Bell Atlantic and the Union City Schools (A): The Intelligent Network 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 (A): The Intelligent Network
The first in a five-part series about Bell Atlantic Corp.'s technology-in-education partnership with the Union City, New Jersey school system. Provides an overview of the telecommunications industry in general and Bell Atlantic in particular, with special attention to technology trends and developments, the changing marketplace, regulatory issues, heightened merger activity, and strategy and leadership within Bell Atlantic. 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 (A): The Intelligent Network" written by Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Ellen Pruyne includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Bell Atlantic facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Bell Atlantic and the Union City Schools (A): The Intelligent Network case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Joint ventures, Leadership, Leadership development, Mergers & acquisitions, Social enterprise, Strategic planning, Technology and Technology & Operations.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Bell Atlantic and the Union City Schools (A): The Intelligent Network casestudy better are - – supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , technology disruption, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, 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,
central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, wage bills are increasing, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Bell Atlantic and the Union City Schools (A): The Intelligent Network
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 (A): The Intelligent Network case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Bell Atlantic, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Bell Atlantic 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 (A): The Intelligent Network can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Bell Atlantic and the Union City Schools (A): The Intelligent Network case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Bell Atlantic
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 Atlantic
Strengths Bell Atlantic and the Union City Schools (A): The Intelligent Network | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Bell Atlantic in Bell Atlantic and the Union City Schools (A): The Intelligent Network Harvard Business Review case study are -
Strong track record of project management
– Bell Atlantic is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Bell Atlantic in the sector have low bargaining power. Bell Atlantic and the Union City Schools (A): The Intelligent Network has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Bell Atlantic to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Technology & Operations industry
– Bell Atlantic and the Union City Schools (A): The Intelligent Network firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Bell Atlantic to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Technology & Operations industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Bell Atlantic to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Bell Atlantic is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Bell Atlantic and the Union City Schools (A): The Intelligent Network 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
– Bell Atlantic 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 Atlantic in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Diverse revenue streams
– Bell Atlantic is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Bell Atlantic and the Union City Schools (A): The Intelligent Network 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
- Bell Atlantic 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 Atlantic is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Bell Atlantic and the Union City Schools (A): The Intelligent Network Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Training and development
– Bell Atlantic has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Bell Atlantic and the Union City Schools (A): The Intelligent Network 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Bell Atlantic is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Bell Atlantic and the Union City Schools (A): The Intelligent Network Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Bell Atlantic and the Union City Schools (A): The Intelligent Network 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.
Analytics focus
– Bell Atlantic 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 Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Ellen Pruyne 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Bell Atlantic has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Bell Atlantic 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.
Weaknesses Bell Atlantic and the Union City Schools (A): The Intelligent Network | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Bell Atlantic and the Union City Schools (A): The Intelligent Network are -
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Bell Atlantic 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 Atlantic 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Bell Atlantic 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Bell Atlantic 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Bell Atlantic 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Bell Atlantic and the Union City Schools (A): The Intelligent Network HBR case study mentions - Bell Atlantic 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Bell Atlantic and the Union City Schools (A): The Intelligent Network, is just above the industry average. Bell Atlantic 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.
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 Bell Atlantic supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Bell Atlantic and the Union City Schools (A): The Intelligent Network, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Bell Atlantic vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Bell Atlantic and the Union City Schools (A): The Intelligent Network, 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Bell Atlantic and the Union City Schools (A): The Intelligent Network, in the dynamic environment Bell Atlantic has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Bell Atlantic has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Bell Atlantic 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 - Bell Atlantic and the Union City Schools (A): The Intelligent Network should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Bell Atlantic, firm in the HBR case study Bell Atlantic and the Union City Schools (A): The Intelligent Network needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Opportunities Bell Atlantic and the Union City Schools (A): The Intelligent Network | 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 (A): The Intelligent Network are -
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 Atlantic can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Bell Atlantic to increase its market reach. Bell Atlantic 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Bell Atlantic 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Bell Atlantic is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Bell Atlantic and the Union City Schools (A): The Intelligent Network 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.
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 Atlantic can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Bell Atlantic operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Technology & Operations sector.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Bell Atlantic 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Bell Atlantic 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Bell Atlantic 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Bell Atlantic can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Bell Atlantic and the Union City Schools (A): The Intelligent Network 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Bell Atlantic 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 Bell Atlantic and the Union City Schools (A): The Intelligent Network - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Bell Atlantic to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Bell Atlantic 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, Bell Atlantic and the Union City Schools (A): The Intelligent Network, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Bell Atlantic 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.
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 Bell Atlantic 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.
Threats Bell Atlantic and the Union City Schools (A): The Intelligent Network 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 (A): The Intelligent Network are -
Consumer confidence and its impact on Bell Atlantic 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 Bell Atlantic with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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 Atlantic business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Increasing wage structure of Bell Atlantic
– 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 Bell Atlantic.
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 Atlantic needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Technology & Operations industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Regulatory challenges
– Bell Atlantic 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.
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 Atlantic.
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 Atlantic can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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 Atlantic 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.
Environmental challenges
– Bell Atlantic 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. Bell Atlantic can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Technology & Operations industry.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Bell Atlantic 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Bell Atlantic has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Technology & Operations industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Bell Atlantic 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 international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Bell Atlantic 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 (A): The Intelligent Network .
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Bell Atlantic and the Union City Schools (A): The Intelligent Network 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 (A): The Intelligent Network 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 (A): The Intelligent Network 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 (A): The Intelligent Network 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 (A): The Intelligent Network 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 Atlantic needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.