analytics focus
– Golden Wachovia 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 L.J. Bourgeois, Dave Maher, Matt Jackson, Adam Schwarzschild 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Golden Wachovia 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 Integration of Wachovia and Golden West (A) HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Golden Wachovia 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 Integration of Wachovia and Golden West (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.
Learning organization
- Golden Wachovia 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 Golden Wachovia is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Integration of Wachovia and Golden West (A) Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Golden Wachovia in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Ability to lead change in Organizational Development field
– Golden Wachovia 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 Golden Wachovia in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Strong track record of project management
– Golden Wachovia is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Golden Wachovia in the sector have low bargaining power. Integration of Wachovia and Golden West (A) has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Golden Wachovia to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Digital Transformation in Organizational Development segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Golden Wachovia digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Golden Wachovia 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Golden Wachovia 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Golden Wachovia is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Integration of Wachovia and Golden West (A) Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Weaknesses Integration of Wachovia and Golden West (A) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Integration of Wachovia and Golden West (A) are -
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Integration of Wachovia and Golden West (A) 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 Golden Wachovia 's lucrative customers.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Golden Wachovia is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Organizational Development segment. Golden Wachovia needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Golden Wachovia to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Integration of Wachovia and Golden West (A) that the firm needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department in the case Integration of Wachovia and Golden West (A) can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Golden Wachovia is planning to shift buying processes online.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Integration of Wachovia and Golden West (A) HBR case study still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Golden Wachovia has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Integration of Wachovia and Golden West (A), it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Organizational Development 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, Golden Wachovia 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Golden Wachovia 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 - Integration of Wachovia and Golden West (A) should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Integration of Wachovia and Golden West (A) HBR case study mentions - Golden Wachovia 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Golden Wachovia, firm in the HBR case study Integration of Wachovia and Golden West (A) needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Integration of Wachovia and Golden West (A), in the dynamic environment Golden Wachovia has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Golden Wachovia has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Integration of Wachovia and Golden West (A), is just above the industry average. Golden Wachovia needs to redesign the compensation structure and incentives to increase the revenue per employees. Some of the steps that it can take are – hiring more specialists on project basis, etc.
Opportunities Integration of Wachovia and Golden West (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 Integration of Wachovia and Golden West (A) are -
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Golden Wachovia can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Golden Wachovia operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Organizational Development sector.
Loyalty marketing
– Golden Wachovia 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Golden Wachovia can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
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 Golden Wachovia in the consumer business. Now Golden Wachovia can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Organizational Development industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Golden Wachovia 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. Golden Wachovia 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Golden Wachovia 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, Integration of Wachovia and Golden West (A), to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Golden Wachovia 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 Integration of Wachovia and Golden West (A) - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Golden Wachovia to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Golden Wachovia has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Golden Wachovia to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Integration of Wachovia and Golden West (A) case study. Golden Wachovia can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Developing new processes and practices
– Golden Wachovia can develop new processes and procedures in Organizational Development 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.
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 Golden Wachovia 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.
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. Golden Wachovia can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Golden Wachovia to increase its market reach. Golden Wachovia 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Golden Wachovia 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 Golden Wachovia to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Threats Integration of Wachovia and Golden West (A) External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Integration of Wachovia and Golden West (A) are -
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. Golden Wachovia needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Organizational Development industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Increasing wage structure of Golden Wachovia
– 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 Golden Wachovia.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Golden Wachovia 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 Integration of Wachovia and Golden West (A) .
Technology disruption because of hacks, piracy etc
– The colonial pipeline illustrated, how vulnerable modern organization are to international hackers, miscreants, and disruptors. The cyber security interruption, data leaks, etc can seriously jeopardize the future growth of the organization.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Integration of Wachovia and Golden West (A), Golden Wachovia may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Organizational Development .
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 Golden Wachovia in the Organizational Development sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Golden Wachovia has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Organizational Development industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Golden Wachovia needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Organizational Development 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.
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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Golden Wachovia 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Golden Wachovia 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 Organizational Development industry regulations.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Golden Wachovia in the Organizational Development industry. The Organizational Development 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.
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 Golden Wachovia.
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 Golden Wachovia business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Integration of Wachovia and Golden West (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 Integration of Wachovia and Golden West (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 Integration of Wachovia and Golden West (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 Integration of Wachovia and Golden West (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 Integration of Wachovia and Golden West (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 Golden Wachovia needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.