Infineon Raceway (Sears Point Raceway): Marketing in the Motorsports World SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Sales & Marketing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Infineon Raceway (Sears Point Raceway): Marketing in the Motorsports World
This case describes the history, operations, and economics of Infineon Raceway (Sears Point Raceway) in Sonoma, California, and the challenges facing the racetrack as a result of the economic recession of 2008-9. The racetrack's most important race is a NASCAR Sprint Cup event. It also hosts IndyCar, NHRA drag races, and other events. Speedway Motorsports Inc. purchased the track in 1996, and made substantial a capital investment to improve the spectator experience. The track is heavily dependent, financially, on corporate sponsorship. Its naming rights agreement with Infineon Technologies was expiring in 2012, and many of its other corporate sponsors were cutting back or ending their sponsorships due to economic stress. The case describes the advantages of corporate sponsorship, and the ways in which a company can utilized sponsorship to build its brand, reward and motivate employees, drive retail traffic to stores and distributors, and entertain customers. The case includes a 10 page appendix with background information of the basic types of motor racing and descriptions of major racetracks in California.
Authors :: George Foster, Norm O'Reilly, David W. Hoyt
Swot Analysis of "Infineon Raceway (Sears Point Raceway): Marketing in the Motorsports World" written by George Foster, Norm O'Reilly, David W. Hoyt includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Raceway Infineon facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Infineon Raceway (Sears Point Raceway): Marketing in the Motorsports World case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Motivating people and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Infineon Raceway (Sears Point Raceway): Marketing in the Motorsports World casestudy better are - – technology disruption, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, wage bills are increasing, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%,
increasing energy prices, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Infineon Raceway (Sears Point Raceway): Marketing in the Motorsports World
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Infineon Raceway (Sears Point Raceway): Marketing in the Motorsports World case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Raceway Infineon, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Raceway Infineon 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 Infineon Raceway (Sears Point Raceway): Marketing in the Motorsports World can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Infineon Raceway (Sears Point Raceway): Marketing in the Motorsports World case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Raceway Infineon
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 Raceway Infineon
Strengths Infineon Raceway (Sears Point Raceway): Marketing in the Motorsports World | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Raceway Infineon in Infineon Raceway (Sears Point Raceway): Marketing in the Motorsports World Harvard Business Review case study are -
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Sales & Marketing industry
– Infineon Raceway (Sears Point Raceway): Marketing in the Motorsports World firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Raceway Infineon to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Raceway Infineon to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Raceway Infineon 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 Infineon Raceway (Sears Point Raceway): Marketing in the Motorsports World HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
High brand equity
– Raceway Infineon has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Raceway Infineon to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Raceway Infineon 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.
Training and development
– Raceway Infineon has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Infineon Raceway (Sears Point Raceway): Marketing in the Motorsports World 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Raceway Infineon is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Infineon Raceway (Sears Point Raceway): Marketing in the Motorsports World Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Organizational Resilience of Raceway Infineon
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Raceway Infineon does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Digital Transformation in Sales & Marketing segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Raceway Infineon digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Raceway Infineon 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Infineon Raceway (Sears Point Raceway): Marketing in the Motorsports World 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Raceway Infineon is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Infineon Raceway (Sears Point Raceway): Marketing in the Motorsports World 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Raceway Infineon 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Raceway Infineon is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Weaknesses Infineon Raceway (Sears Point Raceway): Marketing in the Motorsports World | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Infineon Raceway (Sears Point Raceway): Marketing in the Motorsports World are -
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Infineon Raceway (Sears Point Raceway): Marketing in the Motorsports World HBR case study mentions - Raceway Infineon 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 Raceway Infineon, firm in the HBR case study Infineon Raceway (Sears Point Raceway): Marketing in the Motorsports World needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Infineon Raceway (Sears Point Raceway): Marketing in the Motorsports World 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 Raceway Infineon has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Infineon Raceway (Sears Point Raceway): Marketing in the Motorsports World, in the dynamic environment Raceway Infineon has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Raceway Infineon has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Need for greater diversity
– Raceway Infineon 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Raceway Infineon needs to come up with a strategy to reduce the workers concern regarding automation. Without a clear strategy, it could lead to disruption and uncertainty within the organization.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, George Foster, Norm O'Reilly, David W. Hoyt suggests that, Raceway Infineon 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Infineon Raceway (Sears Point Raceway): Marketing in the Motorsports World, it seems that the employees of Raceway Infineon 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 cash cycle compare to competitors
Raceway Infineon 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Raceway Infineon products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Raceway Infineon needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Infineon Raceway (Sears Point Raceway): Marketing in the Motorsports World, 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.
Opportunities Infineon Raceway (Sears Point Raceway): Marketing in the Motorsports World | 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 Infineon Raceway (Sears Point Raceway): Marketing in the Motorsports World are -
Loyalty marketing
– Raceway Infineon 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.
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. Raceway Infineon 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. Raceway Infineon 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Sales & Marketing industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Raceway Infineon can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Raceway Infineon 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 Raceway Infineon to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Manufacturing automation
– Raceway Infineon 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Raceway Infineon can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Infineon Raceway (Sears Point Raceway): Marketing in the Motorsports World 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.
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 Raceway Infineon 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Raceway Infineon 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Raceway Infineon can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Raceway Infineon 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Raceway Infineon 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 Infineon Raceway (Sears Point Raceway): Marketing in the Motorsports World - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Raceway Infineon to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Raceway Infineon is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Infineon Raceway (Sears Point Raceway): Marketing in the Motorsports World 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Raceway Infineon 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.
Threats Infineon Raceway (Sears Point Raceway): Marketing in the Motorsports World External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Infineon Raceway (Sears Point Raceway): Marketing in the Motorsports World are -
New competition
– After the dotcom bust of 2001, financial crisis of 2008-09, the business formation in US economy had declined. But in 2020 alone, there are more than 1.5 million new business applications in United States. This can lead to greater competition for Raceway Infineon in the Sales & Marketing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Increasing wage structure of Raceway Infineon
– 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 Raceway Infineon.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Raceway Infineon with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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. Raceway Infineon 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Raceway Infineon 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 Infineon Raceway (Sears Point Raceway): Marketing in the Motorsports World .
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Raceway Infineon is facing in Sales & Marketing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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 Raceway Infineon.
Environmental challenges
– Raceway Infineon 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. Raceway Infineon can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.
Regulatory challenges
– Raceway Infineon 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.
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 Raceway Infineon 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. Raceway Infineon can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Raceway Infineon 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 Infineon Raceway (Sears Point Raceway): Marketing in the Motorsports World, Raceway Infineon 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 .
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Infineon Raceway (Sears Point Raceway): Marketing in the Motorsports World 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 Infineon Raceway (Sears Point Raceway): Marketing in the Motorsports World 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 Infineon Raceway (Sears Point Raceway): Marketing in the Motorsports World 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 Infineon Raceway (Sears Point Raceway): Marketing in the Motorsports World 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 Infineon Raceway (Sears Point Raceway): Marketing in the Motorsports World 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 Raceway Infineon needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
