Swot Analysis of "McCaw Cellular Communications, Inc. (E)" written by Elizabeth Olmsted Teisberg, Sharon Rossi includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Mccaw's Mccaw facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in McCaw Cellular Communications, Inc. (E) case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Financial management, IT, Managing uncertainty, Risk management and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the McCaw Cellular Communications, Inc. (E) casestudy better are - – increasing household debt because of falling income levels, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, wage bills are increasing, increasing energy prices, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models,
geopolitical disruptions, increasing transportation and logistics costs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of McCaw Cellular Communications, Inc. (E)
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in McCaw Cellular Communications, Inc. (E) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Mccaw's Mccaw, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Mccaw's Mccaw 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 McCaw Cellular Communications, Inc. (E) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in McCaw Cellular Communications, Inc. (E) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Mccaw's Mccaw
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 Mccaw's Mccaw
Strengths McCaw Cellular Communications, Inc. (E) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Mccaw's Mccaw in McCaw Cellular Communications, Inc. (E) Harvard Business Review case study are -
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Strategy & Execution industry
– McCaw Cellular Communications, Inc. (E) firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Mccaw's Mccaw to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Mccaw's Mccaw to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Diverse revenue streams
– Mccaw's Mccaw is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in McCaw Cellular Communications, Inc. (E) case study a diverse revenue stream that has helped it to survive disruptions such as global pandemic in Covid-19, financial disruption of 2008, and supply chain disruption of 2021.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Mccaw's Mccaw is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the McCaw Cellular Communications, Inc. (E) 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
- Mccaw's Mccaw 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 Mccaw's Mccaw is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in McCaw Cellular Communications, Inc. (E) Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Mccaw's Mccaw 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 Mccaw's Mccaw 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.
Training and development
– Mccaw's Mccaw has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in McCaw Cellular Communications, Inc. (E) 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Mccaw's Mccaw in the sector have low bargaining power. McCaw Cellular Communications, Inc. (E) has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Mccaw's Mccaw to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Organizational Resilience of Mccaw's Mccaw
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Mccaw's Mccaw does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Strong track record of project management
– Mccaw's Mccaw is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Innovation driven organization
– Mccaw's Mccaw is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in McCaw Cellular Communications, Inc. (E) Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the McCaw Cellular Communications, Inc. (E) 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 McCaw Cellular Communications, Inc. (E) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of McCaw Cellular Communications, Inc. (E) are -
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Mccaw's Mccaw 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study McCaw Cellular Communications, Inc. (E), is just above the industry average. Mccaw's Mccaw 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Mccaw's Mccaw 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study McCaw Cellular Communications, Inc. (E) 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 McCaw Cellular Communications, Inc. (E) can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Mccaw's Mccaw is planning to shift buying processes online.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Mccaw's Mccaw 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As McCaw Cellular Communications, Inc. (E) HBR case study mentions - Mccaw's Mccaw 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Mccaw's Mccaw is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Strategy & Execution segment. Mccaw's Mccaw needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Mccaw's Mccaw to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Mccaw's Mccaw, firm in the HBR case study McCaw Cellular Communications, Inc. (E) needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Mccaw's Mccaw 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Mccaw's Mccaw 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study McCaw Cellular Communications, Inc. (E), it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Strategy & Execution strategy. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.
Opportunities McCaw Cellular Communications, Inc. (E) | 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 McCaw Cellular Communications, Inc. (E) are -
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Mccaw's Mccaw can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
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 Mccaw's Mccaw 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Mccaw's Mccaw 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 McCaw Cellular Communications, Inc. (E) - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Mccaw's Mccaw to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
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. Mccaw's Mccaw can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Mccaw's Mccaw 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Mccaw's Mccaw can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Strategy & Execution 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Mccaw's Mccaw can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. McCaw Cellular Communications, Inc. (E) 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Mccaw's Mccaw 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Mccaw's Mccaw 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 Mccaw's Mccaw to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Mccaw's Mccaw 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Mccaw's Mccaw 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 Mccaw's Mccaw in the consumer business. Now Mccaw's Mccaw can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Mccaw's Mccaw can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Mccaw's Mccaw operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Strategy & Execution sector.
Threats McCaw Cellular Communications, Inc. (E) External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study McCaw Cellular Communications, Inc. (E) 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 Mccaw's Mccaw.
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. Mccaw's Mccaw needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Strategy & Execution industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Environmental challenges
– Mccaw's Mccaw 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. Mccaw's Mccaw can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Mccaw's Mccaw 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 Strategy & Execution field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Mccaw's Mccaw can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Mccaw's Mccaw has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Strategy & Execution industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Mccaw's Mccaw needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Strategy & Execution sector. According to Mckinsey study top managers believe that the adoption of technology in operations, communications is 20-25 times faster than what they planned in the beginning of 2019.
Backlash against dominant players
– US Congress and other legislative arms of the government are getting tough on big business especially technology companies. The digital arm of Mccaw's Mccaw business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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 Mccaw's Mccaw in the Strategy & Execution sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Regulatory challenges
– Mccaw's Mccaw 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Mccaw's Mccaw in the Strategy & Execution industry. The Strategy & Execution 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.
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. Mccaw's Mccaw 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Mccaw's Mccaw 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 McCaw Cellular Communications, Inc. (E) 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 McCaw Cellular Communications, Inc. (E) 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 McCaw Cellular Communications, Inc. (E) 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 McCaw Cellular Communications, Inc. (E) 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 McCaw Cellular Communications, Inc. (E) 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 Mccaw's Mccaw needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.