MSA: The Software Company--Planning the AMAPs Product Line SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Sales & Marketing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of MSA: The Software Company--Planning the AMAPs Product Line
MSA has commissioned a major market research study to assess demand potential for a computer software system designed for aerospace and defense contractors. Students must evaluate the results of the study (including a conjoint analysis) to assess whether MSA should invest in R&D to upgrade the technology or build a sales organization.
Swot Analysis of "MSA: The Software Company--Planning the AMAPs Product Line" written by Robert J. Dolan includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Msa Amaps facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in MSA: The Software Company--Planning the AMAPs Product Line case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Design, Financial analysis, Market research, Product development, Technology and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the MSA: The Software Company--Planning the AMAPs Product Line casestudy better are - – central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , geopolitical disruptions, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, there is backlash against globalization, increasing commodity prices,
competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing transportation and logistics costs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of MSA: The Software Company--Planning the AMAPs Product Line
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in MSA: The Software Company--Planning the AMAPs Product Line case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Msa Amaps, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Msa Amaps 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 MSA: The Software Company--Planning the AMAPs Product Line can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in MSA: The Software Company--Planning the AMAPs Product Line case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Msa Amaps
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 Msa Amaps
Strengths MSA: The Software Company--Planning the AMAPs Product Line | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Msa Amaps in MSA: The Software Company--Planning the AMAPs Product Line Harvard Business Review case study are -
Highly skilled collaborators
– Msa Amaps 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 MSA: The Software Company--Planning the AMAPs Product Line 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
– Msa Amaps 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 Msa Amaps in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Msa Amaps is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the MSA: The Software Company--Planning the AMAPs Product Line are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Msa Amaps 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 MSA: The Software Company--Planning the AMAPs Product Line - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Strong track record of project management
– Msa Amaps is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Sales & Marketing industry
– MSA: The Software Company--Planning the AMAPs Product Line firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Msa Amaps to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Msa Amaps to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Msa Amaps in the sector have low bargaining power. MSA: The Software Company--Planning the AMAPs Product Line has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Msa Amaps to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Training and development
– Msa Amaps has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in MSA: The Software Company--Planning the AMAPs Product Line 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Msa Amaps has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Msa Amaps 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the MSA: The Software Company--Planning the AMAPs Product Line 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.
Learning organization
- Msa Amaps 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 Msa Amaps is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in MSA: The Software Company--Planning the AMAPs Product Line Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Analytics focus
– Msa Amaps 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 Robert J. Dolan 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.
Weaknesses MSA: The Software Company--Planning the AMAPs Product Line | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of MSA: The Software Company--Planning the AMAPs Product Line are -
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Msa Amaps has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the industry over the last five years. Msa Amaps even though has strong showing on digital transformation primary two stages, it has struggled to capitalize the power of digital transformation in marketing efforts and new venture efforts.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study MSA: The Software Company--Planning the AMAPs Product Line 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 Msa Amaps 's lucrative customers.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study MSA: The Software Company--Planning the AMAPs Product Line, is just above the industry average. Msa Amaps 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study MSA: The Software Company--Planning the AMAPs Product Line, it seems that the employees of Msa Amaps 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Robert J. Dolan suggests that, Msa Amaps 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study MSA: The Software Company--Planning the AMAPs Product Line 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 MSA: The Software Company--Planning the AMAPs Product Line can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Msa Amaps is planning to shift buying processes online.
Lack of clear differentiation of Msa Amaps products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Msa Amaps needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Msa Amaps 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study MSA: The Software Company--Planning the AMAPs Product Line, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Sales & Marketing 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Msa Amaps 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Msa Amaps 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.
Opportunities MSA: The Software Company--Planning the AMAPs Product Line | 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 MSA: The Software Company--Planning the AMAPs Product Line are -
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Msa Amaps to increase its market reach. Msa Amaps 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Msa Amaps 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Msa Amaps 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Msa Amaps can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. MSA: The Software Company--Planning the AMAPs Product Line 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.
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 Msa Amaps 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Msa Amaps 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 MSA: The Software Company--Planning the AMAPs Product Line - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Msa Amaps 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, Msa Amaps can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Msa Amaps operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Sales & Marketing sector.
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. Msa Amaps 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. Msa Amaps 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Msa Amaps 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Msa Amaps is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. MSA: The Software Company--Planning the AMAPs Product Line 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Msa Amaps 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 Msa Amaps to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
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. Msa Amaps 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, Msa Amaps 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, MSA: The Software Company--Planning the AMAPs Product Line, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Threats MSA: The Software Company--Planning the AMAPs Product Line External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study MSA: The Software Company--Planning the AMAPs Product Line are -
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.
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. Msa Amaps can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Msa Amaps 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.
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 Msa Amaps business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study MSA: The Software Company--Planning the AMAPs Product Line, Msa Amaps 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 .
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Msa Amaps 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Msa Amaps 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 MSA: The Software Company--Planning the AMAPs Product Line .
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. Msa Amaps 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Msa Amaps 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 Msa Amaps.
Regulatory challenges
– Msa Amaps 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Msa Amaps with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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 Msa Amaps in the Sales & Marketing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of MSA: The Software Company--Planning the AMAPs Product Line 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 MSA: The Software Company--Planning the AMAPs Product Line 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 MSA: The Software Company--Planning the AMAPs Product Line 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 MSA: The Software Company--Planning the AMAPs Product Line 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 MSA: The Software Company--Planning the AMAPs Product Line 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 Msa Amaps needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.