Die Mannschaft: How Germany Won the 2014 FIFA World Cup SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Strategy & Execution
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Die Mannschaft: How Germany Won the 2014 FIFA World Cup
After years of ups and downs, Germany won its fourth World Cup Championship in 2014.This case examines the national team's recent history and the changes they made to set themselves up for success.
Authors :: Boris Groysberg, Sascha L. Schmidt, Arjun Thomke, Kerry Herman
Swot Analysis of "Die Mannschaft: How Germany Won the 2014 FIFA World Cup" written by Boris Groysberg, Sascha L. Schmidt, Arjun Thomke, Kerry Herman includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Cup Won facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Die Mannschaft: How Germany Won the 2014 FIFA World Cup case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Organizational culture and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Die Mannschaft: How Germany Won the 2014 FIFA World Cup casestudy better are - – central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, geopolitical disruptions, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic ,
increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Die Mannschaft: How Germany Won the 2014 FIFA World Cup
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Die Mannschaft: How Germany Won the 2014 FIFA World Cup case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Cup Won, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Cup Won 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 Die Mannschaft: How Germany Won the 2014 FIFA World Cup can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Die Mannschaft: How Germany Won the 2014 FIFA World Cup case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Cup Won
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 Cup Won
Strengths Die Mannschaft: How Germany Won the 2014 FIFA World Cup | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Cup Won in Die Mannschaft: How Germany Won the 2014 FIFA World Cup Harvard Business Review case study are -
Innovation driven organization
– Cup Won is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Die Mannschaft: How Germany Won the 2014 FIFA World Cup 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 Cup Won in the sector have low bargaining power. Die Mannschaft: How Germany Won the 2014 FIFA World Cup has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Cup Won to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Strategy & Execution industry
– Die Mannschaft: How Germany Won the 2014 FIFA World Cup firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Cup Won to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Cup Won to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Analytics focus
– Cup Won 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 Boris Groysberg, Sascha L. Schmidt, Arjun Thomke, Kerry Herman 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Cup Won 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 Die Mannschaft: How Germany Won the 2014 FIFA World Cup HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
High brand equity
– Cup Won has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Cup Won to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Strong track record of project management
– Cup Won is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Cup Won in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Cup Won 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Cup Won 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 Die Mannschaft: How Germany Won the 2014 FIFA World Cup - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Diverse revenue streams
– Cup Won is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Die Mannschaft: How Germany Won the 2014 FIFA World Cup 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.
Digital Transformation in Strategy & Execution segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Cup Won digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Cup Won 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.
Weaknesses Die Mannschaft: How Germany Won the 2014 FIFA World Cup | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Die Mannschaft: How Germany Won the 2014 FIFA World Cup are -
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Cup Won 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. Cup Won 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Cup Won 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 - Die Mannschaft: How Germany Won the 2014 FIFA World Cup should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Die Mannschaft: How Germany Won the 2014 FIFA World Cup 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 Cup Won has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
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 Cup Won supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Die Mannschaft: How Germany Won the 2014 FIFA World Cup, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Cup Won vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Boris Groysberg, Sascha L. Schmidt, Arjun Thomke, Kerry Herman suggests that, Cup Won 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, Cup Won 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 Die Mannschaft: How Germany Won the 2014 FIFA World Cup HBR case study mentions - Cup Won takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the industry in last five years.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Die Mannschaft: How Germany Won the 2014 FIFA World Cup, it seems that the employees of Cup Won 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Cup Won 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 Die Mannschaft: How Germany Won the 2014 FIFA World Cup, 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Cup Won 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.
Opportunities Die Mannschaft: How Germany Won the 2014 FIFA World Cup | 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 Die Mannschaft: How Germany Won the 2014 FIFA World Cup are -
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Cup Won 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 Die Mannschaft: How Germany Won the 2014 FIFA World Cup - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Cup Won to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Cup Won is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Die Mannschaft: How Germany Won the 2014 FIFA World Cup case study suggests that firm can utilize new technology to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Cup Won 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, Cup Won can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Cup Won operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Strategy & Execution sector.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Cup Won 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 Cup Won 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Cup Won 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Cup Won 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, Die Mannschaft: How Germany Won the 2014 FIFA World Cup, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
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. Cup Won can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Manufacturing automation
– Cup Won 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Cup Won to increase its market reach. Cup Won 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.
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 Cup Won in the consumer business. Now Cup Won can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Cup Won 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 Die Mannschaft: How Germany Won the 2014 FIFA World Cup External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Die Mannschaft: How Germany Won the 2014 FIFA World Cup are -
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Cup Won has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Strategy & Execution industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Cup Won 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.
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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Cup Won 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.
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. Cup Won 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 Cup Won is facing in Strategy & Execution sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Cup Won 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 Die Mannschaft: How Germany Won the 2014 FIFA World Cup .
Consumer confidence and its impact on Cup Won 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.
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 Cup Won in the Strategy & Execution sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Die Mannschaft: How Germany Won the 2014 FIFA World Cup, Cup Won 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 .
Increasing wage structure of Cup Won
– 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 Cup Won.
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 Cup Won 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. Cup Won needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Strategy & Execution industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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. Cup Won 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Die Mannschaft: How Germany Won the 2014 FIFA World Cup 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 Die Mannschaft: How Germany Won the 2014 FIFA World Cup 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 Die Mannschaft: How Germany Won the 2014 FIFA World Cup 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 Die Mannschaft: How Germany Won the 2014 FIFA World Cup 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 Die Mannschaft: How Germany Won the 2014 FIFA World Cup 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 Cup Won needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.