Veracity Worldwide in Syria: Assessing Political Risk in a Volatile Environment SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Sales & Marketing
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Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Veracity Worldwide in Syria: Assessing Political Risk in a Volatile Environment
This case explores the dynamic set of political risks raised by a local-partner contract renewal within the context of Syria's unfolding political upheaval. Cambell Technologies, a US-based software firm, was evaluating whether to renew its licensing agreement with Elevate, its Damascus-based distributor. Elevate's strong sales performance and sound management seemed to justify a renewal of its agreement, but the possibility of political change in Syria added potential new variables to Campbell's calculus. The case protagonist, Steven Fox, CEO of risk assessment and advisory firm Veracity Worldwide, had to evaluate the risks at play and advise Campbell's CEO on whether to renew its relationship with Elevate Software Solutions.
Swot Analysis of "Veracity Worldwide in Syria: Assessing Political Risk in a Volatile Environment" written by Aldo Musacchio includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Veracity Syria facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Veracity Worldwide in Syria: Assessing Political Risk in a Volatile Environment case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Ethics, Government, Risk management and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Veracity Worldwide in Syria: Assessing Political Risk in a Volatile Environment casestudy better are - – increasing energy prices, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, there is backlash against globalization, increasing transportation and logistics costs,
wage bills are increasing, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Veracity Worldwide in Syria: Assessing Political Risk in a Volatile Environment
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Veracity Worldwide in Syria: Assessing Political Risk in a Volatile Environment case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Veracity Syria, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Veracity Syria 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 Veracity Worldwide in Syria: Assessing Political Risk in a Volatile Environment can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Veracity Worldwide in Syria: Assessing Political Risk in a Volatile Environment case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Veracity Syria
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 Veracity Syria
Strengths Veracity Worldwide in Syria: Assessing Political Risk in a Volatile Environment | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Veracity Syria in Veracity Worldwide in Syria: Assessing Political Risk in a Volatile Environment Harvard Business Review case study are -
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Sales & Marketing industry
– Veracity Worldwide in Syria: Assessing Political Risk in a Volatile Environment firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Veracity Syria to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Veracity Syria to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
High brand equity
– Veracity Syria has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Veracity Syria to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Veracity Syria in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Learning organization
- Veracity Syria 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 Veracity Syria is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Veracity Worldwide in Syria: Assessing Political Risk in a Volatile Environment Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Veracity Syria has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Veracity Syria 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Veracity Syria is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Veracity Worldwide in Syria: Assessing Political Risk in a Volatile Environment 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 Veracity Syria
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Veracity Syria does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Diverse revenue streams
– Veracity Syria is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Veracity Worldwide in Syria: Assessing Political Risk in a Volatile Environment 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
– Veracity Syria has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Veracity Worldwide in Syria: Assessing Political Risk in a Volatile Environment 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Veracity Syria is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Veracity Worldwide in Syria: Assessing Political Risk in a Volatile Environment Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Veracity Worldwide in Syria: Assessing Political Risk in a Volatile Environment 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Veracity Syria 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 Veracity Worldwide in Syria: Assessing Political Risk in a Volatile Environment HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Weaknesses Veracity Worldwide in Syria: Assessing Political Risk in a Volatile Environment | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Veracity Worldwide in Syria: Assessing Political Risk in a Volatile Environment are -
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Veracity Syria, firm in the HBR case study Veracity Worldwide in Syria: Assessing Political Risk in a Volatile Environment needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Veracity Syria 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 - Veracity Worldwide in Syria: Assessing Political Risk in a Volatile Environment should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Need for greater diversity
– Veracity Syria 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Veracity Syria 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Veracity Worldwide in Syria: Assessing Political Risk in a Volatile Environment HBR case study mentions - Veracity Syria takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the industry in last five years.
Lack of clear differentiation of Veracity Syria products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Veracity Syria needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Veracity Syria is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Veracity Worldwide in Syria: Assessing Political Risk in a Volatile Environment can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Aldo Musacchio suggests that, Veracity Syria 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Veracity Worldwide in Syria: Assessing Political Risk in a Volatile Environment 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 Veracity Syria 's lucrative customers.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Veracity Worldwide in Syria: Assessing Political Risk in a Volatile Environment 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 Veracity Worldwide in Syria: Assessing Political Risk in a Volatile Environment can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Veracity Syria is planning to shift buying processes online.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Veracity Syria 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.
Opportunities Veracity Worldwide in Syria: Assessing Political Risk in a Volatile Environment | 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 Veracity Worldwide in Syria: Assessing Political Risk in a Volatile Environment are -
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Veracity Syria 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, Veracity Worldwide in Syria: Assessing Political Risk in a Volatile Environment, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Veracity Syria 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Veracity Syria 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.
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. Veracity Syria can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
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. Veracity Syria 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. Veracity Syria 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 Veracity Syria 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 Veracity Syria to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Veracity Syria 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Sales & Marketing industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Veracity Syria can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Veracity Syria 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 Veracity Worldwide in Syria: Assessing Political Risk in a Volatile Environment - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Veracity Syria to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Veracity Syria can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Veracity Syria operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Sales & Marketing sector.
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 Veracity Syria in the consumer business. Now Veracity Syria can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Developing new processes and practices
– Veracity Syria can develop new processes and procedures in Sales & Marketing industry using technology such as automation using artificial intelligence, real time transportation and products tracking, 3D modeling for concept development and new products pilot testing etc.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Veracity Syria is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Veracity Worldwide in Syria: Assessing Political Risk in a Volatile Environment 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 Veracity Worldwide in Syria: Assessing Political Risk in a Volatile Environment External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Veracity Worldwide in Syria: Assessing Political Risk in a Volatile Environment are -
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Veracity Syria in the Sales & Marketing industry. The Sales & Marketing 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.
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 Veracity Syria business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Veracity Syria 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 Veracity Worldwide in Syria: Assessing Political Risk in a Volatile Environment .
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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Veracity Syria 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Veracity Syria is facing in Sales & Marketing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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 Veracity Syria in the Sales & Marketing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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 Veracity Syria.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Veracity Worldwide in Syria: Assessing Political Risk in a Volatile Environment, Veracity Syria may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Sales & Marketing .
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Veracity Syria 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
– Veracity Syria 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Veracity Syria 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.
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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Veracity Worldwide in Syria: Assessing Political Risk in a Volatile Environment 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 Veracity Worldwide in Syria: Assessing Political Risk in a Volatile Environment 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 Veracity Worldwide in Syria: Assessing Political Risk in a Volatile Environment 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 Veracity Worldwide in Syria: Assessing Political Risk in a Volatile Environment 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 Veracity Worldwide in Syria: Assessing Political Risk in a Volatile Environment 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 Veracity Syria needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.