New York Times Co., Spanish Version SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Finance & Accounting
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of New York Times Co., Spanish Version
The Sulzberger family owns 20% of the New York Times Co. (NYT) but controls 70% of the board through a dual-class share structure. At the company's April 2006 annual shareholder meeting, Morgan Stanley Investment Management (MSIM) and other investors, holding 28% of the company's stock altogether, withheld their votes for the 30% of directors that they could vote on as a sign of protest against the management of Arthur Sulzberger, Jr. and the dual-class structure that protects him. MSIM later submitted a proposal urging the NYT to subject the dual-class structure to a vote. In evaluating the proposal, Sulzberger feels torn by his responsibilities to three different constituencies: his readers, his family, and all other NYT shareholders.a€‚a€‚a€‚a€‚a€‚
Swot Analysis of "New York Times Co., Spanish Version" written by Belen Villalonga, Chris Hartman includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Nyt Sulzberger facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in New York Times Co., Spanish Version case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Financial management, Financial markets and Finance & Accounting.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the New York Times Co., Spanish Version casestudy better are - – there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, wage bills are increasing, technology disruption, there is backlash against globalization, increasing transportation and logistics costs, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic ,
increasing energy prices, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of New York Times Co., Spanish Version
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in New York Times Co., Spanish Version case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Nyt Sulzberger, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Nyt Sulzberger 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 New York Times Co., Spanish Version can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in New York Times Co., Spanish Version case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Nyt Sulzberger
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 Nyt Sulzberger
Strengths New York Times Co., Spanish Version | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Nyt Sulzberger in New York Times Co., Spanish Version Harvard Business Review case study are -
Innovation driven organization
– Nyt Sulzberger is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in New York Times Co., Spanish Version Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Nyt Sulzberger has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Nyt Sulzberger 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Nyt Sulzberger 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 New York Times Co., Spanish Version - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Nyt Sulzberger 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Nyt Sulzberger is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in New York Times Co., Spanish Version 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.
Ability to lead change in Finance & Accounting field
– Nyt Sulzberger 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 Nyt Sulzberger in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Digital Transformation in Finance & Accounting segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Nyt Sulzberger digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Nyt Sulzberger 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Nyt Sulzberger 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.
High brand equity
– Nyt Sulzberger has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Nyt Sulzberger to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Nyt Sulzberger in the sector have low bargaining power. New York Times Co., Spanish Version has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Nyt Sulzberger to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Finance & Accounting industry
– New York Times Co., Spanish Version firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Nyt Sulzberger to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Finance & Accounting industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Nyt Sulzberger to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the New York Times Co., Spanish Version 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.
Weaknesses New York Times Co., Spanish Version | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of New York Times Co., Spanish Version are -
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Nyt Sulzberger is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Finance & Accounting segment. Nyt Sulzberger needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Nyt Sulzberger to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study New York Times Co., Spanish Version, is just above the industry average. Nyt Sulzberger 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Nyt Sulzberger is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study New York Times Co., Spanish Version can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study New York Times Co., Spanish Version, 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Nyt Sulzberger 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Nyt Sulzberger 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study New York Times Co., Spanish Version 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 New York Times Co., Spanish Version can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Nyt Sulzberger is planning to shift buying processes online.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study New York Times Co., Spanish Version, in the dynamic environment Nyt Sulzberger has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Nyt Sulzberger has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Lack of clear differentiation of Nyt Sulzberger products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Nyt Sulzberger needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Nyt Sulzberger has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the New York Times Co., Spanish Version 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 Nyt Sulzberger has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Opportunities New York Times Co., Spanish Version | 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 New York Times Co., Spanish Version are -
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Nyt Sulzberger 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Nyt Sulzberger is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. New York Times Co., Spanish Version 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Nyt Sulzberger in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Finance & Accounting segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Nyt Sulzberger 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 New York Times Co., Spanish Version - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Nyt Sulzberger to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Nyt Sulzberger has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Nyt Sulzberger to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the New York Times Co., Spanish Version case study. Nyt Sulzberger can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, 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 Nyt Sulzberger in the consumer business. Now Nyt Sulzberger can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Nyt Sulzberger 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Nyt Sulzberger can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Nyt Sulzberger operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Finance & Accounting sector.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Finance & Accounting industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Nyt Sulzberger 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. Nyt Sulzberger 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Nyt Sulzberger can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. New York Times Co., Spanish Version 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Nyt Sulzberger 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, New York Times Co., Spanish Version, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Nyt Sulzberger can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Loyalty marketing
– Nyt Sulzberger 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.
Threats New York Times Co., Spanish Version External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study New York Times Co., Spanish Version are -
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Finance & Accounting field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Nyt Sulzberger can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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 Nyt Sulzberger in the Finance & Accounting sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Nyt Sulzberger has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Finance & Accounting industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Nyt Sulzberger 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.
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 Nyt Sulzberger.
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.
Environmental challenges
– Nyt Sulzberger 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. Nyt Sulzberger can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Finance & Accounting industry.
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 Nyt Sulzberger business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Increasing wage structure of Nyt Sulzberger
– 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 Nyt Sulzberger.
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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study New York Times Co., Spanish Version, Nyt Sulzberger 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 .
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. Nyt Sulzberger will face different problems in different parts of Europe. For example it will face inflationary pressures in UK, France, and Germany, balance sheet expansion and demand challenges in Southern European countries, and geopolitical instability in the Eastern Europe.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Nyt Sulzberger 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 New York Times Co., Spanish Version .
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Nyt Sulzberger 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of New York Times Co., Spanish Version 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 New York Times Co., Spanish Version 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 New York Times Co., Spanish Version 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 New York Times Co., Spanish Version 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 New York Times Co., Spanish Version 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 Nyt Sulzberger needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
