Case Study Description of Busse Place (B): Marisa's Dilemma
Marisa Sanchez, a new Associate at Douglas Private Equity Advisors, confronts a dilemma when she is asked by a Senior Vice President (SVP) to do due diligence on a deal he wants to bring before the investment committee which will include the SVP, Douglas' owner and founder and others. The meeting is timed just before annual bonus season. Marisa's due diligence findings indicate that her boss, the SVP, has significantly misrepresented the market information and that the pricing should be considerably less than he is advocating. He asks her to manipulate the numbers, ''to make the numbers work.'' She has to decide, when asked at the committee meeting, what to say and how.
Swot Analysis of "Busse Place (B): Marisa's Dilemma" written by Arthur I Segel, John H. Vogel Jr. includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Svp Marisa's facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Busse Place (B): Marisa's Dilemma case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Financial analysis, Financial management and Finance & Accounting.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Busse Place (B): Marisa's Dilemma casestudy better are - – customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, there is backlash against globalization, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, there is increasing trade war between United States & China,
increasing commodity prices, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Busse Place (B): Marisa's Dilemma
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Busse Place (B): Marisa's Dilemma case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Svp Marisa's, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Svp Marisa's 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 Busse Place (B): Marisa's Dilemma can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Busse Place (B): Marisa's Dilemma case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Svp Marisa's
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 Svp Marisa's
Strengths Busse Place (B): Marisa's Dilemma | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Svp Marisa's in Busse Place (B): Marisa's Dilemma Harvard Business Review case study are -
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Finance & Accounting industry
– Busse Place (B): Marisa's Dilemma firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Svp Marisa's to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Finance & Accounting industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Svp Marisa's to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Diverse revenue streams
– Svp Marisa's is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Busse Place (B): Marisa's Dilemma 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Svp Marisa's has built up over years in its products and services combo offer has resulted in high retention of customers, lower marketing costs, and greater ability of the firm to focus on its customers.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Svp Marisa's in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Learning organization
- Svp Marisa's 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 Svp Marisa's is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Busse Place (B): Marisa's Dilemma Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Strong track record of project management
– Svp Marisa's is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Svp Marisa's 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.
High brand equity
– Svp Marisa's has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Svp Marisa's to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Innovation driven organization
– Svp Marisa's is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Busse Place (B): Marisa's Dilemma Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Busse Place (B): Marisa's Dilemma 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Svp Marisa's in the sector have low bargaining power. Busse Place (B): Marisa's Dilemma has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Svp Marisa's to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Digital Transformation in Finance & Accounting segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Svp Marisa's digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Svp Marisa's 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.
Weaknesses Busse Place (B): Marisa's Dilemma | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Busse Place (B): Marisa's Dilemma are -
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Svp Marisa's 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
– Svp Marisa's 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Busse Place (B): Marisa's Dilemma, is just above the industry average. Svp Marisa's 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Svp Marisa's is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Finance & Accounting segment. Svp Marisa's needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Svp Marisa's to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Busse Place (B): Marisa's Dilemma, 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Svp Marisa's 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 - Busse Place (B): Marisa's Dilemma should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Svp Marisa's 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. Svp Marisa's 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Busse Place (B): Marisa's Dilemma HBR case study mentions - Svp Marisa's 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 Svp Marisa's 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Svp Marisa's products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Svp Marisa's needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Busse Place (B): Marisa's Dilemma 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 Busse Place (B): Marisa's Dilemma can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Svp Marisa's is planning to shift buying processes online.
Opportunities Busse Place (B): Marisa's Dilemma | 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 Busse Place (B): Marisa's Dilemma are -
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Svp Marisa's 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.
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 Svp Marisa's 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.
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 Svp Marisa's in the consumer business. Now Svp Marisa's can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Svp Marisa's 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Svp Marisa's can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Svp Marisa's has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Svp Marisa's to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Busse Place (B): Marisa's Dilemma case study. Svp Marisa's can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Svp Marisa's is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Busse Place (B): Marisa's Dilemma 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Svp Marisa's 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, Busse Place (B): Marisa's Dilemma, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Developing new processes and practices
– Svp Marisa's can develop new processes and procedures in Finance & Accounting 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Finance & Accounting industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Svp Marisa's can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
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. Svp Marisa's 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. Svp Marisa's 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Svp Marisa's can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Busse Place (B): Marisa's Dilemma 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Svp Marisa's 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.
Threats Busse Place (B): Marisa's Dilemma External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Busse Place (B): Marisa's Dilemma are -
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Svp Marisa's has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Finance & Accounting industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Svp Marisa's 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Busse Place (B): Marisa's Dilemma, Svp Marisa's 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 .
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 Svp Marisa's in the Finance & Accounting sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Svp Marisa's 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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Finance & Accounting field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Svp Marisa's can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Svp Marisa's is facing in Finance & Accounting sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Svp Marisa's in the Finance & Accounting industry. The Finance & Accounting 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.
Technology disruption because of hacks, piracy etc
– The colonial pipeline illustrated, how vulnerable modern organization are to international hackers, miscreants, and disruptors. The cyber security interruption, data leaks, etc can seriously jeopardize the future growth of the organization.
Capital market disruption
– During the Covid-19, Dow Jones has touched record high. The valuations of a number of companies are way beyond their existing business model potential. This can lead to capital market correction which can put a number of suppliers, collaborators, value chain partners in great financial difficulty. It will directly impact the business of Svp Marisa's.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Svp Marisa's 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.
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. Svp Marisa's 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 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. Svp Marisa's needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Finance & Accounting industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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 Svp Marisa's business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Busse Place (B): Marisa's Dilemma 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 Busse Place (B): Marisa's Dilemma 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 Busse Place (B): Marisa's Dilemma 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 Busse Place (B): Marisa's Dilemma 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 Busse Place (B): Marisa's Dilemma 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 Svp Marisa's needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
