Banc One's Halcyon Days of Merger Integration SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Communication
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Banc One's Halcyon Days of Merger Integration
The year 1992 had been most successful for Banc One placing it first among the 25 largest banks in the United States. It had achieved this stellar record through a strategy of nuts-and-bolts banking that included focusing on serving retail and middle-market customers through community banks, investing in technologies that created competitive advantages, and treating bank acquisitions as an ongoing line of business. The newly appointed chairman of Diversified Services at Banc One is responsible for products in the nonbanking areas of securities, insurance, leasing, consumer finance, asset management, and mortgage. But the growth of Diversified Services has fueled apprehension that the fundamental values on which the bank's success had been built were changing. In this context, the chairman is charged with persuading the presidents of the affiliate banks to adopt his nontraditional banking products into their local banks to enlist them in a strategic partnership with Diversified Services.
Swot Analysis of "Banc One's Halcyon Days of Merger Integration" written by L.J. Bourgeois includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Banc Banks facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Banc One's Halcyon Days of Merger Integration case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Growth strategy, Joint ventures, Mergers & acquisitions and Communication.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Banc One's Halcyon Days of Merger Integration casestudy better are - – there is backlash against globalization, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models,
geopolitical disruptions, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Banc One's Halcyon Days of Merger Integration
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Banc One's Halcyon Days of Merger Integration case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Banc Banks, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Banc Banks 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 Banc One's Halcyon Days of Merger Integration can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Banc One's Halcyon Days of Merger Integration case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Banc Banks
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Communication field.
4. Making a Communication topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Banc Banks
Strengths Banc One's Halcyon Days of Merger Integration | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Banc Banks in Banc One's Halcyon Days of Merger Integration Harvard Business Review case study are -
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Banc Banks 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Communication industry
– Banc One's Halcyon Days of Merger Integration firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Banc Banks to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Communication industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Banc Banks to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Banc Banks in the sector have low bargaining power. Banc One's Halcyon Days of Merger Integration has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Banc Banks to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Strong track record of project management
– Banc Banks is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Banc Banks 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 Banc One's Halcyon Days of Merger Integration HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Innovation driven organization
– Banc Banks is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Banc One's Halcyon Days of Merger Integration Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Training and development
– Banc Banks has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Banc One's Halcyon Days of Merger Integration 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Banc Banks is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Banc One's Halcyon Days of Merger Integration 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.
Organizational Resilience of Banc Banks
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Banc Banks does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Banc Banks is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Banc One's Halcyon Days of Merger Integration are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Banc Banks 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.
Digital Transformation in Communication segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Banc Banks digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Banc Banks 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.
Weaknesses Banc One's Halcyon Days of Merger Integration | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Banc One's Halcyon Days of Merger Integration are -
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Banc Banks 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Banc One's Halcyon Days of Merger Integration 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 Banc One's Halcyon Days of Merger Integration can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Banc Banks is planning to shift buying processes online.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Banc Banks 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Banc Banks has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the industry over the last five years. Banc Banks even though has strong showing on digital transformation primary two stages, it has struggled to capitalize the power of digital transformation in marketing efforts and new venture efforts.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Banc Banks 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Banc One's Halcyon Days of Merger Integration, in the dynamic environment Banc Banks has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Banc Banks has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Banc Banks is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Communication segment. Banc Banks needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Banc Banks 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 Banc One's Halcyon Days of Merger Integration, is just above the industry average. Banc Banks 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Banc One's Halcyon Days of Merger Integration 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 Banc Banks has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, L.J. Bourgeois suggests that, Banc Banks 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Banc One's Halcyon Days of Merger Integration, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Communication 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.
Opportunities Banc One's Halcyon Days of Merger Integration | 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 Banc One's Halcyon Days of Merger Integration are -
Buying journey improvements
– Banc Banks can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Banc One's Halcyon Days of Merger Integration 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 Banc Banks in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Communication segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Banc Banks 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 Banc One's Halcyon Days of Merger Integration - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Banc Banks 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 Banc Banks 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Banc Banks 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Communication industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Banc Banks can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Banc Banks to increase its market reach. Banc Banks 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Banc Banks can develop new processes and procedures in Communication 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 Banc Banks has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Banc Banks to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Banc One's Halcyon Days of Merger Integration case study. Banc Banks can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Loyalty marketing
– Banc Banks 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.
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. Banc Banks can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Banc Banks 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 Banc Banks to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Banc Banks is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Banc One's Halcyon Days of Merger Integration 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.
Threats Banc One's Halcyon Days of Merger Integration External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Banc One's Halcyon Days of Merger Integration are -
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Banc Banks 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 Banc One's Halcyon Days of Merger Integration .
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.
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. Banc Banks needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Communication industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Banc Banks 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Banc Banks 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 Communication industry regulations.
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 Banc Banks.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Banc Banks is facing in Communication sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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. Banc Banks 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.
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 Banc Banks business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Banc Banks 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Banc One's Halcyon Days of Merger Integration, Banc Banks may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Communication .
Environmental challenges
– Banc Banks 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. Banc Banks can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Communication industry.
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 Banc Banks in the Communication sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Banc One's Halcyon Days of Merger Integration 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 Banc One's Halcyon Days of Merger Integration 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 Banc One's Halcyon Days of Merger Integration 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 Banc One's Halcyon Days of Merger Integration 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 Banc One's Halcyon Days of Merger Integration 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 Banc Banks needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
