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United Daily News Group (C): UDN Shopping - What Happened? SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution

Case Study Description of United Daily News Group (C): UDN Shopping - What Happened?


The United Daily News Group, a leader in Taiwan's media, faces the imminent death of the country's newspaper industry. The founder's grandson took over as the company's chair just four years earlier, during a time when an increasing number of readers were turning to the Internet for their news. Looking ahead, he needs to sustain the company's future development while recognizing that the business of running traditional newspapers may no longer be profitable. He needs to assess the company's strengths, integrate the group's resources, improve news content, introduce digital media and, in doing so, create a new business model. He wonders how to best initiate the integration of resources and which media innovations he should introduce.

Authors :: Rueylin Hsiao, Jean-Louis Schaan

Topics :: Strategy & Execution

Tags :: , SWOT Analysis, SWOT Matrix, TOWS, Weighted SWOT Analysis

Swot Analysis of "United Daily News Group (C): UDN Shopping - What Happened?" written by Rueylin Hsiao, Jean-Louis Schaan includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that News Daily facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in United Daily News Group (C): UDN Shopping - What Happened? case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Strategy & Execution.


Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the United Daily News Group (C): UDN Shopping - What Happened? casestudy better are - – geopolitical disruptions, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing transportation and logistics costs, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing commodity prices, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing energy prices, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, etc



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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of United Daily News Group (C): UDN Shopping - What Happened?


SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in United Daily News Group (C): UDN Shopping - What Happened? case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the News Daily, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which News Daily 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 United Daily News Group (C): UDN Shopping - What Happened? can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in United Daily News Group (C): UDN Shopping - What Happened? case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of News Daily
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 News Daily




Strengths United Daily News Group (C): UDN Shopping - What Happened? | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of News Daily in United Daily News Group (C): UDN Shopping - What Happened? Harvard Business Review case study are -

Ability to recruit top talent

– News Daily is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the United Daily News Group (C): UDN Shopping - What Happened? 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 News Daily digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. News Daily 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.

Training and development

– News Daily has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in United Daily News Group (C): UDN Shopping - What Happened? 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.

Sustainable margins compare to other players in Strategy & Execution industry

– United Daily News Group (C): UDN Shopping - What Happened? firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled News Daily to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry. The sustainable margins have also helped News Daily to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.

Operational resilience

– The operational resilience strategy in the United Daily News Group (C): UDN Shopping - What Happened? 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.

Organizational Resilience of News Daily

– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that News Daily does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.

Cross disciplinary teams

– Horizontal connected teams at the News Daily 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.

Low bargaining power of suppliers

– Suppliers of News Daily in the sector have low bargaining power. United Daily News Group (C): UDN Shopping - What Happened? has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps News Daily to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.

Innovation driven organization

– News Daily is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in United Daily News Group (C): UDN Shopping - What Happened? Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.

Effective Research and Development (R&D)

– News Daily 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 United Daily News Group (C): UDN Shopping - What Happened? - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.

Learning organization

- News Daily 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 News Daily is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in United Daily News Group (C): UDN Shopping - What Happened? Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.

Diverse revenue streams

– News Daily is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in United Daily News Group (C): UDN Shopping - What Happened? 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.






Weaknesses United Daily News Group (C): UDN Shopping - What Happened? | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of United Daily News Group (C): UDN Shopping - What Happened? are -

Products dominated business model

– Even though News Daily 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 - United Daily News Group (C): UDN Shopping - What Happened? should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.

Need for greater diversity

– News Daily 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.

Ability to respond to the competition

– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study United Daily News Group (C): UDN Shopping - What Happened?, in the dynamic environment News Daily has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. News Daily has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.

No frontier risks strategy

– After analyzing the HBR case study United Daily News Group (C): UDN Shopping - What Happened?, 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.

Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy

– From the instances in the HBR case study United Daily News Group (C): UDN Shopping - What Happened?, it seems that the employees of News Daily 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.

Interest costs

– Compare to the competition, News Daily 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.

Workers concerns about automation

– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, News Daily 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.

Aligning sales with marketing

– It come across in the case study United Daily News Group (C): UDN Shopping - What Happened? 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 United Daily News Group (C): UDN Shopping - What Happened? can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as News Daily is planning to shift buying processes online.

Low market penetration in new markets

– Outside its home market of News Daily, firm in the HBR case study United Daily News Group (C): UDN Shopping - What Happened? needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.

Lack of clear differentiation of News Daily products

– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, News Daily needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.

Compensation and incentives

– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study United Daily News Group (C): UDN Shopping - What Happened?, is just above the industry average. News Daily 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.




Opportunities United Daily News Group (C): UDN Shopping - What Happened? | 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 United Daily News Group (C): UDN Shopping - What Happened? are -

Better consumer reach

– The expansion of the 5G network will help News Daily to increase its market reach. News Daily 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.

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. News Daily can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.

Reforming the budgeting process

- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects News Daily can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.

Learning at scale

– Online learning technologies has now opened space for News Daily 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.

Loyalty marketing

– News Daily 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.

Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19

– Consumer behavior has changed in the Strategy & Execution industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. News Daily can take advantage of these changes in consumer behavior to build a far more efficient business model. For example consumer regular ordering of products can reduce both last mile delivery costs and market penetration costs. News Daily can further use this consumer data to build better customer loyalty, provide better products and service collection, and improve the value proposition in inflationary times.

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 News Daily 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.

Creating value in data economy

– The success of analytics program of News Daily has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help News Daily to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the United Daily News Group (C): UDN Shopping - What Happened? case study. News Daily can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.

Buying journey improvements

– News Daily can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. United Daily News Group (C): UDN Shopping - What Happened? 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.

Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains

– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, News Daily 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, United Daily News Group (C): UDN Shopping - What Happened?, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.

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 News Daily in the consumer business. Now News Daily can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.

Manufacturing automation

– News Daily 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.

Using analytics as competitive advantage

– News Daily 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 United Daily News Group (C): UDN Shopping - What Happened? - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help News Daily to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.




Threats United Daily News Group (C): UDN Shopping - What Happened? External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis


The threats mentioned in the HBR case study United Daily News Group (C): UDN Shopping - What Happened? are -

Learning curve for new practices

– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study United Daily News Group (C): UDN Shopping - What Happened?, News Daily 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 .

Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution

– News Daily has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Strategy & Execution industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, News Daily 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.

Stagnating economy with rate increase

– News Daily 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.

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. News Daily 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.

Trade war between China and United States

– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for News Daily 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.

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 News Daily in the Strategy & Execution sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.

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. News Daily can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.

Consumer confidence and its impact on News Daily 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.

Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins

– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, News Daily 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 United Daily News Group (C): UDN Shopping - What Happened? .

Environmental challenges

– News Daily 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. News Daily can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry.

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 News Daily business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.

High dependence on third party suppliers

– News Daily 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.

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.




Weighted SWOT Analysis of United Daily News Group (C): UDN Shopping - What Happened? 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 United Daily News Group (C): UDN Shopping - What Happened? 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 United Daily News Group (C): UDN Shopping - What Happened? 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 United Daily News Group (C): UDN Shopping - What Happened? 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 United Daily News Group (C): UDN Shopping - What Happened? 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 News Daily needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.



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