Nouveau Event Planning: The Wedding Extravaganza SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Strategy & Execution
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Nouveau Event Planning: The Wedding Extravaganza
For the last 24 years Nouveau Event Planning has been operating the largest wedding expo in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, an event called the Wedding Extravaganza. In 2001 the Wedding Odyssey became the second Wedding Expo in Windsor, and started to pose a significant threat to the Wedding Extravaganza. Some strategic decisions in the case include pricing, customer retention, and selection of an appropriate target market. Students are asked to determine the best course of action for the exhibition through analysis of the competitive landscape and future potential of the wedding industry.
Swot Analysis of "Nouveau Event Planning: The Wedding Extravaganza" written by Neil Bendle, Rocky Campana includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Wedding Extravaganza facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Nouveau Event Planning: The Wedding Extravaganza case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Market research and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Nouveau Event Planning: The Wedding Extravaganza casestudy better are - – supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing commodity prices, wage bills are increasing, increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing energy prices, there is backlash against globalization, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google,
banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Nouveau Event Planning: The Wedding Extravaganza
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Nouveau Event Planning: The Wedding Extravaganza case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Wedding Extravaganza, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Wedding Extravaganza 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 Nouveau Event Planning: The Wedding Extravaganza can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Nouveau Event Planning: The Wedding Extravaganza case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Wedding Extravaganza
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 Wedding Extravaganza
Strengths Nouveau Event Planning: The Wedding Extravaganza | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Wedding Extravaganza in Nouveau Event Planning: The Wedding Extravaganza Harvard Business Review case study are -
Organizational Resilience of Wedding Extravaganza
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Wedding Extravaganza does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Wedding Extravaganza 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 Nouveau Event Planning: The Wedding Extravaganza HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Training and development
– Wedding Extravaganza has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Nouveau Event Planning: The Wedding Extravaganza 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Wedding Extravaganza in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Wedding Extravaganza has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Wedding Extravaganza 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Wedding Extravaganza is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Nouveau Event Planning: The Wedding Extravaganza are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
High brand equity
– Wedding Extravaganza has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Wedding Extravaganza to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Wedding Extravaganza 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 Nouveau Event Planning: The Wedding Extravaganza - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Wedding Extravaganza in the sector have low bargaining power. Nouveau Event Planning: The Wedding Extravaganza has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Wedding Extravaganza to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Analytics focus
– Wedding Extravaganza 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 Neil Bendle, Rocky Campana 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.
Ability to lead change in Strategy & Execution field
– Wedding Extravaganza 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 Wedding Extravaganza in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Strong track record of project management
– Wedding Extravaganza is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Weaknesses Nouveau Event Planning: The Wedding Extravaganza | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Nouveau Event Planning: The Wedding Extravaganza are -
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Wedding Extravaganza is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Strategy & Execution segment. Wedding Extravaganza needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Wedding Extravaganza to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Lack of clear differentiation of Wedding Extravaganza products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Wedding Extravaganza needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Wedding Extravaganza is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Nouveau Event Planning: The Wedding Extravaganza can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Wedding Extravaganza 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. Wedding Extravaganza 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Wedding Extravaganza 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Wedding Extravaganza needs to come up with a strategy to reduce the workers concern regarding automation. Without a clear strategy, it could lead to disruption and uncertainty within the organization.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Wedding Extravaganza, firm in the HBR case study Nouveau Event Planning: The Wedding Extravaganza needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
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 Wedding Extravaganza supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Nouveau Event Planning: The Wedding Extravaganza, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Wedding Extravaganza vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Nouveau Event Planning: The Wedding Extravaganza HBR case study mentions - Wedding Extravaganza 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Wedding Extravaganza 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Nouveau Event Planning: The Wedding Extravaganza 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 Nouveau Event Planning: The Wedding Extravaganza can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Wedding Extravaganza is planning to shift buying processes online.
Opportunities Nouveau Event Planning: The Wedding Extravaganza | 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 Nouveau Event Planning: The Wedding Extravaganza are -
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Wedding Extravaganza has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Wedding Extravaganza to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Nouveau Event Planning: The Wedding Extravaganza case study. Wedding Extravaganza can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Wedding Extravaganza can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Wedding Extravaganza 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 Wedding Extravaganza to increase its market reach. Wedding Extravaganza 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Wedding Extravaganza 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.
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. Wedding Extravaganza can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Wedding Extravaganza 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Wedding Extravaganza 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.
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 Wedding Extravaganza 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Wedding Extravaganza 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 Wedding Extravaganza to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Wedding Extravaganza 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 Wedding Extravaganza in the consumer business. Now Wedding Extravaganza can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Buying journey improvements
– Wedding Extravaganza can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Nouveau Event Planning: The Wedding Extravaganza 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Wedding Extravaganza 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 Nouveau Event Planning: The Wedding Extravaganza - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Wedding Extravaganza to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Threats Nouveau Event Planning: The Wedding Extravaganza External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Nouveau Event Planning: The Wedding Extravaganza are -
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 Wedding Extravaganza.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Wedding Extravaganza 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Wedding Extravaganza 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 Wedding Extravaganza 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Wedding Extravaganza 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.
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. Wedding Extravaganza 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 Wedding Extravaganza with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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 Wedding Extravaganza in the Strategy & Execution sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Wedding Extravaganza 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Wedding Extravaganza 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 Nouveau Event Planning: The Wedding Extravaganza .
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Wedding Extravaganza is facing in Strategy & Execution sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Increasing wage structure of Wedding Extravaganza
– 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 Wedding Extravaganza.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Nouveau Event Planning: The Wedding Extravaganza 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 Nouveau Event Planning: The Wedding Extravaganza 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 Nouveau Event Planning: The Wedding Extravaganza 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 Nouveau Event Planning: The Wedding Extravaganza 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 Nouveau Event Planning: The Wedding Extravaganza 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 Wedding Extravaganza needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
