Protecting the WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999 SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Strategy & Execution
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Protecting the WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999
On one side, a loose network of protesters made arrangements for dramatizing their opposition to the WTO and international trade practices. At the same time, public safety officials from local, state, and federal agencies developed security plans for the public areas near the locus of the ministerial meetings. Their aim was to ensure that the talks proceeded smoothly while preserving the activists' rights to peaceful protest. Throughout the planning process, local leaders operated on the assumption that the tolerant ethos of the Pacific Northwest would prevail. This assumption proved terribly wrong, however, when, on the opening day of the talks, law enforcement officials lost control of the crowds gathered outside the meeting venue. Readers are asked to consider what lessons can be drawn from this ultimately inadequate security planning process. How might security planners have thought differently about how to prepare for the conference? What should they have anticipated in advance? How could they have developed a better awareness of protesters' activities and plans? HKS Case Number 1897.0
Authors :: Herman B. Leonard, David Tannenwald, Arnold Howitt
Swot Analysis of "Protecting the WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999" written by Herman B. Leonard, David Tannenwald, Arnold Howitt includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Ministerial Protesters facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Protecting the WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999 case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Decision making, Leadership, Risk management, Security & privacy and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Protecting the WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999 casestudy better are - – increasing commodity prices, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, there is backlash against globalization, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing energy prices, increasing transportation and logistics costs,
increasing household debt because of falling income levels, geopolitical disruptions, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Protecting the WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Protecting the WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999 case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Ministerial Protesters, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Ministerial Protesters 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 Protecting the WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999 can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Protecting the WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999 case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Ministerial Protesters
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 Ministerial Protesters
Strengths Protecting the WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999 | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Ministerial Protesters in Protecting the WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999 Harvard Business Review case study are -
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Strategy & Execution industry
– Protecting the WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999 firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Ministerial Protesters to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Ministerial Protesters to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Ministerial Protesters in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Ministerial Protesters is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Protecting the WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999 are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Digital Transformation in Strategy & Execution segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Ministerial Protesters digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Ministerial Protesters 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Ministerial Protesters has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Ministerial Protesters 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Ministerial Protesters in the sector have low bargaining power. Protecting the WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999 has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Ministerial Protesters to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Analytics focus
– Ministerial Protesters 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 Herman B. Leonard, David Tannenwald, Arnold Howitt 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.
Learning organization
- Ministerial Protesters 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 Ministerial Protesters is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Protecting the WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999 Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Strong track record of project management
– Ministerial Protesters 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 Ministerial Protesters
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Ministerial Protesters does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Ministerial Protesters 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.
Training and development
– Ministerial Protesters has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Protecting the WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999 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 Protecting the WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999 | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Protecting the WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999 are -
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Protecting the WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999 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 Ministerial Protesters has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Ministerial Protesters is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Strategy & Execution segment. Ministerial Protesters needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Ministerial Protesters to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Ministerial Protesters 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 Ministerial Protesters products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Ministerial Protesters needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Ministerial Protesters 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Ministerial Protesters 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Protecting the WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999 HBR case study mentions - Ministerial Protesters 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Herman B. Leonard, David Tannenwald, Arnold Howitt suggests that, Ministerial Protesters is facing high bargaining power of the channel partners. So far it has not able to streamline the operations to reduce the bargaining power of the value chain partners in the industry.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Protecting the WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999, is just above the industry average. Ministerial Protesters 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Ministerial Protesters 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Protecting the WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999, 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.
Opportunities Protecting the WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999 | 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 Protecting the WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999 are -
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Ministerial Protesters 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 Protecting the WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999 - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Ministerial Protesters to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Ministerial Protesters can still utilize the low interest rates to borrow money for capital investment. Secondly it can also use the increase of government spending in infrastructure projects to get new business.
Loyalty marketing
– Ministerial Protesters 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Ministerial Protesters has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Ministerial Protesters to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Protecting the WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999 case study. Ministerial Protesters 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 Ministerial Protesters 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Ministerial Protesters to increase its market reach. Ministerial Protesters 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.
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 Ministerial Protesters 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.
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. Ministerial Protesters 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. Ministerial Protesters 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Ministerial Protesters is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Protecting the WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999 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
– Ministerial Protesters 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Ministerial Protesters 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.
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 Ministerial Protesters in the consumer business. Now Ministerial Protesters can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Ministerial Protesters 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 Ministerial Protesters to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Threats Protecting the WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999 External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Protecting the WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999 are -
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Ministerial Protesters 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.
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 Ministerial Protesters business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Protecting the WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999, Ministerial Protesters 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 .
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Ministerial Protesters 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.
Environmental challenges
– Ministerial Protesters 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. Ministerial Protesters can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry.
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 Ministerial Protesters.
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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Ministerial Protesters 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.
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 Ministerial Protesters in the Strategy & Execution sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Increasing wage structure of Ministerial Protesters
– 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 Ministerial Protesters.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Ministerial Protesters 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 Protecting the WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999 .
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Ministerial Protesters is facing in Strategy & Execution sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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. Ministerial Protesters 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Protecting the WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999 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 Protecting the WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999 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 Protecting the WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999 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 Protecting the WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999 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 Protecting the WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999 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 Ministerial Protesters needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
