THE POWERSCREEN PROBLEM - Confidential Instructions for Stanley Star's Attorney SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
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Case Study Description of THE POWERSCREEN PROBLEM - Confidential Instructions for Stanley Star's Attorney
Confidential Instructions for Stanley Star's Attorney for product #PON413.Two-party negotiation between the lawyers for business partners concerning the ownership of a new computer program one of them has developed. HackerStar, Inc. is a small closely-held corporation that develops and markets software for microcomputers. The six-year-old company was founded by Hacker, a brilliant programmer who is responsible for the company's products and became its manager, and Star, a dentist and computer hobbyist who provided the capital. Hacker and Star are each 50% owners. The company has done moderately well, but now faces a crisis resulting from a dispute between the partners over the ownership and disposition of PowerScreen, a new product developed by Hacker, at least partly on his own time and definitely against Star's wishes. The company lawyer has referred Hacker and Star to separate counsel in order to avoid a conflict of interest. The exercise revolves around the meeting of these lawyers. At issue is the ownership of PowerScreen and the future of HackerStar, Inc. This is a role play case.
Authors :: Bruce Patton, Mark Gordon, Andrew Clarkson
Swot Analysis of "THE POWERSCREEN PROBLEM - Confidential Instructions for Stanley Star's Attorney" written by Bruce Patton, Mark Gordon, Andrew Clarkson includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Hacker Powerscreen facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in THE POWERSCREEN PROBLEM - Confidential Instructions for Stanley Star's Attorney case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, IT, Joint ventures, Negotiations and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the THE POWERSCREEN PROBLEM - Confidential Instructions for Stanley Star's Attorney casestudy better are - – technology disruption, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing transportation and logistics costs, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing energy prices, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%,
cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of THE POWERSCREEN PROBLEM - Confidential Instructions for Stanley Star's Attorney
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in THE POWERSCREEN PROBLEM - Confidential Instructions for Stanley Star's Attorney case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Hacker Powerscreen, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Hacker Powerscreen 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 THE POWERSCREEN PROBLEM - Confidential Instructions for Stanley Star's Attorney can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in THE POWERSCREEN PROBLEM - Confidential Instructions for Stanley Star's Attorney case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Hacker Powerscreen
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 Hacker Powerscreen
Strengths THE POWERSCREEN PROBLEM - Confidential Instructions for Stanley Star's Attorney | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Hacker Powerscreen in THE POWERSCREEN PROBLEM - Confidential Instructions for Stanley Star's Attorney Harvard Business Review case study are -
Strong track record of project management
– Hacker Powerscreen is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Learning organization
- Hacker Powerscreen 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 Hacker Powerscreen is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in THE POWERSCREEN PROBLEM - Confidential Instructions for Stanley Star's Attorney Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Hacker Powerscreen 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 THE POWERSCREEN PROBLEM - Confidential Instructions for Stanley Star's Attorney HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Hacker Powerscreen in the sector have low bargaining power. THE POWERSCREEN PROBLEM - Confidential Instructions for Stanley Star's Attorney has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Hacker Powerscreen to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
High brand equity
– Hacker Powerscreen has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Hacker Powerscreen to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Organizational Resilience of Hacker Powerscreen
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Hacker Powerscreen does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Hacker Powerscreen in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Strategy & Execution industry
– THE POWERSCREEN PROBLEM - Confidential Instructions for Stanley Star's Attorney firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Hacker Powerscreen to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Hacker Powerscreen to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Analytics focus
– Hacker Powerscreen 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 Bruce Patton, Mark Gordon, Andrew Clarkson 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Hacker Powerscreen 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 THE POWERSCREEN PROBLEM - Confidential Instructions for Stanley Star's Attorney - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Hacker Powerscreen has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Hacker Powerscreen 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the THE POWERSCREEN PROBLEM - Confidential Instructions for Stanley Star's Attorney 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 THE POWERSCREEN PROBLEM - Confidential Instructions for Stanley Star's Attorney | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of THE POWERSCREEN PROBLEM - Confidential Instructions for Stanley Star's Attorney are -
