THE BULLARD HOUSES - Confidential Instructions for the Buyer's Representative SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
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Case Study Description of THE BULLARD HOUSES - Confidential Instructions for the Buyer's Representative
Confidential Instructions for the Buyer's Representative for product #PON124.Downtown Realty, Inc. owns the historic Bullard Houses, a set of 51 attached brownstones in the city of Gotham. The Houses, occupied for decades by the city's wealthy elite, have fallen into disrepair and are currently occupied only by a few low-income families. Downtown Realty has been prevented from demolishing the Houses by the Gothic Landmark Commission. Consequently, Downtown is eager to sell the property, and has several offers on the table. Downtown has not yet seen the offer of a fourth developer, Absentia, Ltd. Absentia is unfamiliar with Downtown's other offers, but is confident that its offer will be appealing, although it is unwilling to reveal its exact plans. The negotiation involves attorneys representing Downtown Realty and Absentia, Ltd. This is a role play case.
Swot Analysis of "THE BULLARD HOUSES - Confidential Instructions for the Buyer's Representative" written by Ron Karp, David Gold, Mox Tan includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Downtown Absentia facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in THE BULLARD HOUSES - Confidential Instructions for the Buyer's Representative case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Financial management, Government, Negotiations and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the THE BULLARD HOUSES - Confidential Instructions for the Buyer's Representative casestudy better are - – there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, there is backlash against globalization, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, geopolitical disruptions, increasing transportation and logistics costs, technology disruption,
increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing commodity prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of THE BULLARD HOUSES - Confidential Instructions for the Buyer's Representative
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in THE BULLARD HOUSES - Confidential Instructions for the Buyer's Representative case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Downtown Absentia, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Downtown Absentia 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 THE BULLARD HOUSES - Confidential Instructions for the Buyer's Representative can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in THE BULLARD HOUSES - Confidential Instructions for the Buyer's Representative case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Downtown Absentia
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 Downtown Absentia
Strengths THE BULLARD HOUSES - Confidential Instructions for the Buyer's Representative | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Downtown Absentia in THE BULLARD HOUSES - Confidential Instructions for the Buyer's Representative Harvard Business Review case study are -
High brand equity
– Downtown Absentia has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Downtown Absentia to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Digital Transformation in Strategy & Execution segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Downtown Absentia digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Downtown Absentia 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.
Analytics focus
– Downtown Absentia 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 Ron Karp, David Gold, Mox Tan 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Downtown Absentia has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Downtown Absentia 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Downtown Absentia 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 THE BULLARD HOUSES - Confidential Instructions for the Buyer's Representative - 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 switching costs
– The high switching costs that Downtown Absentia 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Downtown Absentia 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.
Learning organization
- Downtown Absentia 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 Downtown Absentia is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in THE BULLARD HOUSES - Confidential Instructions for the Buyer's Representative Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Downtown Absentia is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the THE BULLARD HOUSES - Confidential Instructions for the Buyer's Representative are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Downtown Absentia 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 THE BULLARD HOUSES - Confidential Instructions for the Buyer's Representative HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Strong track record of project management
– Downtown Absentia is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Organizational Resilience of Downtown Absentia
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Downtown Absentia does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Weaknesses THE BULLARD HOUSES - Confidential Instructions for the Buyer's Representative | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of THE BULLARD HOUSES - Confidential Instructions for the Buyer's Representative are -
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Downtown Absentia, firm in the HBR case study THE BULLARD HOUSES - Confidential Instructions for the Buyer's Representative needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study THE BULLARD HOUSES - Confidential Instructions for the Buyer's Representative, in the dynamic environment Downtown Absentia has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Downtown Absentia has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Downtown Absentia 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Downtown Absentia 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study THE BULLARD HOUSES - Confidential Instructions for the Buyer's Representative, it seems that the employees of Downtown Absentia 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Downtown Absentia 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Downtown Absentia 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Downtown Absentia products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Downtown Absentia needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study THE BULLARD HOUSES - Confidential Instructions for the Buyer's Representative, is just above the industry average. Downtown Absentia 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Downtown Absentia is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study THE BULLARD HOUSES - Confidential Instructions for the Buyer's Representative 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 cash cycle compare to competitors
Downtown Absentia 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 THE BULLARD HOUSES - Confidential Instructions for the Buyer's Representative | 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 THE BULLARD HOUSES - Confidential Instructions for the Buyer's Representative are -
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Downtown Absentia can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Downtown Absentia operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Strategy & Execution sector.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Downtown Absentia 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.
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. Downtown Absentia can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Buying journey improvements
– Downtown Absentia can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. THE BULLARD HOUSES - Confidential Instructions for the Buyer's Representative 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Downtown Absentia 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Downtown Absentia 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Strategy & Execution industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Downtown Absentia 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 Downtown Absentia 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 Downtown Absentia to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Loyalty marketing
– Downtown Absentia 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Downtown Absentia can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Strategy & Execution industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Downtown Absentia 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. Downtown Absentia 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Downtown Absentia 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Downtown Absentia has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Downtown Absentia to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the THE BULLARD HOUSES - Confidential Instructions for the Buyer's Representative case study. Downtown Absentia can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Threats THE BULLARD HOUSES - Confidential Instructions for the Buyer's Representative External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study THE BULLARD HOUSES - Confidential Instructions for the Buyer's Representative are -
Environmental challenges
– Downtown Absentia 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. Downtown Absentia can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Downtown Absentia has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Strategy & Execution industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Downtown Absentia 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Downtown Absentia with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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.
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 Downtown Absentia.
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 Downtown Absentia business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Downtown Absentia 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.
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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Downtown Absentia 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Downtown Absentia 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 THE BULLARD HOUSES - Confidential Instructions for the Buyer's Representative .
Regulatory challenges
– Downtown Absentia 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 Strategy & Execution industry regulations.
Increasing wage structure of Downtown Absentia
– 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 Downtown Absentia.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Downtown Absentia 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of THE BULLARD HOUSES - Confidential Instructions for the Buyer's Representative 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 THE BULLARD HOUSES - Confidential Instructions for the Buyer's Representative 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 THE BULLARD HOUSES - Confidential Instructions for the Buyer's Representative 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 THE BULLARD HOUSES - Confidential Instructions for the Buyer's Representative 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 THE BULLARD HOUSES - Confidential Instructions for the Buyer's Representative 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 Downtown Absentia needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.