Ferio Pugliese: Leading WestJet's New Carrier Encore SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Organizational Development
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Ferio Pugliese: Leading WestJet's New Carrier Encore
In early 2014, Ferio Pugliese looked back on his turbulent first year as president of WestJet Airlines Ltd.'s new regional air service Encore. Encore represented the company's most significant organizational change in its 18 years of dramatic growth. Expanding the airline's fleet to include smaller, short-haul aircraft that could service smaller destinations throughout Western Canada had not been without growing pains. For example, a number of employees reportedly felt they were losing their sense of belonging in the company that prided itself on employee satisfaction. Pugliese wondered how he should proceed in putting Encore on a successful path.
Authors :: Gerard Seijts, Jean-Louis Schaan, Robert Way
Swot Analysis of "Ferio Pugliese: Leading WestJet's New Carrier Encore" written by Gerard Seijts, Jean-Louis Schaan, Robert Way includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Encore Pugliese facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Ferio Pugliese: Leading WestJet's New Carrier Encore case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Leadership, Organizational culture, Strategy and Organizational Development.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Ferio Pugliese: Leading WestJet's New Carrier Encore casestudy better are - – geopolitical disruptions, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, technology disruption, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic ,
central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing energy prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Ferio Pugliese: Leading WestJet's New Carrier Encore
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Ferio Pugliese: Leading WestJet's New Carrier Encore case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Encore Pugliese, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Encore Pugliese 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 Ferio Pugliese: Leading WestJet's New Carrier Encore can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Ferio Pugliese: Leading WestJet's New Carrier Encore case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Encore Pugliese
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 Encore Pugliese
Strengths Ferio Pugliese: Leading WestJet's New Carrier Encore | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Encore Pugliese in Ferio Pugliese: Leading WestJet's New Carrier Encore Harvard Business Review case study are -
High brand equity
– Encore Pugliese has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Encore Pugliese to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Innovation driven organization
– Encore Pugliese is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Ferio Pugliese: Leading WestJet's New Carrier Encore Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Ability to lead change in Organizational Development field
– Encore Pugliese 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 Encore Pugliese in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Encore Pugliese 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Organizational Development industry
– Ferio Pugliese: Leading WestJet's New Carrier Encore firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Encore Pugliese to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Organizational Development industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Encore Pugliese to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Learning organization
- Encore Pugliese is a learning organization. It has inculcated three key characters of learning organization in its processes and operations – exploration, creativity, and expansiveness. The work place at Encore Pugliese is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Ferio Pugliese: Leading WestJet's New Carrier Encore Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Digital Transformation in Organizational Development segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Encore Pugliese digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Encore Pugliese 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Encore Pugliese 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 Ferio Pugliese: Leading WestJet's New Carrier Encore HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Ferio Pugliese: Leading WestJet's New Carrier Encore 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.
Organizational Resilience of Encore Pugliese
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Encore Pugliese does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Encore Pugliese is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Ferio Pugliese: Leading WestJet's New Carrier Encore are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Diverse revenue streams
– Encore Pugliese is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Ferio Pugliese: Leading WestJet's New Carrier Encore 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.
Weaknesses Ferio Pugliese: Leading WestJet's New Carrier Encore | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Ferio Pugliese: Leading WestJet's New Carrier Encore are -
Lack of clear differentiation of Encore Pugliese products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Encore Pugliese 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 Ferio Pugliese: Leading WestJet's New Carrier Encore 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 Ferio Pugliese: Leading WestJet's New Carrier Encore can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Encore Pugliese is planning to shift buying processes online.
Need for greater diversity
– Encore Pugliese 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Ferio Pugliese: Leading WestJet's New Carrier Encore, 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Encore Pugliese 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Encore Pugliese has borrowed money from the capital market at higher rates. It needs to restructure the interest payment and costs so that it can compete better and improve profitability.
High dependence on existing supply chain
– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of Encore Pugliese supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Ferio Pugliese: Leading WestJet's New Carrier Encore, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Encore Pugliese vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Encore Pugliese is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Organizational Development segment. Encore Pugliese needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Encore Pugliese to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Encore Pugliese 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Ferio Pugliese: Leading WestJet's New Carrier Encore 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 Encore Pugliese 's lucrative customers.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Gerard Seijts, Jean-Louis Schaan, Robert Way suggests that, Encore Pugliese 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.
Opportunities Ferio Pugliese: Leading WestJet's New Carrier Encore | 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 Ferio Pugliese: Leading WestJet's New Carrier Encore are -
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Encore Pugliese 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Encore Pugliese 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 Ferio Pugliese: Leading WestJet's New Carrier Encore - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Encore Pugliese to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Encore Pugliese 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Encore Pugliese can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Ferio Pugliese: Leading WestJet's New Carrier Encore 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.
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. Encore Pugliese 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. Encore Pugliese 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Encore Pugliese 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.
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 Encore Pugliese in the consumer business. Now Encore Pugliese can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Encore Pugliese 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Encore Pugliese 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 Encore Pugliese to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Encore Pugliese 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.
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 Encore Pugliese 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Encore Pugliese can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Encore Pugliese to increase its market reach. Encore Pugliese 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.
Threats Ferio Pugliese: Leading WestJet's New Carrier Encore External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Ferio Pugliese: Leading WestJet's New Carrier Encore are -
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. Encore Pugliese needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Organizational Development industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Increasing wage structure of Encore Pugliese
– 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 Encore Pugliese.
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. Encore Pugliese 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Ferio Pugliese: Leading WestJet's New Carrier Encore, Encore Pugliese 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 .
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Encore Pugliese 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.
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. Encore Pugliese can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Encore Pugliese 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Encore Pugliese 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Encore Pugliese 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 Ferio Pugliese: Leading WestJet's New Carrier Encore .
Environmental challenges
– Encore Pugliese 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. Encore Pugliese can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Organizational Development industry.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Encore Pugliese with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Encore Pugliese 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Ferio Pugliese: Leading WestJet's New Carrier Encore 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 Ferio Pugliese: Leading WestJet's New Carrier Encore 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 Ferio Pugliese: Leading WestJet's New Carrier Encore 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 Ferio Pugliese: Leading WestJet's New Carrier Encore 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 Ferio Pugliese: Leading WestJet's New Carrier Encore 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 Encore Pugliese needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