Lack of clear differentiation of Hacker Powerscreen products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Hacker Powerscreen needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study THE POWERSCREEN PROBLEM - Confidential Instructions for Stanley Star's Attorney 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 THE POWERSCREEN PROBLEM - Confidential Instructions for Stanley Star's Attorney can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Hacker Powerscreen is planning to shift buying processes online.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study THE POWERSCREEN PROBLEM - Confidential Instructions for Stanley Star's Attorney, it seems that the employees of Hacker Powerscreen 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Hacker Powerscreen is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Strategy & Execution segment. Hacker Powerscreen needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Hacker Powerscreen to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Hacker Powerscreen 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study THE POWERSCREEN PROBLEM - Confidential Instructions for Stanley Star's Attorney, is just above the industry average. Hacker Powerscreen 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, Bruce Patton, Mark Gordon, Andrew Clarkson suggests that, Hacker Powerscreen 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study THE POWERSCREEN PROBLEM - Confidential Instructions for Stanley Star's Attorney, in the dynamic environment Hacker Powerscreen has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Hacker Powerscreen 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 Hacker Powerscreen supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - THE POWERSCREEN PROBLEM - Confidential Instructions for Stanley Star's Attorney, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Hacker Powerscreen vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As THE POWERSCREEN PROBLEM - Confidential Instructions for Stanley Star's Attorney HBR case study mentions - Hacker Powerscreen 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the THE POWERSCREEN PROBLEM - Confidential Instructions for Stanley Star's Attorney HBR case study still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Hacker Powerscreen has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Opportunities THE POWERSCREEN PROBLEM - Confidential Instructions for Stanley Star's Attorney | 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 THE POWERSCREEN PROBLEM - Confidential Instructions for Stanley Star's Attorney are -
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Hacker Powerscreen has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Hacker Powerscreen to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the THE POWERSCREEN PROBLEM - Confidential Instructions for Stanley Star's Attorney case study. Hacker Powerscreen can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Developing new processes and practices
– Hacker Powerscreen can develop new processes and procedures in Strategy & Execution 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.
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 Hacker Powerscreen in the consumer business. Now Hacker Powerscreen can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Hacker Powerscreen 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Hacker Powerscreen can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Hacker Powerscreen operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Strategy & Execution sector.
Loyalty marketing
– Hacker Powerscreen 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Hacker Powerscreen to increase its market reach. Hacker Powerscreen 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Strategy & Execution industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Hacker Powerscreen can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Hacker Powerscreen 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 THE POWERSCREEN PROBLEM - Confidential Instructions for Stanley Star's Attorney - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Hacker Powerscreen to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Strategy & Execution industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Hacker Powerscreen 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. Hacker Powerscreen 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Hacker Powerscreen is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. THE POWERSCREEN PROBLEM - Confidential Instructions for Stanley Star's Attorney 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.
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 Hacker Powerscreen 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Hacker Powerscreen 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.
Threats THE POWERSCREEN PROBLEM - Confidential Instructions for Stanley Star's Attorney External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study THE POWERSCREEN PROBLEM - Confidential Instructions for Stanley Star's Attorney are -
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study THE POWERSCREEN PROBLEM - Confidential Instructions for Stanley Star's Attorney, Hacker Powerscreen 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 .
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. Hacker Powerscreen can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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 Hacker Powerscreen in the Strategy & Execution sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Regulatory challenges
– Hacker Powerscreen needs to prepare for regulatory challenges as consumer protection groups and other pressure groups are vigorously advocating for more regulations on big business - to reduce inequality, to create a level playing field, to product data privacy and consumer privacy, to reduce the influence of big money on democratic institutions, etc. This can lead to significant changes in the Strategy & Execution industry regulations.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Hacker Powerscreen 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.
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. Hacker Powerscreen 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Hacker Powerscreen with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Environmental challenges
– Hacker Powerscreen 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. Hacker Powerscreen can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry.
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.
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 Hacker Powerscreen business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Hacker Powerscreen 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.
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 Hacker Powerscreen is facing in Strategy & Execution sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of THE POWERSCREEN PROBLEM - Confidential Instructions for Stanley Star's Attorney 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 THE POWERSCREEN PROBLEM - Confidential Instructions for Stanley Star's Attorney 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 THE POWERSCREEN PROBLEM - Confidential Instructions for Stanley Star's Attorney 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 THE POWERSCREEN PROBLEM - Confidential Instructions for Stanley Star's Attorney 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 THE POWERSCREEN PROBLEM - Confidential Instructions for Stanley Star's Attorney 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 Hacker Powerscreen needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
