NASCAR: Every Second Counts - Helping Win from the Pits SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Technology & Operations
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Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of NASCAR: Every Second Counts - Helping Win from the Pits
In 2006 Andy Papathanassiou was faced with a new dilemma. After 15 years of working within the racing world of NASCAR, as athletic director for HMS, he was searching for the next breakthrough to improve pit crew performance. Earlier in his career, he had successfully halved pit times and changed standards across the racing industry by introducing athletic training and transforming pit crew members into pit athletes. In doing so, Papa created a legacy in motorsports and transformed auto racing. Papa's instinct was that within the matching process of assigning pit positions existed an opportunity that would improve performance. Papa was looking for ways to elevate the system dynamic whether it be "man or the machine." The next breakthrough would most likely be less dramatic than the first, though no less important. Fractions of a second could determine whether a race was won or lost. Other contributing factors were the continued evolution of racing, new automotive technologies and NASCAR's regular changing of the rules to keep the playing field level. Learning objectives: To illustrate operational process improvement methods, like lean, and open innovative techniques that can lead to improved performance and productivity in time-based competition. The case uses the concept and illustration of knowledge brokering techniques - using old ideas to find new answers and solutions for problems and how this can be applied to improve performance. It is a platform for considering improvement approaches in interconnected time-based production or service systems. The case also questions what will be the next breakthrough in performance and promotes discussion as to whether it will be a human or technological element.
Swot Analysis of "NASCAR: Every Second Counts - Helping Win from the Pits" written by Corey Billington, Michele Barnett Berg, Atul Pahwa includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Pit Racing facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in NASCAR: Every Second Counts - Helping Win from the Pits case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Competitive strategy and Technology & Operations.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the NASCAR: Every Second Counts - Helping Win from the Pits casestudy better are - – digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, technology disruption, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing transportation and logistics costs, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy,
increasing household debt because of falling income levels, there is backlash against globalization, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of NASCAR: Every Second Counts - Helping Win from the Pits
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in NASCAR: Every Second Counts - Helping Win from the Pits case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Pit Racing, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Pit Racing 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 NASCAR: Every Second Counts - Helping Win from the Pits can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in NASCAR: Every Second Counts - Helping Win from the Pits case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Pit Racing
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 Pit Racing
Strengths NASCAR: Every Second Counts - Helping Win from the Pits | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Pit Racing in NASCAR: Every Second Counts - Helping Win from the Pits Harvard Business Review case study are -
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Pit Racing 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
– NASCAR: Every Second Counts - Helping Win from the Pits firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Pit Racing to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Technology & Operations industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Pit Racing to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Ability to lead change in Technology & Operations field
– Pit Racing 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 Pit Racing in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Training and development
– Pit Racing has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in NASCAR: Every Second Counts - Helping Win from the Pits 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the NASCAR: Every Second Counts - Helping Win from the Pits 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.
Digital Transformation in Technology & Operations segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Pit Racing digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Pit Racing 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 brand equity
– Pit Racing has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Pit Racing to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Pit Racing 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 NASCAR: Every Second Counts - Helping Win from the Pits HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Pit Racing 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 NASCAR: Every Second Counts - Helping Win from the Pits - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Innovation driven organization
– Pit Racing is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in NASCAR: Every Second Counts - Helping Win from the Pits Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Organizational Resilience of Pit Racing
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Pit Racing 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 Pit Racing 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.
Weaknesses NASCAR: Every Second Counts - Helping Win from the Pits | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of NASCAR: Every Second Counts - Helping Win from the Pits are -
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Pit Racing 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 operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study NASCAR: Every Second Counts - Helping Win from the Pits 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 Pit Racing 's lucrative customers.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study NASCAR: Every Second Counts - Helping Win from the Pits, it seems that the employees of Pit Racing 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 NASCAR: Every Second Counts - Helping Win from the Pits HBR case study mentions - Pit Racing 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Pit Racing 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 - NASCAR: Every Second Counts - Helping Win from the Pits should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study NASCAR: Every Second Counts - Helping Win from the Pits, in the dynamic environment Pit Racing has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Pit Racing has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Pit Racing 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. Pit Racing 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Pit Racing 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Pit Racing has borrowed money from the capital market at higher rates. It needs to restructure the interest payment and costs so that it can compete better and improve profitability.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Pit Racing, firm in the HBR case study NASCAR: Every Second Counts - Helping Win from the Pits needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study NASCAR: Every Second Counts - Helping Win from the Pits, 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.
Opportunities NASCAR: Every Second Counts - Helping Win from the Pits | 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 NASCAR: Every Second Counts - Helping Win from the Pits are -
Leveraging digital technologies
– Pit Racing 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Pit Racing 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Pit Racing can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. NASCAR: Every Second Counts - Helping Win from the Pits 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.
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. Pit Racing can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Pit Racing 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, NASCAR: Every Second Counts - Helping Win from the Pits, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
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 Pit Racing 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Pit Racing 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 Pit Racing 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 Pit Racing 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 Pit Racing 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Technology & Operations industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Pit Racing can take advantage of these changes in consumer behavior to build a far more efficient business model. For example consumer regular ordering of products can reduce both last mile delivery costs and market penetration costs. Pit Racing can further use this consumer data to build better customer loyalty, provide better products and service collection, and improve the value proposition in inflationary times.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Pit Racing has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Pit Racing to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the NASCAR: Every Second Counts - Helping Win from the Pits case study. Pit Racing can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, 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, Pit Racing can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Pit Racing operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Technology & Operations sector.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Pit Racing 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.
Threats NASCAR: Every Second Counts - Helping Win from the Pits External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study NASCAR: Every Second Counts - Helping Win from the Pits are -
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Pit Racing can face lack of demand in the market place because of Fed actions to reduce inflation. This can lead to sluggish growth in the economy, lower demands, lower investments, higher borrowing costs, and consolidation in the field.
Instability in the European markets
– European Union markets are facing three big challenges post Covid – expanded balance sheets, Brexit related business disruption, and aggressive Russia looking to distract the existing security mechanism. Pit Racing will face different problems in different parts of Europe. For example it will face inflationary pressures in UK, France, and Germany, balance sheet expansion and demand challenges in Southern European countries, and geopolitical instability in the Eastern Europe.
High level of anxiety and lack of motivation
– the Great Resignation in United States is the sign of broader dissatisfaction among the workforce in United States. Pit Racing needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Technology & Operations industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Pit Racing 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Pit Racing 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
– Pit Racing 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Pit Racing 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.
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 Pit Racing.
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 Pit Racing in the Technology & Operations sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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.
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 Pit Racing business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Pit Racing is facing in Technology & Operations sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Pit Racing 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 NASCAR: Every Second Counts - Helping Win from the Pits 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 NASCAR: Every Second Counts - Helping Win from the Pits 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 NASCAR: Every Second Counts - Helping Win from the Pits 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 NASCAR: Every Second Counts - Helping Win from the Pits 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 NASCAR: Every Second Counts - Helping Win from the Pits 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 Pit Racing needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.