The Marvel Way: Restoring a Blue Ocean SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
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Case Study Description of The Marvel Way: Restoring a Blue Ocean
The Marvel Way: Restoring a Blue Ocean explains one of the greatest turnarounds in modern business history. This case comes with a two-part video interview with CEO Peter Cuneo who launched a Blue Ocean. Founded in 1939, Marvel Comics initially struggled in a red ocean producing primarily me-to knock-off comic books. In the early 1960's the business took a blue ocean turn by focusing on noncustomer college students. Marvel invented characters that were people first and superheroes second: Spider-Man, The Hulk, Iron Man, the X-Men. The business thrived. By the 1980's value extractors took over Marvel, badly misaligning value, profit, and people. In late 1996 Marvel filed for bankruptcy, a victim of red ocean management practices. New management purchased the business out of bankruptcy in 1998 but faced a daunting task: Marvel owed $30 million in annual interest payments on a $250 million loan, cash was so tight that they almost missed payroll, and movie rights for many of their best characters were licensed to others. First managers stabilized the business then Marvel created a new type of blue ocean that went on to produce the most profitable movie franchise in history. Just over a decade after exiting bankruptcy a debt-free Marvel sold itself to Disney for $4.2 billion.
Authors :: W. Chan Kim, Renee Mauborgne, Michael Olenick
Swot Analysis of "The Marvel Way: Restoring a Blue Ocean" written by W. Chan Kim, Renee Mauborgne, Michael Olenick includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Marvel Ocean facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in The Marvel Way: Restoring a Blue Ocean case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Ethics, Financial management and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the The Marvel Way: Restoring a Blue Ocean casestudy better are - – challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, geopolitical disruptions, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, technology disruption, wage bills are increasing,
supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , there is increasing trade war between United States & China, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of The Marvel Way: Restoring a Blue Ocean
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in The Marvel Way: Restoring a Blue Ocean case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Marvel Ocean, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Marvel Ocean 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 Marvel Way: Restoring a Blue Ocean can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in The Marvel Way: Restoring a Blue Ocean case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Marvel Ocean
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 Marvel Ocean
Strengths The Marvel Way: Restoring a Blue Ocean | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Marvel Ocean in The Marvel Way: Restoring a Blue Ocean Harvard Business Review case study are -
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Marvel Ocean in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Learning organization
- Marvel Ocean 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 Marvel Ocean is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in The Marvel Way: Restoring a Blue Ocean Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Marvel Ocean has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Marvel Ocean has effective processes in place that helps in exploring new product needs, doing quick pilot testing, and then launching the products quickly using its extensive distribution network.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Marvel Ocean 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Marvel Ocean 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 Marvel Way: Restoring a Blue Ocean - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Training and development
– Marvel Ocean has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in The Marvel Way: Restoring a Blue Ocean 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Marvel Ocean is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in The Marvel Way: Restoring a Blue Ocean 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
– Marvel Ocean is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the The Marvel Way: Restoring a Blue Ocean are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Digital Transformation in Strategy & Execution segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Marvel Ocean digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Marvel Ocean 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Marvel Ocean is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in The Marvel Way: Restoring a Blue Ocean Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Marvel Ocean in the sector have low bargaining power. The Marvel Way: Restoring a Blue Ocean has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Marvel Ocean to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the The Marvel Way: Restoring a Blue Ocean 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 Marvel Way: Restoring a Blue Ocean | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of The Marvel Way: Restoring a Blue Ocean are -
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study The Marvel Way: Restoring a Blue Ocean 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 Marvel Way: Restoring a Blue Ocean can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Marvel Ocean is planning to shift buying processes online.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Marvel Ocean 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Marvel Ocean 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study The Marvel Way: Restoring a Blue Ocean, 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Marvel Ocean has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the industry over the last five years. Marvel Ocean even though has strong showing on digital transformation primary two stages, it has struggled to capitalize the power of digital transformation in marketing efforts and new venture efforts.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Marvel Ocean is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study The Marvel Way: Restoring a Blue Ocean can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Marvel Ocean 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 - The Marvel Way: Restoring a Blue Ocean should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High dependence on existing supply chain
– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of Marvel Ocean supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - The Marvel Way: Restoring a Blue Ocean, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Marvel Ocean vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Marvel Ocean, firm in the HBR case study The Marvel Way: Restoring a Blue Ocean needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Marvel Ocean 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Marvel Ocean is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Strategy & Execution segment. Marvel Ocean needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Marvel Ocean to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Opportunities The Marvel Way: Restoring a Blue Ocean | 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 Marvel Way: Restoring a Blue Ocean are -
Loyalty marketing
– Marvel Ocean 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Marvel Ocean 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Marvel Ocean 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Marvel Ocean 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.
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 Marvel Ocean in the consumer business. Now Marvel Ocean can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Manufacturing automation
– Marvel Ocean 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.
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. Marvel Ocean can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Marvel Ocean 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 Marvel Way: Restoring a Blue Ocean - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Marvel Ocean to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Marvel Ocean 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 Marvel Ocean to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Marvel Ocean is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. The Marvel Way: Restoring a Blue Ocean 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Marvel Ocean 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Marvel Ocean to increase its market reach. Marvel Ocean 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 Marvel Ocean can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Threats The Marvel Way: Restoring a Blue Ocean External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study The Marvel Way: Restoring a Blue Ocean are -
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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Marvel Ocean 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 The Marvel Way: Restoring a Blue Ocean .
Increasing wage structure of Marvel Ocean
– 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 Marvel Ocean.
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 Marvel Ocean in the Strategy & Execution sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Marvel Ocean 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.
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. Marvel Ocean can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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. Marvel Ocean 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.
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 Marvel Ocean.
Regulatory challenges
– Marvel Ocean 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.
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 Marvel Ocean business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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. Marvel Ocean needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Strategy & Execution industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Marvel Ocean 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 Marvel Way: Restoring a Blue Ocean 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 Marvel Way: Restoring a Blue Ocean 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 Marvel Way: Restoring a Blue Ocean 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 Marvel Way: Restoring a Blue Ocean 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 Marvel Way: Restoring a Blue Ocean 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 Marvel Ocean needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.