Shaping Spaarbeleg: Real and Unreal SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Organizational Development
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Shaping Spaarbeleg: Real and Unreal
Describes the total transformation of a wholly owned subsidiary of Aegon, one of the largest insurance companies in the Netherlands, which deals in the sale of financial instruments, such as annuities, savings, and investment products. The new managing director forms a management team, and together they segment the market, introduce a variety of distribution methods, and increase sales by dramatic amounts while keeping the number of staff constant. Looks at team building, market segmentation by focusing on customer values, distribution strategy, and management philosophy. An ECCH award winner.
Swot Analysis of "Shaping Spaarbeleg: Real and Unreal" written by J. B.M. Kassarjian includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Spaarbeleg Unreal facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Shaping Spaarbeleg: Real and Unreal case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Leading teams, Marketing and Organizational Development.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Shaping Spaarbeleg: Real and Unreal casestudy better are - – geopolitical disruptions, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing transportation and logistics costs, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, wage bills are increasing, increasing commodity prices, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models,
increasing energy prices, technology disruption, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Shaping Spaarbeleg: Real and Unreal
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Shaping Spaarbeleg: Real and Unreal case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Spaarbeleg Unreal, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Spaarbeleg Unreal 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 Shaping Spaarbeleg: Real and Unreal can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Shaping Spaarbeleg: Real and Unreal case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Spaarbeleg Unreal
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 Spaarbeleg Unreal
Strengths Shaping Spaarbeleg: Real and Unreal | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Spaarbeleg Unreal in Shaping Spaarbeleg: Real and Unreal Harvard Business Review case study are -
Strong track record of project management
– Spaarbeleg Unreal is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Spaarbeleg Unreal is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Shaping Spaarbeleg: Real and Unreal are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Spaarbeleg Unreal in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Training and development
– Spaarbeleg Unreal has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Shaping Spaarbeleg: Real and Unreal 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.
Ability to lead change in Organizational Development field
– Spaarbeleg Unreal 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 Spaarbeleg Unreal in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Shaping Spaarbeleg: Real and Unreal 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.
High brand equity
– Spaarbeleg Unreal has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Spaarbeleg Unreal to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Organizational Resilience of Spaarbeleg Unreal
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Spaarbeleg Unreal does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Learning organization
- Spaarbeleg Unreal 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 Spaarbeleg Unreal is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Shaping Spaarbeleg: Real and Unreal Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Analytics focus
– Spaarbeleg Unreal 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 J. B.M. Kassarjian 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
– Spaarbeleg Unreal 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 Shaping Spaarbeleg: Real and Unreal HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Innovation driven organization
– Spaarbeleg Unreal is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Shaping Spaarbeleg: Real and Unreal Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Weaknesses Shaping Spaarbeleg: Real and Unreal | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Shaping Spaarbeleg: Real and Unreal are -
Lack of clear differentiation of Spaarbeleg Unreal products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Spaarbeleg Unreal needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Spaarbeleg Unreal 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. Spaarbeleg Unreal 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Spaarbeleg Unreal is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Shaping Spaarbeleg: Real and Unreal can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Shaping Spaarbeleg: Real and Unreal, it seems that the employees of Spaarbeleg Unreal don’t have comprehensive understanding of the firm’s strategy. This is reflected in number of promotional campaigns over the last few years that had mixed messaging and competing priorities. Some of the strategic activities and services promoted in the promotional campaigns were not consistent with the organization’s strategy.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Shaping Spaarbeleg: Real and Unreal 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 Spaarbeleg Unreal has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Shaping Spaarbeleg: Real and Unreal HBR case study mentions - Spaarbeleg Unreal 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Spaarbeleg Unreal 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Spaarbeleg Unreal, firm in the HBR case study Shaping Spaarbeleg: Real and Unreal needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, J. B.M. Kassarjian suggests that, Spaarbeleg Unreal 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Spaarbeleg Unreal is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Organizational Development segment. Spaarbeleg Unreal needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Spaarbeleg Unreal to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Spaarbeleg Unreal 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.
Opportunities Shaping Spaarbeleg: Real and Unreal | 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 Shaping Spaarbeleg: Real and Unreal are -
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Spaarbeleg Unreal 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 Organizational Development segment.
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 Spaarbeleg Unreal in the consumer business. Now Spaarbeleg Unreal can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Spaarbeleg Unreal 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 Shaping Spaarbeleg: Real and Unreal - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Spaarbeleg Unreal to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Spaarbeleg Unreal is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Shaping Spaarbeleg: Real and Unreal 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Organizational Development industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Spaarbeleg Unreal 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. Spaarbeleg Unreal can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Spaarbeleg Unreal can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Spaarbeleg Unreal operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Organizational Development sector.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Spaarbeleg Unreal 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 Spaarbeleg Unreal to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
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 Spaarbeleg Unreal 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.
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. Spaarbeleg Unreal 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. Spaarbeleg Unreal 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Spaarbeleg Unreal 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Spaarbeleg Unreal 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, Shaping Spaarbeleg: Real and Unreal, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Loyalty marketing
– Spaarbeleg Unreal 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.
Threats Shaping Spaarbeleg: Real and Unreal External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Shaping Spaarbeleg: Real and Unreal are -
Regulatory challenges
– Spaarbeleg Unreal 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.
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 Spaarbeleg Unreal in the Organizational Development sector and impact the bottomline 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 Shaping Spaarbeleg: Real and Unreal, Spaarbeleg Unreal 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 .
Environmental challenges
– Spaarbeleg Unreal 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. Spaarbeleg Unreal can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Organizational Development industry.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Spaarbeleg Unreal has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Organizational Development industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Spaarbeleg Unreal 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Spaarbeleg Unreal 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.
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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Spaarbeleg Unreal is facing in Organizational Development 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. Spaarbeleg Unreal needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Organizational Development industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Spaarbeleg Unreal 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 Shaping Spaarbeleg: Real and Unreal .
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.
Increasing wage structure of Spaarbeleg Unreal
– 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 Spaarbeleg Unreal.
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. Spaarbeleg Unreal 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 Shaping Spaarbeleg: Real and Unreal 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 Shaping Spaarbeleg: Real and Unreal 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 Shaping Spaarbeleg: Real and Unreal 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 Shaping Spaarbeleg: Real and Unreal 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 Shaping Spaarbeleg: Real and Unreal 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 Spaarbeleg Unreal needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
