Bell Atlantic and the Union City Schools (C1): Project Explore SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Technology & Operations
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Bell Atlantic and the Union City Schools (C1): Project Explore
The third in a five-part series about Bell Atlantic Corp.'s technology-in-education partnership with the Union City, New Jersey school system. Describes Bell Atlantic's efforts to identify an appropriate site for testing emerging telecommunications technology and its eventual decision to approach the Union City School System as a potential technology in education partner. Video 9-399-501 is a short version of the case series and may be used in conjunction with it.
Swot Analysis of "Bell Atlantic and the Union City Schools (C1): Project Explore" written by Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Ellen Pruyne includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Bell Union facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Bell Atlantic and the Union City Schools (C1): Project Explore case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Joint ventures, Leadership, Leadership development, Reorganization, Strategic planning, Strategy execution, Technology and Technology & Operations.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Bell Atlantic and the Union City Schools (C1): Project Explore casestudy better are - – competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, technology disruption, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing commodity prices, increasing energy prices,
customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing transportation and logistics costs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Bell Atlantic and the Union City Schools (C1): Project Explore
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Bell Atlantic and the Union City Schools (C1): Project Explore case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Bell Union, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Bell Union 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 Bell Atlantic and the Union City Schools (C1): Project Explore can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Bell Atlantic and the Union City Schools (C1): Project Explore case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Bell Union
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Technology & Operations field.
4. Making a Technology & Operations topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Bell Union
Strengths Bell Atlantic and the Union City Schools (C1): Project Explore | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Bell Union in Bell Atlantic and the Union City Schools (C1): Project Explore Harvard Business Review case study are -
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Bell Atlantic and the Union City Schools (C1): Project Explore 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.
Ability to lead change in Technology & Operations field
– Bell Union 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 Bell Union in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Digital Transformation in Technology & Operations segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Bell Union digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Bell Union 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Bell Union 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 Bell Union 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.
Learning organization
- Bell Union 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 Bell Union is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Bell Atlantic and the Union City Schools (C1): Project Explore Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
High brand equity
– Bell Union has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Bell Union to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Strong track record of project management
– Bell Union is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Bell Union 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 Bell Atlantic and the Union City Schools (C1): Project Explore - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Organizational Resilience of Bell Union
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Bell Union does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Bell Union 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 Bell Atlantic and the Union City Schools (C1): Project Explore HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Diverse revenue streams
– Bell Union is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Bell Atlantic and the Union City Schools (C1): Project Explore 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.
Weaknesses Bell Atlantic and the Union City Schools (C1): Project Explore | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Bell Atlantic and the Union City Schools (C1): Project Explore are -
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Bell Atlantic and the Union City Schools (C1): Project Explore HBR case study mentions - Bell Union 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Bell Union 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Bell Atlantic and the Union City Schools (C1): Project Explore 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 Bell Union 's lucrative customers.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Bell Atlantic and the Union City Schools (C1): Project Explore, it seems that the employees of Bell Union 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Bell Union 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 cash cycle compare to competitors
Bell Union 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Bell Union 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Bell Union, firm in the HBR case study Bell Atlantic and the Union City Schools (C1): Project Explore needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Ellen Pruyne suggests that, Bell Union 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, Bell Union 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. Bell Union 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Bell Union products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Bell Union needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Opportunities Bell Atlantic and the Union City Schools (C1): Project Explore | 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 Bell Atlantic and the Union City Schools (C1): Project Explore are -
Manufacturing automation
– Bell Union can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Technology & Operations 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Bell Union can develop new processes and procedures in Technology & Operations 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 Bell Union in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Technology & Operations segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Bell Union is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Bell Atlantic and the Union City Schools (C1): Project Explore 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Bell Union to increase its market reach. Bell Union 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Bell Union can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Buying journey improvements
– Bell Union can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Bell Atlantic and the Union City Schools (C1): Project Explore 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Bell Union 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Bell Union can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Bell Union operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Technology & Operations sector.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Bell Union 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Bell Union 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 Technology & Operations segment.
Loyalty marketing
– Bell Union 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. Bell Union can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Threats Bell Atlantic and the Union City Schools (C1): Project Explore External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Bell Atlantic and the Union City Schools (C1): Project Explore are -
Regulatory challenges
– Bell Union 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 Technology & Operations industry regulations.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Bell Union 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.
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. Bell Union 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Bell Union in the Technology & Operations industry. The Technology & Operations 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.
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. Bell Union needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Technology & Operations industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Bell Union 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 Bell Atlantic and the Union City Schools (C1): Project Explore .
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 Bell Union.
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 Bell Union business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Bell Union is facing in Technology & Operations sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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 Bell Union in the Technology & Operations 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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Technology & Operations field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Bell Union can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Bell Atlantic and the Union City Schools (C1): Project Explore, Bell Union may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Technology & Operations .
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Bell Atlantic and the Union City Schools (C1): Project Explore 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 Bell Atlantic and the Union City Schools (C1): Project Explore 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 Bell Atlantic and the Union City Schools (C1): Project Explore 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 Bell Atlantic and the Union City Schools (C1): Project Explore 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 Bell Atlantic and the Union City Schools (C1): Project Explore 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 Bell Union needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.