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 commodity prices, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing energy prices, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, there is backlash against globalization,
increasing household debt because of falling income levels, technology disruption, 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 -
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Veracity Syria in the sector have low bargaining power. Veracity Worldwide in Syria: Assessing Political Risk in a Volatile Environment has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Veracity Syria to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Veracity Syria 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 Veracity Worldwide in Syria: Assessing Political Risk in a Volatile Environment - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Successful track record of launching new products
– 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.
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.
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.
Ability to lead change in Sales & Marketing field
– Veracity Syria 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 Veracity Syria in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Veracity Syria 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.
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.
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.
Strong track record of project management
– Veracity Syria is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Veracity Syria 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.
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 -
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Veracity Worldwide in Syria: Assessing Political Risk in a Volatile Environment 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 Veracity Syria has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
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.
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 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Veracity Worldwide in Syria: Assessing Political Risk in a Volatile Environment, it seems that the employees of Veracity Syria 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Veracity Worldwide in Syria: Assessing Political Risk in a Volatile Environment, in the dynamic environment Veracity Syria has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Veracity Syria has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
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.
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 -
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.
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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Veracity Syria 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 Sales & Marketing segment.
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.
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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Veracity Syria 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.
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.
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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Veracity Syria can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
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.
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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Veracity Syria to increase its market reach. Veracity Syria 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Veracity Syria can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Veracity Worldwide in Syria: Assessing Political Risk in a Volatile Environment 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.
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 -
Environmental challenges
– Veracity Syria 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. Veracity Syria can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.
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.
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.
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. Veracity Syria will face different problems in different parts of Europe. For example it will face inflationary pressures in UK, France, and Germany, balance sheet expansion and demand challenges in Southern European countries, and geopolitical instability in the Eastern Europe.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, 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 .
Increasing wage structure of Veracity Syria
– 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 Veracity Syria.
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.
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.
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.
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. Veracity Syria needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Sales & Marketing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Veracity Syria has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Sales & Marketing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Veracity Syria 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.
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.
