NASA After Challenger: Restoring an Image SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Sales & Marketing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of NASA After Challenger: Restoring an Image
In the days following the loss of the space shuttle Challenger and its crew in January of 1986, NASA officials were unwilling to communicate with the media or the public. A siege mentality took hold, and the press and public responded with intense criticism and inquiry. The case describes NASA's harmonious relationship with the media before Challenger, and the many obstacles William Sheehan faced when he stepped in to attempt to restore NASA's image and relationship with the media after Challenger. The issues include the special problems faced by a public institution with a history of poor internal communication, and the compounded difficulties of attempting to create effective internal policy while also trying to restore credibility with the media and deal with investigative probes.
Swot Analysis of "NASA After Challenger: Restoring an Image" written by Stephen A. Greyser, Norman Klein includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Challenger Nasa's facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in NASA After Challenger: Restoring an Image case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Crisis management, Government, Public relations and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the NASA After Challenger: Restoring an Image casestudy better are - – increasing energy prices, increasing commodity prices, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, technology disruption, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, there is backlash against globalization,
supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing household debt because of falling income levels, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of NASA After Challenger: Restoring an Image
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in NASA After Challenger: Restoring an Image case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Challenger Nasa's, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Challenger Nasa's 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 NASA After Challenger: Restoring an Image can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in NASA After Challenger: Restoring an Image case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Challenger Nasa's
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Sales & Marketing field.
4. Making a Sales & Marketing topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Challenger Nasa's
Strengths NASA After Challenger: Restoring an Image | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Challenger Nasa's in NASA After Challenger: Restoring an Image Harvard Business Review case study are -
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the NASA After Challenger: Restoring an Image 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Challenger Nasa's 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
– Challenger Nasa's is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in NASA After Challenger: Restoring an Image 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.
Digital Transformation in Sales & Marketing segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Challenger Nasa's digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Challenger Nasa's 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
– Challenger Nasa's 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 NASA After Challenger: Restoring an Image HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Training and development
– Challenger Nasa's has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in NASA After Challenger: Restoring an Image 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Sales & Marketing industry
– NASA After Challenger: Restoring an Image firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Challenger Nasa's to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Challenger Nasa's to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Challenger Nasa's is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the NASA After Challenger: Restoring an Image are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Organizational Resilience of Challenger Nasa's
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Challenger Nasa's does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Learning organization
- Challenger Nasa's 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 Challenger Nasa's is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in NASA After Challenger: Restoring an Image Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Challenger Nasa's in the sector have low bargaining power. NASA After Challenger: Restoring an Image has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Challenger Nasa's to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Challenger Nasa's in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Weaknesses NASA After Challenger: Restoring an Image | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of NASA After Challenger: Restoring an Image are -
Products dominated business model
– Even though Challenger Nasa's 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 - NASA After Challenger: Restoring an Image should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Challenger Nasa's 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As NASA After Challenger: Restoring an Image HBR case study mentions - Challenger Nasa's 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Challenger Nasa's 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study NASA After Challenger: Restoring an Image 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 NASA After Challenger: Restoring an Image can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Challenger Nasa's is planning to shift buying processes online.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study NASA After Challenger: Restoring an Image 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 Challenger Nasa's 's lucrative customers.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the NASA After Challenger: Restoring an Image 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 Challenger Nasa's has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Challenger Nasa's 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Stephen A. Greyser, Norman Klein suggests that, Challenger Nasa's 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Challenger Nasa's is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study NASA After Challenger: Restoring an Image can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Challenger Nasa's, firm in the HBR case study NASA After Challenger: Restoring an Image needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Opportunities NASA After Challenger: Restoring an Image | 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 NASA After Challenger: Restoring an Image are -
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. Challenger Nasa's can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Challenger Nasa's 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 Challenger Nasa's to increase its market reach. Challenger Nasa's 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Challenger Nasa's can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Sales & Marketing 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Sales & Marketing industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Challenger Nasa's 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. Challenger Nasa's 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Challenger Nasa's 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 NASA After Challenger: Restoring an Image - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Challenger Nasa's to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Challenger Nasa's can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Buying journey improvements
– Challenger Nasa's can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. NASA After Challenger: Restoring an Image 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Challenger Nasa's in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Sales & Marketing 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 Challenger Nasa's 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Challenger Nasa's 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Challenger Nasa's can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Challenger Nasa's operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Sales & Marketing sector.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Challenger Nasa's is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. NASA After Challenger: Restoring an Image 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.
Threats NASA After Challenger: Restoring an Image External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study NASA After Challenger: Restoring an Image are -
Environmental challenges
– Challenger Nasa's 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. Challenger Nasa's can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.
Increasing wage structure of Challenger Nasa's
– 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 Challenger Nasa's.
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. Challenger Nasa's 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Challenger Nasa's with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Regulatory challenges
– Challenger Nasa's 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 Sales & Marketing industry regulations.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Challenger Nasa's has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Sales & Marketing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Challenger Nasa's needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Sales & Marketing 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Challenger Nasa's 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.
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.
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. Challenger Nasa's needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Sales & Marketing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Challenger Nasa's 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 NASA After Challenger: Restoring an Image .
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Sales & Marketing field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Challenger Nasa's 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 Challenger Nasa's is facing in Sales & Marketing 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of NASA After Challenger: Restoring an Image 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 NASA After Challenger: Restoring an Image 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 NASA After Challenger: Restoring an Image 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 NASA After Challenger: Restoring an Image 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 NASA After Challenger: Restoring an Image 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 Challenger Nasa's needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.