Meinhard vs. Salmon: Court of Appeals of New York--1928 SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Finance & Accounting
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Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Meinhard vs. Salmon: Court of Appeals of New York--1928
Meinhard and Salmon were joint venturers who had a 20-year lease on the Hotel Bristol in New York City. Salmon was the managing party. Four months before the lease was to end, the owner approached Salmon and offered to lease all the property, of which the Bristol was only a 25% part, him. The project was to require substantial capital expenditures, a rent increase of about six times over the prior rent, and a lease term that could reach 80 years under renewal options. Salmon kept this opportunity for himself. Meinhard wanted to participate; Salmon refused.
Swot Analysis of "Meinhard vs. Salmon: Court of Appeals of New York--1928" written by Henry B. Reiling includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Salmon Meinhard facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Meinhard vs. Salmon: Court of Appeals of New York--1928 case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Joint ventures, Regulation and Finance & Accounting.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Meinhard vs. Salmon: Court of Appeals of New York--1928 casestudy better are - – increasing commodity prices, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, there is backlash against globalization, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, wage bills are increasing, technology disruption,
increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Meinhard vs. Salmon: Court of Appeals of New York--1928
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Meinhard vs. Salmon: Court of Appeals of New York--1928 case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Salmon Meinhard, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Salmon Meinhard 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 Meinhard vs. Salmon: Court of Appeals of New York--1928 can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Meinhard vs. Salmon: Court of Appeals of New York--1928 case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Salmon Meinhard
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 Salmon Meinhard
Strengths Meinhard vs. Salmon: Court of Appeals of New York--1928 | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Salmon Meinhard in Meinhard vs. Salmon: Court of Appeals of New York--1928 Harvard Business Review case study are -
Highly skilled collaborators
– Salmon Meinhard 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 Meinhard vs. Salmon: Court of Appeals of New York--1928 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 Salmon Meinhard in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Salmon Meinhard is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Meinhard vs. Salmon: Court of Appeals of New York--1928 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
- Salmon Meinhard 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 Salmon Meinhard is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Meinhard vs. Salmon: Court of Appeals of New York--1928 Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Digital Transformation in Finance & Accounting segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Salmon Meinhard digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Salmon Meinhard 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.
Analytics focus
– Salmon Meinhard 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 Henry B. Reiling 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Salmon Meinhard is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Meinhard vs. Salmon: Court of Appeals of New York--1928 Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Organizational Resilience of Salmon Meinhard
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Salmon Meinhard 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 Salmon Meinhard 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
– Salmon Meinhard has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Meinhard vs. Salmon: Court of Appeals of New York--1928 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Finance & Accounting industry
– Meinhard vs. Salmon: Court of Appeals of New York--1928 firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Salmon Meinhard to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Finance & Accounting industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Salmon Meinhard to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Salmon Meinhard in the sector have low bargaining power. Meinhard vs. Salmon: Court of Appeals of New York--1928 has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Salmon Meinhard to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Weaknesses Meinhard vs. Salmon: Court of Appeals of New York--1928 | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Meinhard vs. Salmon: Court of Appeals of New York--1928 are -
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Salmon Meinhard is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Finance & Accounting segment. Salmon Meinhard needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Salmon Meinhard to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Meinhard vs. Salmon: Court of Appeals of New York--1928 has high operating costs in the. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Salmon Meinhard 's lucrative customers.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Salmon Meinhard 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Meinhard vs. Salmon: Court of Appeals of New York--1928, 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Salmon Meinhard products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Salmon Meinhard needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Salmon Meinhard 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 Meinhard vs. Salmon: Court of Appeals of New York--1928, is just above the industry average. Salmon Meinhard 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Salmon Meinhard 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Meinhard vs. Salmon: Court of Appeals of New York--1928, in the dynamic environment Salmon Meinhard has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Salmon Meinhard has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
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 Salmon Meinhard supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Meinhard vs. Salmon: Court of Appeals of New York--1928, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Salmon Meinhard vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Salmon Meinhard 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 Meinhard vs. Salmon: Court of Appeals of New York--1928 | 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 Meinhard vs. Salmon: Court of Appeals of New York--1928 are -
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Salmon Meinhard 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.
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. Salmon Meinhard can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Salmon Meinhard 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 Meinhard vs. Salmon: Court of Appeals of New York--1928 - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Salmon Meinhard to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Buying journey improvements
– Salmon Meinhard can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Meinhard vs. Salmon: Court of Appeals of New York--1928 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.
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 Salmon Meinhard 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Salmon Meinhard 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Salmon Meinhard to increase its market reach. Salmon Meinhard 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Salmon Meinhard can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Salmon Meinhard is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Meinhard vs. Salmon: Court of Appeals of New York--1928 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.
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 Salmon Meinhard in the consumer business. Now Salmon Meinhard can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Salmon Meinhard has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Salmon Meinhard to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Meinhard vs. Salmon: Court of Appeals of New York--1928 case study. Salmon Meinhard 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. Salmon Meinhard 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. Salmon Meinhard 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Salmon Meinhard can leverage digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate the production process, customer analytics to get better insights into consumer behavior, realtime digital dashboards to get better sales tracking, logistics and transportation, product tracking, etc.
Threats Meinhard vs. Salmon: Court of Appeals of New York--1928 External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Meinhard vs. Salmon: Court of Appeals of New York--1928 are -
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. Salmon Meinhard needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Finance & Accounting industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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. Salmon Meinhard 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.
Aging population
– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Salmon Meinhard 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 Meinhard vs. Salmon: Court of Appeals of New York--1928 .
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 Salmon Meinhard in the Finance & Accounting sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Meinhard vs. Salmon: Court of Appeals of New York--1928, Salmon Meinhard 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 .
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Salmon Meinhard has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Finance & Accounting industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Salmon Meinhard 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.
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 Salmon Meinhard.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Salmon Meinhard is facing in Finance & Accounting sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Salmon Meinhard 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.
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 Salmon Meinhard business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Salmon Meinhard 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.
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. Salmon Meinhard can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Meinhard vs. Salmon: Court of Appeals of New York--1928 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 Meinhard vs. Salmon: Court of Appeals of New York--1928 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 Meinhard vs. Salmon: Court of Appeals of New York--1928 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 Meinhard vs. Salmon: Court of Appeals of New York--1928 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 Meinhard vs. Salmon: Court of Appeals of New York--1928 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 Salmon Meinhard needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
