Swot Analysis of "BSL: A Business School in Transition (A) The Process" written by J. B.M. Kassarjian includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Bsl Transition facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in BSL: A Business School in Transition (A) The Process case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the BSL: A Business School in Transition (A) The Process casestudy better are - – competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing transportation and logistics costs, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, geopolitical disruptions, there is backlash against globalization, increasing household debt because of falling income levels,
central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing energy prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of BSL: A Business School in Transition (A) The Process
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in BSL: A Business School in Transition (A) The Process case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Bsl Transition, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Bsl Transition 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 BSL: A Business School in Transition (A) The Process can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in BSL: A Business School in Transition (A) The Process case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Bsl Transition
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 Bsl Transition
Strengths BSL: A Business School in Transition (A) The Process | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Bsl Transition in BSL: A Business School in Transition (A) The Process Harvard Business Review case study are -
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the BSL: A Business School in Transition (A) The Process 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Bsl Transition is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in BSL: A Business School in Transition (A) The Process 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.
Learning organization
- Bsl Transition 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 Bsl Transition is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in BSL: A Business School in Transition (A) The Process Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
High brand equity
– Bsl Transition has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Bsl Transition to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Bsl Transition has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Bsl Transition 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
– Bsl Transition is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the BSL: A Business School in Transition (A) The Process are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Bsl Transition in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Training and development
– Bsl Transition has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in BSL: A Business School in Transition (A) The Process 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.
Organizational Resilience of Bsl Transition
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Bsl Transition does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Bsl Transition 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 BSL: A Business School in Transition (A) The Process - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Bsl Transition 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Bsl Transition is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in BSL: A Business School in Transition (A) The Process Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Weaknesses BSL: A Business School in Transition (A) The Process | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of BSL: A Business School in Transition (A) The Process are -
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Bsl Transition 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. Bsl Transition 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study BSL: A Business School in Transition (A) The Process 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 BSL: A Business School in Transition (A) The Process can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Bsl Transition is planning to shift buying processes online.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Bsl Transition 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 - BSL: A Business School in Transition (A) The Process should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Bsl Transition 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study BSL: A Business School in Transition (A) The Process, it seems that the employees of Bsl Transition 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Bsl Transition 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study BSL: A Business School in Transition (A) The Process, 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 dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the BSL: A Business School in Transition (A) The Process 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 Bsl Transition has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study BSL: A Business School in Transition (A) The Process, in the dynamic environment Bsl Transition has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Bsl Transition has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Bsl Transition 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Bsl Transition, firm in the HBR case study BSL: A Business School in Transition (A) The Process needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Opportunities BSL: A Business School in Transition (A) The Process | 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 BSL: A Business School in Transition (A) The Process are -
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Bsl Transition 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, BSL: A Business School in Transition (A) The Process, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Bsl Transition 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
– Bsl Transition 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 BSL: A Business School in Transition (A) The Process - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Bsl Transition to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
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. Bsl Transition 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. Bsl Transition 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Bsl Transition has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Bsl Transition to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the BSL: A Business School in Transition (A) The Process case study. Bsl Transition can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Bsl Transition can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
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 Bsl Transition 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Bsl Transition can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. BSL: A Business School in Transition (A) The Process 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Bsl Transition 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Bsl Transition 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.
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 Bsl Transition in the consumer business. Now Bsl Transition can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Developing new processes and practices
– Bsl Transition 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Bsl Transition can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Bsl Transition operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Strategy & Execution sector.
Threats BSL: A Business School in Transition (A) The Process External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study BSL: A Business School in Transition (A) The Process 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 Bsl Transition in the Strategy & Execution sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Bsl Transition has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Strategy & Execution industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Bsl Transition 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
– Bsl Transition 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.
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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Bsl Transition with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Bsl Transition 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Bsl Transition is facing in Strategy & Execution sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Bsl Transition 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.
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 Bsl Transition business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Environmental challenges
– Bsl Transition 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. Bsl Transition can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Bsl Transition 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study BSL: A Business School in Transition (A) The Process, Bsl Transition 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 .
Weighted SWOT Analysis of BSL: A Business School in Transition (A) The Process 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 BSL: A Business School in Transition (A) The Process 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 BSL: A Business School in Transition (A) The Process 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 BSL: A Business School in Transition (A) The Process 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 BSL: A Business School in Transition (A) The Process 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 Bsl Transition needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
