Madison Avenue: Digital Media Services (C) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Technology & Operations
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Madison Avenue: Digital Media Services (C)
By July 2000, Madison Avenue had experienced extraordinary growth in sales, employees, clients, and service offerings. From late 1999 to July 2000, the company had taken several initiatives to redesign its internal processes so that the firm could continue to grow, while maintaining the quality of its service offering and increasing efficiency enough to show profitability. Matt Garvin, the company's chief strategy officer, was considering a host of new service offerings to complement its core service--active management of online advertising. The question to Garvin was twofold: What opportunities made strategic sense for the company? What strategic opportunities matched well with the company's operational capabilities? How reliable, robust, and responsive are they? Can they handle the growth, scale, and scope that Garvin is contemplating. Can be taught alone as a strategy case or in conjunction with the (B) case to emphasize the product-process matching problem. If taught together, one case can be assigned to half the students, the other case to the other half to simulate more fully the organizational challenge of communicating across functional specialties--i.e., the service equivalent of product development, production, marketing, and sales.
Swot Analysis of "Madison Avenue: Digital Media Services (C)" written by Steven J. Spear, Anne D. Karshis includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Garvin Avenue facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Madison Avenue: Digital Media Services (C) case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Internet, Marketing, Product development, Supply chain and Technology & Operations.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Madison Avenue: Digital Media Services (C) casestudy better are - – digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, there is backlash against globalization, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, geopolitical disruptions, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, technology disruption, increasing household debt because of falling income levels,
increasing energy prices, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Madison Avenue: Digital Media Services (C)
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Madison Avenue: Digital Media Services (C) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Garvin Avenue, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Garvin Avenue 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 Madison Avenue: Digital Media Services (C) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Madison Avenue: Digital Media Services (C) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Garvin Avenue
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 Garvin Avenue
Strengths Madison Avenue: Digital Media Services (C) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Garvin Avenue in Madison Avenue: Digital Media Services (C) Harvard Business Review case study are -
Learning organization
- Garvin Avenue 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 Garvin Avenue is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Madison Avenue: Digital Media Services (C) Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Garvin Avenue in the sector have low bargaining power. Madison Avenue: Digital Media Services (C) has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Garvin Avenue to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
High brand equity
– Garvin Avenue has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Garvin Avenue to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Digital Transformation in Technology & Operations segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Garvin Avenue digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Garvin Avenue 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Garvin Avenue is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Ability to lead change in Technology & Operations field
– Garvin Avenue 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 Garvin Avenue in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Garvin Avenue is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Madison Avenue: Digital Media Services (C) are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Garvin Avenue in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Diverse revenue streams
– Garvin Avenue is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Madison Avenue: Digital Media Services (C) 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
– Garvin Avenue has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Madison Avenue: Digital Media Services (C) Harvard Business Review case study by analyzing – employees retention, in-house promotion, loyalty, new venture initiation, lack of conflict, and high level of both employees and customer engagement.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Madison Avenue: Digital Media Services (C) 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Garvin Avenue 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.
Weaknesses Madison Avenue: Digital Media Services (C) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Madison Avenue: Digital Media Services (C) are -
Need for greater diversity
– Garvin Avenue 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 harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Garvin Avenue is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Madison Avenue: Digital Media Services (C) can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Madison Avenue: Digital Media Services (C), 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.
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 Garvin Avenue supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Madison Avenue: Digital Media Services (C), it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Garvin Avenue vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Garvin Avenue has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Madison Avenue: Digital Media Services (C) 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 Garvin Avenue has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Steven J. Spear, Anne D. Karshis suggests that, Garvin Avenue 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 to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Madison Avenue: Digital Media Services (C) HBR case study mentions - Garvin Avenue 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Garvin Avenue 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Madison Avenue: Digital Media Services (C), in the dynamic environment Garvin Avenue has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Garvin Avenue has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Lack of clear differentiation of Garvin Avenue products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Garvin Avenue needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Opportunities Madison Avenue: Digital Media Services (C) | 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 Madison Avenue: Digital Media Services (C) are -
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Garvin Avenue 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Garvin Avenue 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 Garvin Avenue to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Developing new processes and practices
– Garvin Avenue 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Garvin Avenue 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Garvin Avenue can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Madison Avenue: Digital Media Services (C) 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
– Garvin Avenue 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 Madison Avenue: Digital Media Services (C) - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Garvin Avenue to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Garvin Avenue 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Garvin Avenue 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Garvin Avenue is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Madison Avenue: Digital Media Services (C) 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Garvin Avenue 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Garvin Avenue to increase its market reach. Garvin Avenue 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.
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. Garvin Avenue can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
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 Garvin Avenue in the consumer business. Now Garvin Avenue can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Threats Madison Avenue: Digital Media Services (C) External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Madison Avenue: Digital Media Services (C) are -
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Garvin Avenue 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Garvin Avenue is facing in Technology & Operations sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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 Garvin Avenue in the Technology & Operations sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Madison Avenue: Digital Media Services (C), Garvin Avenue 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 .
Increasing wage structure of Garvin Avenue
– 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 Garvin Avenue.
Environmental challenges
– Garvin Avenue 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. Garvin Avenue can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Technology & Operations industry.
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. Garvin Avenue needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Technology & Operations industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Garvin Avenue 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 Madison Avenue: Digital Media Services (C) .
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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Garvin Avenue 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.
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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Garvin Avenue has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Technology & Operations industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Garvin Avenue 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Garvin Avenue 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Madison Avenue: Digital Media Services (C) 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 Madison Avenue: Digital Media Services (C) 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 Madison Avenue: Digital Media Services (C) 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 Madison Avenue: Digital Media Services (C) 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 Madison Avenue: Digital Media Services (C) 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 Garvin Avenue needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.