State Street Corp.: Leading with Information Technology (B) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
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Case Study Description of State Street Corp.: Leading with Information Technology (B)
With Multi-currency HORIZON, a real-time multi-currency accounting system that replaced the traditional batch-oriented single-currency accounting system, successfully launched, State Street Corp. (State Street) began to focus on growing the scope of its business through new information-based value-added services. At an analyst meeting in May 1997, Marshall N. Carter, chairman and chief executive office of State Street, had announced that State Street's goal was to offer its customers a fully integrated range of products and services, from news and market data to trade settlement.
Swot Analysis of "State Street Corp.: Leading with Information Technology (B)" written by Stephen P. Bradley, Kelley Porter includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Street Currency facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in State Street Corp.: Leading with Information Technology (B) case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, IT and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the State Street Corp.: Leading with Information Technology (B) casestudy better are - – supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , wage bills are increasing, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, technology disruption, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, geopolitical disruptions,
cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, there is backlash against globalization, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of State Street Corp.: Leading with Information Technology (B)
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in State Street Corp.: Leading with Information Technology (B) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Street Currency, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Street Currency 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 State Street Corp.: Leading with Information Technology (B) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in State Street Corp.: Leading with Information Technology (B) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Street Currency
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 Street Currency
Strengths State Street Corp.: Leading with Information Technology (B) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Street Currency in State Street Corp.: Leading with Information Technology (B) Harvard Business Review case study are -
Innovation driven organization
– Street Currency is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in State Street Corp.: Leading with Information Technology (B) Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Digital Transformation in Strategy & Execution segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Street Currency digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Street Currency 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
– Street Currency 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 Stephen P. Bradley, Kelley Porter 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.
Training and development
– Street Currency has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in State Street Corp.: Leading with Information Technology (B) 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.
High brand equity
– Street Currency has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Street Currency to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Street Currency 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 State Street Corp.: Leading with Information Technology (B) - 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 Street Currency 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Strategy & Execution industry
– State Street Corp.: Leading with Information Technology (B) firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Street Currency to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Street Currency to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Ability to lead change in Strategy & Execution field
– Street Currency 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 Street Currency in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Street Currency in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Strong track record of project management
– Street Currency is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Learning organization
- Street Currency 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 Street Currency is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in State Street Corp.: Leading with Information Technology (B) Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Weaknesses State Street Corp.: Leading with Information Technology (B) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of State Street Corp.: Leading with Information Technology (B) are -
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Street Currency is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Strategy & Execution segment. Street Currency needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Street Currency to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As State Street Corp.: Leading with Information Technology (B) HBR case study mentions - Street Currency 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Street Currency 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Street Currency 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 State Street Corp.: Leading with Information Technology (B) 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 State Street Corp.: Leading with Information Technology (B) can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Street Currency is planning to shift buying processes online.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study State Street Corp.: Leading with Information Technology (B), it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Strategy & Execution 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Street Currency 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.
High dependence on existing supply chain
– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of Street Currency supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - State Street Corp.: Leading with Information Technology (B), it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Street Currency vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Lack of clear differentiation of Street Currency products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Street Currency needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Street Currency, firm in the HBR case study State Street Corp.: Leading with Information Technology (B) needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the State Street Corp.: Leading with Information Technology (B) 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 Street Currency has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Opportunities State Street Corp.: Leading with Information Technology (B) | 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 State Street Corp.: Leading with Information Technology (B) are -
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Street Currency 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Street Currency 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 Strategy & Execution industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Street Currency can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Street Currency is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. State Street Corp.: Leading with Information Technology (B) 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.
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 Street Currency in the consumer business. Now Street Currency can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
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. Street Currency 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. Street Currency 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Street Currency 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Street Currency has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Street Currency to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the State Street Corp.: Leading with Information Technology (B) case study. Street Currency can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Street Currency 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Street Currency 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 Street Currency to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Street Currency can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Street Currency 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. Street Currency can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Street Currency 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 State Street Corp.: Leading with Information Technology (B) - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Street Currency to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Threats State Street Corp.: Leading with Information Technology (B) External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study State Street Corp.: Leading with Information Technology (B) are -
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study State Street Corp.: Leading with Information Technology (B), Street Currency 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.
Environmental challenges
– Street Currency 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. Street Currency can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry.
Regulatory challenges
– Street Currency 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.
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 Street Currency.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Street Currency 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 State Street Corp.: Leading with Information Technology (B) .
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 Street Currency business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Street Currency with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Instability in the European markets
– European Union markets are facing three big challenges post Covid – expanded balance sheets, Brexit related business disruption, and aggressive Russia looking to distract the existing security mechanism. Street Currency 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
– Street Currency 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Street Currency is facing in Strategy & Execution sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Street Currency 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.
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 Street Currency in the Strategy & Execution sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of State Street Corp.: Leading with Information Technology (B) 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 State Street Corp.: Leading with Information Technology (B) 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 State Street Corp.: Leading with Information Technology (B) 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 State Street Corp.: Leading with Information Technology (B) 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 State Street Corp.: Leading with Information Technology (B) 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 Street Currency needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.