Wil-Mor Technologies: Is There a Crisis? SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Finance & Accounting
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Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Wil-Mor Technologies: Is There a Crisis?
The CEO of Wilson Industries, a U.S. firm, is concerned about the performance of a joint venture between Wilson Industries and a Japanese firm, Morota Manufacturing. He wants the joint venture president to make some changes to improve financial performance. However, the president is unsure of what action to take because the Japanese partner, Morota, is satisfied with the performance and is considering expansion plans.
Swot Analysis of "Wil-Mor Technologies: Is There a Crisis?" written by Andrew C. Inkpen includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Morota Wilson facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Wil-Mor Technologies: Is There a Crisis? case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Joint ventures, Managing people, Manufacturing and Finance & Accounting.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Wil-Mor Technologies: Is There a Crisis? casestudy better are - – supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , geopolitical disruptions, technology disruption, increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings,
competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, wage bills are increasing, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Wil-Mor Technologies: Is There a Crisis?
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Wil-Mor Technologies: Is There a Crisis? case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Morota Wilson, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Morota Wilson 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 Wil-Mor Technologies: Is There a Crisis? can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Wil-Mor Technologies: Is There a Crisis? case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Morota Wilson
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Finance & Accounting field.
4. Making a Finance & Accounting topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Morota Wilson
Strengths Wil-Mor Technologies: Is There a Crisis? | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Morota Wilson in Wil-Mor Technologies: Is There a Crisis? Harvard Business Review case study are -
Learning organization
- Morota Wilson 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 Morota Wilson is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Wil-Mor Technologies: Is There a Crisis? Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Training and development
– Morota Wilson has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Wil-Mor Technologies: Is There a Crisis? 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Morota Wilson has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Morota Wilson 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Morota Wilson 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Morota Wilson 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 Wil-Mor Technologies: Is There a Crisis? HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Finance & Accounting industry
– Wil-Mor Technologies: Is There a Crisis? firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Morota Wilson to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Finance & Accounting industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Morota Wilson to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Morota Wilson is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Wil-Mor Technologies: Is There a Crisis? are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Strong track record of project management
– Morota Wilson is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Ability to lead change in Finance & Accounting field
– Morota Wilson 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 Morota Wilson in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Morota Wilson in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Morota Wilson 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Morota Wilson in the sector have low bargaining power. Wil-Mor Technologies: Is There a Crisis? has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Morota Wilson to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Weaknesses Wil-Mor Technologies: Is There a Crisis? | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Wil-Mor Technologies: Is There a Crisis? are -
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Morota Wilson is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Wil-Mor Technologies: Is There a Crisis? can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Wil-Mor Technologies: Is There a Crisis? 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 Wil-Mor Technologies: Is There a Crisis? can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Morota Wilson is planning to shift buying processes online.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Andrew C. Inkpen suggests that, Morota Wilson 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Morota Wilson 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Morota Wilson 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 - Wil-Mor Technologies: Is There a Crisis? should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Wil-Mor Technologies: Is There a Crisis? 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 Morota Wilson has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Morota Wilson 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Morota Wilson 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 Morota Wilson, firm in the HBR case study Wil-Mor Technologies: Is There a Crisis? needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Lack of clear differentiation of Morota Wilson products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Morota Wilson needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Wil-Mor Technologies: Is There a Crisis?, is just above the industry average. Morota Wilson 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.
Opportunities Wil-Mor Technologies: Is There a Crisis? | 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 Wil-Mor Technologies: Is There a Crisis? are -
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Morota Wilson 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Finance & Accounting industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Morota Wilson can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Loyalty marketing
– Morota Wilson 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Morota Wilson 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 Finance & Accounting segment.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Morota Wilson can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Morota Wilson operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Finance & Accounting sector.
Buying journey improvements
– Morota Wilson can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Wil-Mor Technologies: Is There a Crisis? 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Morota Wilson has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Morota Wilson to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Wil-Mor Technologies: Is There a Crisis? case study. Morota Wilson can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Finance & Accounting industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Morota Wilson 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. Morota Wilson 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Morota Wilson can develop new processes and procedures in Finance & Accounting 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 Morota Wilson in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Finance & Accounting segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Morota Wilson 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, Wil-Mor Technologies: Is There a Crisis?, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
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 Morota Wilson in the consumer business. Now Morota Wilson can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Morota Wilson 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.
Threats Wil-Mor Technologies: Is There a Crisis? External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Wil-Mor Technologies: Is There a Crisis? 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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Finance & Accounting field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Morota Wilson can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Environmental challenges
– Morota Wilson 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. Morota Wilson can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Finance & Accounting industry.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Morota Wilson is facing in Finance & Accounting sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Regulatory challenges
– Morota Wilson 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 Finance & Accounting industry regulations.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Morota Wilson 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Morota Wilson with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Morota Wilson 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.
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 Morota Wilson in the Finance & Accounting sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Morota Wilson 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 Wil-Mor Technologies: Is There a Crisis? .
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Morota Wilson 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. Morota Wilson 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.
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. Morota Wilson needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Finance & Accounting industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Wil-Mor Technologies: Is There a Crisis? 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 Wil-Mor Technologies: Is There a Crisis? 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 Wil-Mor Technologies: Is There a Crisis? 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 Wil-Mor Technologies: Is There a Crisis? 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 Wil-Mor Technologies: Is There a Crisis? 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 Morota Wilson needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.