Peter Guber: The "Me" vs. "We" Brand SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Sales & Marketing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Peter Guber: The "Me" vs. "We" Brand
Well-known film producer Peter Guber must decide whether to commit to a time-consuming personal project. He is about to sign a contract for a business book in which he will share what he has learned in his long career. At the same time, he is keenly aware of problems and uncertainties affecting Mandalay Entertainment, a privately-owned company in which he is principal. Mandalay produces movies and television content, owns minor league baseball teams, and is pushing into digital content. Mandalay is trying to reinvigorate its core movie and television businesses, maintain growth in the sports business, and be prepared for the opportunity to buy a major league professional sports franchise. Does Guber eliminate all personal projects and stay tightly focused on guiding his company? On the other hand, there may never be a good time to write a book. He also has to consider the potential impact of a book project on his personal brand and the Mandalay company brand.
Authors :: Stephen A. Greyser, William Ellet, Nelson Gayton
Swot Analysis of "Peter Guber: The "Me" vs. "We" Brand" written by Stephen A. Greyser, William Ellet, Nelson Gayton includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Mandalay Guber facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Peter Guber: The "Me" vs. "We" Brand case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Competitive strategy, Decision making, Entrepreneurship, Leadership, Work-life balance and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Peter Guber: The "Me" vs. "We" Brand casestudy better are - – increasing commodity prices, increasing transportation and logistics costs, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , wage bills are increasing, geopolitical disruptions, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing household debt because of falling income levels,
there is increasing trade war between United States & China, there is backlash against globalization, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Peter Guber: The "Me" vs. "We" Brand
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Peter Guber: The "Me" vs. "We" Brand case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Mandalay Guber, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Mandalay Guber 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 Peter Guber: The "Me" vs. "We" Brand can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Peter Guber: The "Me" vs. "We" Brand case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Mandalay Guber
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 Mandalay Guber
Strengths Peter Guber: The "Me" vs. "We" Brand | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Mandalay Guber in Peter Guber: The "Me" vs. "We" Brand Harvard Business Review case study are -
Diverse revenue streams
– Mandalay Guber is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Peter Guber: The "Me" vs. "We" Brand 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Mandalay Guber has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Mandalay Guber 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.
Digital Transformation in Sales & Marketing segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Mandalay Guber digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Mandalay Guber 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.
Ability to lead change in Sales & Marketing field
– Mandalay Guber 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 Mandalay Guber in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Strong track record of project management
– Mandalay Guber is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Sales & Marketing industry
– Peter Guber: The "Me" vs. "We" Brand firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Mandalay Guber to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Mandalay Guber to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Mandalay Guber 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 Peter Guber: The "Me" vs. "We" Brand HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Learning organization
- Mandalay Guber 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 Mandalay Guber is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Peter Guber: The "Me" vs. "We" Brand Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Mandalay Guber in the sector have low bargaining power. Peter Guber: The "Me" vs. "We" Brand has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Mandalay Guber to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Mandalay Guber 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 Peter Guber: The "Me" vs. "We" Brand - 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
– Mandalay Guber has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Peter Guber: The "Me" vs. "We" Brand 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Mandalay Guber in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Weaknesses Peter Guber: The "Me" vs. "We" Brand | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Peter Guber: The "Me" vs. "We" Brand are -
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Mandalay Guber 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Mandalay Guber 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. Mandalay Guber 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Peter Guber: The "Me" vs. "We" Brand, it seems that the employees of Mandalay Guber 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 Peter Guber: The "Me" vs. "We" Brand, in the dynamic environment Mandalay Guber has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Mandalay Guber has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Peter Guber: The "Me" vs. "We" Brand 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 Mandalay Guber has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Need for greater diversity
– Mandalay Guber 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Mandalay Guber products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Mandalay Guber needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Mandalay Guber 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 operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Peter Guber: The "Me" vs. "We" Brand 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 Mandalay Guber 's lucrative customers.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Peter Guber: The "Me" vs. "We" Brand HBR case study mentions - Mandalay Guber takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the industry in last five years.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Mandalay Guber, firm in the HBR case study Peter Guber: The "Me" vs. "We" Brand needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Opportunities Peter Guber: The "Me" vs. "We" Brand | 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 Peter Guber: The "Me" vs. "We" Brand are -
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Mandalay Guber can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Mandalay Guber operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Sales & Marketing sector.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Mandalay Guber 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, Peter Guber: The "Me" vs. "We" Brand, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Developing new processes and practices
– Mandalay Guber 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Mandalay Guber 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Mandalay Guber 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Mandalay Guber can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Sales & Marketing segment. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Mandalay Guber can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
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. Mandalay Guber can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Mandalay Guber can leverage digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate the production process, customer analytics to get better insights into consumer behavior, realtime digital dashboards to get better sales tracking, logistics and transportation, product tracking, etc.
Loyalty marketing
– Mandalay Guber 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Mandalay Guber has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Mandalay Guber to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Peter Guber: The "Me" vs. "We" Brand case study. Mandalay Guber can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Mandalay Guber 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 Peter Guber: The "Me" vs. "We" Brand - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Mandalay Guber to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
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. Mandalay Guber 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. Mandalay Guber can further use this consumer data to build better customer loyalty, provide better products and service collection, and improve the value proposition in inflationary times.
Threats Peter Guber: The "Me" vs. "We" Brand External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Peter Guber: The "Me" vs. "We" Brand are -
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Mandalay Guber 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 Peter Guber: The "Me" vs. "We" Brand .
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 Mandalay Guber.
Increasing wage structure of Mandalay Guber
– 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 Mandalay Guber.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Mandalay Guber 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Mandalay Guber has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Sales & Marketing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Mandalay Guber 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.
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.
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. Mandalay Guber can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Environmental challenges
– Mandalay Guber 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. Mandalay Guber can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Mandalay Guber 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Peter Guber: The "Me" vs. "We" Brand, Mandalay Guber 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 .
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Mandalay Guber with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Mandalay Guber 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Mandalay Guber 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Peter Guber: The "Me" vs. "We" Brand 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 Peter Guber: The "Me" vs. "We" Brand 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 Peter Guber: The "Me" vs. "We" Brand 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 Peter Guber: The "Me" vs. "We" Brand 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 Peter Guber: The "Me" vs. "We" Brand 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 Mandalay Guber needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.