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 government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing household debt because of falling income levels,
customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing transportation and logistics costs, 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 -
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.
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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Activist Hedge has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Activist Hedge has effective processes in place that helps in exploring new product needs, doing quick pilot testing, and then launching the products quickly using its extensive distribution network.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Activist Hedge has built up over years in its products and services combo offer has resulted in high retention of customers, lower marketing costs, and greater ability of the firm to focus on its customers.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Activist Hedge is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the An Activist Approach: Confidential Role Assignment for Castle Rock Management are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Activist Hedge is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in An Activist Approach: Confidential Role Assignment for Castle Rock Management 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.
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.
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 -
Products dominated business model
– Even though Activist Hedge 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 - An Activist Approach: Confidential Role Assignment for Castle Rock Management should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Activist Hedge 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.
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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study An Activist Approach: Confidential Role Assignment for Castle Rock Management, it seems that the employees of Activist Hedge 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 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As An Activist Approach: Confidential Role Assignment for Castle Rock Management HBR case study mentions - Activist Hedge 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Activist Hedge products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Activist Hedge needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Activist Hedge is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study An Activist Approach: Confidential Role Assignment for Castle Rock Management can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
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 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.
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 -
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.
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.
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.
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. Activist Hedge can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Activist Hedge 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Activist Hedge has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Activist Hedge to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the An Activist Approach: Confidential Role Assignment for Castle Rock Management case study. Activist Hedge can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
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.
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 Activist Hedge 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.
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.
Loyalty marketing
– Activist Hedge 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.
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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Activist Hedge 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 Activist Hedge to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
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.
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 -
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.
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.
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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Activist Hedge 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.
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.
Regulatory challenges
– Activist Hedge 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.
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 .
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Environmental challenges
– Activist Hedge 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. Activist Hedge can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry.
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.