Case Study Description of Design Creates Fortune: 2000 Tower Oakes Boulevard
To maximize their effectiveness, color cases should be printed in color.A real estate developer assesses its ability to capture the benefits of investing in LEED Platinum, Vedic Design, and EnergyStar components in new buildings. The building at 2000 Tower Oaks Boulevard in Rockville, Maryland is said to be the healthiest building in the National Capital Region. Does this matter? Can the developer realize higher rents because of this? The developer performs a detailed cost-benefit analysis of energy-saving measures that overlap and reduce their cumulative benefit. They consider the impact of these measures in combination with Vedic design features (aka Vastu) on the overall health, productivity, and business success of building occupants. "Green leases" are discussed as the developer tries to establish a leasing strategy that reflects these benefits and associated cost savings. The case takes a deep look at many of the critical on-the-ground issues involved with innovative real estate development.
Swot Analysis of "Design Creates Fortune: 2000 Tower Oakes Boulevard" written by John D. Macomber, Griffin H. James includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Developer Vedic facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Design Creates Fortune: 2000 Tower Oakes Boulevard case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Innovation, Strategy and Finance & Accounting.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Design Creates Fortune: 2000 Tower Oakes Boulevard casestudy better are - – geopolitical disruptions, wage bills are increasing, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing transportation and logistics costs, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models,
supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Design Creates Fortune: 2000 Tower Oakes Boulevard
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Design Creates Fortune: 2000 Tower Oakes Boulevard case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Developer Vedic, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Developer Vedic 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 Design Creates Fortune: 2000 Tower Oakes Boulevard can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Design Creates Fortune: 2000 Tower Oakes Boulevard case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Developer Vedic
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 Developer Vedic
Strengths Design Creates Fortune: 2000 Tower Oakes Boulevard | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Developer Vedic in Design Creates Fortune: 2000 Tower Oakes Boulevard Harvard Business Review case study are -
Ability to recruit top talent
– Developer Vedic is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Design Creates Fortune: 2000 Tower Oakes Boulevard are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Developer Vedic has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive segment. Secondly the value chain collaborators of the firm in Design Creates Fortune: 2000 Tower Oakes Boulevard HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Developer Vedic in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Developer Vedic 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.
Analytics focus
– Developer Vedic 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 John D. Macomber, Griffin H. James 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.
Organizational Resilience of Developer Vedic
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Developer Vedic does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Finance & Accounting industry
– Design Creates Fortune: 2000 Tower Oakes Boulevard firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Developer Vedic to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Finance & Accounting industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Developer Vedic to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Developer Vedic has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Developer Vedic 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.
High brand equity
– Developer Vedic has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Developer Vedic to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Training and development
– Developer Vedic has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Design Creates Fortune: 2000 Tower Oakes Boulevard 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.
Ability to lead change in Finance & Accounting field
– Developer Vedic 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 Developer Vedic in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Developer Vedic in the sector have low bargaining power. Design Creates Fortune: 2000 Tower Oakes Boulevard has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Developer Vedic to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Weaknesses Design Creates Fortune: 2000 Tower Oakes Boulevard | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Design Creates Fortune: 2000 Tower Oakes Boulevard are -
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Developer Vedic is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Finance & Accounting segment. Developer Vedic needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Developer Vedic to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Design Creates Fortune: 2000 Tower Oakes Boulevard, is just above the industry average. Developer Vedic 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, John D. Macomber, Griffin H. James suggests that, Developer Vedic 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Developer Vedic 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Developer Vedic 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Design Creates Fortune: 2000 Tower Oakes Boulevard, it seems that the employees of Developer Vedic 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Developer Vedic 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 - Design Creates Fortune: 2000 Tower Oakes Boulevard should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
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 Developer Vedic supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Design Creates Fortune: 2000 Tower Oakes Boulevard, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Developer Vedic vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Design Creates Fortune: 2000 Tower Oakes Boulevard 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 Design Creates Fortune: 2000 Tower Oakes Boulevard can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Developer Vedic is planning to shift buying processes online.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Developer Vedic 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Developer Vedic 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.
Opportunities Design Creates Fortune: 2000 Tower Oakes Boulevard | 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 Design Creates Fortune: 2000 Tower Oakes Boulevard are -
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Developer Vedic can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Developer Vedic operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Finance & Accounting sector.
Buying journey improvements
– Developer Vedic can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Design Creates Fortune: 2000 Tower Oakes Boulevard 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Developer Vedic 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 Design Creates Fortune: 2000 Tower Oakes Boulevard - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Developer Vedic to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Developing new processes and practices
– Developer Vedic 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.
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. Developer Vedic 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. Developer Vedic 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Developer Vedic can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Developer Vedic to increase its market reach. Developer Vedic 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Developer Vedic is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Design Creates Fortune: 2000 Tower Oakes Boulevard 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Developer Vedic 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Developer Vedic 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Developer Vedic 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 Developer Vedic to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Developer Vedic has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Developer Vedic to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Design Creates Fortune: 2000 Tower Oakes Boulevard case study. Developer Vedic can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Developer Vedic 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.
Threats Design Creates Fortune: 2000 Tower Oakes Boulevard External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Design Creates Fortune: 2000 Tower Oakes Boulevard are -
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 Developer Vedic.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Developer Vedic 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.
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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Developer Vedic 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 Developer Vedic 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.
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 Developer Vedic business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, 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. Developer Vedic 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Developer Vedic 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 Design Creates Fortune: 2000 Tower Oakes Boulevard .
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 Developer Vedic in the Finance & Accounting sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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. Developer Vedic can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Developer Vedic 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.
Increasing wage structure of Developer Vedic
– 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 Developer Vedic.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Developer Vedic with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Design Creates Fortune: 2000 Tower Oakes Boulevard 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 Design Creates Fortune: 2000 Tower Oakes Boulevard 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 Design Creates Fortune: 2000 Tower Oakes Boulevard 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 Design Creates Fortune: 2000 Tower Oakes Boulevard 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 Design Creates Fortune: 2000 Tower Oakes Boulevard 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 Developer Vedic needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.