Mason Instrument, Inc.--1986 (A): Electronics Guidance System for the Cherokee Missile SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution

Case Study Description of Mason Instrument, Inc.--1986 (A): Electronics Guidance System for the Cherokee Missile

Mason Instruments has become a second source for the electronics guidance system for a Navy missile. The case decision involves bidding in the third-round competition.

Authors :: E. Raymond Corey

Topics :: Sales & Marketing

Tags :: Negotiations, Pricing, Research & development, SWOT Analysis, SWOT Matrix, TOWS, Weighted SWOT Analysis

Swot Analysis of "Mason Instrument, Inc.--1986 (A): Electronics Guidance System for the Cherokee Missile" written by E. Raymond Corey includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Missile Mason facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Mason Instrument, Inc.--1986 (A): Electronics Guidance System for the Cherokee Missile case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Negotiations, Pricing, Research & development and Sales & Marketing.

Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Mason Instrument, Inc.--1986 (A): Electronics Guidance System for the Cherokee Missile casestudy better are - – increasing energy prices, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, technology disruption, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing transportation and logistics costs, geopolitical disruptions, etc

---

---

---

---

Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Mason Instrument, Inc.--1986 (A): Electronics Guidance System for the Cherokee Missile

SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Mason Instrument, Inc.--1986 (A): Electronics Guidance System for the Cherokee Missile case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Missile Mason, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Missile Mason 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 Mason Instrument, Inc.--1986 (A): Electronics Guidance System for the Cherokee Missile can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Mason Instrument, Inc.--1986 (A): Electronics Guidance System for the Cherokee Missile case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Missile Mason
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 Missile Mason

---

Strengths Mason Instrument, Inc.--1986 (A): Electronics Guidance System for the Cherokee Missile | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Missile Mason in Mason Instrument, Inc.--1986 (A): Electronics Guidance System for the Cherokee Missile Harvard Business Review case study are -

Ability to lead change in Sales & Marketing field

– Missile Mason 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 Missile Mason in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.

Strong track record of project management

– Missile Mason is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.

Organizational Resilience of Missile Mason

– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Missile Mason does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.

Ability to recruit top talent

– Missile Mason is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Mason Instrument, Inc.--1986 (A): Electronics Guidance System for the Cherokee Missile are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.

Training and development

– Missile Mason has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Mason Instrument, Inc.--1986 (A): Electronics Guidance System for the Cherokee Missile 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.

Learning organization

- Missile Mason 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 Missile Mason is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Mason Instrument, Inc.--1986 (A): Electronics Guidance System for the Cherokee Missile Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.

Superior customer experience

– The customer experience strategy of Missile Mason in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.

High switching costs

– The high switching costs that Missile Mason 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.

Diverse revenue streams

– Missile Mason is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Mason Instrument, Inc.--1986 (A): Electronics Guidance System for the Cherokee Missile 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.

Cross disciplinary teams

– Horizontal connected teams at the Missile Mason 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.

Low bargaining power of suppliers

– Suppliers of Missile Mason in the sector have low bargaining power. Mason Instrument, Inc.--1986 (A): Electronics Guidance System for the Cherokee Missile has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Missile Mason to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.

Successful track record of launching new products

– Missile Mason has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Missile Mason 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.

---

---

Weaknesses Mason Instrument, Inc.--1986 (A): Electronics Guidance System for the Cherokee Missile | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of Mason Instrument, Inc.--1986 (A): Electronics Guidance System for the Cherokee Missile are -

Capital Spending Reduction

– Even during the low interest decade, Missile Mason has not been able to do capital spending to the tune of the competition. This has resulted into fewer innovations and company facing stiff competition from both existing competitors and new entrants who are disrupting the industry using digital technology.

Interest costs

– Compare to the competition, Missile Mason has borrowed money from the capital market at higher rates. It needs to restructure the interest payment and costs so that it can compete better and improve profitability.

High cash cycle compare to competitors

Missile Mason 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 Mason Instrument, Inc.--1986 (A): Electronics Guidance System for the Cherokee Missile HBR case study mentions - Missile Mason 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.

