Note on Setting the Scope of Your Business SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Strategy & Execution
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Note on Setting the Scope of Your Business
The purpose of this note is to consider the decisions that firms' leaders make about the scope of their business. It examines three companies--Domino's Pizza, General Mills, and General Electric--who define their businesses in different ways and asks students to evaluate them from the perspective of a potential investor. They should consider the following: What does the company do? What does it sell, and how does it make money? Does the company operate in more than one line of business, and why? Which of its products or businesses make money? What are its prospects for the future? Why does each company exist in its form (i.e. Why are their lines of businesses under the control of one firm)? This short note gives students an introduction to thinking about firms from a managerial/strategic level. This case is included in Module 1 of the course Business Thought & Action.
Swot Analysis of "Note on Setting the Scope of Your Business" written by Scott A. Moore includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Businesses Scope facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Note on Setting the Scope of Your Business case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Financial management, Growth strategy, Product development and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Note on Setting the Scope of Your Business casestudy better are - – central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, geopolitical disruptions, increasing commodity prices, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models,
challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Note on Setting the Scope of Your Business
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Note on Setting the Scope of Your Business case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Businesses Scope, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Businesses Scope 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 Note on Setting the Scope of Your Business can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Note on Setting the Scope of Your Business case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Businesses Scope
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 Businesses Scope
Strengths Note on Setting the Scope of Your Business | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Businesses Scope in Note on Setting the Scope of Your Business Harvard Business Review case study are -
Innovation driven organization
– Businesses Scope is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Note on Setting the Scope of Your Business Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Businesses Scope has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Businesses Scope 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.
Organizational Resilience of Businesses Scope
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Businesses Scope does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Learning organization
- Businesses Scope 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 Businesses Scope is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Note on Setting the Scope of Your Business Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Strategy & Execution industry
– Note on Setting the Scope of Your Business firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Businesses Scope to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Businesses Scope to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Note on Setting the Scope of Your Business 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Businesses Scope 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 Note on Setting the Scope of Your Business - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Analytics focus
– Businesses Scope 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 Scott A. Moore 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
– Businesses Scope has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Businesses Scope to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Businesses Scope in the sector have low bargaining power. Note on Setting the Scope of Your Business has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Businesses Scope to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Digital Transformation in Strategy & Execution segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Businesses Scope digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Businesses Scope 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.
Training and development
– Businesses Scope has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Note on Setting the Scope of Your Business 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 Note on Setting the Scope of Your Business | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Note on Setting the Scope of Your Business are -
Need for greater diversity
– Businesses Scope 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Note on Setting the Scope of Your Business, in the dynamic environment Businesses Scope has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Businesses Scope has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Businesses Scope is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Note on Setting the Scope of Your Business can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Businesses Scope 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, Businesses Scope 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, Businesses Scope 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Note on Setting the Scope of Your Business HBR case study mentions - Businesses Scope 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Businesses Scope is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Strategy & Execution segment. Businesses Scope needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Businesses Scope to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Note on Setting the Scope of Your Business 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 Businesses Scope has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Businesses Scope 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 - Note on Setting the Scope of Your Business should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Businesses Scope, firm in the HBR case study Note on Setting the Scope of Your Business needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Opportunities Note on Setting the Scope of Your Business | 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 Note on Setting the Scope of Your Business are -
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Businesses Scope 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 Note on Setting the Scope of Your Business - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Businesses Scope to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Buying journey improvements
– Businesses Scope can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Note on Setting the Scope of Your Business 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.
Reconfiguring business model
– The expansion of digital payment system, the bringing down of international transactions costs using Bitcoin and other blockchain based currencies, etc can help Businesses Scope to reconfigure its entire business model. For example it can used blockchain based technologies to reduce piracy of its products in the big markets such as China. Secondly it can use the popularity of e-commerce in various developing markets to build a Direct to Customer business model rather than the current Channel Heavy distribution network.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Businesses Scope 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Businesses Scope 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Businesses Scope is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Note on Setting the Scope of Your Business 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Businesses Scope 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 Businesses Scope has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Businesses Scope to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Note on Setting the Scope of Your Business case study. Businesses Scope can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
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. Businesses Scope 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. Businesses Scope 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.
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 Businesses Scope in the consumer business. Now Businesses Scope can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Businesses Scope to increase its market reach. Businesses Scope 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Businesses Scope can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Businesses Scope operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Strategy & Execution sector.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Businesses Scope 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.
Threats Note on Setting the Scope of Your Business External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Note on Setting the Scope of Your Business are -
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Strategy & Execution field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Businesses Scope can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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 Businesses Scope business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Environmental challenges
– Businesses Scope 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. Businesses Scope can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry.
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 Businesses Scope in the Strategy & Execution sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Businesses Scope 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.
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. Businesses Scope needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Strategy & Execution industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Businesses Scope 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Businesses Scope 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 wage structure of Businesses Scope
– 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 Businesses Scope.
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. Businesses Scope 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.
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 Businesses Scope with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Note on Setting the Scope of Your Business 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 Note on Setting the Scope of Your Business 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 Note on Setting the Scope of Your Business 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 Note on Setting the Scope of Your Business 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 Note on Setting the Scope of Your Business 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 Businesses Scope needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
