Activision: The 'Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer' Project SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Technology & Operations
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Activision: The 'Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer' Project
Mike Ward, the producer in charge of developing the Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer game for Activision, must decide whether to launch the game in time for the 2002 Christmas season. Complicating his decision are the lukewarm response from consumers to TV test spots of the game and the need to fund a multimillion dollar marketing campaign. Also describes Activision's approach to game development, which was based on a green-light process adopted by the firm in 2000 to better control new game development better.
Authors :: Alan MacCormack, Kerry Herman, Enrico D'Angelo
Swot Analysis of "Activision: The 'Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer' Project" written by Alan MacCormack, Kerry Herman, Enrico D'Angelo includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Game Surfer facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Activision: The 'Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer' Project case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Decision making, Product development and Technology & Operations.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Activision: The 'Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer' Project casestudy better are - – customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, wage bills are increasing, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, geopolitical disruptions, increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing energy prices, increasing household debt because of falling income levels,
challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Activision: The 'Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer' Project
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Activision: The 'Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer' Project case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Game Surfer, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Game Surfer 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 Activision: The 'Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer' Project can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Activision: The 'Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer' Project case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Game Surfer
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 Game Surfer
Strengths Activision: The 'Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer' Project | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Game Surfer in Activision: The 'Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer' Project Harvard Business Review case study are -
Successful track record of launching new products
– Game Surfer has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Game Surfer 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.
Learning organization
- Game Surfer 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 Game Surfer is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Activision: The 'Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer' Project Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Game Surfer in the sector have low bargaining power. Activision: The 'Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer' Project has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Game Surfer to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Game Surfer 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Game Surfer is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Activision: The 'Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer' Project case study a diverse revenue stream that has helped it to survive disruptions such as global pandemic in Covid-19, financial disruption of 2008, and supply chain disruption of 2021.
Training and development
– Game Surfer has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Activision: The 'Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer' Project 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Game Surfer is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Activision: The 'Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer' Project are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Game Surfer 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Game Surfer is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Activision: The 'Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer' Project Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Ability to lead change in Technology & Operations field
– Game Surfer 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 Game Surfer in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Technology & Operations industry
– Activision: The 'Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer' Project firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Game Surfer to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Technology & Operations industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Game Surfer to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
High brand equity
– Game Surfer has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Game Surfer to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Weaknesses Activision: The 'Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer' Project | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Activision: The 'Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer' Project are -
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Game Surfer 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Game Surfer is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Technology & Operations segment. Game Surfer needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Game Surfer to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Game Surfer 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 - Activision: The 'Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer' Project should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Activision: The 'Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer' Project HBR case study mentions - Game Surfer 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Activision: The 'Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer' Project 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 Activision: The 'Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer' Project can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Game Surfer is planning to shift buying processes online.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Activision: The 'Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer' Project, 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Game Surfer products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Game Surfer needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Activision: The 'Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer' Project, it seems that the employees of Game Surfer 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Game Surfer 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Game Surfer 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Activision: The 'Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer' Project, in the dynamic environment Game Surfer has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Game Surfer has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Opportunities Activision: The 'Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer' Project | 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 Activision: The 'Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer' Project are -
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Game Surfer in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Technology & Operations segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Technology & Operations industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Game Surfer can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Game Surfer is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Activision: The 'Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer' Project 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Game Surfer 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.
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. Game Surfer can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
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 Game Surfer 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.
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. Game Surfer 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. Game Surfer 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Game Surfer 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 Activision: The 'Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer' Project - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Game Surfer to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Game Surfer can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Game Surfer operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Technology & Operations sector.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Game Surfer 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Game Surfer 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Game Surfer 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Game Surfer has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Game Surfer to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Activision: The 'Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer' Project case study. Game Surfer can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Threats Activision: The 'Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer' Project External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Activision: The 'Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer' Project are -
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Game Surfer 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Game Surfer 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.
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.
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.
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 Game Surfer business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Game Surfer is facing in Technology & Operations sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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. Game Surfer 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Game Surfer 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
– Game Surfer 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.
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. Game Surfer needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Technology & Operations industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Environmental challenges
– Game Surfer 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. Game Surfer can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Technology & Operations industry.
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. Game Surfer can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Increasing wage structure of Game Surfer
– 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 Game Surfer.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Activision: The 'Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer' Project 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 Activision: The 'Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer' Project 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 Activision: The 'Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer' Project 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 Activision: The 'Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer' Project 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 Activision: The 'Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer' Project 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 Game Surfer needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.