Measure of Delight: The Pursuit of Quality at AT&T Universal Card Services (A) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Technology & Operations
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Measure of Delight: The Pursuit of Quality at AT&T Universal Card Services (A)
AT&T's Universal Card Services (UCS) has been extremely successful during its short lifetime. Dedicated to improving service quality and customer satisfaction, chief quality officer Rob Davis and his quality team have designed and put into place an unusual measurement and compensation system based on more than 100 performance measures monitored and communicated daily.
Authors :: Roy D. Shapiro, Michael D. Watkins, Susan Rosegrant
Swot Analysis of "Measure of Delight: The Pursuit of Quality at AT&T Universal Card Services (A)" written by Roy D. Shapiro, Michael D. Watkins, Susan Rosegrant includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Quality Universal facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Measure of Delight: The Pursuit of Quality at AT&T Universal Card Services (A) case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Customers, Motivating people, Performance measurement, Policy, Product development, Supply chain and Technology & Operations.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Measure of Delight: The Pursuit of Quality at AT&T Universal Card Services (A) casestudy better are - – supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , there is increasing trade war between United States & China, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, there is backlash against globalization, wage bills are increasing, geopolitical disruptions, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models,
challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing energy prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Measure of Delight: The Pursuit of Quality at AT&T Universal Card Services (A)
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Measure of Delight: The Pursuit of Quality at AT&T Universal Card Services (A) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Quality Universal, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Quality Universal 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 Measure of Delight: The Pursuit of Quality at AT&T Universal Card Services (A) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Measure of Delight: The Pursuit of Quality at AT&T Universal Card Services (A) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Quality Universal
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 Quality Universal
Strengths Measure of Delight: The Pursuit of Quality at AT&T Universal Card Services (A) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Quality Universal in Measure of Delight: The Pursuit of Quality at AT&T Universal Card Services (A) Harvard Business Review case study are -
Strong track record of project management
– Quality Universal is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Analytics focus
– Quality Universal is putting a lot of focus on utilizing the power of analytics in business decision making. This has put it among the leading players in the industry. The technology infrastructure suggested by Roy D. Shapiro, Michael D. Watkins, Susan Rosegrant can also help it to harness the power of analytics for – marketing optimization, demand forecasting, customer relationship management, inventory management, information sharing across the value chain etc.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Measure of Delight: The Pursuit of Quality at AT&T Universal Card Services (A) 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Quality Universal 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 Measure of Delight: The Pursuit of Quality at AT&T Universal Card Services (A) - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Training and development
– Quality Universal has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Measure of Delight: The Pursuit of Quality at AT&T Universal Card Services (A) 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Quality Universal in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Quality Universal in the sector have low bargaining power. Measure of Delight: The Pursuit of Quality at AT&T Universal Card Services (A) has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Quality Universal to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Organizational Resilience of Quality Universal
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Quality Universal does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Quality Universal 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Quality Universal 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Quality Universal is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Measure of Delight: The Pursuit of Quality at AT&T Universal Card Services (A) are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Ability to lead change in Technology & Operations field
– Quality Universal 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 Quality Universal in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Weaknesses Measure of Delight: The Pursuit of Quality at AT&T Universal Card Services (A) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Measure of Delight: The Pursuit of Quality at AT&T Universal Card Services (A) are -
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Roy D. Shapiro, Michael D. Watkins, Susan Rosegrant suggests that, Quality Universal 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Quality Universal 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
Quality Universal 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Quality Universal, firm in the HBR case study Measure of Delight: The Pursuit of Quality at AT&T Universal Card Services (A) needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Quality Universal is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Measure of Delight: The Pursuit of Quality at AT&T Universal Card Services (A) can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Quality Universal is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Technology & Operations segment. Quality Universal needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Quality Universal to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Measure of Delight: The Pursuit of Quality at AT&T Universal Card Services (A), it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Technology & Operations 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 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 Quality Universal supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Measure of Delight: The Pursuit of Quality at AT&T Universal Card Services (A), it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Quality Universal vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Measure of Delight: The Pursuit of Quality at AT&T Universal Card Services (A) 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 Quality Universal 's lucrative customers.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Measure of Delight: The Pursuit of Quality at AT&T Universal Card Services (A) 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 Quality Universal has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Quality Universal 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.
Opportunities Measure of Delight: The Pursuit of Quality at AT&T Universal Card Services (A) | 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 Measure of Delight: The Pursuit of Quality at AT&T Universal Card Services (A) are -
Buying journey improvements
– Quality Universal can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Measure of Delight: The Pursuit of Quality at AT&T Universal Card Services (A) 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Quality Universal can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Quality Universal operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Technology & Operations sector.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Quality Universal to expand its talent hiring zone. According to McKinsey Global Institute, 20% of the high end workforce in fields such as finance, information technology, can continously work from remote local post Covid-19. This presents a really great opportunity for Quality Universal to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Quality Universal can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Quality Universal 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Quality Universal 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Quality Universal 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Quality Universal to increase its market reach. Quality Universal 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Quality Universal is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Measure of Delight: The Pursuit of Quality at AT&T Universal Card Services (A) 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Quality Universal 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Quality Universal 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.
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 Quality Universal in the consumer business. Now Quality Universal can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Quality Universal 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, Measure of Delight: The Pursuit of Quality at AT&T Universal Card Services (A), to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Threats Measure of Delight: The Pursuit of Quality at AT&T Universal Card Services (A) External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Measure of Delight: The Pursuit of Quality at AT&T Universal Card Services (A) 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Quality Universal 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Quality Universal 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.
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. Quality Universal can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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 Quality Universal.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Quality Universal has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Technology & Operations industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Quality Universal needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Technology & Operations 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.
Increasing wage structure of Quality Universal
– 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 Quality Universal.
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 Quality Universal business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Environmental challenges
– Quality Universal 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. Quality Universal can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Technology & Operations industry.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Quality Universal 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Quality Universal 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.
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. Quality Universal 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Quality Universal with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Measure of Delight: The Pursuit of Quality at AT&T Universal Card Services (A) 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 Measure of Delight: The Pursuit of Quality at AT&T Universal Card Services (A) 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 Measure of Delight: The Pursuit of Quality at AT&T Universal Card Services (A) 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 Measure of Delight: The Pursuit of Quality at AT&T Universal Card Services (A) 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 Measure of Delight: The Pursuit of Quality at AT&T Universal Card Services (A) 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 Quality Universal needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.