Wind Mobile: Competing in the Canadian Telecom Industry SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Sales & Marketing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Wind Mobile: Competing in the Canadian Telecom Industry
This case looks at how a new entrant into a market dominated by three established incumbents can win consumer support. Wind Mobile, a new entrant in the Canadian telecommunications industry, not only has to compete with rivals Bell Canada Enterprises Inc., Rogers Communications and Telus Corporation but also confronts Canadian regulations concerning foreign ownership. Although the regulatory body, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), has ruled that Wind is not Canadian controlled, the Conservative government of the day supports the company and the liberalization of the market. The contradictory stances of important regulatory players leaves considerable confusion as to the right of Wind to compete. In addition to its legal challenges, Wind has to secure customers and takes an aggressive stance against the incumbents, who deploy a variety of tactics, including fighter brands and long-term contracts, to retain their customer base.
Swot Analysis of "Wind Mobile: Competing in the Canadian Telecom Industry" written by Neil Bendle, Janice Wong includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Wind Canadian facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Wind Mobile: Competing in the Canadian Telecom Industry case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Wind Mobile: Competing in the Canadian Telecom Industry casestudy better are - – geopolitical disruptions, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, there is backlash against globalization,
central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, technology disruption, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Wind Mobile: Competing in the Canadian Telecom Industry
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Wind Mobile: Competing in the Canadian Telecom Industry case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Wind Canadian, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Wind Canadian 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 Wind Mobile: Competing in the Canadian Telecom Industry can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Wind Mobile: Competing in the Canadian Telecom Industry case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Wind Canadian
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 Wind Canadian
Strengths Wind Mobile: Competing in the Canadian Telecom Industry | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Wind Canadian in Wind Mobile: Competing in the Canadian Telecom Industry Harvard Business Review case study are -
High brand equity
– Wind Canadian has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Wind Canadian to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Wind Canadian 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 Wind Mobile: Competing in the Canadian Telecom Industry - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Training and development
– Wind Canadian has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Wind Mobile: Competing in the Canadian Telecom Industry 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.
Organizational Resilience of Wind Canadian
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Wind Canadian 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 Wind Canadian in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Wind Canadian 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Wind Canadian is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Wind Mobile: Competing in the Canadian Telecom Industry Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Wind Canadian 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 Wind Mobile: Competing in the Canadian Telecom Industry HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Analytics focus
– Wind Canadian 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 Neil Bendle, Janice Wong 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 Wind Mobile: Competing in the Canadian Telecom Industry 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Wind Canadian 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Wind Canadian is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Weaknesses Wind Mobile: Competing in the Canadian Telecom Industry | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Wind Mobile: Competing in the Canadian Telecom Industry are -
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Wind Canadian 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Neil Bendle, Janice Wong suggests that, Wind Canadian 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 Wind Mobile: Competing in the Canadian Telecom Industry 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 Wind Mobile: Competing in the Canadian Telecom Industry can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Wind Canadian is planning to shift buying processes online.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Wind Canadian 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 existing supply chain
– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of Wind Canadian supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Wind Mobile: Competing in the Canadian Telecom Industry, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Wind Canadian vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Wind Canadian 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Wind Canadian 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Wind Canadian products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Wind Canadian needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Wind Canadian has some of the most successful products in the industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. firm in the HBR case study - Wind Mobile: Competing in the Canadian Telecom Industry should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Wind Mobile: Competing in the Canadian Telecom Industry, it seems that the employees of Wind Canadian 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Wind Canadian is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Sales & Marketing segment. Wind Canadian needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Wind Canadian to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Opportunities Wind Mobile: Competing in the Canadian Telecom Industry | 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 Wind Mobile: Competing in the Canadian Telecom Industry are -
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. Wind Canadian can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Wind Canadian 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Wind Canadian 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Wind Canadian has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Wind Canadian to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Wind Mobile: Competing in the Canadian Telecom Industry case study. Wind Canadian can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
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. Wind Canadian 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. Wind Canadian 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Wind Canadian 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 Wind Canadian to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Wind Canadian 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Wind Canadian can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Wind Canadian operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Sales & Marketing sector.
Buying journey improvements
– Wind Canadian can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Wind Mobile: Competing in the Canadian Telecom Industry 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Wind Canadian to increase its market reach. Wind Canadian 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Wind Canadian 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 Wind Mobile: Competing in the Canadian Telecom Industry - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Wind Canadian to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
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 Wind Canadian 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Wind Canadian can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Threats Wind Mobile: Competing in the Canadian Telecom Industry External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Wind Mobile: Competing in the Canadian Telecom Industry 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 Wind Canadian in the Sales & Marketing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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.
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. Wind Canadian 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 dependence on third party suppliers
– Wind Canadian 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Wind Canadian 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 Wind Canadian.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Wind Mobile: Competing in the Canadian Telecom Industry, Wind Canadian 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 .
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. Wind Canadian needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Sales & Marketing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Regulatory challenges
– Wind Canadian 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.
Increasing wage structure of Wind Canadian
– 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 Wind Canadian.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Wind Canadian 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 Wind Mobile: Competing in the Canadian Telecom Industry .
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Wind Canadian with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Environmental challenges
– Wind Canadian 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. Wind Canadian can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Wind Mobile: Competing in the Canadian Telecom Industry 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 Wind Mobile: Competing in the Canadian Telecom Industry 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 Wind Mobile: Competing in the Canadian Telecom Industry 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 Wind Mobile: Competing in the Canadian Telecom Industry 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 Wind Mobile: Competing in the Canadian Telecom Industry 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 Wind Canadian needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
