Saskatchewan Provincial Park Campsite Management and Reservation System SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Technology & Operations
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Saskatchewan Provincial Park Campsite Management and Reservation System
The manager of Visitor Services with Saskatchewan Park Services (Park Services) was thinking ahead to next year, even though 2011 was still four months away. Park Services had experienced a number of turbulent years around the provincial park campground reservation system. While the problems experienced were largely invisible to the public placing reservations for campgrounds, over the years the behind the scenes machinations required to process campground reservations has placed an onerous burden on Park Services staff, both in Regina and the local provincial parks. Additionally, the present system severely limited the type of services that could be developed for tourists and campers due to the lack of quality data on campers. While steps had been taken in 2009 and 2010 to address some of the major problems surrounding the campground reservation system, serious issues remained that required action. This was particularly true when the system in place in Saskatchewan was compared to new campground reservation systems recently employed in Alberta, Manitoba and the federal national park system. The manager reflected on the turbulent 2008 season, the relative calm in 2009 due to the success of the temporary fixes and the new issues that had arisen in 2010. She was feeling the need to move forward and decide on a more permanent solution that resolved the operational problems of the present reservation system while also laying the foundation for improved services for campers.
Swot Analysis of "Saskatchewan Provincial Park Campsite Management and Reservation System" written by Nicole R.D. Haggerty, William Bonner includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Park Campground facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Saskatchewan Provincial Park Campsite Management and Reservation System case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, IT, Project management, Research & development and Technology & Operations.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Saskatchewan Provincial Park Campsite Management and Reservation System casestudy better are - – competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, geopolitical disruptions, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, wage bills are increasing,
increasing commodity prices, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Saskatchewan Provincial Park Campsite Management and Reservation System
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Saskatchewan Provincial Park Campsite Management and Reservation System case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Park Campground, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Park Campground 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 Saskatchewan Provincial Park Campsite Management and Reservation System can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Saskatchewan Provincial Park Campsite Management and Reservation System case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Park Campground
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 Park Campground
Strengths Saskatchewan Provincial Park Campsite Management and Reservation System | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Park Campground in Saskatchewan Provincial Park Campsite Management and Reservation System Harvard Business Review case study are -
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Park Campground 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Technology & Operations industry
– Saskatchewan Provincial Park Campsite Management and Reservation System firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Park Campground to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Technology & Operations industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Park Campground to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Park Campground has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Park Campground 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Saskatchewan Provincial Park Campsite Management and Reservation System 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Park Campground 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 Saskatchewan Provincial Park Campsite Management and Reservation System HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Park Campground in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Park Campground 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.
Analytics focus
– Park Campground 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 Nicole R.D. Haggerty, William Bonner 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Park Campground 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 Saskatchewan Provincial Park Campsite Management and Reservation System - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
High brand equity
– Park Campground has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Park Campground to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Strong track record of project management
– Park Campground 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 Technology & Operations field
– Park Campground 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 Park Campground in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Weaknesses Saskatchewan Provincial Park Campsite Management and Reservation System | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Saskatchewan Provincial Park Campsite Management and Reservation System are -
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Park Campground is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Technology & Operations segment. Park Campground needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Park Campground to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Saskatchewan Provincial Park Campsite Management and Reservation System 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 Park Campground has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Park Campground, firm in the HBR case study Saskatchewan Provincial Park Campsite Management and Reservation System needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Saskatchewan Provincial Park Campsite Management and Reservation System, 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 Park Campground supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Saskatchewan Provincial Park Campsite Management and Reservation System, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Park Campground vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Saskatchewan Provincial Park Campsite Management and Reservation System, it seems that the employees of Park Campground 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 to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Saskatchewan Provincial Park Campsite Management and Reservation System HBR case study mentions - Park Campground takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the industry in last five years.
Need for greater diversity
– Park Campground 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Park Campground 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Park Campground 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Nicole R.D. Haggerty, William Bonner suggests that, Park Campground 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.
Opportunities Saskatchewan Provincial Park Campsite Management and Reservation System | 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 Saskatchewan Provincial Park Campsite Management and Reservation System are -
Buying journey improvements
– Park Campground can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Saskatchewan Provincial Park Campsite Management and Reservation System suggest that firm can provide automated chats to help consumers solve their own problems, provide online suggestions to get maximum out of the products and services, and help consumers to build a community where they can interact with each other to develop new features and uses.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Park Campground 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Park Campground 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 Technology & Operations industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Park Campground can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Park Campground can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
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 Park Campground in the consumer business. Now Park Campground can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Loyalty marketing
– Park Campground 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 Park Campground 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Park Campground 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, Saskatchewan Provincial Park Campsite Management and Reservation System, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
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. Park Campground can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Park Campground is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Saskatchewan Provincial Park Campsite Management and Reservation System case study suggests that firm can utilize new technology to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Park Campground to increase its market reach. Park Campground 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Park Campground can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Technology & Operations segment. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.
Threats Saskatchewan Provincial Park Campsite Management and Reservation System External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Saskatchewan Provincial Park Campsite Management and Reservation System 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Saskatchewan Provincial Park Campsite Management and Reservation System, Park Campground 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 .
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. Park Campground needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Technology & Operations industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Park Campground is facing in Technology & Operations sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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 Park Campground business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Park Campground 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Park Campground 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 Saskatchewan Provincial Park Campsite Management and Reservation System .
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 Park Campground in the Technology & Operations sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Park Campground with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Park Campground in the Technology & Operations industry. The Technology & Operations industry is already at various protected from local competition in China, with the rise of trade war the protection levels may go up. This presents a clear threat of current business model in Chinese market.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Park Campground 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
– Park Campground 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Saskatchewan Provincial Park Campsite Management and Reservation System 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 Saskatchewan Provincial Park Campsite Management and Reservation System 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 Saskatchewan Provincial Park Campsite Management and Reservation System 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 Saskatchewan Provincial Park Campsite Management and Reservation System 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 Saskatchewan Provincial Park Campsite Management and Reservation System 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 Park Campground needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
