Wildcat Capital Investors: Real Estate Private Equity SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Finance & Accounting
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Wildcat Capital Investors: Real Estate Private Equity
Wildcat Capital Investors is a small real estate private equity company. Its MBA intern, Jessica Zaski, is asked to develop a financial model for the purchase of Financial Commons, a 90,000 square foot office building in suburban Chicago. By simple metrics, the property seems to be a good value, but with credit conditions tight, Jessica must consider whether outside investors would be comfortable with the risks of investing in the midst of a severe commercial real estate downturn. Wildcat is designed to give students exposure to both the quantitative and qualitative aspects of investing in commercial real estate through a private equity structure. Beyond the numbers, the case allows for a discussion of the process of finding suitable real estate investments. The importance of the simultaneous negotiations that Wildcat must have with the seller, the lender, and the outside investor can be emphasized.
Swot Analysis of "Wildcat Capital Investors: Real Estate Private Equity" written by Craig Furfine includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Wildcat Estate facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Wildcat Capital Investors: Real Estate Private Equity case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Financial management and Finance & Accounting.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Wildcat Capital Investors: Real Estate Private Equity casestudy better are - – increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing energy prices, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing commodity prices,
talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, wage bills are increasing, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Wildcat Capital Investors: Real Estate Private Equity
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Wildcat Capital Investors: Real Estate Private Equity case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Wildcat Estate, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Wildcat Estate 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 Wildcat Capital Investors: Real Estate Private Equity can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Wildcat Capital Investors: Real Estate Private Equity case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Wildcat Estate
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Finance & Accounting field.
4. Making a Finance & Accounting topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Wildcat Estate
Strengths Wildcat Capital Investors: Real Estate Private Equity | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Wildcat Estate in Wildcat Capital Investors: Real Estate Private Equity Harvard Business Review case study are -
Ability to lead change in Finance & Accounting field
– Wildcat Estate 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 Wildcat Estate in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Diverse revenue streams
– Wildcat Estate is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Wildcat Capital Investors: Real Estate Private Equity case study a diverse revenue stream that has helped it to survive disruptions such as global pandemic in Covid-19, financial disruption of 2008, and supply chain disruption of 2021.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Wildcat Estate is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Wildcat Capital Investors: Real Estate Private Equity are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Wildcat Capital Investors: Real Estate Private Equity 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.
Training and development
– Wildcat Estate has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Wildcat Capital Investors: Real Estate Private Equity 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Wildcat Estate is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Wildcat Estate 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 Wildcat Capital Investors: Real Estate Private Equity - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Finance & Accounting industry
– Wildcat Capital Investors: Real Estate Private Equity firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Wildcat Estate to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Finance & Accounting industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Wildcat Estate to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Learning organization
- Wildcat Estate 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 Wildcat Estate is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Wildcat Capital Investors: Real Estate Private Equity Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Wildcat Estate in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Organizational Resilience of Wildcat Estate
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Wildcat Estate does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Innovation driven organization
– Wildcat Estate is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Wildcat Capital Investors: Real Estate Private Equity Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Weaknesses Wildcat Capital Investors: Real Estate Private Equity | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Wildcat Capital Investors: Real Estate Private Equity are -
Products dominated business model
– Even though Wildcat Estate 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 - Wildcat Capital Investors: Real Estate Private Equity should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Wildcat Estate 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Wildcat Capital Investors: Real Estate Private Equity, it seems that the employees of Wildcat Estate 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Wildcat Estate has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the industry over the last five years. Wildcat Estate even though has strong showing on digital transformation primary two stages, it has struggled to capitalize the power of digital transformation in marketing efforts and new venture efforts.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Wildcat Estate is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Finance & Accounting segment. Wildcat Estate needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Wildcat Estate to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Wildcat Estate, firm in the HBR case study Wildcat Capital Investors: Real Estate Private Equity needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Lack of clear differentiation of Wildcat Estate products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Wildcat Estate needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Wildcat Capital Investors: Real Estate Private Equity 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 Wildcat Estate has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Wildcat Estate has borrowed money from the capital market at higher rates. It needs to restructure the interest payment and costs so that it can compete better and improve profitability.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Wildcat Estate is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Wildcat Capital Investors: Real Estate Private Equity can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Wildcat Capital Investors: Real Estate Private Equity, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Finance & Accounting 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.
Opportunities Wildcat Capital Investors: Real Estate Private Equity | 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 Wildcat Capital Investors: Real Estate Private Equity are -
Loyalty marketing
– Wildcat Estate 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Wildcat Estate can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Wildcat Estate operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Finance & Accounting sector.
Buying journey improvements
– Wildcat Estate can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Wildcat Capital Investors: Real Estate Private Equity 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Wildcat Estate 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, Wildcat Capital Investors: Real Estate Private Equity, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Wildcat Estate 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. Wildcat Estate can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Wildcat Estate 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 Finance & Accounting segment.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Finance & Accounting industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Wildcat Estate 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. Wildcat Estate 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Wildcat Estate 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Wildcat Estate to increase its market reach. Wildcat Estate 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Wildcat Estate has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Wildcat Estate to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Wildcat Capital Investors: Real Estate Private Equity case study. Wildcat Estate 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 Wildcat Estate in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Finance & Accounting 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 Wildcat Estate 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 Wildcat Estate to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Threats Wildcat Capital Investors: Real Estate Private Equity External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Wildcat Capital Investors: Real Estate Private Equity are -
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Wildcat Estate 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Wildcat Estate 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 Wildcat Capital Investors: Real Estate Private Equity .
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Wildcat Estate 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Wildcat Capital Investors: Real Estate Private Equity, Wildcat Estate may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Finance & Accounting .
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.
Increasing wage structure of Wildcat Estate
– 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 Wildcat Estate.
Environmental challenges
– Wildcat Estate 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. Wildcat Estate can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Finance & Accounting industry.
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. Wildcat Estate needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Finance & Accounting industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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 Wildcat Estate in the Finance & Accounting sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Wildcat Estate has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Finance & Accounting industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Wildcat Estate needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Finance & Accounting 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Wildcat Estate 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.
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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Wildcat Estate is facing in Finance & Accounting sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Wildcat Capital Investors: Real Estate Private Equity 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 Wildcat Capital Investors: Real Estate Private Equity 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 Wildcat Capital Investors: Real Estate Private Equity 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 Wildcat Capital Investors: Real Estate Private Equity 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 Wildcat Capital Investors: Real Estate Private Equity 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 Wildcat Estate needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
