An Activist Approach: Confidential Role Assignment for Castle Rock Management SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
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Case Study Description of An Activist Approach: Confidential Role Assignment for Castle Rock Management
A three party, multiple-issue negotiation exercise dealing with a potential merger between two leading department stores, called for by an activist investor hedge fund in a letter to both companies. Company management will now attempt to navigate next moves, which are complicated by weak takeover defenses of their corporate boards, hedge fund ownership stake within both companies, and potential anti-trust risk. Meanwhile, the third party, the activist hedge fund, is turning up the heat in planning their next move.
Swot Analysis of "An Activist Approach: Confidential Role Assignment for Castle Rock Management" written by Guhan Subramanian, Kaitlyn Szydlowski includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Activist Hedge facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in An Activist Approach: Confidential Role Assignment for Castle Rock Management case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Mergers & acquisitions, Negotiations and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the An Activist Approach: Confidential Role Assignment for Castle Rock Management casestudy better are - – increasing energy prices, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , wage bills are increasing, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, technology disruption,
digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, there is backlash against globalization, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of An Activist Approach: Confidential Role Assignment for Castle Rock Management
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in An Activist Approach: Confidential Role Assignment for Castle Rock Management case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Activist Hedge, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Activist Hedge 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 An Activist Approach: Confidential Role Assignment for Castle Rock Management can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in An Activist Approach: Confidential Role Assignment for Castle Rock Management case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Activist Hedge
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 Activist Hedge
Strengths An Activist Approach: Confidential Role Assignment for Castle Rock Management | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Activist Hedge in An Activist Approach: Confidential Role Assignment for Castle Rock Management Harvard Business Review case study are -
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Strategy & Execution industry
– An Activist Approach: Confidential Role Assignment for Castle Rock Management firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Activist Hedge to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Activist Hedge to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the An Activist Approach: Confidential Role Assignment for Castle Rock Management 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Activist Hedge is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Training and development
– Activist Hedge has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in An Activist Approach: Confidential Role Assignment for Castle Rock Management Harvard Business Review case study by analyzing – employees retention, in-house promotion, loyalty, new venture initiation, lack of conflict, and high level of both employees and customer engagement.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Activist Hedge in the sector have low bargaining power. An Activist Approach: Confidential Role Assignment for Castle Rock Management has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Activist Hedge to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Learning organization
- Activist Hedge 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 Activist Hedge is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in An Activist Approach: Confidential Role Assignment for Castle Rock Management Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Ability to lead change in Strategy & Execution field
– Activist Hedge is one of the leading players in its industry. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in its segment but also across the whole industry. The ability to lead change has enabled Activist Hedge in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Analytics focus
– Activist Hedge 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 Guhan Subramanian, Kaitlyn Szydlowski 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Activist Hedge 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Activist Hedge 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 An Activist Approach: Confidential Role Assignment for Castle Rock Management HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Activist Hedge in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Organizational Resilience of Activist Hedge
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Activist Hedge does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Weaknesses An Activist Approach: Confidential Role Assignment for Castle Rock Management | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of An Activist Approach: Confidential Role Assignment for Castle Rock Management are -
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Activist Hedge is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Strategy & Execution segment. Activist Hedge needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Activist Hedge to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
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 Activist Hedge supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - An Activist Approach: Confidential Role Assignment for Castle Rock Management, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Activist Hedge vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the An Activist Approach: Confidential Role Assignment for Castle Rock Management 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 Activist Hedge has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study An Activist Approach: Confidential Role Assignment for Castle Rock Management, is just above the industry average. Activist Hedge 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Activist Hedge, firm in the HBR case study An Activist Approach: Confidential Role Assignment for Castle Rock Management needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study An Activist Approach: Confidential Role Assignment for Castle Rock Management 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 Activist Hedge 's lucrative customers.
Need for greater diversity
– Activist Hedge 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Activist Hedge 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Activist Hedge 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Activist Hedge 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study An Activist Approach: Confidential Role Assignment for Castle Rock Management 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 An Activist Approach: Confidential Role Assignment for Castle Rock Management can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Activist Hedge is planning to shift buying processes online.
Opportunities An Activist Approach: Confidential Role Assignment for Castle Rock Management | 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 An Activist Approach: Confidential Role Assignment for Castle Rock Management are -
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Activist Hedge 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 An Activist Approach: Confidential Role Assignment for Castle Rock Management - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Activist Hedge to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Activist Hedge can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Activist Hedge operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Strategy & Execution sector.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Activist Hedge to increase its market reach. Activist Hedge 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Activist Hedge 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.
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. Activist Hedge can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Activist Hedge in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Strategy & Execution segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Activist Hedge 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.
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. Activist Hedge 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. Activist Hedge 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Activist Hedge 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.
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 Activist Hedge in the consumer business. Now Activist Hedge can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Activist Hedge is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. An Activist Approach: Confidential Role Assignment for Castle Rock Management 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Activist Hedge can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Buying journey improvements
– Activist Hedge can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. An Activist Approach: Confidential Role Assignment for Castle Rock Management 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.
Threats An Activist Approach: Confidential Role Assignment for Castle Rock Management External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study An Activist Approach: Confidential Role Assignment for Castle Rock Management are -
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Activist Hedge with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Activist Hedge is facing in Strategy & Execution sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study An Activist Approach: Confidential Role Assignment for Castle Rock Management, Activist Hedge 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 .
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. Activist Hedge 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.
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 wage structure of Activist Hedge
– 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 Activist Hedge.
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 Activist Hedge.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Activist Hedge 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 An Activist Approach: Confidential Role Assignment for Castle Rock Management .
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 Activist Hedge in the Strategy & Execution sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Activist Hedge 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. Activist Hedge can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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 Activist Hedge business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Activist Hedge 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of An Activist Approach: Confidential Role Assignment for Castle Rock Management 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 An Activist Approach: Confidential Role Assignment for Castle Rock Management 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 An Activist Approach: Confidential Role Assignment for Castle Rock Management 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 An Activist Approach: Confidential Role Assignment for Castle Rock Management 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 An Activist Approach: Confidential Role Assignment for Castle Rock Management 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 Activist Hedge needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.