Swot Analysis of "The Windsor Spitfires Hockey Team's Journey to the Memorial Cup: A New Era of Leadership" written by Blake Sutter, Francine Schlosser includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Spitfires Windsor facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in The Windsor Spitfires Hockey Team's Journey to the Memorial Cup: A New Era of Leadership case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Leadership development, Leadership transitions, Leading teams and Organizational Development.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the The Windsor Spitfires Hockey Team's Journey to the Memorial Cup: A New Era of Leadership casestudy better are - – geopolitical disruptions, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, wage bills are increasing, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic ,
increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, technology disruption, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of The Windsor Spitfires Hockey Team's Journey to the Memorial Cup: A New Era of Leadership
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in The Windsor Spitfires Hockey Team's Journey to the Memorial Cup: A New Era of Leadership case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Spitfires Windsor, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Spitfires Windsor 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 The Windsor Spitfires Hockey Team's Journey to the Memorial Cup: A New Era of Leadership can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in The Windsor Spitfires Hockey Team's Journey to the Memorial Cup: A New Era of Leadership case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Spitfires Windsor
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 Spitfires Windsor
Strengths The Windsor Spitfires Hockey Team's Journey to the Memorial Cup: A New Era of Leadership | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Spitfires Windsor in The Windsor Spitfires Hockey Team's Journey to the Memorial Cup: A New Era of Leadership Harvard Business Review case study are -
Successful track record of launching new products
– Spitfires Windsor has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Spitfires Windsor 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Spitfires Windsor in the sector have low bargaining power. The Windsor Spitfires Hockey Team's Journey to the Memorial Cup: A New Era of Leadership has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Spitfires Windsor to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Analytics focus
– Spitfires Windsor 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 Blake Sutter, Francine Schlosser 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Spitfires Windsor 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Spitfires Windsor is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the The Windsor Spitfires Hockey Team's Journey to the Memorial Cup: A New Era of Leadership 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
– Spitfires Windsor 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 The Windsor Spitfires Hockey Team's Journey to the Memorial Cup: A New Era of Leadership HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Spitfires Windsor 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 The Windsor Spitfires Hockey Team's Journey to the Memorial Cup: A New Era of Leadership - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Organizational Development industry
– The Windsor Spitfires Hockey Team's Journey to the Memorial Cup: A New Era of Leadership firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Spitfires Windsor to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Organizational Development industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Spitfires Windsor to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Organizational Resilience of Spitfires Windsor
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Spitfires Windsor does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Diverse revenue streams
– Spitfires Windsor is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in The Windsor Spitfires Hockey Team's Journey to the Memorial Cup: A New Era of Leadership 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 Spitfires Windsor in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Training and development
– Spitfires Windsor has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in The Windsor Spitfires Hockey Team's Journey to the Memorial Cup: A New Era of Leadership 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.
Weaknesses The Windsor Spitfires Hockey Team's Journey to the Memorial Cup: A New Era of Leadership | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of The Windsor Spitfires Hockey Team's Journey to the Memorial Cup: A New Era of Leadership are -
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the The Windsor Spitfires Hockey Team's Journey to the Memorial Cup: A New Era of Leadership 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 Spitfires Windsor has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study The Windsor Spitfires Hockey Team's Journey to the Memorial Cup: A New Era of Leadership, in the dynamic environment Spitfires Windsor has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Spitfires Windsor has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Spitfires Windsor is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Organizational Development segment. Spitfires Windsor needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Spitfires Windsor to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Spitfires Windsor 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 - The Windsor Spitfires Hockey Team's Journey to the Memorial Cup: A New Era of Leadership should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study The Windsor Spitfires Hockey Team's Journey to the Memorial Cup: A New Era of Leadership, it seems that the employees of Spitfires Windsor 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Spitfires Windsor 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 operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study The Windsor Spitfires Hockey Team's Journey to the Memorial Cup: A New Era of Leadership 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 Spitfires Windsor 's lucrative customers.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As The Windsor Spitfires Hockey Team's Journey to the Memorial Cup: A New Era of Leadership HBR case study mentions - Spitfires Windsor 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Spitfires Windsor products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Spitfires Windsor needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Spitfires Windsor 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Spitfires Windsor has created an environment where the organization is dominated by functional specialists rather than management generalist. This has resulted into product oriented approach rather than marketing oriented approach or consumers oriented approach.
Opportunities The Windsor Spitfires Hockey Team's Journey to the Memorial Cup: A New Era of Leadership | 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 The Windsor Spitfires Hockey Team's Journey to the Memorial Cup: A New Era of Leadership are -
Developing new processes and practices
– Spitfires Windsor 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Spitfires Windsor 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, Spitfires Windsor can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Spitfires Windsor 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. Spitfires Windsor can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
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. Spitfires Windsor 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. Spitfires Windsor 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Spitfires Windsor 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Spitfires Windsor 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Spitfires Windsor to increase its market reach. Spitfires Windsor 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.
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 Spitfires Windsor in the consumer business. Now Spitfires Windsor can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Spitfires Windsor 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 Spitfires Windsor to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Spitfires Windsor has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Spitfires Windsor to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the The Windsor Spitfires Hockey Team's Journey to the Memorial Cup: A New Era of Leadership case study. Spitfires Windsor can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, 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. Spitfires Windsor can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Manufacturing automation
– Spitfires Windsor 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.
Threats The Windsor Spitfires Hockey Team's Journey to the Memorial Cup: A New Era of Leadership External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study The Windsor Spitfires Hockey Team's Journey to the Memorial Cup: A New Era of Leadership are -
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Spitfires Windsor 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Spitfires Windsor 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Spitfires Windsor has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Organizational Development industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Spitfires Windsor 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Spitfires Windsor 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.
Technology disruption because of hacks, piracy etc
– The colonial pipeline illustrated, how vulnerable modern organization are to international hackers, miscreants, and disruptors. The cyber security interruption, data leaks, etc can seriously jeopardize the future growth of the organization.
Increasing wage structure of Spitfires Windsor
– 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 Spitfires Windsor.
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 Spitfires Windsor in the Organizational Development sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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. Spitfires Windsor needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Organizational Development industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Spitfires Windsor with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Spitfires Windsor 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 The Windsor Spitfires Hockey Team's Journey to the Memorial Cup: A New Era of Leadership .
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.
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 Spitfires Windsor.
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. Spitfires Windsor can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of The Windsor Spitfires Hockey Team's Journey to the Memorial Cup: A New Era of Leadership 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 The Windsor Spitfires Hockey Team's Journey to the Memorial Cup: A New Era of Leadership 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 The Windsor Spitfires Hockey Team's Journey to the Memorial Cup: A New Era of Leadership 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 The Windsor Spitfires Hockey Team's Journey to the Memorial Cup: A New Era of Leadership 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 The Windsor Spitfires Hockey Team's Journey to the Memorial Cup: A New Era of Leadership 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 Spitfires Windsor needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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