Hillside Beach Club: Delivering the Ultimate Family Vacation in the Mediterranean SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Sales & Marketing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Hillside Beach Club: Delivering the Ultimate Family Vacation in the Mediterranean
In 2015, having led Hillside Beach Club (HBC) for 21 successful years, Edip Ilkbahar, HBC's founder and CEO, was looking over the plans for a new branch in Cyprus. For over two decades, Ilkbahar's company had enjoyed high occupancy, high guest satisfaction, and high return-visitor rates, not to mention increasing profits from HBC's single location in Fethiye, Turkey. Although branching out had been on the agenda for a couple of years, Ilkbahar was feeling the pressure to recreate HBC's culture in a new location to live up to and even surpass its established success. In parallel, Ilkbahar also needed to make sure that employee motivation at HBC's original Fethiye location did not drop and the employees continued to deliver wholehearted service to live up to HBC's reputation. 2015 certainly looked like it would be a tough year. How could Ilkbahar both try to extend HBC's special formula for success to Cyprus while maintaining high motivation at the Fethiye installation? The case describes the forces that shape the hotel industry's structure, raising the issue of how HBC established itself a sustainable niche for competitive advantage. The case provides the context for the students to identify the design elements underlying HBC's success and helps them explore the link between guest satisfaction and employee training, empowerment, feedback culture, continuous product development as well as social media and marketing. The case challenges the students to ponder what it takes for a company to repeatedly increase customer satisfaction rates and profitability with the same product over the years.
Swot Analysis of "Hillside Beach Club: Delivering the Ultimate Family Vacation in the Mediterranean" written by Rajiv Lal, Gamze Yucaoglu includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Hbc's Ilkbahar facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Hillside Beach Club: Delivering the Ultimate Family Vacation in the Mediterranean case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Customer service, Customers, Developing employees, Emerging markets, Growth strategy, Motivating people, Organizational culture, Product development, Supply chain and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Hillside Beach Club: Delivering the Ultimate Family Vacation in the Mediterranean casestudy better are - – wage bills are increasing, geopolitical disruptions, increasing commodity prices, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, technology disruption, increasing household debt because of falling income levels,
cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing transportation and logistics costs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Hillside Beach Club: Delivering the Ultimate Family Vacation in the Mediterranean
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Hillside Beach Club: Delivering the Ultimate Family Vacation in the Mediterranean case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Hbc's Ilkbahar, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Hbc's Ilkbahar 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 Hillside Beach Club: Delivering the Ultimate Family Vacation in the Mediterranean can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Hillside Beach Club: Delivering the Ultimate Family Vacation in the Mediterranean case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Hbc's Ilkbahar
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 Hbc's Ilkbahar
Strengths Hillside Beach Club: Delivering the Ultimate Family Vacation in the Mediterranean | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Hbc's Ilkbahar in Hillside Beach Club: Delivering the Ultimate Family Vacation in the Mediterranean Harvard Business Review case study are -
Successful track record of launching new products
– Hbc's Ilkbahar has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Hbc's Ilkbahar 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.
Analytics focus
– Hbc's Ilkbahar 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 Rajiv Lal, Gamze Yucaoglu 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.
