Case Study Description of Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, conducted by its newly appointed music director, performed a rarely heard composition. The musical performance was, by all accounts, superb. Although most in the audience cheered the performance, a few stormed out of the concert hall. These audience members were largely reacting to the high-tech mixed media show designed by a well-known artist that accompanied the performance. This performance was one of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra's recent occasional and innovative breaks from concert tradition. The vice-president and general manager of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra recognized that opportunities to facilitate growth existed onstage and offstage for broadening and enriching the orchestra's services and the concert experiences of its audience.
Swot Analysis of "Atlanta Symphony Orchestra" written by Larry Menor, Jorge Colazo includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Symphony Atlanta facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Atlanta Symphony Orchestra case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Technology & Operations.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra casestudy better are - – increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing commodity prices, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, there is backlash against globalization,
cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, technology disruption, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Atlanta Symphony Orchestra case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Symphony Atlanta, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Symphony Atlanta 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 Atlanta Symphony Orchestra can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Atlanta Symphony Orchestra case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Symphony Atlanta
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 Symphony Atlanta
Strengths Atlanta Symphony Orchestra | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Symphony Atlanta in Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Harvard Business Review case study are -
Innovation driven organization
– Symphony Atlanta is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Digital Transformation in Technology & Operations segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Symphony Atlanta digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Symphony Atlanta 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Symphony Atlanta 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Symphony Atlanta has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Symphony Atlanta 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Symphony Atlanta 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 Atlanta Symphony Orchestra - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Learning organization
- Symphony Atlanta 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 Symphony Atlanta is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Analytics focus
– Symphony Atlanta 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 Larry Menor, Jorge Colazo 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Symphony Atlanta in the sector have low bargaining power. Atlanta Symphony Orchestra has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Symphony Atlanta to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Symphony Atlanta 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 Atlanta Symphony Orchestra HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Ability to lead change in Technology & Operations field
– Symphony Atlanta 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 Symphony Atlanta in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra 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.
Training and development
– Symphony Atlanta has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Atlanta Symphony Orchestra 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.
Weaknesses Atlanta Symphony Orchestra | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Atlanta Symphony Orchestra are -
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Symphony Atlanta is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Technology & Operations segment. Symphony Atlanta needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Symphony Atlanta to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
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 Symphony Atlanta supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Symphony Atlanta vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Symphony Atlanta, firm in the HBR case study Atlanta Symphony Orchestra needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Atlanta Symphony Orchestra 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 Atlanta Symphony Orchestra can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Symphony Atlanta is planning to shift buying processes online.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, it seems that the employees of Symphony Atlanta 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Symphony Atlanta 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. Symphony Atlanta 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, in the dynamic environment Symphony Atlanta has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Symphony Atlanta has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Symphony Atlanta 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Symphony Atlanta is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Atlanta Symphony Orchestra can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Lack of clear differentiation of Symphony Atlanta products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Symphony Atlanta needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Opportunities Atlanta Symphony Orchestra | 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 Atlanta Symphony Orchestra are -
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Symphony Atlanta has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Symphony Atlanta to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra case study. Symphony Atlanta can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Symphony Atlanta 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Symphony Atlanta can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Symphony Atlanta 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, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Symphony Atlanta 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Symphony Atlanta 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 Symphony Atlanta to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Symphony Atlanta to increase its market reach. Symphony Atlanta 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Symphony Atlanta 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Technology & Operations industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Symphony Atlanta can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
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 Symphony Atlanta 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Symphony Atlanta is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Atlanta Symphony Orchestra 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.
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 Symphony Atlanta in the consumer business. Now Symphony Atlanta can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Loyalty marketing
– Symphony Atlanta 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.
Threats Atlanta Symphony Orchestra External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Atlanta Symphony Orchestra are -
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Symphony Atlanta 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 Atlanta Symphony Orchestra .
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 Symphony Atlanta in the Technology & Operations sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Symphony Atlanta 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Symphony Atlanta 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.
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
– Symphony Atlanta 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.
Increasing wage structure of Symphony Atlanta
– 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 Symphony Atlanta.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Symphony Atlanta 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 .
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Symphony Atlanta with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Technology disruption because of hacks, piracy etc
– The colonial pipeline illustrated, how vulnerable modern organization are to international hackers, miscreants, and disruptors. The cyber security interruption, data leaks, etc can seriously jeopardize the future growth of the organization.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Symphony Atlanta 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Symphony Atlanta can face lack of demand in the market place because of Fed actions to reduce inflation. This can lead to sluggish growth in the economy, lower demands, lower investments, higher borrowing costs, and consolidation in the field.
Backlash against dominant players
– US Congress and other legislative arms of the government are getting tough on big business especially technology companies. The digital arm of Symphony Atlanta business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Atlanta Symphony Orchestra 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 Atlanta Symphony Orchestra 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 Atlanta Symphony Orchestra 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 Atlanta Symphony Orchestra 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 Atlanta Symphony Orchestra 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 Symphony Atlanta needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.