Place Your "Bet" on Internet Gaming SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Strategy & Execution
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Place Your "Bet" on Internet Gaming
Casino gaming companies such as MGM Mirage, Harrah's, and Park Place Entertainment must consider the potential impact of Internet gambling on their existing operations. The apparent success of several Internet gaming companies means the global market potential could be significant. Each of the U.S. gaming companies has taken a very conservative approach to Internet gaming, hoping to maintain its long-standing relationship with its respective state gaming authority. However, nontraditional casino companies have developed off-shore Internet gaming operations to circumvent traditional, land-based gaming regulations. Going forward, traditional gaming companies will need to consider the possible legalization of Internet gaming on a large scale and their responses.
Swot Analysis of "Place Your "Bet" on Internet Gaming" written by Michael R. Pearce, Kevin Dennis includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Gaming Internet facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Place Your "Bet" on Internet Gaming case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Internet, Marketing, Regulation and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Place Your "Bet" on Internet Gaming casestudy better are - – there is increasing trade war between United States & China, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing energy prices, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, geopolitical disruptions, increasing transportation and logistics costs,
wage bills are increasing, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Place Your "Bet" on Internet Gaming
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Place Your "Bet" on Internet Gaming case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Gaming Internet, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Gaming Internet 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 Place Your "Bet" on Internet Gaming can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Place Your "Bet" on Internet Gaming case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Gaming Internet
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 Gaming Internet
Strengths Place Your "Bet" on Internet Gaming | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Gaming Internet in Place Your "Bet" on Internet Gaming Harvard Business Review case study are -
Training and development
– Gaming Internet has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Place Your "Bet" on Internet Gaming 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Place Your "Bet" on Internet Gaming Harvard Business Review case study comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the industry, building diversified operations across different geographies so that disruption in one part of the world doesn’t impact the overall performance of the firm, and integrating the various business operations and processes through its digital transformation drive.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Gaming Internet 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Gaming Internet 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Gaming Internet 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 Place Your "Bet" on Internet Gaming - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Strong track record of project management
– Gaming Internet is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Gaming Internet in the sector have low bargaining power. Place Your "Bet" on Internet Gaming has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Gaming Internet to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Gaming Internet 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 Place Your "Bet" on Internet Gaming HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Organizational Resilience of Gaming Internet
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Gaming Internet does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Strategy & Execution industry
– Place Your "Bet" on Internet Gaming firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Gaming Internet to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Gaming Internet to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
High brand equity
– Gaming Internet has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Gaming Internet to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Learning organization
- Gaming Internet 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 Gaming Internet is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Place Your "Bet" on Internet Gaming Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Weaknesses Place Your "Bet" on Internet Gaming | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Place Your "Bet" on Internet Gaming are -
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Gaming Internet 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 Gaming Internet is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Strategy & Execution segment. Gaming Internet needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Gaming Internet to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
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 Gaming Internet supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Place Your "Bet" on Internet Gaming, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Gaming Internet vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Place Your "Bet" on Internet Gaming, it seems that the employees of Gaming Internet 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Place Your "Bet" on Internet Gaming, 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Gaming Internet 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Gaming Internet products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Gaming Internet needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Michael R. Pearce, Kevin Dennis suggests that, Gaming Internet 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Gaming Internet 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. Gaming Internet 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Place Your "Bet" on Internet Gaming, in the dynamic environment Gaming Internet has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Gaming Internet has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Place Your "Bet" on Internet Gaming 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 Gaming Internet has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Opportunities Place Your "Bet" on Internet Gaming | 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 Place Your "Bet" on Internet Gaming are -
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Gaming Internet has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Gaming Internet to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Place Your "Bet" on Internet Gaming case study. Gaming Internet can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Gaming Internet to increase its market reach. Gaming Internet 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.
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. Gaming Internet can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Gaming Internet can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Developing new processes and practices
– Gaming Internet 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Gaming Internet 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Gaming Internet 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Gaming Internet 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 Place Your "Bet" on Internet Gaming - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Gaming Internet to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Loyalty marketing
– Gaming Internet 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.
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. Gaming Internet 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 Gaming Internet in the consumer business. Now Gaming Internet can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Gaming Internet is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Place Your "Bet" on Internet Gaming 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Gaming Internet 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.
Threats Place Your "Bet" on Internet Gaming External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Place Your "Bet" on Internet Gaming are -
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.
Increasing wage structure of Gaming Internet
– 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 Gaming Internet.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Place Your "Bet" on Internet Gaming, Gaming Internet 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 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. Gaming Internet needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Strategy & Execution industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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 Gaming Internet business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Regulatory challenges
– Gaming Internet 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Gaming Internet 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.
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 Gaming Internet.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Gaming Internet 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Gaming Internet has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Strategy & Execution industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Gaming Internet 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Gaming Internet is facing in Strategy & Execution sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Gaming Internet 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.
Environmental challenges
– Gaming Internet 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. Gaming Internet can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Place Your "Bet" on Internet Gaming 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 Place Your "Bet" on Internet Gaming 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 Place Your "Bet" on Internet Gaming 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 Place Your "Bet" on Internet Gaming 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 Place Your "Bet" on Internet Gaming 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 Gaming Internet needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.