Swot Analysis of "USA TODAY: Pursuing the Network Strategy (B)" written by Michael L. Tushman, Michael J. Roberts, David Kiron includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Usa Pursuing facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in USA TODAY: Pursuing the Network Strategy (B) case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Leadership, Leading teams, Organizational structure and Organizational Development.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the USA TODAY: Pursuing the Network Strategy (B) casestudy better are - – there is backlash against globalization, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, geopolitical disruptions, technology disruption, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google,
increasing transportation and logistics costs, wage bills are increasing, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of USA TODAY: Pursuing the Network Strategy (B)
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in USA TODAY: Pursuing the Network Strategy (B) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Usa Pursuing, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Usa Pursuing 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 USA TODAY: Pursuing the Network Strategy (B) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in USA TODAY: Pursuing the Network Strategy (B) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Usa Pursuing
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 Usa Pursuing
Strengths USA TODAY: Pursuing the Network Strategy (B) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Usa Pursuing in USA TODAY: Pursuing the Network Strategy (B) Harvard Business Review case study are -
Innovation driven organization
– Usa Pursuing is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in USA TODAY: Pursuing the Network Strategy (B) Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Usa Pursuing is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the USA TODAY: Pursuing the Network Strategy (B) are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Usa Pursuing 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 USA TODAY: Pursuing the Network Strategy (B) HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Usa Pursuing in the sector have low bargaining power. USA TODAY: Pursuing the Network Strategy (B) has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Usa Pursuing to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Usa Pursuing 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 USA TODAY: Pursuing the Network Strategy (B) - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Analytics focus
– Usa Pursuing 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 Michael L. Tushman, Michael J. Roberts, David Kiron 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Usa Pursuing has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Usa Pursuing 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Usa Pursuing in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
High brand equity
– Usa Pursuing has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Usa Pursuing to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Usa Pursuing 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Usa Pursuing is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Usa Pursuing 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.
Weaknesses USA TODAY: Pursuing the Network Strategy (B) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of USA TODAY: Pursuing the Network Strategy (B) are -
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Usa Pursuing 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the USA TODAY: Pursuing the Network Strategy (B) 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 Usa Pursuing has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Usa Pursuing is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Organizational Development segment. Usa Pursuing needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Usa Pursuing 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, Usa Pursuing 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study USA TODAY: Pursuing the Network Strategy (B) 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 USA TODAY: Pursuing the Network Strategy (B) can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Usa Pursuing is planning to shift buying processes online.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study USA TODAY: Pursuing the Network Strategy (B), it seems that the employees of Usa Pursuing 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Usa Pursuing products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Usa Pursuing 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, Usa Pursuing 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. Usa Pursuing 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Usa Pursuing 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Usa Pursuing 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 - USA TODAY: Pursuing the Network Strategy (B) should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Usa Pursuing 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.
Opportunities USA TODAY: Pursuing the Network Strategy (B) | 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 USA TODAY: Pursuing the Network Strategy (B) are -
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. Usa Pursuing can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Usa Pursuing 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Usa Pursuing is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. USA TODAY: Pursuing the Network Strategy (B) 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. Usa Pursuing can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Usa Pursuing 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 USA TODAY: Pursuing the Network Strategy (B) - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Usa Pursuing to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Usa Pursuing can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
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 Usa Pursuing 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 Usa Pursuing 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.
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. Usa Pursuing 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. Usa Pursuing 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
– Usa Pursuing can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. USA TODAY: Pursuing the Network Strategy (B) 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Usa Pursuing to increase its market reach. Usa Pursuing 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Usa Pursuing 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Usa Pursuing can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Usa Pursuing operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Organizational Development sector.
Threats USA TODAY: Pursuing the Network Strategy (B) External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study USA TODAY: Pursuing the Network Strategy (B) are -
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. Usa Pursuing 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Usa Pursuing 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Usa Pursuing 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.
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. Usa Pursuing 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 Usa Pursuing in the Organizational Development sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Usa Pursuing 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.
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 Usa Pursuing.
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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Usa Pursuing with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Environmental challenges
– Usa Pursuing 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. Usa Pursuing can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Organizational Development industry.
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. Usa Pursuing can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Usa Pursuing 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of USA TODAY: Pursuing the Network Strategy (B) 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 USA TODAY: Pursuing the Network Strategy (B) 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 USA TODAY: Pursuing the Network Strategy (B) 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 USA TODAY: Pursuing the Network Strategy (B) 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 USA TODAY: Pursuing the Network Strategy (B) 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 Usa Pursuing needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.