Swot Analysis of "Atento: Managing the Employee Lifecycle in Brazil" written by F. Asis Martinez-Jerez, Pablo Casas-Arce, Christopher D. Ittner, Joshua Petersel includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Atento Lifecycle facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Atento: Managing the Employee Lifecycle in Brazil case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Finance & Accounting.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Atento: Managing the Employee Lifecycle in Brazil casestudy better are - – talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, geopolitical disruptions, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings,
increasing energy prices, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Atento: Managing the Employee Lifecycle in Brazil
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Atento: Managing the Employee Lifecycle in Brazil case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Atento Lifecycle, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Atento Lifecycle 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 Atento: Managing the Employee Lifecycle in Brazil can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Atento: Managing the Employee Lifecycle in Brazil case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Atento Lifecycle
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Finance & Accounting field.
4. Making a Finance & Accounting topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Atento Lifecycle
Strengths Atento: Managing the Employee Lifecycle in Brazil | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Atento Lifecycle in Atento: Managing the Employee Lifecycle in Brazil Harvard Business Review case study are -
Ability to lead change in Finance & Accounting field
– Atento Lifecycle 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 Atento Lifecycle in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Atento Lifecycle 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Atento Lifecycle has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Atento Lifecycle 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Atento Lifecycle in the sector have low bargaining power. Atento: Managing the Employee Lifecycle in Brazil has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Atento Lifecycle to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Finance & Accounting industry
– Atento: Managing the Employee Lifecycle in Brazil firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Atento Lifecycle to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Finance & Accounting industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Atento Lifecycle to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Atento Lifecycle in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Digital Transformation in Finance & Accounting segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Atento Lifecycle digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Atento Lifecycle 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Atento Lifecycle is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Atento: Managing the Employee Lifecycle in Brazil Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Atento Lifecycle is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Atento: Managing the Employee Lifecycle in Brazil are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Learning organization
- Atento Lifecycle 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 Atento Lifecycle is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Atento: Managing the Employee Lifecycle in Brazil Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
High brand equity
– Atento Lifecycle has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Atento Lifecycle to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Diverse revenue streams
– Atento Lifecycle is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Atento: Managing the Employee Lifecycle in Brazil 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 Atento: Managing the Employee Lifecycle in Brazil | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Atento: Managing the Employee Lifecycle in Brazil are -
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Atento: Managing the Employee Lifecycle in Brazil, it seems that the employees of Atento Lifecycle 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Atento: Managing the Employee Lifecycle in Brazil HBR case study mentions - Atento Lifecycle 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Atento: Managing the Employee Lifecycle in Brazil 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 Atento Lifecycle has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Atento: Managing the Employee Lifecycle in Brazil 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 Atento Lifecycle 's lucrative customers.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Atento Lifecycle 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 - Atento: Managing the Employee Lifecycle in Brazil should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Atento Lifecycle 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Atento: Managing the Employee Lifecycle in Brazil, in the dynamic environment Atento Lifecycle has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Atento Lifecycle has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Atento: Managing the Employee Lifecycle in Brazil, is just above the industry average. Atento Lifecycle 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 Atento Lifecycle, firm in the HBR case study Atento: Managing the Employee Lifecycle in Brazil needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Atento Lifecycle 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Atento Lifecycle 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 Atento: Managing the Employee Lifecycle in Brazil | 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 Atento: Managing the Employee Lifecycle in Brazil are -
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Atento Lifecycle 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, Atento: Managing the Employee Lifecycle in Brazil, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Atento Lifecycle to increase its market reach. Atento Lifecycle 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. Atento Lifecycle can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
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 Atento Lifecycle in the consumer business. Now Atento Lifecycle can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
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 Atento Lifecycle 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 Atento Lifecycle has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Atento Lifecycle to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Atento: Managing the Employee Lifecycle in Brazil case study. Atento Lifecycle can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Manufacturing automation
– Atento Lifecycle can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Finance & Accounting 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Atento Lifecycle can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Atento Lifecycle operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Finance & Accounting sector.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Atento Lifecycle 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 Atento: Managing the Employee Lifecycle in Brazil - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Atento Lifecycle to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Atento Lifecycle can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Finance & Accounting industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Atento Lifecycle 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. Atento Lifecycle 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
– Atento Lifecycle 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Atento Lifecycle is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Atento: Managing the Employee Lifecycle in Brazil 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.
Threats Atento: Managing the Employee Lifecycle in Brazil External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Atento: Managing the Employee Lifecycle in Brazil are -
Consumer confidence and its impact on Atento Lifecycle 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Atento Lifecycle 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 Finance & Accounting industry regulations.
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. Atento Lifecycle 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Atento: Managing the Employee Lifecycle in Brazil, Atento Lifecycle may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Finance & Accounting .
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 Atento Lifecycle business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Environmental challenges
– Atento Lifecycle 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. Atento Lifecycle can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Finance & Accounting industry.
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 Atento Lifecycle in the Finance & Accounting sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Atento Lifecycle has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Finance & Accounting industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Atento Lifecycle needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Finance & Accounting 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
– Atento Lifecycle 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.
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. Atento Lifecycle needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Finance & Accounting industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Atento Lifecycle with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Atento Lifecycle 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 Atento: Managing the Employee Lifecycle in Brazil .
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Atento Lifecycle 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Atento: Managing the Employee Lifecycle in Brazil 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 Atento: Managing the Employee Lifecycle in Brazil 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 Atento: Managing the Employee Lifecycle in Brazil 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 Atento: Managing the Employee Lifecycle in Brazil 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 Atento: Managing the Employee Lifecycle in Brazil 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 Atento Lifecycle needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
