Discovering Hidden Gems: The Story of Daryl Morey, Shane Battier, and the Houston Rockets (A) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
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Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Discovering Hidden Gems: The Story of Daryl Morey, Shane Battier, and the Houston Rockets (A)
As NBA Commissioner David Stern approached the podium, silent anticipation gripped the four thousand Houston Rockets fans gathered at the Rockets Draft Party. "With the 8th pick in the 2006 NBA draft," Stern began, "the Houston Rockets select Rudy Gay from the University of Connecticut." The four thousand Rockets faithfully erupted into euphoric cheers. Rudy Gay was a highly touted college prospect who some analysts projected could have been one of the top three selections in the draft. To be able to select him in the eighth spot seemed like a steal for the Rockets and their newly hired Assistant General Manager, Daryl Morey. Moments later, the assembled crowd's jubilation turned to horror as television analysts covering the draft announced breaking news. The Rockets traded the rights to Rudy Gay along with another Rockets fan favorite, Stromile Swift, to the Memphis Grizzlies for Shane Battier. Jeers of frustration rang from the Rockets fans. How could the Rockets trade Rudy Gay and Stromile Swift for Shane Battier?
Swot Analysis of "Discovering Hidden Gems: The Story of Daryl Morey, Shane Battier, and the Houston Rockets (A)" written by Frances X. Frei, Matthew Perlberg includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Rockets Rudy facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Discovering Hidden Gems: The Story of Daryl Morey, Shane Battier, and the Houston Rockets (A) case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Supply chain and Technology & Operations.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Discovering Hidden Gems: The Story of Daryl Morey, Shane Battier, and the Houston Rockets (A) casestudy better are - – there is backlash against globalization, increasing commodity prices, increasing energy prices, technology disruption, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy,
central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, wage bills are increasing, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Discovering Hidden Gems: The Story of Daryl Morey, Shane Battier, and the Houston Rockets (A)
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Discovering Hidden Gems: The Story of Daryl Morey, Shane Battier, and the Houston Rockets (A) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Rockets Rudy, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Rockets Rudy 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 Discovering Hidden Gems: The Story of Daryl Morey, Shane Battier, and the Houston Rockets (A) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Discovering Hidden Gems: The Story of Daryl Morey, Shane Battier, and the Houston Rockets (A) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Rockets Rudy
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 Rockets Rudy
Strengths Discovering Hidden Gems: The Story of Daryl Morey, Shane Battier, and the Houston Rockets (A) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Rockets Rudy in Discovering Hidden Gems: The Story of Daryl Morey, Shane Battier, and the Houston Rockets (A) Harvard Business Review case study are -
Digital Transformation in Technology & Operations segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Rockets Rudy digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Rockets Rudy 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.
Organizational Resilience of Rockets Rudy
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Rockets Rudy does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Rockets Rudy has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Rockets Rudy 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Rockets Rudy is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Discovering Hidden Gems: The Story of Daryl Morey, Shane Battier, and the Houston Rockets (A) Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Rockets Rudy in the sector have low bargaining power. Discovering Hidden Gems: The Story of Daryl Morey, Shane Battier, and the Houston Rockets (A) has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Rockets Rudy to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Strong track record of project management
– Rockets Rudy is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
High brand equity
– Rockets Rudy has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Rockets Rudy to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Rockets Rudy 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 Discovering Hidden Gems: The Story of Daryl Morey, Shane Battier, and the Houston Rockets (A) - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Rockets Rudy 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 Discovering Hidden Gems: The Story of Daryl Morey, Shane Battier, and the Houston Rockets (A) HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Rockets Rudy is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Discovering Hidden Gems: The Story of Daryl Morey, Shane Battier, and the Houston Rockets (A) are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Rockets Rudy 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.
