Telegraph Media Group: The Newspaper Is Dead, Long Live the... (D), Making It All Worthwhile: Closing the Loop with Advertisers SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Organizational Development
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Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Telegraph Media Group: The Newspaper Is Dead, Long Live the... (D), Making It All Worthwhile: Closing the Loop with Advertisers
The (D) case, fourth in a series of five, closes a major loop left open in the preceding (B) and (C) cases, which focused on changes in the editorial organization and operations of the Telegraph Media Group: making the change, which was seen as an imperative in the (A) case, worthwhile by transforming the commercial organization, whose responsibility it is to bring revenue from advertisers and to look for other ways to "monetize" the Telegraph's considerable investment in digitization.
Swot Analysis of "Telegraph Media Group: The Newspaper Is Dead, Long Live the... (D), Making It All Worthwhile: Closing the Loop with Advertisers" written by Anirudh Dhebar includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Telegraph Loop facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Telegraph Media Group: The Newspaper Is Dead, Long Live the... (D), Making It All Worthwhile: Closing the Loop with Advertisers case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Change management, Competition, Customers, Leadership, Technology and Organizational Development.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Telegraph Media Group: The Newspaper Is Dead, Long Live the... (D), Making It All Worthwhile: Closing the Loop with Advertisers casestudy better are - – technology disruption, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, geopolitical disruptions, increasing transportation and logistics costs, there is increasing trade war between United States & China,
supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Telegraph Media Group: The Newspaper Is Dead, Long Live the... (D), Making It All Worthwhile: Closing the Loop with Advertisers
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Telegraph Media Group: The Newspaper Is Dead, Long Live the... (D), Making It All Worthwhile: Closing the Loop with Advertisers case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Telegraph Loop, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Telegraph Loop 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 Telegraph Media Group: The Newspaper Is Dead, Long Live the... (D), Making It All Worthwhile: Closing the Loop with Advertisers can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Telegraph Media Group: The Newspaper Is Dead, Long Live the... (D), Making It All Worthwhile: Closing the Loop with Advertisers case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Telegraph Loop
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 Telegraph Loop
Strengths Telegraph Media Group: The Newspaper Is Dead, Long Live the... (D), Making It All Worthwhile: Closing the Loop with Advertisers | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Telegraph Loop in Telegraph Media Group: The Newspaper Is Dead, Long Live the... (D), Making It All Worthwhile: Closing the Loop with Advertisers Harvard Business Review case study are -
Strong track record of project management
– Telegraph Loop is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Innovation driven organization
– Telegraph Loop is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Telegraph Media Group: The Newspaper Is Dead, Long Live the... (D), Making It All Worthwhile: Closing the Loop with Advertisers Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Organizational Development industry
– Telegraph Media Group: The Newspaper Is Dead, Long Live the... (D), Making It All Worthwhile: Closing the Loop with Advertisers firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Telegraph Loop to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Organizational Development industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Telegraph Loop to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Telegraph Loop 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 Telegraph Media Group: The Newspaper Is Dead, Long Live the... (D), Making It All Worthwhile: Closing the Loop with Advertisers - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Telegraph Loop has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Telegraph Loop 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Telegraph Loop 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Telegraph Loop is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Telegraph Media Group: The Newspaper Is Dead, Long Live the... (D), Making It All Worthwhile: Closing the Loop with Advertisers 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.
Training and development
– Telegraph Loop has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Telegraph Media Group: The Newspaper Is Dead, Long Live the... (D), Making It All Worthwhile: Closing the Loop with Advertisers 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.
High brand equity
– Telegraph Loop has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Telegraph Loop to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Analytics focus
– Telegraph Loop 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 Anirudh Dhebar 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Telegraph Media Group: The Newspaper Is Dead, Long Live the... (D), Making It All Worthwhile: Closing the Loop with Advertisers 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.
Digital Transformation in Organizational Development segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Telegraph Loop digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Telegraph Loop 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.
