The Asylum: Mocking Their Way Through Hollywood SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Strategy & Execution
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of The Asylum: Mocking Their Way Through Hollywood
The co-founder and chief executive officer of The Asylum, a movie production company headquartered in Burbank, California, must decide whether the company needs to explore other avenues for growth or change its current business model to boost profitability. The company has developed a unique imitation strategy to reduce the uncertainty of financial success in filmmaking - its "mockbuster" business model is to produce B-rated movies that use plotlines similar to that of major Hollywood films already in production and release them at the same time as or just before the comparable Hollywood film. It can thus take advantage of the large marketing and promotion campaigns that large film production studios employ to promote their films while producing a substantially cheaper (but somewhat similar) film. To date, all of these mockbusters have been profitable, but changes to property rights regulations and increased litigation cases may come to affect the bottom line. There are three options going forward: maintaining the status quo, focusing even more on producing mockbusters or shifting toward completely original film production. What should the company do to ensure future success?
Authors :: Bryan Hong, Stacey Clark, Charlotte Zhen
Swot Analysis of "The Asylum: Mocking Their Way Through Hollywood" written by Bryan Hong, Stacey Clark, Charlotte Zhen includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Film Asylum facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in The Asylum: Mocking Their Way Through Hollywood case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the The Asylum: Mocking Their Way Through Hollywood casestudy better are - – there is backlash against globalization, wage bills are increasing, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing transportation and logistics costs, technology disruption, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models,
talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of The Asylum: Mocking Their Way Through Hollywood
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in The Asylum: Mocking Their Way Through Hollywood case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Film Asylum, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Film Asylum 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 Asylum: Mocking Their Way Through Hollywood can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in The Asylum: Mocking Their Way Through Hollywood case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Film Asylum
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 Film Asylum
Strengths The Asylum: Mocking Their Way Through Hollywood | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Film Asylum in The Asylum: Mocking Their Way Through Hollywood Harvard Business Review case study are -
Learning organization
- Film Asylum 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 Film Asylum is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in The Asylum: Mocking Their Way Through Hollywood Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Film Asylum 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 Asylum: Mocking Their Way Through Hollywood 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 Film Asylum in the sector have low bargaining power. The Asylum: Mocking Their Way Through Hollywood has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Film Asylum to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the The Asylum: Mocking Their Way Through Hollywood 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Film Asylum is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in The Asylum: Mocking Their Way Through Hollywood Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Diverse revenue streams
– Film Asylum is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in The Asylum: Mocking Their Way Through Hollywood 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Film Asylum has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Film Asylum 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Film Asylum is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Digital Transformation in Strategy & Execution segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Film Asylum digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Film Asylum 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Film Asylum in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Training and development
– Film Asylum has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in The Asylum: Mocking Their Way Through Hollywood 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Film Asylum are driving operational speed, building greater agility, and keeping the organization nimble to compete with new competitors. It helps are organization to ideate new ideas, and execute them swiftly in the marketplace.
Weaknesses The Asylum: Mocking Their Way Through Hollywood | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of The Asylum: Mocking Their Way Through Hollywood are -
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As The Asylum: Mocking Their Way Through Hollywood HBR case study mentions - Film Asylum 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 Asylum: Mocking Their Way Through Hollywood 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 Film Asylum has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Film Asylum, firm in the HBR case study The Asylum: Mocking Their Way Through Hollywood needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Need for greater diversity
– Film Asylum 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 harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Film Asylum is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study The Asylum: Mocking Their Way Through Hollywood can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study The Asylum: Mocking Their Way Through Hollywood, it seems that the employees of Film Asylum 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study The Asylum: Mocking Their Way Through Hollywood has high operating costs in the. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Film Asylum 's lucrative customers.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Bryan Hong, Stacey Clark, Charlotte Zhen suggests that, Film Asylum 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, Film Asylum 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Film Asylum 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 cash cycle compare to competitors
Film Asylum has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Opportunities The Asylum: Mocking Their Way Through Hollywood | 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 Asylum: Mocking Their Way Through Hollywood are -
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Film Asylum can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Film Asylum operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Strategy & Execution sector.
Buying journey improvements
– Film Asylum can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. The Asylum: Mocking Their Way Through Hollywood 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Film Asylum 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Film Asylum 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 Asylum: Mocking Their Way Through Hollywood - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Film Asylum to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Developing new processes and practices
– Film Asylum 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Film Asylum can build a diversified supply chain model across various countries in - South East Asia, India, and other parts of the world. This reconfiguration of global supply chain can help, as suggested in case study, The Asylum: Mocking Their Way Through Hollywood, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
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. Film Asylum can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Film Asylum to increase its market reach. Film Asylum 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Film Asylum 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 Film Asylum to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Film Asylum 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 Film Asylum 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.
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 Film Asylum 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Film Asylum is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. The Asylum: Mocking Their Way Through Hollywood 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.
Threats The Asylum: Mocking Their Way Through Hollywood External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study The Asylum: Mocking Their Way Through Hollywood are -
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. Film Asylum 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.
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 Film Asylum business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Film Asylum 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Film Asylum 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Film Asylum 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.
Environmental challenges
– Film Asylum 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. Film Asylum can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry.
Increasing wage structure of Film Asylum
– 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 Film Asylum.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Film Asylum 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 Asylum: Mocking Their Way Through Hollywood .
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Film Asylum 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.
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. Film Asylum 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 Film Asylum is facing in Strategy & Execution sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Film Asylum 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of The Asylum: Mocking Their Way Through Hollywood 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 Asylum: Mocking Their Way Through Hollywood 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 Asylum: Mocking Their Way Through Hollywood 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 Asylum: Mocking Their Way Through Hollywood 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 Asylum: Mocking Their Way Through Hollywood 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 Film Asylum needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.