Case Study Description of Harrah's Entertainment, Inc.: Rewarding Our People, Portuguese Version
Marilyn Winn, head of human resources at Harrah's Entertainment, must make a recommendation to the company's president and CEO about whether the existing bonus payout program is effective at motivating employees or whether it should be revised and/or replaced. A recent downturn in economic conditions led Winn to wonder whether customer service payouts were the most efficient way to make Harrah's a service-driven and customer-driven company.
Authors :: Thomas J. DeLong, Vineeta Vijayaraghavan
Swot Analysis of "Harrah's Entertainment, Inc.: Rewarding Our People, Portuguese Version" written by Thomas J. DeLong, Vineeta Vijayaraghavan includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Harrah's Winn facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Harrah's Entertainment, Inc.: Rewarding Our People, Portuguese Version case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Customer service, Organizational culture, Personnel policies, Supply chain and Organizational Development.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Harrah's Entertainment, Inc.: Rewarding Our People, Portuguese Version casestudy better are - – there is backlash against globalization, increasing transportation and logistics costs, wage bills are increasing, increasing commodity prices, increasing energy prices, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, geopolitical disruptions,
talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Harrah's Entertainment, Inc.: Rewarding Our People, Portuguese Version
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Harrah's Entertainment, Inc.: Rewarding Our People, Portuguese Version case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Harrah's Winn, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Harrah's Winn 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 Harrah's Entertainment, Inc.: Rewarding Our People, Portuguese Version can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Harrah's Entertainment, Inc.: Rewarding Our People, Portuguese Version case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Harrah's Winn
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 Harrah's Winn
Strengths Harrah's Entertainment, Inc.: Rewarding Our People, Portuguese Version | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Harrah's Winn in Harrah's Entertainment, Inc.: Rewarding Our People, Portuguese Version Harvard Business Review case study are -
Diverse revenue streams
– Harrah's Winn is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Harrah's Entertainment, Inc.: Rewarding Our People, Portuguese Version 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.
Ability to lead change in Organizational Development field
– Harrah's Winn 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 Harrah's Winn in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Training and development
– Harrah's Winn has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Harrah's Entertainment, Inc.: Rewarding Our People, Portuguese Version 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Harrah's Winn 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 Harrah's Entertainment, Inc.: Rewarding Our People, Portuguese Version - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Analytics focus
– Harrah's Winn 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 J. DeLong, Vineeta Vijayaraghavan 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Harrah's Winn 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.
Learning organization
- Harrah's Winn 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 Harrah's Winn is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Harrah's Entertainment, Inc.: Rewarding Our People, Portuguese Version Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Harrah's Winn has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Harrah's Winn 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Harrah's Entertainment, Inc.: Rewarding Our People, Portuguese Version 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Harrah's Winn is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Harrah's Entertainment, Inc.: Rewarding Our People, Portuguese Version are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Harrah's Winn in the sector have low bargaining power. Harrah's Entertainment, Inc.: Rewarding Our People, Portuguese Version has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Harrah's Winn to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Harrah's Winn in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Weaknesses Harrah's Entertainment, Inc.: Rewarding Our People, Portuguese Version | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Harrah's Entertainment, Inc.: Rewarding Our People, Portuguese Version are -
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Harrah's Winn 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Harrah's Winn, firm in the HBR case study Harrah's Entertainment, Inc.: Rewarding Our People, Portuguese Version needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Harrah's Winn 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 Harrah's Entertainment, Inc.: Rewarding Our People, Portuguese Version, it seems that the employees of Harrah's Winn 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Harrah's Entertainment, Inc.: Rewarding Our People, Portuguese Version, in the dynamic environment Harrah's Winn has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Harrah's Winn has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Harrah's Entertainment, Inc.: Rewarding Our People, Portuguese Version 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 Harrah's Entertainment, Inc.: Rewarding Our People, Portuguese Version can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Harrah's Winn is planning to shift buying processes online.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Harrah's Winn 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Harrah's Entertainment, Inc.: Rewarding Our People, Portuguese Version, 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Thomas J. DeLong, Vineeta Vijayaraghavan suggests that, Harrah's Winn 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Harrah's Entertainment, Inc.: Rewarding Our People, Portuguese Version, is just above the industry average. Harrah's Winn needs to redesign the compensation structure and incentives to increase the revenue per employees. Some of the steps that it can take are – hiring more specialists on project basis, etc.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Harrah's Winn 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. Harrah's Winn 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.
Opportunities Harrah's Entertainment, Inc.: Rewarding Our People, Portuguese Version | 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 Harrah's Entertainment, Inc.: Rewarding Our People, Portuguese Version are -
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Harrah's Winn has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Harrah's Winn to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Harrah's Entertainment, Inc.: Rewarding Our People, Portuguese Version case study. Harrah's Winn can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Harrah's Winn can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Manufacturing automation
– Harrah's Winn 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Harrah's Winn 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, Harrah's Entertainment, Inc.: Rewarding Our People, Portuguese Version, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
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 Harrah's Winn 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Harrah's Winn 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.
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. Harrah's Winn 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. Harrah's Winn 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.
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 Harrah's Winn in the consumer business. Now Harrah's Winn can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Harrah's Winn can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Harrah's Winn 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. Harrah's Winn can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Harrah's Winn is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Harrah's Entertainment, Inc.: Rewarding Our People, Portuguese Version case study suggests that firm can utilize new technology to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Harrah's Winn 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 Harrah's Winn to increase its market reach. Harrah's Winn 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 Harrah's Entertainment, Inc.: Rewarding Our People, Portuguese Version External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Harrah's Entertainment, Inc.: Rewarding Our People, Portuguese Version are -
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
– Harrah's Winn has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Organizational Development industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Harrah's Winn 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Harrah's Winn 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Harrah's Winn is facing in Organizational Development sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Harrah's Winn with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Harrah's Winn 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.
Environmental challenges
– Harrah's Winn 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. Harrah's Winn can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Organizational Development industry.
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 Harrah's Winn business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Increasing wage structure of Harrah's Winn
– 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 Harrah's Winn.
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 Harrah's Winn in the Organizational Development sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Harrah's Entertainment, Inc.: Rewarding Our People, Portuguese Version, Harrah's Winn 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 .
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. Harrah's Winn can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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. Harrah's Winn 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Harrah's Entertainment, Inc.: Rewarding Our People, Portuguese Version 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 Harrah's Entertainment, Inc.: Rewarding Our People, Portuguese Version 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 Harrah's Entertainment, Inc.: Rewarding Our People, Portuguese Version 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 Harrah's Entertainment, Inc.: Rewarding Our People, Portuguese Version 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 Harrah's Entertainment, Inc.: Rewarding Our People, Portuguese Version 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 Harrah's Winn needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.