Weaknesses Telegraph Media Group: The Newspaper Is Dead, Long Live the... (D), Making It All Worthwhile: Closing the Loop with Advertisers | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Telegraph Media Group: The Newspaper Is Dead, Long Live the... (D), Making It All Worthwhile: Closing the Loop with Advertisers are -
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Telegraph Loop is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Organizational Development segment. Telegraph Loop needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Telegraph Loop to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Telegraph Loop 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Telegraph Media Group: The Newspaper Is Dead, Long Live the... (D), Making It All Worthwhile: Closing the Loop with Advertisers, in the dynamic environment Telegraph Loop has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Telegraph Loop has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Anirudh Dhebar suggests that, Telegraph Loop 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Telegraph Loop 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Telegraph Loop products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Telegraph Loop needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Telegraph Media Group: The Newspaper Is Dead, Long Live the... (D), Making It All Worthwhile: Closing the Loop with Advertisers 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 Telegraph Loop has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Telegraph Loop 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. Telegraph Loop 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Telegraph Loop 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 - Telegraph Media Group: The Newspaper Is Dead, Long Live the... (D), Making It All Worthwhile: Closing the Loop with Advertisers should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Telegraph Media Group: The Newspaper Is Dead, Long Live the... (D), Making It All Worthwhile: Closing the Loop with Advertisers HBR case study mentions - Telegraph Loop 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Telegraph Loop, firm in the HBR case study Telegraph Media Group: The Newspaper Is Dead, Long Live the... (D), Making It All Worthwhile: Closing the Loop with Advertisers needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Opportunities Telegraph Media Group: The Newspaper Is Dead, Long Live the... (D), Making It All Worthwhile: Closing the Loop with Advertisers | 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 Telegraph Media Group: The Newspaper Is Dead, Long Live the... (D), Making It All Worthwhile: Closing the Loop with Advertisers are -
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Telegraph Loop 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Telegraph Loop to increase its market reach. Telegraph Loop 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Telegraph Loop can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Telegraph Loop operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Organizational Development sector.
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. Telegraph Loop can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Buying journey improvements
– Telegraph Loop can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Telegraph Media Group: The Newspaper Is Dead, Long Live the... (D), Making It All Worthwhile: Closing the Loop with Advertisers 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Telegraph Loop 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Telegraph Loop 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.
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 Telegraph Loop in the consumer business. Now Telegraph Loop can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Telegraph Loop has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Telegraph Loop to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Telegraph Media Group: The Newspaper Is Dead, Long Live the... (D), Making It All Worthwhile: Closing the Loop with Advertisers case study. Telegraph Loop can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
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. Telegraph Loop 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. Telegraph Loop 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Telegraph Loop 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 Telegraph Loop to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Telegraph Loop 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Telegraph Loop 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, Telegraph Media Group: The Newspaper Is Dead, Long Live the... (D), Making It All Worthwhile: Closing the Loop with Advertisers, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Threats Telegraph Media Group: The Newspaper Is Dead, Long Live the... (D), Making It All Worthwhile: Closing the Loop with Advertisers External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Telegraph Media Group: The Newspaper Is Dead, Long Live the... (D), Making It All Worthwhile: Closing the Loop with Advertisers 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. Telegraph Loop 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Telegraph Loop 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 Telegraph Media Group: The Newspaper Is Dead, Long Live the... (D), Making It All Worthwhile: Closing the Loop with Advertisers .
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Telegraph Loop is facing in Organizational Development sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Environmental challenges
– Telegraph Loop 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. Telegraph Loop can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Organizational Development industry.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Telegraph Loop 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Telegraph Media Group: The Newspaper Is Dead, Long Live the... (D), Making It All Worthwhile: Closing the Loop with Advertisers, Telegraph Loop 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 .
Increasing wage structure of Telegraph Loop
– 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 Telegraph Loop.
Regulatory challenges
– Telegraph Loop 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.
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.
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. Telegraph Loop can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
High level of anxiety and lack of motivation
– the Great Resignation in United States is the sign of broader dissatisfaction among the workforce in United States. Telegraph Loop needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Organizational Development industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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 Telegraph Loop.
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 Telegraph Loop in the Organizational Development sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Telegraph Media Group: The Newspaper Is Dead, Long Live the... (D), Making It All Worthwhile: Closing the Loop with Advertisers 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 Telegraph Media Group: The Newspaper Is Dead, Long Live the... (D), Making It All Worthwhile: Closing the Loop with Advertisers 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 Telegraph Media Group: The Newspaper Is Dead, Long Live the... (D), Making It All Worthwhile: Closing the Loop with Advertisers 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 Telegraph Media Group: The Newspaper Is Dead, Long Live the... (D), Making It All Worthwhile: Closing the Loop with Advertisers 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 Telegraph Media Group: The Newspaper Is Dead, Long Live the... (D), Making It All Worthwhile: Closing the Loop with Advertisers 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 Telegraph Loop needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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