The Unfinished Dream of NBA China SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
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Case Study Description of The Unfinished Dream of NBA China
The National Basketball Association (NBA) is one of the most successful sports leagues in the world. Under the leadership of David Stern, the NBA has undergone unprecedented globalization. An NBA game in 2007 between the Rockets and Bucks - featuring the meeting of two Chinese players - drew an estimated 250 million television viewers in China. In 2008, a local, independent company, NBA China, was created and majority-controlled by the NBA, taking the NBA's business in China to the next level. Up until now, China has been the NBA's number one market outside the United States by a large margin. However, nothing comes easily. Social networking services have developed quickly, redefining how fans watch games and interact with each other; the traditional merchandise strategy based on franchised stores is being challenged by booming online businesses; the annual NBA China Games are no longer able to satiate Chinese fans' growing appetite for games; relations with the government-affiliated Chinese Basketball Association are tense; and no Chinese have played in the NBA since Yao Ming's retirement. Facing all these challenges in a nation with an entirely foreign system and culture, what should the new CEO of NBA China do? Author Xianghang Guo is affiliated with Peking University. Author Yin Chen is affiliated with Beijing Foreign Studies University.
Swot Analysis of "The Unfinished Dream of NBA China" written by Xianghang Guo, Yin Chen includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Nba China facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in The Unfinished Dream of NBA China case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the The Unfinished Dream of NBA China casestudy better are - – increasing household debt because of falling income levels, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing commodity prices, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion,
increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of The Unfinished Dream of NBA China
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in The Unfinished Dream of NBA China case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Nba China, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Nba China 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 The Unfinished Dream of NBA China can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in The Unfinished Dream of NBA China case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Nba China
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 Nba China
Strengths The Unfinished Dream of NBA China | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Nba China in The Unfinished Dream of NBA China Harvard Business Review case study are -
Ability to recruit top talent
– Nba China is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the The Unfinished Dream of NBA China are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Diverse revenue streams
– Nba China is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in The Unfinished Dream of NBA China 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.
Digital Transformation in Strategy & Execution segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Nba China digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Nba China 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.
Ability to lead change in Strategy & Execution field
– Nba China 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 Nba China in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
High brand equity
– Nba China has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Nba China to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Learning organization
- Nba China 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 Nba China is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in The Unfinished Dream of NBA China Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Nba China has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Nba China 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Nba China 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 The Unfinished Dream of NBA China HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Training and development
– Nba China has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in The Unfinished Dream of NBA China 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 switching costs
– The high switching costs that Nba China 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Nba China in the sector have low bargaining power. The Unfinished Dream of NBA China has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Nba China to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Organizational Resilience of Nba China
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Nba China does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Weaknesses The Unfinished Dream of NBA China | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of The Unfinished Dream of NBA China are -
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Nba China 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 star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the The Unfinished Dream of NBA China 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 Nba China has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Nba China 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Nba China is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Strategy & Execution segment. Nba China needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Nba China to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Nba China 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study The Unfinished Dream of NBA China 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 The Unfinished Dream of NBA China can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Nba China is planning to shift buying processes online.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Nba China 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study The Unfinished Dream of NBA China 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 Nba China 's lucrative customers.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As The Unfinished Dream of NBA China HBR case study mentions - Nba China 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Nba China 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Nba China 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 - The Unfinished Dream of NBA China should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Opportunities The Unfinished Dream of NBA China | 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 The Unfinished Dream of NBA China are -
Leveraging digital technologies
– Nba China 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Nba China can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Nba China operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Strategy & Execution sector.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Nba China 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 The Unfinished Dream of NBA China - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Nba China 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 Nba China can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Nba China 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 Nba China to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Nba China 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Nba China 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Nba China has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Nba China to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the The Unfinished Dream of NBA China case study. Nba China can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Loyalty marketing
– Nba China 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Nba China 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Nba China can develop new processes and procedures in Strategy & Execution industry using technology such as automation using artificial intelligence, real time transportation and products tracking, 3D modeling for concept development and new products pilot testing etc.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Strategy & Execution industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Nba China 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. Nba China 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.
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 Nba China in the consumer business. Now Nba China can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Threats The Unfinished Dream of NBA China External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study The Unfinished Dream of NBA China 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Nba China has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Strategy & Execution industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Nba China 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Nba China 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 The Unfinished Dream of NBA China, Nba China 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 .
Environmental challenges
– Nba China 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. Nba China can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry.
Increasing wage structure of Nba China
– 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 Nba China.
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. Nba China can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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 Nba China in the Strategy & Execution sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Nba China is facing in Strategy & Execution sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Nba China with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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. Nba China needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Strategy & Execution industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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.
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. Nba China 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of The Unfinished Dream of NBA China 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 The Unfinished Dream of NBA China 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 The Unfinished Dream of NBA China 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 The Unfinished Dream of NBA China 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 The Unfinished Dream of NBA China 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 Nba China needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.