Swot Analysis of "Washington Post: Balancing Technology and Human Resources by Design, Epilogue" written by Thomas Walton includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Epilogue Washington facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Washington Post: Balancing Technology and Human Resources by Design, Epilogue case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Design, IT, Labor, Leading teams and Organizational Development.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Washington Post: Balancing Technology and Human Resources by Design, Epilogue casestudy better are - – increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing energy prices, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, wage bills are increasing, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google,
there is increasing trade war between United States & China, technology disruption, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Washington Post: Balancing Technology and Human Resources by Design, Epilogue
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Washington Post: Balancing Technology and Human Resources by Design, Epilogue case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Epilogue Washington, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Epilogue Washington 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 Washington Post: Balancing Technology and Human Resources by Design, Epilogue can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Washington Post: Balancing Technology and Human Resources by Design, Epilogue case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Epilogue Washington
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 Epilogue Washington
Strengths Washington Post: Balancing Technology and Human Resources by Design, Epilogue | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Epilogue Washington in Washington Post: Balancing Technology and Human Resources by Design, Epilogue Harvard Business Review case study are -
Diverse revenue streams
– Epilogue Washington is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Washington Post: Balancing Technology and Human Resources by Design, Epilogue 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Organizational Development industry
– Washington Post: Balancing Technology and Human Resources by Design, Epilogue firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Epilogue Washington to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Organizational Development industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Epilogue Washington to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Epilogue Washington in the sector have low bargaining power. Washington Post: Balancing Technology and Human Resources by Design, Epilogue has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Epilogue Washington to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
High brand equity
– Epilogue Washington has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Epilogue Washington to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Strong track record of project management
– Epilogue Washington is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Epilogue Washington in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Epilogue Washington 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 Washington Post: Balancing Technology and Human Resources by Design, Epilogue - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Washington Post: Balancing Technology and Human Resources by Design, Epilogue 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 switching costs
– The high switching costs that Epilogue Washington 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Epilogue Washington 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.
Analytics focus
– Epilogue Washington 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 Thomas Walton 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 lead change in Organizational Development field
– Epilogue Washington 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 Epilogue Washington in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Weaknesses Washington Post: Balancing Technology and Human Resources by Design, Epilogue | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Washington Post: Balancing Technology and Human Resources by Design, Epilogue are -
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Epilogue Washington 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Washington Post: Balancing Technology and Human Resources by Design, Epilogue, 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Epilogue Washington 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. Epilogue Washington 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Epilogue Washington products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Epilogue Washington needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Washington Post: Balancing Technology and Human Resources by Design, Epilogue 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 Washington Post: Balancing Technology and Human Resources by Design, Epilogue can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Epilogue Washington is planning to shift buying processes online.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Epilogue Washington 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Epilogue Washington 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 - Washington Post: Balancing Technology and Human Resources by Design, Epilogue should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Thomas Walton suggests that, Epilogue Washington 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Epilogue Washington 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Washington Post: Balancing Technology and Human Resources by Design, Epilogue, it seems that the employees of Epilogue Washington 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 Washington Post: Balancing Technology and Human Resources by Design, Epilogue 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 Epilogue Washington has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Opportunities Washington Post: Balancing Technology and Human Resources by Design, Epilogue | 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 Washington Post: Balancing Technology and Human Resources by Design, Epilogue are -
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Epilogue Washington 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Epilogue Washington 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.
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 Epilogue Washington 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Epilogue Washington 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, Washington Post: Balancing Technology and Human Resources by Design, Epilogue, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Epilogue Washington can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Epilogue Washington operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Organizational Development sector.
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. Epilogue Washington 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. Epilogue Washington can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Buying journey improvements
– Epilogue Washington can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Washington Post: Balancing Technology and Human Resources by Design, Epilogue 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Epilogue Washington can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Epilogue Washington has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Epilogue Washington to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Washington Post: Balancing Technology and Human Resources by Design, Epilogue case study. Epilogue Washington can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Developing new processes and practices
– Epilogue Washington 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Epilogue Washington 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 Washington Post: Balancing Technology and Human Resources by Design, Epilogue - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Epilogue Washington to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Epilogue Washington 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.
Threats Washington Post: Balancing Technology and Human Resources by Design, Epilogue External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Washington Post: Balancing Technology and Human Resources by Design, Epilogue are -
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Washington Post: Balancing Technology and Human Resources by Design, Epilogue, Epilogue Washington may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Organizational Development .
New competition
– After the dotcom bust of 2001, financial crisis of 2008-09, the business formation in US economy had declined. But in 2020 alone, there are more than 1.5 million new business applications in United States. This can lead to greater competition for Epilogue Washington in the Organizational Development sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Epilogue Washington is facing in Organizational Development sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Epilogue Washington has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Organizational Development industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Epilogue Washington 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
– Epilogue Washington can face lack of demand in the market place because of Fed actions to reduce inflation. This can lead to sluggish growth in the economy, lower demands, lower investments, higher borrowing costs, and consolidation in the field.
Regulatory challenges
– Epilogue Washington 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.
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 Epilogue Washington business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, 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. Epilogue Washington needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Organizational Development industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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. Epilogue Washington can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Increasing wage structure of Epilogue Washington
– 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 Epilogue Washington.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Epilogue Washington 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 Washington Post: Balancing Technology and Human Resources by Design, Epilogue .
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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Washington Post: Balancing Technology and Human Resources by Design, Epilogue 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 Washington Post: Balancing Technology and Human Resources by Design, Epilogue 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 Washington Post: Balancing Technology and Human Resources by Design, Epilogue 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 Washington Post: Balancing Technology and Human Resources by Design, Epilogue 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 Washington Post: Balancing Technology and Human Resources by Design, Epilogue 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 Epilogue Washington needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.