High brand equity
– Hbc's Ilkbahar has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Hbc's Ilkbahar to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Sales & Marketing industry
– Hillside Beach Club: Delivering the Ultimate Family Vacation in the Mediterranean firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Hbc's Ilkbahar to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Hbc's Ilkbahar to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Hbc's Ilkbahar is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Hillside Beach Club: Delivering the Ultimate Family Vacation in the Mediterranean 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)
– Hbc's Ilkbahar 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 Hillside Beach Club: Delivering the Ultimate Family Vacation in the Mediterranean - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Hbc's Ilkbahar 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 Hillside Beach Club: Delivering the Ultimate Family Vacation in the Mediterranean HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Organizational Resilience of Hbc's Ilkbahar
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Hbc's Ilkbahar does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Hbc's Ilkbahar in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Learning organization
- Hbc's Ilkbahar 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 Hbc's Ilkbahar is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Hillside Beach Club: Delivering the Ultimate Family Vacation in the Mediterranean Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Training and development
– Hbc's Ilkbahar has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Hillside Beach Club: Delivering the Ultimate Family Vacation in the Mediterranean 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Hbc's Ilkbahar 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 Hillside Beach Club: Delivering the Ultimate Family Vacation in the Mediterranean | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Hillside Beach Club: Delivering the Ultimate Family Vacation in the Mediterranean are -
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Rajiv Lal, Gamze Yucaoglu suggests that, Hbc's Ilkbahar 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Hillside Beach Club: Delivering the Ultimate Family Vacation in the Mediterranean HBR case study mentions - Hbc's Ilkbahar 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Hbc's Ilkbahar 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Hillside Beach Club: Delivering the Ultimate Family Vacation in the Mediterranean, is just above the industry average. Hbc's Ilkbahar 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Hbc's Ilkbahar products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Hbc's Ilkbahar needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Hillside Beach Club: Delivering the Ultimate Family Vacation in the Mediterranean, in the dynamic environment Hbc's Ilkbahar has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Hbc's Ilkbahar has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Hillside Beach Club: Delivering the Ultimate Family Vacation in the Mediterranean 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 Hbc's Ilkbahar 's lucrative customers.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Hbc's Ilkbahar is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Sales & Marketing segment. Hbc's Ilkbahar needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Hbc's Ilkbahar to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Hillside Beach Club: Delivering the Ultimate Family Vacation in the Mediterranean, 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Hbc's Ilkbahar 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Hillside Beach Club: Delivering the Ultimate Family Vacation in the Mediterranean, it seems that the employees of Hbc's Ilkbahar 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.
Opportunities Hillside Beach Club: Delivering the Ultimate Family Vacation in the Mediterranean | 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 Hillside Beach Club: Delivering the Ultimate Family Vacation in the Mediterranean are -
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Hbc's Ilkbahar is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Hillside Beach Club: Delivering the Ultimate Family Vacation in the Mediterranean 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Hbc's Ilkbahar 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Hbc's Ilkbahar 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 Hbc's Ilkbahar to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Buying journey improvements
– Hbc's Ilkbahar can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Hillside Beach Club: Delivering the Ultimate Family Vacation in the Mediterranean 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Hbc's Ilkbahar 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Hbc's Ilkbahar can still utilize the low interest rates to borrow money for capital investment. Secondly it can also use the increase of government spending in infrastructure projects to get new business.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Hbc's Ilkbahar 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, Hillside Beach Club: Delivering the Ultimate Family Vacation in the Mediterranean, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
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. Hbc's Ilkbahar can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Manufacturing automation
– Hbc's Ilkbahar can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Sales & Marketing 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Hbc's Ilkbahar 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Hbc's Ilkbahar to increase its market reach. Hbc's Ilkbahar 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.
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 Hbc's Ilkbahar 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.
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. Hbc's Ilkbahar 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. Hbc's Ilkbahar 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.
Threats Hillside Beach Club: Delivering the Ultimate Family Vacation in the Mediterranean External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Hillside Beach Club: Delivering the Ultimate Family Vacation in the Mediterranean are -
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 Hbc's Ilkbahar in the Sales & Marketing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Hbc's Ilkbahar with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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. Hbc's Ilkbahar 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.
Environmental challenges
– Hbc's Ilkbahar 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. Hbc's Ilkbahar can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.
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.
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. Hbc's Ilkbahar can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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.
Regulatory challenges
– Hbc's Ilkbahar 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Hbc's Ilkbahar 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Hbc's Ilkbahar is facing in Sales & Marketing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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. Hbc's Ilkbahar needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Sales & Marketing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Increasing wage structure of Hbc's Ilkbahar
– 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 Hbc's Ilkbahar.
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 Hbc's Ilkbahar business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Hillside Beach Club: Delivering the Ultimate Family Vacation in the Mediterranean 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 Hillside Beach Club: Delivering the Ultimate Family Vacation in the Mediterranean 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 Hillside Beach Club: Delivering the Ultimate Family Vacation in the Mediterranean 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 Hillside Beach Club: Delivering the Ultimate Family Vacation in the Mediterranean 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 Hillside Beach Club: Delivering the Ultimate Family Vacation in the Mediterranean 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 Hbc's Ilkbahar needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.