Kat Rose Inc. - Sponsoring All-Star Cricket: A Selling Dilemma SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Sales & Marketing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Kat Rose Inc. - Sponsoring All-Star Cricket: A Selling Dilemma
Headquartered in Mississauga, Ontario, Kat Rose was founded in 2009 to produce small strategic business conferences and corporate hospitality events. After mixed success, it was presented with an opportunity in 2011 to organize a cricket match in Toronto. Although sports were not on its radar, the company decided to use the project as a base for expansion. It put in place an aggressive advertising plan, largely aimed at South Asian and West Indian communities in the city who were fans of the game, and contracted Universal Productions, an ethnic marketing agency, to procure sponsorships. However, with only 10 weeks to go before the International Cricket All-Star T20 Match was scheduled to kick off on May 12, 2012 at the Rogers Centre, Toronto, only $60,000 had been raised; $750,000 was needed to break even. Management had four choices: give Universal Productions more time, offer it a financial incentive to step up performance, switch to another agency with a proven track record in this field or increase its own in-house sales force to focus on countertrade barter agreements. Each option required different skills, knowledge, experience and risk. Given the severe time constraint, any change must be implemented immediately. What should Kat Rose do?
Swot Analysis of "Kat Rose Inc. - Sponsoring All-Star Cricket: A Selling Dilemma" written by Michael Taylor, Syed Saad Karim includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Kat Cricket facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Kat Rose Inc. - Sponsoring All-Star Cricket: A Selling Dilemma case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Organizational culture and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Kat Rose Inc. - Sponsoring All-Star Cricket: A Selling Dilemma casestudy better are - – challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, there is backlash against globalization, increasing transportation and logistics costs, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, technology disruption, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation,
wage bills are increasing, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Kat Rose Inc. - Sponsoring All-Star Cricket: A Selling Dilemma
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Kat Rose Inc. - Sponsoring All-Star Cricket: A Selling Dilemma case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Kat Cricket, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Kat Cricket 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 Kat Rose Inc. - Sponsoring All-Star Cricket: A Selling Dilemma can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Kat Rose Inc. - Sponsoring All-Star Cricket: A Selling Dilemma case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Kat Cricket
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 Kat Cricket
Strengths Kat Rose Inc. - Sponsoring All-Star Cricket: A Selling Dilemma | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Kat Cricket in Kat Rose Inc. - Sponsoring All-Star Cricket: A Selling Dilemma Harvard Business Review case study are -
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Kat Rose Inc. - Sponsoring All-Star Cricket: A Selling Dilemma 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Kat Cricket 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 Kat Rose Inc. - Sponsoring All-Star Cricket: A Selling Dilemma HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Sales & Marketing industry
– Kat Rose Inc. - Sponsoring All-Star Cricket: A Selling Dilemma firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Kat Cricket to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Kat Cricket to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Strong track record of project management
– Kat Cricket is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Innovation driven organization
– Kat Cricket is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Kat Rose Inc. - Sponsoring All-Star Cricket: A Selling Dilemma Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Kat Cricket has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Kat Cricket 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Kat Cricket in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Kat Cricket in the sector have low bargaining power. Kat Rose Inc. - Sponsoring All-Star Cricket: A Selling Dilemma has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Kat Cricket to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Ability to lead change in Sales & Marketing field
– Kat Cricket 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 Kat Cricket in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
High brand equity
– Kat Cricket has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Kat Cricket to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Training and development
– Kat Cricket has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Kat Rose Inc. - Sponsoring All-Star Cricket: A Selling Dilemma 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Kat Cricket 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.
Weaknesses Kat Rose Inc. - Sponsoring All-Star Cricket: A Selling Dilemma | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Kat Rose Inc. - Sponsoring All-Star Cricket: A Selling Dilemma are -
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Kat Cricket has borrowed money from the capital market at higher rates. It needs to restructure the interest payment and costs so that it can compete better and improve profitability.
Lack of clear differentiation of Kat Cricket products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Kat Cricket needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Kat Rose Inc. - Sponsoring All-Star Cricket: A Selling Dilemma 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 Kat Cricket has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Kat Cricket is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Kat Rose Inc. - Sponsoring All-Star Cricket: A Selling Dilemma can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Michael Taylor, Syed Saad Karim suggests that, Kat Cricket 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Kat Rose Inc. - Sponsoring All-Star Cricket: A Selling Dilemma, in the dynamic environment Kat Cricket has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Kat Cricket has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Kat Rose Inc. - Sponsoring All-Star Cricket: A Selling Dilemma, is just above the industry average. Kat Cricket 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Kat Cricket 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Kat Rose Inc. - Sponsoring All-Star Cricket: A Selling Dilemma, 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Kat Cricket, firm in the HBR case study Kat Rose Inc. - Sponsoring All-Star Cricket: A Selling Dilemma needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Kat Cricket 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 Kat Rose Inc. - Sponsoring All-Star Cricket: A Selling Dilemma | 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 Kat Rose Inc. - Sponsoring All-Star Cricket: A Selling Dilemma are -
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Kat Cricket 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Kat Cricket to increase its market reach. Kat Cricket 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 Kat Cricket in the consumer business. Now Kat Cricket can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Developing new processes and practices
– Kat Cricket 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Kat Cricket 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Kat Cricket 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.
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. Kat Cricket can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Kat Cricket 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 Kat Rose Inc. - Sponsoring All-Star Cricket: A Selling Dilemma - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Kat Cricket to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Buying journey improvements
– Kat Cricket can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Kat Rose Inc. - Sponsoring All-Star Cricket: A Selling Dilemma 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.
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. Kat Cricket can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Kat Cricket is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Kat Rose Inc. - Sponsoring All-Star Cricket: A Selling Dilemma 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Kat Cricket has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Kat Cricket to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Kat Rose Inc. - Sponsoring All-Star Cricket: A Selling Dilemma case study. Kat Cricket can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Kat Cricket 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, Kat Rose Inc. - Sponsoring All-Star Cricket: A Selling Dilemma, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Threats Kat Rose Inc. - Sponsoring All-Star Cricket: A Selling Dilemma External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Kat Rose Inc. - Sponsoring All-Star Cricket: A Selling Dilemma are -
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Kat Cricket 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Kat Cricket 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Kat Cricket 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.
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 Kat Cricket.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Kat Rose Inc. - Sponsoring All-Star Cricket: A Selling Dilemma, Kat Cricket 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 Kat Cricket is facing in Sales & Marketing 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. Kat Cricket 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Kat Cricket 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Kat Cricket 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 international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Kat Cricket 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 Kat Rose Inc. - Sponsoring All-Star Cricket: A Selling Dilemma .
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Kat Cricket with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Environmental challenges
– Kat Cricket 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. Kat Cricket can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Kat Rose Inc. - Sponsoring All-Star Cricket: A Selling Dilemma 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 Kat Rose Inc. - Sponsoring All-Star Cricket: A Selling Dilemma 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 Kat Rose Inc. - Sponsoring All-Star Cricket: A Selling Dilemma 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 Kat Rose Inc. - Sponsoring All-Star Cricket: A Selling Dilemma 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 Kat Rose Inc. - Sponsoring All-Star Cricket: A Selling Dilemma 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 Kat Cricket needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.