Rosenbluth International and Biztravel.com SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Technology & Operations
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Rosenbluth International and Biztravel.com
Rosenbluth, the third largest U.S. travel agency, uses the Internet to serve new customers with a high-service strategy. Rosenbluth acquires Biztravel.com and integrates the customer support and logistics aspects of service delivery.
Swot Analysis of "Rosenbluth International and Biztravel.com" written by Roger Hallowell includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Rosenbluth Biztravel.com facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Rosenbluth International and Biztravel.com case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Entrepreneurship, Human resource management, Internet, Mergers & acquisitions, Supply chain and Technology & Operations.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Rosenbluth International and Biztravel.com casestudy better are - – there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, there is backlash against globalization, increasing commodity prices, geopolitical disruptions, technology disruption,
digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, wage bills are increasing, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Rosenbluth International and Biztravel.com
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Rosenbluth International and Biztravel.com case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Rosenbluth Biztravel.com, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Rosenbluth Biztravel.com 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 Rosenbluth International and Biztravel.com can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Rosenbluth International and Biztravel.com case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Rosenbluth Biztravel.com
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 Rosenbluth Biztravel.com
Strengths Rosenbluth International and Biztravel.com | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Rosenbluth Biztravel.com in Rosenbluth International and Biztravel.com Harvard Business Review case study are -
Ability to recruit top talent
– Rosenbluth Biztravel.com is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Rosenbluth International and Biztravel.com are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Rosenbluth International and Biztravel.com 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.
Learning organization
- Rosenbluth Biztravel.com 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 Rosenbluth Biztravel.com is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Rosenbluth International and Biztravel.com Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Rosenbluth Biztravel.com in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Rosenbluth Biztravel.com 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 Rosenbluth International and Biztravel.com - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Analytics focus
– Rosenbluth Biztravel.com 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 Roger Hallowell 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.
Training and development
– Rosenbluth Biztravel.com has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Rosenbluth International and Biztravel.com 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Technology & Operations industry
– Rosenbluth International and Biztravel.com firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Rosenbluth Biztravel.com to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Technology & Operations industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Rosenbluth Biztravel.com to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Rosenbluth Biztravel.com 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Rosenbluth Biztravel.com is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Rosenbluth International and Biztravel.com 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 Rosenbluth Biztravel.com
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Rosenbluth Biztravel.com 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
– Rosenbluth Biztravel.com has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Rosenbluth Biztravel.com has effective processes in place that helps in exploring new product needs, doing quick pilot testing, and then launching the products quickly using its extensive distribution network.
Weaknesses Rosenbluth International and Biztravel.com | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Rosenbluth International and Biztravel.com are -
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Rosenbluth International and Biztravel.com, 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Rosenbluth International and Biztravel.com, is just above the industry average. Rosenbluth Biztravel.com 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, Rosenbluth Biztravel.com 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Rosenbluth International and Biztravel.com, it seems that the employees of Rosenbluth Biztravel.com 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 Rosenbluth International and Biztravel.com HBR case study mentions - Rosenbluth Biztravel.com 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Roger Hallowell suggests that, Rosenbluth Biztravel.com 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Rosenbluth Biztravel.com is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Technology & Operations segment. Rosenbluth Biztravel.com needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Rosenbluth Biztravel.com to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Rosenbluth Biztravel.com 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Rosenbluth International and Biztravel.com 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 Rosenbluth Biztravel.com has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Rosenbluth Biztravel.com 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 - Rosenbluth International and Biztravel.com should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Rosenbluth Biztravel.com is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Rosenbluth International and Biztravel.com can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Opportunities Rosenbluth International and Biztravel.com | 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 Rosenbluth International and Biztravel.com are -
Developing new processes and practices
– Rosenbluth Biztravel.com 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.
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. Rosenbluth Biztravel.com can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Rosenbluth Biztravel.com 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 Rosenbluth Biztravel.com to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Rosenbluth Biztravel.com has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Rosenbluth Biztravel.com to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Rosenbluth International and Biztravel.com case study. Rosenbluth Biztravel.com can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, 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. Rosenbluth Biztravel.com 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. Rosenbluth Biztravel.com 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Rosenbluth Biztravel.com 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Rosenbluth Biztravel.com 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Rosenbluth Biztravel.com 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. Rosenbluth Biztravel.com can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Rosenbluth Biztravel.com 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.
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 Rosenbluth Biztravel.com in the consumer business. Now Rosenbluth Biztravel.com can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Rosenbluth Biztravel.com 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Rosenbluth Biztravel.com to increase its market reach. Rosenbluth Biztravel.com 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.
Threats Rosenbluth International and Biztravel.com External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Rosenbluth International and Biztravel.com are -
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Rosenbluth Biztravel.com with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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 Rosenbluth Biztravel.com.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Rosenbluth Biztravel.com 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Rosenbluth Biztravel.com 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.
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 Rosenbluth Biztravel.com business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Rosenbluth Biztravel.com 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
– Rosenbluth Biztravel.com 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.
Increasing wage structure of Rosenbluth Biztravel.com
– 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 Rosenbluth Biztravel.com.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Rosenbluth International and Biztravel.com, Rosenbluth Biztravel.com 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 .
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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Rosenbluth Biztravel.com 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 Rosenbluth International and Biztravel.com .
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Rosenbluth Biztravel.com has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Technology & Operations industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Rosenbluth Biztravel.com 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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Technology & Operations field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Rosenbluth Biztravel.com can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Rosenbluth International and Biztravel.com 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 Rosenbluth International and Biztravel.com 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 Rosenbluth International and Biztravel.com 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 Rosenbluth International and Biztravel.com 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 Rosenbluth International and Biztravel.com 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 Rosenbluth Biztravel.com needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.