Raise Your Glasses - The Water's Magic! Strategic IT At SA Water: A Case Study In Alignment, Outsourcing and Governance SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Strategy & Execution
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Raise Your Glasses - The Water's Magic! Strategic IT At SA Water: A Case Study In Alignment, Outsourcing and Governance
The South Australian Water case study illustrates the management challenges in aligning Information Technology with business objectives in a publicly owned corporation. To achieve the alignment, the new CIO begins by refreshing the IT infrastructure to support the required business applications. When the Government establishes 'Improved water quality' as a major corporate goal, the CIO seeks to add value to the business by developing a quality reporting system that leverages the existing technology. At the same time, he demonstrates to the corporation the IT function's capability to deliver business value through the management of multiple outsourcing vendors.
Authors :: Alan Thorogood, Phillip Yetton, Anthony Vlasic, Joan Spiller
Swot Analysis of "Raise Your Glasses - The Water's Magic! Strategic IT At SA Water: A Case Study In Alignment, Outsourcing and Governance" written by Alan Thorogood, Phillip Yetton, Anthony Vlasic, Joan Spiller includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Water Cio facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Raise Your Glasses - The Water's Magic! Strategic IT At SA Water: A Case Study In Alignment, Outsourcing and Governance case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Project management, Strategy and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Raise Your Glasses - The Water's Magic! Strategic IT At SA Water: A Case Study In Alignment, Outsourcing and Governance casestudy better are - – customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing commodity prices, wage bills are increasing, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models,
increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, technology disruption, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Raise Your Glasses - The Water's Magic! Strategic IT At SA Water: A Case Study In Alignment, Outsourcing and Governance
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Raise Your Glasses - The Water's Magic! Strategic IT At SA Water: A Case Study In Alignment, Outsourcing and Governance case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Water Cio, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Water Cio 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 Raise Your Glasses - The Water's Magic! Strategic IT At SA Water: A Case Study In Alignment, Outsourcing and Governance can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Raise Your Glasses - The Water's Magic! Strategic IT At SA Water: A Case Study In Alignment, Outsourcing and Governance case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Water Cio
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 Water Cio
Strengths Raise Your Glasses - The Water's Magic! Strategic IT At SA Water: A Case Study In Alignment, Outsourcing and Governance | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Water Cio in Raise Your Glasses - The Water's Magic! Strategic IT At SA Water: A Case Study In Alignment, Outsourcing and Governance Harvard Business Review case study are -
Highly skilled collaborators
– Water Cio 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 Raise Your Glasses - The Water's Magic! Strategic IT At SA Water: A Case Study In Alignment, Outsourcing and Governance HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Ability to lead change in Strategy & Execution field
– Water Cio 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 Water Cio in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Water Cio 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 Raise Your Glasses - The Water's Magic! Strategic IT At SA Water: A Case Study In Alignment, Outsourcing and Governance - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
High brand equity
– Water Cio has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Water Cio to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Analytics focus
– Water Cio 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 Alan Thorogood, Phillip Yetton, Anthony Vlasic, Joan Spiller 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.
Digital Transformation in Strategy & Execution segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Water Cio digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Water Cio 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Water Cio is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Raise Your Glasses - The Water's Magic! Strategic IT At SA Water: A Case Study In Alignment, Outsourcing and Governance Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Strong track record of project management
– Water Cio is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Water Cio 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.
Organizational Resilience of Water Cio
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Water Cio does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Water Cio in the sector have low bargaining power. Raise Your Glasses - The Water's Magic! Strategic IT At SA Water: A Case Study In Alignment, Outsourcing and Governance has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Water Cio to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Training and development
– Water Cio has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Raise Your Glasses - The Water's Magic! Strategic IT At SA Water: A Case Study In Alignment, Outsourcing and Governance 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.
