PARKING SPACES FOR SUPER COMPUTER - General Instructions SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
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Case Study Description of PARKING SPACES FOR SUPER COMPUTER - General Instructions
This case includes supplements.Two-party, two-issue scoreable negotiation between an office building owner and commercial tenant over the terms of a lease for parking spaces. Super Computer Corp. just signed its second three-year lease for office space at 100 Blue Chip Street. This office building, managed by Prime Properties, houses the regional offices of several global corporations. Tenga Tenier (Super Computer's office manager) and Rom Rosok (Prime Properties' property manager for 100 Blue Chip Street) are about to enter their annual negotiation over parking spaces. There is an executive parking lot underneath the office building, but this lot is not large enough to accommodate all of the building's tenants. Prime Properties offers a limited number of "executive" parking spaces in the underground lot, and a larger number of "satellite" parking spaces in a lot that is about ten minutes' walking distance from the building. Because Prime Properties charges the same lease price for executive and satellite parking spaces, tenants want to lease as few satellite and as many executive spaces as possible, while Prime Properties wants to lease as many satellite and as few executive spaces as possible. Tenga and Ron must negotiate an agreement on two issues: how many parking spaces will Super Computer lease, and how many of those spaces will be in the executive parking lot underneath the office building? Their scores will depend on the final agreement on each of these issues. This is a role play case.
Swot Analysis of "PARKING SPACES FOR SUPER COMPUTER - General Instructions" written by Lawrence Susskind includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Spaces Parking facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in PARKING SPACES FOR SUPER COMPUTER - General Instructions case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Negotiations and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the PARKING SPACES FOR SUPER COMPUTER - General Instructions casestudy better are - – central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, wage bills are increasing, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing energy prices, increasing household debt because of falling income levels,
there is backlash against globalization, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of PARKING SPACES FOR SUPER COMPUTER - General Instructions
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in PARKING SPACES FOR SUPER COMPUTER - General Instructions case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Spaces Parking, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Spaces Parking 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 PARKING SPACES FOR SUPER COMPUTER - General Instructions can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in PARKING SPACES FOR SUPER COMPUTER - General Instructions case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Spaces Parking
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Strategy & Execution field.
4. Making a Strategy & Execution topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Spaces Parking
Strengths PARKING SPACES FOR SUPER COMPUTER - General Instructions | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Spaces Parking in PARKING SPACES FOR SUPER COMPUTER - General Instructions Harvard Business Review case study are -
Highly skilled collaborators
– Spaces Parking 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 PARKING SPACES FOR SUPER COMPUTER - General Instructions 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 Spaces Parking in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Spaces Parking 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 PARKING SPACES FOR SUPER COMPUTER - General Instructions - 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 brand equity
– Spaces Parking has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Spaces Parking to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Strategy & Execution industry
– PARKING SPACES FOR SUPER COMPUTER - General Instructions firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Spaces Parking to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Spaces Parking to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Spaces Parking has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Spaces Parking 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.
Organizational Resilience of Spaces Parking
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Spaces Parking does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Spaces Parking is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the PARKING SPACES FOR SUPER COMPUTER - General Instructions are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Strong track record of project management
– Spaces Parking is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Analytics focus
– Spaces Parking 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 Lawrence Susskind 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.
Ability to lead change in Strategy & Execution field
– Spaces Parking 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 Spaces Parking in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the PARKING SPACES FOR SUPER COMPUTER - General Instructions 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.
Weaknesses PARKING SPACES FOR SUPER COMPUTER - General Instructions | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of PARKING SPACES FOR SUPER COMPUTER - General Instructions are -
Products dominated business model
– Even though Spaces Parking 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 - PARKING SPACES FOR SUPER COMPUTER - General Instructions should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Need for greater diversity
– Spaces Parking has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As PARKING SPACES FOR SUPER COMPUTER - General Instructions HBR case study mentions - Spaces Parking 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study PARKING SPACES FOR SUPER COMPUTER - General Instructions, it seems that the employees of Spaces Parking 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 harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Spaces Parking is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study PARKING SPACES FOR SUPER COMPUTER - General Instructions can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
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 Spaces Parking supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - PARKING SPACES FOR SUPER COMPUTER - General Instructions, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Spaces Parking vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Spaces Parking, firm in the HBR case study PARKING SPACES FOR SUPER COMPUTER - General Instructions needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study PARKING SPACES FOR SUPER COMPUTER - General Instructions 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 PARKING SPACES FOR SUPER COMPUTER - General Instructions can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Spaces Parking is planning to shift buying processes online.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Spaces Parking 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Lawrence Susskind suggests that, Spaces Parking 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, Spaces Parking 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.
Opportunities PARKING SPACES FOR SUPER COMPUTER - General Instructions | 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 PARKING SPACES FOR SUPER COMPUTER - General Instructions are -
Buying journey improvements
– Spaces Parking can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. PARKING SPACES FOR SUPER COMPUTER - General Instructions 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Spaces Parking 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.
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 Spaces Parking in the consumer business. Now Spaces Parking can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Spaces Parking 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 PARKING SPACES FOR SUPER COMPUTER - General Instructions - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Spaces Parking to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
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. Spaces Parking can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Spaces Parking 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Spaces Parking is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. PARKING SPACES FOR SUPER COMPUTER - General Instructions 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Spaces Parking 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Spaces Parking 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 Spaces Parking to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Spaces Parking 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Spaces Parking 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 Strategy & Execution segment.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Spaces Parking in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Strategy & Execution segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Spaces Parking can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Spaces Parking operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Strategy & Execution sector.
Threats PARKING SPACES FOR SUPER COMPUTER - General Instructions External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study PARKING SPACES FOR SUPER COMPUTER - General Instructions are -
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 Spaces Parking business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Strategy & Execution field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Spaces Parking 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 Spaces Parking is facing in Strategy & Execution sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Spaces Parking 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 PARKING SPACES FOR SUPER COMPUTER - General Instructions .
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 Spaces Parking.
Increasing wage structure of Spaces Parking
– 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 Spaces Parking.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Spaces Parking with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study PARKING SPACES FOR SUPER COMPUTER - General Instructions, Spaces Parking may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Strategy & Execution .
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 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Spaces Parking 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. Spaces Parking 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.
Environmental challenges
– Spaces Parking needs to have a robust strategy against the disruptions arising from climate change and energy requirements. EU has identified it as key priority area and spending 30% of its 880 billion Euros European post Covid-19 recovery funds on green technology. Spaces Parking can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of PARKING SPACES FOR SUPER COMPUTER - General Instructions 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 PARKING SPACES FOR SUPER COMPUTER - General Instructions 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 PARKING SPACES FOR SUPER COMPUTER - General Instructions 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 PARKING SPACES FOR SUPER COMPUTER - General Instructions 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 PARKING SPACES FOR SUPER COMPUTER - General Instructions 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 Spaces Parking needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.