Learning organization
- Rockets Rudy 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 Rockets Rudy is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Discovering Hidden Gems: The Story of Daryl Morey, Shane Battier, and the Houston Rockets (A) Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Weaknesses Discovering Hidden Gems: The Story of Daryl Morey, Shane Battier, and the Houston Rockets (A) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Discovering Hidden Gems: The Story of Daryl Morey, Shane Battier, and the Houston Rockets (A) are -
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Rockets Rudy, firm in the HBR case study Discovering Hidden Gems: The Story of Daryl Morey, Shane Battier, and the Houston Rockets (A) needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Rockets Rudy 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Frances X. Frei, Matthew Perlberg suggests that, Rockets Rudy 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Rockets Rudy 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. Rockets Rudy 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Discovering Hidden Gems: The Story of Daryl Morey, Shane Battier, and the Houston Rockets (A) 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 Discovering Hidden Gems: The Story of Daryl Morey, Shane Battier, and the Houston Rockets (A) can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Rockets Rudy is planning to shift buying processes online.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Rockets Rudy is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Technology & Operations segment. Rockets Rudy needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Rockets Rudy to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Rockets Rudy is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Discovering Hidden Gems: The Story of Daryl Morey, Shane Battier, and the Houston Rockets (A) can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Need for greater diversity
– Rockets Rudy 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Discovering Hidden Gems: The Story of Daryl Morey, Shane Battier, and the Houston Rockets (A) HBR case study still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Rockets Rudy has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Discovering Hidden Gems: The Story of Daryl Morey, Shane Battier, and the Houston Rockets (A), is just above the industry average. Rockets Rudy 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Rockets Rudy 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.
Opportunities Discovering Hidden Gems: The Story of Daryl Morey, Shane Battier, and the Houston Rockets (A) | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities highlighted in the Harvard Business Review case study Discovering Hidden Gems: The Story of Daryl Morey, Shane Battier, and the Houston Rockets (A) are -
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Rockets Rudy 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 Rockets Rudy to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Developing new processes and practices
– Rockets Rudy can develop new processes and procedures in Technology & Operations industry using technology such as automation using artificial intelligence, real time transportation and products tracking, 3D modeling for concept development and new products pilot testing etc.
Loyalty marketing
– Rockets Rudy 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.
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. Rockets Rudy 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. Rockets Rudy 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.
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 Rockets Rudy in the consumer business. Now Rockets Rudy can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Rockets Rudy 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 Discovering Hidden Gems: The Story of Daryl Morey, Shane Battier, and the Houston Rockets (A) - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Rockets Rudy to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Rockets Rudy 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Rockets Rudy to increase its market reach. Rockets Rudy 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Rockets Rudy can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
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. Rockets Rudy can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Rockets Rudy 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Rockets Rudy can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Rockets Rudy operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Technology & Operations sector.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Rockets Rudy 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.
Threats Discovering Hidden Gems: The Story of Daryl Morey, Shane Battier, and the Houston Rockets (A) External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Discovering Hidden Gems: The Story of Daryl Morey, Shane Battier, and the Houston Rockets (A) are -
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. Rockets Rudy 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Rockets Rudy 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.
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. Rockets Rudy needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Technology & Operations industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Environmental challenges
– Rockets Rudy 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. Rockets Rudy can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Technology & Operations industry.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Rockets Rudy 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 Discovering Hidden Gems: The Story of Daryl Morey, Shane Battier, and the Houston Rockets (A) .
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Discovering Hidden Gems: The Story of Daryl Morey, Shane Battier, and the Houston Rockets (A), Rockets Rudy 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 .
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Rockets Rudy is facing in Technology & Operations sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Rockets Rudy has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Technology & Operations industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Rockets Rudy 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.
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 Rockets Rudy business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Rockets Rudy 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.
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 Rockets Rudy.
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 Rockets Rudy in the Technology & Operations sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Discovering Hidden Gems: The Story of Daryl Morey, Shane Battier, and the Houston Rockets (A) Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers in the HBR case study Discovering Hidden Gems: The Story of Daryl Morey, Shane Battier, and the Houston Rockets (A) needs to zero down on the relative importance of each factor mentioned in the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants.
We can provide the relative importance to each factor by assigning relative weights. Weighted SWOT analysis process is a three stage process –
First stage for doing weighted SWOT analysis of the case study Discovering Hidden Gems: The Story of Daryl Morey, Shane Battier, and the Houston Rockets (A) is to rank the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. This will help you to assess the most important strengths and weaknesses of the firm and which one of the strengths and weaknesses mentioned in the initial lists are marginal and can be left out.
Second stage for conducting weighted SWOT analysis of the Harvard case study Discovering Hidden Gems: The Story of Daryl Morey, Shane Battier, and the Houston Rockets (A) is to give probabilities to the external strategic factors thus better understanding the opportunities and threats arising out of macro environment changes and developments.
Third stage of constructing weighted SWOT analysis of Discovering Hidden Gems: The Story of Daryl Morey, Shane Battier, and the Houston Rockets (A) is to provide strategic recommendations includes – joining likelihood of external strategic factors such as opportunities and threats to the internal strategic factors – strengths and weaknesses. You should start with external factors as they will provide the direction of the overall industry. Secondly by joining probabilities with internal strategic factors can help the company not only strategic fit but also the most probably strategic trade-off that Rockets Rudy needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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