Case Study Description of McArthur/Glen Realty Corp.
Jonathan Potter is considering an investment in the newly formed McArthur/Glen Real Estate Investment Trust. The case gives some background on real estate investment trusts and their history. Also discusses manufacturers' outlet shopping centers, the type of real estate that McArthur/Glen Realty owns and develops. The REIT industry is experiencing explosive growth, and it is important to assess its role and viability both as part of the real estate industry and as part of the overall market for public securities.
Swot Analysis of "McArthur/Glen Realty Corp." written by William J. Poorvu, John H. Vogel Jr. includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Glen Mcarthur facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in McArthur/Glen Realty Corp. case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Financial markets and Finance & Accounting.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the McArthur/Glen Realty Corp. casestudy better are - – there is backlash against globalization, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, geopolitical disruptions, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing energy prices,
technology disruption, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of McArthur/Glen Realty Corp.
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in McArthur/Glen Realty Corp. case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Glen Mcarthur, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Glen Mcarthur 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 McArthur/Glen Realty Corp. can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in McArthur/Glen Realty Corp. case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Glen Mcarthur
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 Glen Mcarthur
Strengths McArthur/Glen Realty Corp. | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Glen Mcarthur in McArthur/Glen Realty Corp. Harvard Business Review case study are -
Ability to recruit top talent
– Glen Mcarthur is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the McArthur/Glen Realty Corp. are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Learning organization
- Glen Mcarthur 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 Glen Mcarthur is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in McArthur/Glen Realty Corp. Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the McArthur/Glen Realty Corp. 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.
Organizational Resilience of Glen Mcarthur
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Glen Mcarthur does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Glen Mcarthur in the sector have low bargaining power. McArthur/Glen Realty Corp. has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Glen Mcarthur to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Glen Mcarthur has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Glen Mcarthur 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Glen Mcarthur 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 McArthur/Glen Realty Corp. - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Glen Mcarthur 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Glen Mcarthur is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in McArthur/Glen Realty Corp. 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 brand equity
– Glen Mcarthur has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Glen Mcarthur to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Glen Mcarthur 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Glen Mcarthur in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Weaknesses McArthur/Glen Realty Corp. | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of McArthur/Glen Realty Corp. are -
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study McArthur/Glen Realty Corp., it seems that the employees of Glen Mcarthur 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 to strategic competitive environment developments
– As McArthur/Glen Realty Corp. HBR case study mentions - Glen Mcarthur 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study McArthur/Glen Realty Corp., in the dynamic environment Glen Mcarthur has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Glen Mcarthur has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study McArthur/Glen Realty Corp. 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 McArthur/Glen Realty Corp. can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Glen Mcarthur is planning to shift buying processes online.
Lack of clear differentiation of Glen Mcarthur products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Glen Mcarthur needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High dependence on existing supply chain
– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of Glen Mcarthur supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - McArthur/Glen Realty Corp., it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Glen Mcarthur vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Glen Mcarthur 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study McArthur/Glen Realty Corp., is just above the industry average. Glen Mcarthur 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, William J. Poorvu, John H. Vogel Jr. suggests that, Glen Mcarthur 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Glen Mcarthur 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study McArthur/Glen Realty Corp., 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 McArthur/Glen Realty Corp. | 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 McArthur/Glen Realty Corp. are -
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Glen Mcarthur can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Loyalty marketing
– Glen Mcarthur 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Glen Mcarthur can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Finance & Accounting segment. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.
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 Glen Mcarthur 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Glen Mcarthur can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. McArthur/Glen Realty Corp. 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Glen Mcarthur has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Glen Mcarthur to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the McArthur/Glen Realty Corp. case study. Glen Mcarthur 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 Finance & Accounting industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Glen Mcarthur 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. Glen Mcarthur 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.
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. Glen Mcarthur can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Glen Mcarthur 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.
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. Glen Mcarthur can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Glen Mcarthur can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Glen Mcarthur operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Finance & Accounting sector.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Glen Mcarthur 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, McArthur/Glen Realty Corp., to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Glen Mcarthur 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 McArthur/Glen Realty Corp. - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Glen Mcarthur to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Threats McArthur/Glen Realty Corp. External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study McArthur/Glen Realty Corp. are -
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. Glen Mcarthur 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study McArthur/Glen Realty Corp., Glen Mcarthur 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 Glen Mcarthur in the Finance & Accounting sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Glen Mcarthur has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Finance & Accounting industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Glen Mcarthur 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.
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 Glen Mcarthur business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Glen Mcarthur is facing in Finance & Accounting sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Increasing wage structure of Glen Mcarthur
– 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 Glen Mcarthur.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Glen Mcarthur 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Glen Mcarthur 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Glen Mcarthur with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Glen Mcarthur 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 McArthur/Glen Realty Corp. .
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. Glen Mcarthur needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Finance & Accounting industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of McArthur/Glen Realty Corp. 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 McArthur/Glen Realty Corp. 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 McArthur/Glen Realty Corp. 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 McArthur/Glen Realty Corp. 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 McArthur/Glen Realty Corp. 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 Glen Mcarthur needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