Ability to respond to the competition

– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Mason Instrument, Inc.--1986 (A): Electronics Guidance System for the Cherokee Missile, in the dynamic environment Missile Mason has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Missile Mason has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.

Compensation and incentives

– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Mason Instrument, Inc.--1986 (A): Electronics Guidance System for the Cherokee Missile, is just above the industry average. Missile Mason 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.

Workers concerns about automation

– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Missile Mason 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.

Need for greater diversity

– Missile Mason 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 dependence on star products

– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Mason Instrument, Inc.--1986 (A): Electronics Guidance System for the Cherokee Missile 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 Missile Mason has relatively successful track record of launching new products.

Low market penetration in new markets

– Outside its home market of Missile Mason, firm in the HBR case study Mason Instrument, Inc.--1986 (A): Electronics Guidance System for the Cherokee Missile needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.

High bargaining power of channel partners

– Because of the regulatory requirements, E. Raymond Corey suggests that, Missile Mason is facing high bargaining power of the channel partners. So far it has not able to streamline the operations to reduce the bargaining power of the value chain partners in the industry.

---

Opportunities Mason Instrument, Inc.--1986 (A): Electronics Guidance System for the Cherokee Missile | 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 Mason Instrument, Inc.--1986 (A): Electronics Guidance System for the Cherokee Missile are -

Loyalty marketing

– Missile Mason 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.

Learning at scale

– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Missile Mason to conduct training and development for its employees across the world. This will result in not only reducing the cost of training but also help employees in different part of the world to integrate with the headquarter work culture, ethos, and standards.

Using analytics as competitive advantage

– Missile Mason 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 Mason Instrument, Inc.--1986 (A): Electronics Guidance System for the Cherokee Missile - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Missile Mason 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, Missile Mason can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Missile Mason operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Sales & Marketing sector.

Lowering marketing communication costs

– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Missile Mason 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.

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. Missile Mason 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. Missile Mason 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.

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 Missile Mason 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.

Building a culture of innovation

– managers at Missile Mason 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.

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 Missile Mason in the consumer business. Now Missile Mason can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.

Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities

– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Missile Mason 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 Missile Mason to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.

Better consumer reach

– The expansion of the 5G network will help Missile Mason to increase its market reach. Missile Mason 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

– Missile Mason can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Mason Instrument, Inc.--1986 (A): Electronics Guidance System for the Cherokee Missile 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.

Leveraging digital technologies

– Missile Mason 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.

---

Threats Mason Instrument, Inc.--1986 (A): Electronics Guidance System for the Cherokee Missile External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Mason Instrument, Inc.--1986 (A): Electronics Guidance System for the Cherokee Missile are -

Environmental challenges

– Missile Mason 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. Missile Mason 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 Missile Mason with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.

Increasing wage structure of Missile Mason

– 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 Missile Mason.

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. Missile Mason 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.

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. Missile Mason needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Sales & Marketing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.

Learning curve for new practices

– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Mason Instrument, Inc.--1986 (A): Electronics Guidance System for the Cherokee Missile, Missile Mason 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 .

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 Missile Mason business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.

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. Missile Mason 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 Missile Mason is facing in Sales & Marketing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.

Regulatory challenges

– Missile Mason 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.

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 Missile Mason in the Sales & Marketing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.

Consumer confidence and its impact on Missile Mason 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.

---

Weighted SWOT Analysis of Mason Instrument, Inc.--1986 (A): Electronics Guidance System for the Cherokee Missile 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 Mason Instrument, Inc.--1986 (A): Electronics Guidance System for the Cherokee Missile 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 Mason Instrument, Inc.--1986 (A): Electronics Guidance System for the Cherokee Missile 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 Mason Instrument, Inc.--1986 (A): Electronics Guidance System for the Cherokee Missile 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 Mason Instrument, Inc.--1986 (A): Electronics Guidance System for the Cherokee Missile 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 Missile Mason needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.

--- ---