Unisys: The Merger of Burroughs and Sperry SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Organizational Development
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Unisys: The Merger of Burroughs and Sperry
Mike Blumenthal, CEO of Burroughs, successfully executes the merger of Burroughs and Sperry in 1986. The case discusses the putting together of the two firms in a fast time period in order to achieve cost savings, high earnings, and an integrated culture. Blumenthal calls in two post-merger consultants to assist in the process as well as a large consulting firm. After one year it appears the new company, Unisys, is off to a good start, yet the integration of the MIS systems seems to remain as a looming concern.
Swot Analysis of "Unisys: The Merger of Burroughs and Sperry" written by Todd D. Jick, Lori Ann Levaggi includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Burroughs Blumenthal facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Unisys: The Merger of Burroughs and Sperry case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, IT, Mergers & acquisitions, Organizational structure, Strategy execution and Organizational Development.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Unisys: The Merger of Burroughs and Sperry casestudy better are - – cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing transportation and logistics costs,
increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Unisys: The Merger of Burroughs and Sperry
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Unisys: The Merger of Burroughs and Sperry case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Burroughs Blumenthal, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Burroughs Blumenthal 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 Unisys: The Merger of Burroughs and Sperry can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Unisys: The Merger of Burroughs and Sperry case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Burroughs Blumenthal
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 Burroughs Blumenthal
Strengths Unisys: The Merger of Burroughs and Sperry | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Burroughs Blumenthal in Unisys: The Merger of Burroughs and Sperry Harvard Business Review case study are -
Diverse revenue streams
– Burroughs Blumenthal is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Unisys: The Merger of Burroughs and Sperry case study a diverse revenue stream that has helped it to survive disruptions such as global pandemic in Covid-19, financial disruption of 2008, and supply chain disruption of 2021.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Burroughs Blumenthal in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Innovation driven organization
– Burroughs Blumenthal is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Unisys: The Merger of Burroughs and Sperry Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Burroughs Blumenthal in the sector have low bargaining power. Unisys: The Merger of Burroughs and Sperry has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Burroughs Blumenthal to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Burroughs Blumenthal 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 Unisys: The Merger of Burroughs and Sperry HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Organizational Development industry
– Unisys: The Merger of Burroughs and Sperry firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Burroughs Blumenthal to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Organizational Development industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Burroughs Blumenthal to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Strong track record of project management
– Burroughs Blumenthal is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Digital Transformation in Organizational Development segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Burroughs Blumenthal digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Burroughs Blumenthal 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.
Analytics focus
– Burroughs Blumenthal 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 Todd D. Jick, Lori Ann Levaggi 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
– Burroughs Blumenthal has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Burroughs Blumenthal 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.
Organizational Resilience of Burroughs Blumenthal
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Burroughs Blumenthal does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Ability to lead change in Organizational Development field
– Burroughs Blumenthal 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 Burroughs Blumenthal in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Weaknesses Unisys: The Merger of Burroughs and Sperry | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Unisys: The Merger of Burroughs and Sperry are -
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Todd D. Jick, Lori Ann Levaggi suggests that, Burroughs Blumenthal 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Burroughs Blumenthal 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. Burroughs Blumenthal 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Unisys: The Merger of Burroughs and Sperry 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 Burroughs Blumenthal 's lucrative customers.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Burroughs Blumenthal 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 - Unisys: The Merger of Burroughs and Sperry should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Unisys: The Merger of Burroughs and Sperry 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 Burroughs Blumenthal has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Burroughs Blumenthal is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Organizational Development segment. Burroughs Blumenthal needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Burroughs Blumenthal to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Burroughs Blumenthal 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Burroughs Blumenthal has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Need for greater diversity
– Burroughs Blumenthal 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Unisys: The Merger of Burroughs and Sperry HBR case study mentions - Burroughs Blumenthal 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Unisys: The Merger of Burroughs and Sperry 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 Unisys: The Merger of Burroughs and Sperry can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Burroughs Blumenthal is planning to shift buying processes online.
Opportunities Unisys: The Merger of Burroughs and Sperry | 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 Unisys: The Merger of Burroughs and Sperry are -
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Burroughs Blumenthal has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Burroughs Blumenthal to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Unisys: The Merger of Burroughs and Sperry case study. Burroughs Blumenthal can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Burroughs Blumenthal 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Burroughs Blumenthal 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.
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. Burroughs Blumenthal can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Buying journey improvements
– Burroughs Blumenthal can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Unisys: The Merger of Burroughs and Sperry 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Burroughs Blumenthal 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Burroughs Blumenthal can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Burroughs Blumenthal 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Burroughs Blumenthal 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 Unisys: The Merger of Burroughs and Sperry - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Burroughs Blumenthal 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
– Burroughs Blumenthal 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Burroughs Blumenthal 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 Burroughs Blumenthal to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Manufacturing automation
– Burroughs Blumenthal 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Burroughs Blumenthal 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.
Threats Unisys: The Merger of Burroughs and Sperry External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Unisys: The Merger of Burroughs and Sperry are -
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 Burroughs Blumenthal business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Burroughs Blumenthal 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 Burroughs Blumenthal 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Burroughs Blumenthal is facing in Organizational Development sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Burroughs Blumenthal with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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. Burroughs Blumenthal can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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 Burroughs Blumenthal in the Organizational Development sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Burroughs Blumenthal has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Organizational Development industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Burroughs Blumenthal 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.
Increasing wage structure of Burroughs Blumenthal
– 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 Burroughs Blumenthal.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Burroughs Blumenthal 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.
Environmental challenges
– Burroughs Blumenthal 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. Burroughs Blumenthal can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Organizational Development industry.
Regulatory challenges
– Burroughs Blumenthal 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Unisys: The Merger of Burroughs and Sperry 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 Unisys: The Merger of Burroughs and Sperry 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 Unisys: The Merger of Burroughs and Sperry 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 Unisys: The Merger of Burroughs and Sperry 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 Unisys: The Merger of Burroughs and Sperry 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 Burroughs Blumenthal needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.