Royal Reels: Enhancing the Customer Experience for Slot Machines and Beyond SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Sales & Marketing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Royal Reels: Enhancing the Customer Experience for Slot Machines and Beyond
CEO Richard Gedman has suddenly found himself running two separate but potentially related businesses: the slot manufacturing and marketing business that he has been running for years, and a new online and mobile gaming business that has grown incredibly fast over the past couple of years. To sustain success in both businesses, it seems clear that each one will require significant R&D investments. Should he invest in only one or both?
Swot Analysis of "Royal Reels: Enhancing the Customer Experience for Slot Machines and Beyond" written by Kent Grayson includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Slot Gedman facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Royal Reels: Enhancing the Customer Experience for Slot Machines and Beyond case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Product development and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Royal Reels: Enhancing the Customer Experience for Slot Machines and Beyond casestudy better are - – challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, geopolitical disruptions, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, there is backlash against globalization, technology disruption,
digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, wage bills are increasing, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Royal Reels: Enhancing the Customer Experience for Slot Machines and Beyond
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Royal Reels: Enhancing the Customer Experience for Slot Machines and Beyond case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Slot Gedman, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Slot Gedman 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 Royal Reels: Enhancing the Customer Experience for Slot Machines and Beyond can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Royal Reels: Enhancing the Customer Experience for Slot Machines and Beyond case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Slot Gedman
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 Slot Gedman
Strengths Royal Reels: Enhancing the Customer Experience for Slot Machines and Beyond | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Slot Gedman in Royal Reels: Enhancing the Customer Experience for Slot Machines and Beyond Harvard Business Review case study are -
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Slot Gedman 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
– Slot Gedman is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Slot Gedman has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Slot Gedman 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Slot Gedman is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Royal Reels: Enhancing the Customer Experience for Slot Machines and Beyond Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Slot Gedman 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Sales & Marketing industry
– Royal Reels: Enhancing the Customer Experience for Slot Machines and Beyond firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Slot Gedman to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Slot Gedman to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Analytics focus
– Slot Gedman 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 Kent Grayson 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.
Organizational Resilience of Slot Gedman
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Slot Gedman does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Slot Gedman 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 Royal Reels: Enhancing the Customer Experience for Slot Machines and Beyond HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Slot Gedman 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 Royal Reels: Enhancing the Customer Experience for Slot Machines and Beyond - 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
– Slot Gedman is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Royal Reels: Enhancing the Customer Experience for Slot Machines and Beyond are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Diverse revenue streams
– Slot Gedman is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Royal Reels: Enhancing the Customer Experience for Slot Machines and Beyond 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.
Weaknesses Royal Reels: Enhancing the Customer Experience for Slot Machines and Beyond | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Royal Reels: Enhancing the Customer Experience for Slot Machines and Beyond are -
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Slot Gedman is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Sales & Marketing segment. Slot Gedman needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Slot Gedman to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Royal Reels: Enhancing the Customer Experience for Slot Machines and Beyond 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 Royal Reels: Enhancing the Customer Experience for Slot Machines and Beyond can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Slot Gedman is planning to shift buying processes online.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Slot Gedman, firm in the HBR case study Royal Reels: Enhancing the Customer Experience for Slot Machines and Beyond needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Slot Gedman 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 - Royal Reels: Enhancing the Customer Experience for Slot Machines and Beyond 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 Royal Reels: Enhancing the Customer Experience for Slot Machines and Beyond, it seems that the employees of Slot Gedman 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Kent Grayson suggests that, Slot Gedman 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.
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 Slot Gedman supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Royal Reels: Enhancing the Customer Experience for Slot Machines and Beyond, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Slot Gedman vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Royal Reels: Enhancing the Customer Experience for Slot Machines and Beyond 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 Slot Gedman has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Royal Reels: Enhancing the Customer Experience for Slot Machines and Beyond, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Sales & Marketing 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Slot Gedman 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 cash cycle compare to competitors
Slot Gedman 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.
Opportunities Royal Reels: Enhancing the Customer Experience for Slot Machines and Beyond | 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 Royal Reels: Enhancing the Customer Experience for Slot Machines and Beyond are -
Leveraging digital technologies
– Slot Gedman 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Slot Gedman 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Slot Gedman 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Slot Gedman is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Royal Reels: Enhancing the Customer Experience for Slot Machines and Beyond 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Slot Gedman to increase its market reach. Slot Gedman 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.
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 Slot Gedman in the consumer business. Now Slot Gedman can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
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. Slot Gedman can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Developing new processes and practices
– Slot Gedman 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Slot Gedman 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 Slot Gedman to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Slot Gedman 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Slot Gedman has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Slot Gedman to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Royal Reels: Enhancing the Customer Experience for Slot Machines and Beyond case study. Slot Gedman can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Loyalty marketing
– Slot Gedman 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Slot Gedman 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 Royal Reels: Enhancing the Customer Experience for Slot Machines and Beyond - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Slot Gedman to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Threats Royal Reels: Enhancing the Customer Experience for Slot Machines and Beyond External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Royal Reels: Enhancing the Customer Experience for Slot Machines and Beyond are -
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Slot Gedman 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 Royal Reels: Enhancing the Customer Experience for Slot Machines and Beyond .
Consumer confidence and its impact on Slot Gedman 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.
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.
Increasing wage structure of Slot Gedman
– 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 Slot Gedman.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Royal Reels: Enhancing the Customer Experience for Slot Machines and Beyond, Slot Gedman 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 .
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Slot Gedman is facing in Sales & Marketing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Regulatory challenges
– Slot Gedman 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Slot Gedman with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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 Slot Gedman in the Sales & Marketing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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 Slot Gedman.
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. Slot Gedman needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Sales & Marketing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Environmental challenges
– Slot Gedman 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. Slot Gedman can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.
Backlash against dominant players
– US Congress and other legislative arms of the government are getting tough on big business especially technology companies. The digital arm of Slot Gedman business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Royal Reels: Enhancing the Customer Experience for Slot Machines and Beyond 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 Royal Reels: Enhancing the Customer Experience for Slot Machines and Beyond 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 Royal Reels: Enhancing the Customer Experience for Slot Machines and Beyond 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 Royal Reels: Enhancing the Customer Experience for Slot Machines and Beyond 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 Royal Reels: Enhancing the Customer Experience for Slot Machines and Beyond 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 Slot Gedman needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
