SALLY SOPRANO I - Confidential Instructions for Lyric Opera's Business Manager SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
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Case Study Description of SALLY SOPRANO I - Confidential Instructions for Lyric Opera's Business Manager
Accompanied by product #PON424Two-party negotiation between agents for an opera singer and an opera house regarding a possible contract for an upcoming production. Sally Soprano is a distinguished soprano who is now somewhat past her prime. She has not had a lead role in two years, but would like to revive her career. The Lyric Opera has a production scheduled to open in three weeks, but its lead soprano has become unavailable. Lyric's representative has requested a meeting with Sally's agent to discuss the possibility of hiring Sally for the production. Neither knows much about the other's interests or alternatives. There is a wide range of possible outcomes. This is a role play case.
Swot Analysis of "SALLY SOPRANO I - Confidential Instructions for Lyric Opera's Business Manager" written by Norbert Jacker, Mark Gordon includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Soprano Sally facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in SALLY SOPRANO I - Confidential Instructions for Lyric Opera's Business Manager case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Career planning, Conflict, Negotiations and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the SALLY SOPRANO I - Confidential Instructions for Lyric Opera's Business Manager casestudy better are - – increasing household debt because of falling income levels, there is backlash against globalization, technology disruption, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings,
cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of SALLY SOPRANO I - Confidential Instructions for Lyric Opera's Business Manager
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in SALLY SOPRANO I - Confidential Instructions for Lyric Opera's Business Manager case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Soprano Sally, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Soprano Sally 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 SALLY SOPRANO I - Confidential Instructions for Lyric Opera's Business Manager can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in SALLY SOPRANO I - Confidential Instructions for Lyric Opera's Business Manager case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Soprano Sally
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 Soprano Sally
Strengths SALLY SOPRANO I - Confidential Instructions for Lyric Opera's Business Manager | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Soprano Sally in SALLY SOPRANO I - Confidential Instructions for Lyric Opera's Business Manager Harvard Business Review case study are -
Innovation driven organization
– Soprano Sally is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in SALLY SOPRANO I - Confidential Instructions for Lyric Opera's Business Manager Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Learning organization
- Soprano Sally 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 Soprano Sally is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in SALLY SOPRANO I - Confidential Instructions for Lyric Opera's Business Manager Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
High brand equity
– Soprano Sally has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Soprano Sally to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Training and development
– Soprano Sally has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in SALLY SOPRANO I - Confidential Instructions for Lyric Opera's Business Manager 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Soprano Sally 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Strategy & Execution industry
– SALLY SOPRANO I - Confidential Instructions for Lyric Opera's Business Manager firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Soprano Sally to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Soprano Sally to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Soprano Sally 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 SALLY SOPRANO I - Confidential Instructions for Lyric Opera's Business Manager HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Soprano Sally in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Soprano Sally is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the SALLY SOPRANO I - Confidential Instructions for Lyric Opera's Business Manager are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Ability to lead change in Strategy & Execution field
– Soprano Sally 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 Soprano Sally in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Digital Transformation in Strategy & Execution segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Soprano Sally digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Soprano Sally 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Soprano Sally has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Soprano Sally 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.
Weaknesses SALLY SOPRANO I - Confidential Instructions for Lyric Opera's Business Manager | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of SALLY SOPRANO I - Confidential Instructions for Lyric Opera's Business Manager are -
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study SALLY SOPRANO I - Confidential Instructions for Lyric Opera's Business Manager 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 Soprano Sally 's lucrative customers.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Soprano Sally 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Soprano Sally 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 - SALLY SOPRANO I - Confidential Instructions for Lyric Opera's Business Manager 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, Soprano Sally 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. Soprano Sally 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Soprano Sally 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study SALLY SOPRANO I - Confidential Instructions for Lyric Opera's Business Manager, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Strategy & Execution strategy. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Soprano Sally 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Norbert Jacker, Mark Gordon suggests that, Soprano Sally is facing high bargaining power of the channel partners. So far it has not able to streamline the operations to reduce the bargaining power of the value chain partners in the industry.
Need for greater diversity
– Soprano Sally 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study SALLY SOPRANO I - Confidential Instructions for Lyric Opera's Business Manager, is just above the industry average. Soprano Sally 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Soprano Sally 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.
Opportunities SALLY SOPRANO I - Confidential Instructions for Lyric Opera's Business Manager | 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 SALLY SOPRANO I - Confidential Instructions for Lyric Opera's Business Manager are -
Loyalty marketing
– Soprano Sally 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Soprano Sally 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, SALLY SOPRANO I - Confidential Instructions for Lyric Opera's Business Manager, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
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. Soprano Sally 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. Soprano Sally 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Soprano Sally 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 Soprano Sally 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 Soprano Sally to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Soprano Sally can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Soprano Sally operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Strategy & Execution sector.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Soprano Sally 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Soprano Sally 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Soprano Sally 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Soprano Sally is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. SALLY SOPRANO I - Confidential Instructions for Lyric Opera's Business Manager 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Soprano Sally has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Soprano Sally to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the SALLY SOPRANO I - Confidential Instructions for Lyric Opera's Business Manager case study. Soprano Sally can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, 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. Soprano Sally can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
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 Soprano Sally 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.
Threats SALLY SOPRANO I - Confidential Instructions for Lyric Opera's Business Manager External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study SALLY SOPRANO I - Confidential Instructions for Lyric Opera's Business Manager are -
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 Soprano Sally in the Strategy & Execution sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Soprano Sally has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Strategy & Execution industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Soprano Sally 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.
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. Soprano Sally 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.
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 Soprano Sally.
Regulatory challenges
– Soprano Sally 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Soprano Sally 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Soprano Sally 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 SALLY SOPRANO I - Confidential Instructions for Lyric Opera's Business Manager .
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. Soprano Sally needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Strategy & Execution industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study SALLY SOPRANO I - Confidential Instructions for Lyric Opera's Business Manager, Soprano Sally 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 .
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Soprano Sally 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Soprano Sally 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.
Environmental challenges
– Soprano Sally 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. Soprano Sally can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of SALLY SOPRANO I - Confidential Instructions for Lyric Opera's Business Manager 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 SALLY SOPRANO I - Confidential Instructions for Lyric Opera's Business Manager 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 SALLY SOPRANO I - Confidential Instructions for Lyric Opera's Business Manager 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 SALLY SOPRANO I - Confidential Instructions for Lyric Opera's Business Manager 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 SALLY SOPRANO I - Confidential Instructions for Lyric Opera's Business Manager 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 Soprano Sally needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
