Activity Based Management at W.S. Industries (A) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Finance & Accounting
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Activity Based Management at W.S. Industries (A)
W.S. Industries undertakes the design and implementation of an activity based costing (ABC) system, and the ABC information empowers workers to make process improvement decisions. Workers' incentive pay is tied to cost savings from process improvements.
Swot Analysis of "Activity Based Management at W.S. Industries (A)" written by V.G. Narayanan, Sanjay T. Pothen includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that W.s Abc facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Activity Based Management at W.S. Industries (A) case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Costs, Performance measurement and Finance & Accounting.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Activity Based Management at W.S. Industries (A) casestudy better are - – cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, wage bills are increasing, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, technology disruption,
increasing household debt because of falling income levels, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Activity Based Management at W.S. Industries (A)
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Activity Based Management at W.S. Industries (A) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the W.s Abc, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which W.s Abc 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 Activity Based Management at W.S. Industries (A) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Activity Based Management at W.S. Industries (A) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of W.s Abc
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Finance & Accounting field.
4. Making a Finance & Accounting topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of W.s Abc
Strengths Activity Based Management at W.S. Industries (A) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of W.s Abc in Activity Based Management at W.S. Industries (A) Harvard Business Review case study are -
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of W.s Abc in the sector have low bargaining power. Activity Based Management at W.S. Industries (A) has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps W.s Abc to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Strong track record of project management
– W.s Abc is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Highly skilled collaborators
– W.s Abc 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 Activity Based Management at W.S. Industries (A) HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– W.s Abc 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 Activity Based Management at W.S. Industries (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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– W.s Abc has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. W.s Abc 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.
Analytics focus
– W.s Abc 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 V.G. Narayanan, Sanjay T. Pothen 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.
Innovation driven organization
– W.s Abc is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Activity Based Management at W.S. Industries (A) Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Ability to recruit top talent
– W.s Abc is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Activity Based Management at W.S. Industries (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.
Training and development
– W.s Abc has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Activity Based Management at W.S. Industries (A) 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 lead change in Finance & Accounting field
– W.s Abc 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 W.s Abc in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Digital Transformation in Finance & Accounting segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For W.s Abc digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. W.s Abc 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Finance & Accounting industry
– Activity Based Management at W.S. Industries (A) firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled W.s Abc to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Finance & Accounting industry. The sustainable margins have also helped W.s Abc to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Weaknesses Activity Based Management at W.S. Industries (A) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Activity Based Management at W.S. Industries (A) are -
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, W.s Abc 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.
Need for greater diversity
– W.s Abc 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Activity Based Management at W.S. Industries (A) HBR case study mentions - W.s Abc 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 W.s Abc 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 - Activity Based Management at W.S. Industries (A) should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of W.s Abc is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Finance & Accounting segment. W.s Abc needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help W.s Abc to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of W.s Abc, firm in the HBR case study Activity Based Management at W.S. Industries (A) needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Activity Based Management at W.S. Industries (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 Activity Based Management at W.S. Industries (A) can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as W.s Abc is planning to shift buying processes online.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, W.s Abc 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 dependence on existing supply chain
– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of W.s Abc supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Activity Based Management at W.S. Industries (A), it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left W.s Abc vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Activity Based Management at W.S. Industries (A), in the dynamic environment W.s Abc has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. W.s Abc has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Activity Based Management at W.S. Industries (A), it seems that the employees of W.s Abc 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.
Opportunities Activity Based Management at W.S. Industries (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 Activity Based Management at W.S. Industries (A) are -
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at W.s Abc 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 Finance & Accounting segment.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for W.s Abc in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Finance & Accounting segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help W.s Abc to increase its market reach. W.s Abc 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.
Buying journey improvements
– W.s Abc can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Activity Based Management at W.S. Industries (A) 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– W.s Abc 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 Activity Based Management at W.S. Industries (A) - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help W.s Abc to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
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. W.s Abc can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Finance & Accounting industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. W.s Abc 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. W.s Abc 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for W.s Abc 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, W.s Abc can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that W.s Abc operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Finance & Accounting sector.
Leveraging digital technologies
– W.s Abc 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, W.s Abc is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Activity Based Management at W.S. Industries (A) 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.
Loyalty marketing
– W.s Abc 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.
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 W.s Abc in the consumer business. Now W.s Abc can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Threats Activity Based Management at W.S. Industries (A) External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Activity Based Management at W.S. Industries (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. W.s Abc 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 W.s Abc in the Finance & Accounting industry. The Finance & Accounting 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– W.s Abc 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.
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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on W.s Abc 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.
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 W.s Abc in the Finance & Accounting sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that W.s Abc is facing in Finance & Accounting sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, W.s Abc 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 Activity Based Management at W.S. Industries (A) .
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– W.s Abc has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Finance & Accounting industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, W.s Abc needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Finance & Accounting 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.
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 W.s Abc.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Finance & Accounting field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. W.s Abc can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Activity Based Management at W.S. Industries (A), W.s Abc may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Finance & Accounting .
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. W.s Abc needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Finance & Accounting industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Activity Based Management at W.S. Industries (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 Activity Based Management at W.S. Industries (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 Activity Based Management at W.S. Industries (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 Activity Based Management at W.S. Industries (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 Activity Based Management at W.S. Industries (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 W.s Abc needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
