Fidelity Incorporated: Pricing the Fidelity Blue Chip Growth Fund SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Sales & Marketing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Fidelity Incorporated: Pricing the Fidelity Blue Chip Growth Fund
This is a Darden case study.This case presents an application of conjoint analysis in a financial services setting. It is best used in a course on marketing research. The decision in the case centers on a fund manager's need to generate additional profit from a mutual fund. To do this, he needs to determine a new pricing structure for the fund. The case presents students with the results from a real-world conjoint analysis and requires them to work through the pricing and profit implications of that analysis.
Swot Analysis of "Fidelity Incorporated: Pricing the Fidelity Blue Chip Growth Fund" written by Ronald T Wilcox includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Fund Fidelity facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Fidelity Incorporated: Pricing the Fidelity Blue Chip Growth Fund case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Pricing and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Fidelity Incorporated: Pricing the Fidelity Blue Chip Growth Fund casestudy better are - – banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, geopolitical disruptions,
supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing household debt because of falling income levels, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Fidelity Incorporated: Pricing the Fidelity Blue Chip Growth Fund
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Fidelity Incorporated: Pricing the Fidelity Blue Chip Growth Fund case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Fund Fidelity, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Fund Fidelity 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 Fidelity Incorporated: Pricing the Fidelity Blue Chip Growth Fund can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Fidelity Incorporated: Pricing the Fidelity Blue Chip Growth Fund case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Fund Fidelity
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 Fund Fidelity
Strengths Fidelity Incorporated: Pricing the Fidelity Blue Chip Growth Fund | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Fund Fidelity in Fidelity Incorporated: Pricing the Fidelity Blue Chip Growth Fund Harvard Business Review case study are -
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Fund Fidelity in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Strong track record of project management
– Fund Fidelity is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Organizational Resilience of Fund Fidelity
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Fund Fidelity does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Learning organization
- Fund Fidelity 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 Fund Fidelity is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Fidelity Incorporated: Pricing the Fidelity Blue Chip Growth Fund Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Diverse revenue streams
– Fund Fidelity is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Fidelity Incorporated: Pricing the Fidelity Blue Chip Growth Fund 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Fund Fidelity 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Fund Fidelity 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 Fidelity Incorporated: Pricing the Fidelity Blue Chip Growth Fund - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Fund Fidelity is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Fidelity Incorporated: Pricing the Fidelity Blue Chip Growth Fund are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Analytics focus
– Fund Fidelity 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 Ronald T Wilcox 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 Fidelity Incorporated: Pricing the Fidelity Blue Chip Growth Fund 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.
High brand equity
– Fund Fidelity has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Fund Fidelity to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Ability to lead change in Sales & Marketing field
– Fund Fidelity 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 Fund Fidelity in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Weaknesses Fidelity Incorporated: Pricing the Fidelity Blue Chip Growth Fund | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Fidelity Incorporated: Pricing the Fidelity Blue Chip Growth Fund are -
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Fund Fidelity 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Fund Fidelity, firm in the HBR case study Fidelity Incorporated: Pricing the Fidelity Blue Chip Growth Fund needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Fund Fidelity 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Fund Fidelity has borrowed money from the capital market at higher rates. It needs to restructure the interest payment and costs so that it can compete better and improve profitability.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Fund Fidelity is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Fidelity Incorporated: Pricing the Fidelity Blue Chip Growth Fund can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Fidelity Incorporated: Pricing the Fidelity Blue Chip Growth Fund, it seems that the employees of Fund Fidelity 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Fidelity Incorporated: Pricing the Fidelity Blue Chip Growth Fund, in the dynamic environment Fund Fidelity has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Fund Fidelity 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 Fidelity Incorporated: Pricing the Fidelity Blue Chip Growth Fund 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 Fund Fidelity 's lucrative customers.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Ronald T Wilcox suggests that, Fund Fidelity 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Fund Fidelity 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 Fidelity Incorporated: Pricing the Fidelity Blue Chip Growth Fund 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 Fidelity Incorporated: Pricing the Fidelity Blue Chip Growth Fund can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Fund Fidelity is planning to shift buying processes online.
Opportunities Fidelity Incorporated: Pricing the Fidelity Blue Chip Growth Fund | 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 Fidelity Incorporated: Pricing the Fidelity Blue Chip Growth Fund are -
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Fund Fidelity to increase its market reach. Fund Fidelity 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 Fund Fidelity 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
– Fund Fidelity 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 Fidelity Incorporated: Pricing the Fidelity Blue Chip Growth Fund - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Fund Fidelity to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Fund Fidelity 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 Fund Fidelity to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Fund Fidelity 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, Fidelity Incorporated: Pricing the Fidelity Blue Chip Growth Fund, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Buying journey improvements
– Fund Fidelity can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Fidelity Incorporated: Pricing the Fidelity Blue Chip Growth Fund 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Fund Fidelity 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.
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 Fund Fidelity in the consumer business. Now Fund Fidelity can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Fund Fidelity 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Fund Fidelity 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.
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. Fund Fidelity 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. Fund Fidelity 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Fund Fidelity 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Fund Fidelity 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.
Threats Fidelity Incorporated: Pricing the Fidelity Blue Chip Growth Fund External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Fidelity Incorporated: Pricing the Fidelity Blue Chip Growth Fund are -
Regulatory challenges
– Fund Fidelity 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 international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Fund Fidelity 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 Fidelity Incorporated: Pricing the Fidelity Blue Chip Growth Fund .
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Fund Fidelity 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.
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.
Increasing wage structure of Fund Fidelity
– 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 Fund Fidelity.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Fund Fidelity 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.
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 Fund Fidelity in the Sales & Marketing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Fund Fidelity 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Fund Fidelity is facing in Sales & Marketing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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 Fund Fidelity business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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. Fund Fidelity 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Fund Fidelity has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Sales & Marketing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Fund Fidelity needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Sales & Marketing 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Fidelity Incorporated: Pricing the Fidelity Blue Chip Growth Fund 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 Fidelity Incorporated: Pricing the Fidelity Blue Chip Growth Fund 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 Fidelity Incorporated: Pricing the Fidelity Blue Chip Growth Fund 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 Fidelity Incorporated: Pricing the Fidelity Blue Chip Growth Fund 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 Fidelity Incorporated: Pricing the Fidelity Blue Chip Growth Fund 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 Fund Fidelity needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