Weaknesses Raise Your Glasses - The Water's Magic! Strategic IT At SA Water: A Case Study In Alignment, Outsourcing and Governance | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Raise Your Glasses - The Water's Magic! Strategic IT At SA Water: A Case Study In Alignment, Outsourcing and Governance are -
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Raise Your Glasses - The Water's Magic! Strategic IT At SA Water: A Case Study In Alignment, Outsourcing and Governance, is just above the industry average. Water Cio 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Water Cio 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Water Cio 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Raise Your Glasses - The Water's Magic! Strategic IT At SA Water: A Case Study In Alignment, Outsourcing and Governance 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 Raise Your Glasses - The Water's Magic! Strategic IT At SA Water: A Case Study In Alignment, Outsourcing and Governance can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Water Cio is planning to shift buying processes online.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Raise Your Glasses - The Water's Magic! Strategic IT At SA Water: A Case Study In Alignment, Outsourcing and Governance has high operating costs in the. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Water Cio 's lucrative customers.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Water Cio is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Strategy & Execution segment. Water Cio needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Water Cio to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Water Cio has created an environment where the organization is dominated by functional specialists rather than management generalist. This has resulted into product oriented approach rather than marketing oriented approach or consumers oriented approach.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Raise Your Glasses - The Water's Magic! Strategic IT At SA Water: A Case Study In Alignment, Outsourcing and Governance 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 Water Cio has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Water Cio 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Water Cio 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 - Raise Your Glasses - The Water's Magic! Strategic IT At SA Water: A Case Study In Alignment, Outsourcing and Governance should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Raise Your Glasses - The Water's Magic! Strategic IT At SA Water: A Case Study In Alignment, Outsourcing and Governance HBR case study mentions - Water Cio 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.
Opportunities Raise Your Glasses - The Water's Magic! Strategic IT At SA Water: A Case Study In Alignment, Outsourcing and Governance | 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 Raise Your Glasses - The Water's Magic! Strategic IT At SA Water: A Case Study In Alignment, Outsourcing and Governance are -
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Water Cio 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Water Cio can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Water Cio operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Strategy & Execution sector.
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. Water Cio can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Water Cio 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, Raise Your Glasses - The Water's Magic! Strategic IT At SA Water: A Case Study In Alignment, Outsourcing and Governance, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Water Cio 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Water Cio 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Water Cio 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Water Cio 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Water Cio can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Raise Your Glasses - The Water's Magic! Strategic IT At SA Water: A Case Study In Alignment, Outsourcing and Governance 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 Water Cio to increase its market reach. Water Cio 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Water Cio in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Strategy & Execution segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Water Cio 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 Raise Your Glasses - The Water's Magic! Strategic IT At SA Water: A Case Study In Alignment, Outsourcing and Governance - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Water Cio to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Water Cio can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Threats Raise Your Glasses - The Water's Magic! Strategic IT At SA Water: A Case Study In Alignment, Outsourcing and Governance External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Raise Your Glasses - The Water's Magic! Strategic IT At SA Water: A Case Study In Alignment, Outsourcing and Governance are -
Increasing wage structure of Water Cio
– 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 Water Cio.
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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Raise Your Glasses - The Water's Magic! Strategic IT At SA Water: A Case Study In Alignment, Outsourcing and Governance, Water Cio 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 .
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 Water Cio business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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.
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. Water Cio needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Strategy & Execution industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Water Cio 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Water Cio with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Water Cio is facing in Strategy & Execution sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Water Cio in the Strategy & Execution industry. The Strategy & Execution 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Water Cio 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 Raise Your Glasses - The Water's Magic! Strategic IT At SA Water: A Case Study In Alignment, Outsourcing and Governance .
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 Water Cio in the Strategy & Execution sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Water Cio 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Raise Your Glasses - The Water's Magic! Strategic IT At SA Water: A Case Study In Alignment, Outsourcing and Governance 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 Raise Your Glasses - The Water's Magic! Strategic IT At SA Water: A Case Study In Alignment, Outsourcing and Governance 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 Raise Your Glasses - The Water's Magic! Strategic IT At SA Water: A Case Study In Alignment, Outsourcing and Governance 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 Raise Your Glasses - The Water's Magic! Strategic IT At SA Water: A Case Study In Alignment, Outsourcing and Governance 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 Raise Your Glasses - The Water's Magic! Strategic IT At SA Water: A Case Study In Alignment, Outsourcing and Governance 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 Water Cio needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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