Swot Analysis of "Star Cablevision Group (C): Responding to a Credit Market Contraction" written by William A. Sahlman, Burton C. Hurlock includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Contraction Credit facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Star Cablevision Group (C): Responding to a Credit Market Contraction case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Reorganization and Finance & Accounting.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Star Cablevision Group (C): Responding to a Credit Market Contraction casestudy better are - – increasing household debt because of falling income levels, geopolitical disruptions, wage bills are increasing, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs,
technology disruption, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Star Cablevision Group (C): Responding to a Credit Market Contraction
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Star Cablevision Group (C): Responding to a Credit Market Contraction case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Contraction Credit, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Contraction Credit 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 Star Cablevision Group (C): Responding to a Credit Market Contraction can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Star Cablevision Group (C): Responding to a Credit Market Contraction case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Contraction Credit
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Finance & Accounting field.
4. Making a Finance & Accounting topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Contraction Credit
Strengths Star Cablevision Group (C): Responding to a Credit Market Contraction | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Contraction Credit in Star Cablevision Group (C): Responding to a Credit Market Contraction Harvard Business Review case study are -
Highly skilled collaborators
– Contraction Credit 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 Star Cablevision Group (C): Responding to a Credit Market Contraction HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Strong track record of project management
– Contraction Credit is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Contraction Credit 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Finance & Accounting industry
– Star Cablevision Group (C): Responding to a Credit Market Contraction firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Contraction Credit to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Finance & Accounting industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Contraction Credit to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Diverse revenue streams
– Contraction Credit is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Star Cablevision Group (C): Responding to a Credit Market Contraction 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.
Learning organization
- Contraction Credit 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 Contraction Credit is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Star Cablevision Group (C): Responding to a Credit Market Contraction Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Contraction Credit 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.
Analytics focus
– Contraction Credit is putting a lot of focus on utilizing the power of analytics in business decision making. This has put it among the leading players in the industry. The technology infrastructure suggested by William A. Sahlman, Burton C. Hurlock can also help it to harness the power of analytics for – marketing optimization, demand forecasting, customer relationship management, inventory management, information sharing across the value chain etc.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Star Cablevision Group (C): Responding to a Credit Market Contraction 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Contraction Credit in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Contraction Credit is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Star Cablevision Group (C): Responding to a Credit Market Contraction are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Digital Transformation in Finance & Accounting segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Contraction Credit digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Contraction Credit 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.
Weaknesses Star Cablevision Group (C): Responding to a Credit Market Contraction | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Star Cablevision Group (C): Responding to a Credit Market Contraction are -
Need for greater diversity
– Contraction Credit 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Contraction Credit 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 operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Star Cablevision Group (C): Responding to a Credit Market Contraction 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 Contraction Credit 's lucrative customers.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Star Cablevision Group (C): Responding to a Credit Market Contraction, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Finance & Accounting strategy. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, William A. Sahlman, Burton C. Hurlock suggests that, Contraction Credit 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Contraction Credit products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Contraction Credit needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Star Cablevision Group (C): Responding to a Credit Market Contraction 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 Star Cablevision Group (C): Responding to a Credit Market Contraction can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Contraction Credit is planning to shift buying processes online.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Contraction Credit 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Star Cablevision Group (C): Responding to a Credit Market Contraction, it seems that the employees of Contraction Credit 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Contraction Credit 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Contraction Credit has created an environment where the organization is dominated by functional specialists rather than management generalist. This has resulted into product oriented approach rather than marketing oriented approach or consumers oriented approach.
Opportunities Star Cablevision Group (C): Responding to a Credit Market Contraction | 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 Star Cablevision Group (C): Responding to a Credit Market Contraction are -
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Contraction Credit 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 Contraction Credit to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Contraction Credit is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Star Cablevision Group (C): Responding to a Credit Market Contraction 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.
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 Contraction Credit in the consumer business. Now Contraction Credit can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Manufacturing automation
– Contraction Credit can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Finance & Accounting 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.
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 Contraction Credit 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Contraction Credit has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Contraction Credit to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Star Cablevision Group (C): Responding to a Credit Market Contraction case study. Contraction Credit can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Loyalty marketing
– Contraction Credit 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Contraction Credit 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 Finance & Accounting segment.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Contraction Credit can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Contraction Credit can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Contraction Credit operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Finance & Accounting sector.
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. Contraction Credit can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Finance & Accounting industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Contraction Credit can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Contraction Credit 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 Star Cablevision Group (C): Responding to a Credit Market Contraction External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Star Cablevision Group (C): Responding to a Credit Market Contraction are -
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Star Cablevision Group (C): Responding to a Credit Market Contraction, Contraction Credit may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Finance & Accounting .
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.
Environmental challenges
– Contraction Credit 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. Contraction Credit can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Finance & Accounting industry.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Contraction Credit 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.
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. Contraction Credit 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.
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. Contraction Credit needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Finance & Accounting industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Contraction Credit has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Finance & Accounting industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Contraction Credit needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Finance & Accounting 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
– Contraction Credit 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.
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 Contraction Credit business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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 Contraction Credit.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Contraction Credit is facing in Finance & Accounting sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Contraction Credit in the Finance & Accounting industry. The Finance & Accounting 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.
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 Star Cablevision Group (C): Responding to a Credit Market Contraction 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 Star Cablevision Group (C): Responding to a Credit Market Contraction 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 Star Cablevision Group (C): Responding to a Credit Market Contraction 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 Star Cablevision Group (C): Responding to a Credit Market Contraction 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 Star Cablevision Group (C): Responding to a Credit Market Contraction 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 Contraction Credit needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
