INSEAD: One School, Two Campuses - Going to Asia SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Strategy & Execution
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of INSEAD: One School, Two Campuses - Going to Asia
In June 1998, The Board of Directors of INSEAD, a leading international business school based in Fontainebleau (France) had to decide to proceed with an investment in a second campus in Singapore. Over the past 20 years INSEAD had established an international reputation and had developed some expertise on Asian business. The case presents the history of the project, the process by which the idea was transformed into an investment proposal and presents various views on the potential and risks of such development. FOR INSTRUCTORS: A supplement to the teaching note (INS719) for this case is available. Click on the "Teaching Note" section.
Authors :: Philippe Lasserre, Sam Garg, Arnoud De Meyer
Swot Analysis of "INSEAD: One School, Two Campuses - Going to Asia" written by Philippe Lasserre, Sam Garg, Arnoud De Meyer includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Insead Fontainebleau facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in INSEAD: One School, Two Campuses - Going to Asia case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Strategic planning and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the INSEAD: One School, Two Campuses - Going to Asia casestudy better are - – increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, wage bills are increasing, technology disruption, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, there is backlash against globalization, increasing energy prices,
competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of INSEAD: One School, Two Campuses - Going to Asia
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in INSEAD: One School, Two Campuses - Going to Asia case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Insead Fontainebleau, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Insead Fontainebleau 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 INSEAD: One School, Two Campuses - Going to Asia can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in INSEAD: One School, Two Campuses - Going to Asia case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Insead Fontainebleau
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Strategy & Execution field.
4. Making a Strategy & Execution topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Insead Fontainebleau
Strengths INSEAD: One School, Two Campuses - Going to Asia | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Insead Fontainebleau in INSEAD: One School, Two Campuses - Going to Asia Harvard Business Review case study are -
Learning organization
- Insead Fontainebleau 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 Insead Fontainebleau is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in INSEAD: One School, Two Campuses - Going to Asia Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Insead Fontainebleau is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the INSEAD: One School, Two Campuses - Going to Asia are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Insead Fontainebleau 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 INSEAD: One School, Two Campuses - Going to Asia - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Insead Fontainebleau 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.
Ability to lead change in Strategy & Execution field
– Insead Fontainebleau 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 Insead Fontainebleau in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Analytics focus
– Insead Fontainebleau 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 Philippe Lasserre, Sam Garg, Arnoud De Meyer 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.
High brand equity
– Insead Fontainebleau has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Insead Fontainebleau to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Training and development
– Insead Fontainebleau has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in INSEAD: One School, Two Campuses - Going to Asia Harvard Business Review case study by analyzing – employees retention, in-house promotion, loyalty, new venture initiation, lack of conflict, and high level of both employees and customer engagement.
Diverse revenue streams
– Insead Fontainebleau is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in INSEAD: One School, Two Campuses - Going to Asia 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Insead Fontainebleau 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 INSEAD: One School, Two Campuses - Going to Asia HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Insead Fontainebleau 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the INSEAD: One School, Two Campuses - Going to Asia 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.
Weaknesses INSEAD: One School, Two Campuses - Going to Asia | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of INSEAD: One School, Two Campuses - Going to Asia are -
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Insead Fontainebleau 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Insead Fontainebleau 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. Insead Fontainebleau 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Insead Fontainebleau products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Insead Fontainebleau needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Philippe Lasserre, Sam Garg, Arnoud De Meyer suggests that, Insead Fontainebleau 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Insead Fontainebleau 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study INSEAD: One School, Two Campuses - Going to Asia 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 INSEAD: One School, Two Campuses - Going to Asia can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Insead Fontainebleau is planning to shift buying processes online.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Insead Fontainebleau 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 - INSEAD: One School, Two Campuses - Going to Asia should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Insead Fontainebleau has not been able to do capital spending to the tune of the competition. This has resulted into fewer innovations and company facing stiff competition from both existing competitors and new entrants who are disrupting the industry using digital technology.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Insead Fontainebleau 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study INSEAD: One School, Two Campuses - Going to Asia, in the dynamic environment Insead Fontainebleau has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Insead Fontainebleau has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Insead Fontainebleau, firm in the HBR case study INSEAD: One School, Two Campuses - Going to Asia needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Opportunities INSEAD: One School, Two Campuses - Going to Asia | 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 INSEAD: One School, Two Campuses - Going to Asia are -
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 Insead Fontainebleau in the consumer business. Now Insead Fontainebleau 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. Insead Fontainebleau can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Developing new processes and practices
– Insead Fontainebleau can develop new processes and procedures in Strategy & Execution 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Insead Fontainebleau can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Insead Fontainebleau operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Strategy & Execution sector.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Insead Fontainebleau 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 Insead Fontainebleau to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Loyalty marketing
– Insead Fontainebleau 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Insead Fontainebleau can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Strategy & Execution 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
– Insead Fontainebleau can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. INSEAD: One School, Two Campuses - Going to Asia 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Insead Fontainebleau to increase its market reach. Insead Fontainebleau 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Insead Fontainebleau 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Insead Fontainebleau 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 Strategy & Execution segment.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Insead Fontainebleau 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 INSEAD: One School, Two Campuses - Going to Asia - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Insead Fontainebleau to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Insead Fontainebleau 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.
Threats INSEAD: One School, Two Campuses - Going to Asia External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study INSEAD: One School, Two Campuses - Going to Asia 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 Insead Fontainebleau in the Strategy & Execution sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Insead Fontainebleau is facing in Strategy & Execution sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Insead Fontainebleau 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 INSEAD: One School, Two Campuses - Going to Asia .
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. Insead Fontainebleau 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Insead Fontainebleau 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Insead Fontainebleau has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Strategy & Execution industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Insead Fontainebleau needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Strategy & Execution 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Insead Fontainebleau 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.
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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Insead Fontainebleau with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study INSEAD: One School, Two Campuses - Going to Asia, Insead Fontainebleau may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Strategy & Execution .
Technology disruption because of hacks, piracy etc
– The colonial pipeline illustrated, how vulnerable modern organization are to international hackers, miscreants, and disruptors. The cyber security interruption, data leaks, etc can seriously jeopardize the future growth of the organization.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Insead Fontainebleau 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.
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 Insead Fontainebleau.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of INSEAD: One School, Two Campuses - Going to Asia 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 INSEAD: One School, Two Campuses - Going to Asia 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 INSEAD: One School, Two Campuses - Going to Asia 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 INSEAD: One School, Two Campuses - Going to Asia 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 INSEAD: One School, Two Campuses - Going to Asia 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 Insead Fontainebleau needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.