Managing Mergers: Why People First Can Improve Brand and IT Consolidations SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Strategy & Execution
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Managing Mergers: Why People First Can Improve Brand and IT Consolidations
The number and value of mergers and acquisitions (M&As) continue to grow, with record increases in the U.S. and Asia Pacific in 2015. Yet, despite calls from academic literature for more consideration of the human and behavioral factors in such massive change, there remains an inordinate focus on the financial or quantitative aspects. We connect the newer streams of research with efficiency and growth imperatives via an illustrative analysis of ANZ New Zealand's horizontal merger with The National Bank of New Zealand. ANZ successfully completed a brand and technology merger by prioritizing the customer, addressing employees' socioeconomic concerns, providing enough time and resources to ensure efficiencies, and rebranding enriched customer services and revenues. The results were overwhelmingly positive and provide a useful template for how M&As should be executed in the future using a people-first approach.
Swot Analysis of "Managing Mergers: Why People First Can Improve Brand and IT Consolidations" written by Sandy Jap, A. Noel Gould, Annie H. Liu includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Anz Mergers facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Managing Mergers: Why People First Can Improve Brand and IT Consolidations case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Mergers & acquisitions and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Managing Mergers: Why People First Can Improve Brand and IT Consolidations casestudy better are - – there is increasing trade war between United States & China, geopolitical disruptions, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, technology disruption, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, there is backlash against globalization,
increasing energy prices, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Managing Mergers: Why People First Can Improve Brand and IT Consolidations
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Managing Mergers: Why People First Can Improve Brand and IT Consolidations case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Anz Mergers, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Anz Mergers 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 Managing Mergers: Why People First Can Improve Brand and IT Consolidations can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Managing Mergers: Why People First Can Improve Brand and IT Consolidations case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Anz Mergers
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 Anz Mergers
Strengths Managing Mergers: Why People First Can Improve Brand and IT Consolidations | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Anz Mergers in Managing Mergers: Why People First Can Improve Brand and IT Consolidations Harvard Business Review case study are -
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Anz Mergers 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Managing Mergers: Why People First Can Improve Brand and IT Consolidations 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Anz Mergers is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Managing Mergers: Why People First Can Improve Brand and IT Consolidations are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Strong track record of project management
– Anz Mergers is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Anz Mergers has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Anz Mergers 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.
Analytics focus
– Anz Mergers 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 Sandy Jap, A. Noel Gould, Annie H. Liu 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Anz Mergers 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 Managing Mergers: Why People First Can Improve Brand and IT Consolidations - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Anz Mergers 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Anz Mergers in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Anz Mergers in the sector have low bargaining power. Managing Mergers: Why People First Can Improve Brand and IT Consolidations has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Anz Mergers to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Training and development
– Anz Mergers has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Managing Mergers: Why People First Can Improve Brand and IT Consolidations 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.
High brand equity
– Anz Mergers has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Anz Mergers to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Weaknesses Managing Mergers: Why People First Can Improve Brand and IT Consolidations | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Managing Mergers: Why People First Can Improve Brand and IT Consolidations are -
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Managing Mergers: Why People First Can Improve Brand and IT Consolidations 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 Managing Mergers: Why People First Can Improve Brand and IT Consolidations can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Anz Mergers is planning to shift buying processes online.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Anz Mergers 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.
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 Anz Mergers supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Managing Mergers: Why People First Can Improve Brand and IT Consolidations, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Anz Mergers vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Anz Mergers, firm in the HBR case study Managing Mergers: Why People First Can Improve Brand and IT Consolidations needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Managing Mergers: Why People First Can Improve Brand and IT Consolidations, is just above the industry average. Anz Mergers 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Anz Mergers 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 - Managing Mergers: Why People First Can Improve Brand and IT Consolidations should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Anz Mergers 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. Anz Mergers 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Anz Mergers is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Managing Mergers: Why People First Can Improve Brand and IT Consolidations can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Need for greater diversity
– Anz Mergers 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Anz Mergers 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 Anz Mergers 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 Managing Mergers: Why People First Can Improve Brand and IT Consolidations | 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 Managing Mergers: Why People First Can Improve Brand and IT Consolidations are -
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Anz Mergers 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.
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. Anz Mergers 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. Anz Mergers 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Anz Mergers 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Anz Mergers can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Managing Mergers: Why People First Can Improve Brand and IT Consolidations 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Anz Mergers 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.
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 Anz Mergers in the consumer business. Now Anz Mergers can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Loyalty marketing
– Anz Mergers 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Anz Mergers 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Anz Mergers 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, Managing Mergers: Why People First Can Improve Brand and IT Consolidations, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Anz Mergers 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Anz Mergers 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 Anz Mergers to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Anz Mergers has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Anz Mergers to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Managing Mergers: Why People First Can Improve Brand and IT Consolidations case study. Anz Mergers can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Anz Mergers 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.
Threats Managing Mergers: Why People First Can Improve Brand and IT Consolidations External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Managing Mergers: Why People First Can Improve Brand and IT Consolidations are -
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Anz Mergers 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Anz Mergers with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Anz Mergers 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Anz Mergers 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
– Anz Mergers 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.
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 Anz Mergers in the Strategy & Execution sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Anz Mergers 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 Managing Mergers: Why People First Can Improve Brand and IT Consolidations .
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Managing Mergers: Why People First Can Improve Brand and IT Consolidations, Anz Mergers 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
– Anz Mergers has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Strategy & Execution industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Anz Mergers 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.
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. Anz Mergers needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Strategy & Execution industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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 Anz Mergers
– 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 Anz Mergers.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Anz Mergers is facing in Strategy & Execution sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Managing Mergers: Why People First Can Improve Brand and IT Consolidations 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 Managing Mergers: Why People First Can Improve Brand and IT Consolidations 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 Managing Mergers: Why People First Can Improve Brand and IT Consolidations 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 Managing Mergers: Why People First Can Improve Brand and IT Consolidations 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 Managing Mergers: Why People First Can Improve Brand and IT Consolidations 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 Anz Mergers needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.