Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts: Alternative Futures SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Organizational Development
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts: Alternative Futures
Ren Levy took over Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts when it was a group of warring constituents and has successfully brought a diverse group of arts organizations together.
Swot Analysis of "Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts: Alternative Futures" written by Allen Grossman, Coleman Radell includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Arts Lincoln facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts: Alternative Futures case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Organizational Development.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts: Alternative Futures casestudy better are - – central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing energy prices, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, wage bills are increasing,
geopolitical disruptions, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts: Alternative Futures
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts: Alternative Futures case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Arts Lincoln, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Arts Lincoln 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 Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts: Alternative Futures can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts: Alternative Futures case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Arts Lincoln
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 Arts Lincoln
Strengths Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts: Alternative Futures | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Arts Lincoln in Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts: Alternative Futures Harvard Business Review case study are -
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Arts Lincoln in the sector have low bargaining power. Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts: Alternative Futures has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Arts Lincoln to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Organizational Resilience of Arts Lincoln
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Arts Lincoln does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Analytics focus
– Arts Lincoln 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 Allen Grossman, Coleman Radell 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Arts Lincoln is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts: Alternative Futures are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Arts Lincoln 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.
Training and development
– Arts Lincoln has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts: Alternative Futures 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.
Learning organization
- Arts Lincoln 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 Arts Lincoln is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts: Alternative Futures Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Innovation driven organization
– Arts Lincoln is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts: Alternative Futures Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
High brand equity
– Arts Lincoln has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Arts Lincoln to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Arts Lincoln 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 Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts: Alternative Futures - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Digital Transformation in Organizational Development segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Arts Lincoln digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Arts Lincoln 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Organizational Development industry
– Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts: Alternative Futures firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Arts Lincoln to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Organizational Development industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Arts Lincoln to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Weaknesses Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts: Alternative Futures | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts: Alternative Futures are -
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Arts Lincoln 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Arts Lincoln 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Arts Lincoln 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 Arts Lincoln supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts: Alternative Futures, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Arts Lincoln vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts: Alternative Futures, 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Arts Lincoln, firm in the HBR case study Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts: Alternative Futures needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts: Alternative Futures 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 Arts Lincoln 's lucrative customers.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts: Alternative Futures, it seems that the employees of Arts Lincoln 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts: Alternative Futures, in the dynamic environment Arts Lincoln has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Arts Lincoln has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts: Alternative Futures 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 Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts: Alternative Futures can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Arts Lincoln is planning to shift buying processes online.
Need for greater diversity
– Arts Lincoln 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 Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts: Alternative Futures | 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 Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts: Alternative Futures are -
Leveraging digital technologies
– Arts Lincoln 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 Arts Lincoln in the consumer business. Now Arts Lincoln can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Manufacturing automation
– Arts Lincoln can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Organizational Development 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Arts Lincoln 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.
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. Arts Lincoln can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Arts Lincoln 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Arts Lincoln can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Arts Lincoln operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Organizational Development sector.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Arts Lincoln in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Organizational Development segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Arts Lincoln 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 Arts Lincoln to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Arts Lincoln 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 Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts: Alternative Futures - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Arts Lincoln to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Developing new processes and practices
– Arts Lincoln 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Arts Lincoln can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts: Alternative Futures 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Arts Lincoln is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts: Alternative Futures 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.
Threats Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts: Alternative Futures External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts: Alternative Futures are -
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Arts Lincoln high dependence on third party suppliers can disrupt its processes and delivery mechanism. For example -the current troubles of car makers because of chip shortage is because the chip companies started producing chips for electronic companies rather than car manufacturers.
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 Arts Lincoln business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Regulatory challenges
– Arts Lincoln 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Arts Lincoln 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.
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. Arts Lincoln 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Arts Lincoln 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Arts Lincoln 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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Organizational Development field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Arts Lincoln can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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. Arts Lincoln needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Organizational Development industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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 Arts Lincoln in the Organizational Development sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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 Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts: Alternative Futures, Arts Lincoln 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 .
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Arts Lincoln with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts: Alternative Futures 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 Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts: Alternative Futures 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 Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts: Alternative Futures 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 Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts: Alternative Futures 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 Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts: Alternative Futures 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 Arts Lincoln needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
