British Airways: Using Information Systems to Better Serve the Customer SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Technology & Operations
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of British Airways: Using Information Systems to Better Serve the Customer
Explores the uses of scanning technology, interactive software, and powerful data bases to assist customer relations representatives in resolving customer complaints. Competitive alliances in international markets are noted, but the focus is on the evolving commitment to customer service and the measures, technology, and economics that come into play to recover customers who have complained.
Swot Analysis of "British Airways: Using Information Systems to Better Serve the Customer" written by W. Earl Sasser Jr., Norman Klein includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Customer Scanning facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in British Airways: Using Information Systems to Better Serve the Customer case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, International business, IT, Joint ventures, Supply chain and Technology & Operations.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the British Airways: Using Information Systems to Better Serve the Customer casestudy better are - – there is backlash against globalization, technology disruption, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings,
central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of British Airways: Using Information Systems to Better Serve the Customer
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in British Airways: Using Information Systems to Better Serve the Customer case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Customer Scanning, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Customer Scanning 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 British Airways: Using Information Systems to Better Serve the Customer can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in British Airways: Using Information Systems to Better Serve the Customer case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Customer Scanning
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 Customer Scanning
Strengths British Airways: Using Information Systems to Better Serve the Customer | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Customer Scanning in British Airways: Using Information Systems to Better Serve the Customer Harvard Business Review case study are -
Strong track record of project management
– Customer Scanning is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Customer Scanning in the sector have low bargaining power. British Airways: Using Information Systems to Better Serve the Customer has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Customer Scanning to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Organizational Resilience of Customer Scanning
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Customer Scanning does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Customer Scanning 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Technology & Operations industry
– British Airways: Using Information Systems to Better Serve the Customer firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Customer Scanning to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Technology & Operations industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Customer Scanning to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Learning organization
- Customer Scanning 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 Customer Scanning is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in British Airways: Using Information Systems to Better Serve the Customer Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Customer Scanning is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the British Airways: Using Information Systems to Better Serve the Customer are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Diverse revenue streams
– Customer Scanning is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in British Airways: Using Information Systems to Better Serve the Customer 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.
Analytics focus
– Customer Scanning 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 W. Earl Sasser Jr., Norman Klein 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Customer Scanning 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 British Airways: Using Information Systems to Better Serve the Customer HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Training and development
– Customer Scanning has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in British Airways: Using Information Systems to Better Serve the Customer 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Customer Scanning 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.
Weaknesses British Airways: Using Information Systems to Better Serve the Customer | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of British Airways: Using Information Systems to Better Serve the Customer are -
Lack of clear differentiation of Customer Scanning products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Customer Scanning needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study British Airways: Using Information Systems to Better Serve the Customer, in the dynamic environment Customer Scanning has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Customer Scanning has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Customer Scanning 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study British Airways: Using Information Systems to Better Serve the Customer 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 British Airways: Using Information Systems to Better Serve the Customer can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Customer Scanning is planning to shift buying processes online.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study British Airways: Using Information Systems to Better Serve the Customer, 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study British Airways: Using Information Systems to Better Serve the Customer, it seems that the employees of Customer Scanning 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Customer Scanning 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Customer Scanning 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Customer Scanning 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Customer Scanning 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As British Airways: Using Information Systems to Better Serve the Customer HBR case study mentions - Customer Scanning 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.
Opportunities British Airways: Using Information Systems to Better Serve the Customer | 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 British Airways: Using Information Systems to Better Serve the Customer are -
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Customer Scanning has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Customer Scanning to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the British Airways: Using Information Systems to Better Serve the Customer case study. Customer Scanning can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Customer Scanning can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Customer Scanning 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 Customer Scanning to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Loyalty marketing
– Customer Scanning 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Customer Scanning can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Technology & Operations segment. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Customer Scanning 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
– Customer Scanning can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. British Airways: Using Information Systems to Better Serve the Customer 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Customer Scanning 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Customer Scanning 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.
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. Customer Scanning can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
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. Customer Scanning can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Customer Scanning 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 British Airways: Using Information Systems to Better Serve the Customer - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Customer Scanning to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
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. Customer Scanning 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. Customer Scanning 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.
Threats British Airways: Using Information Systems to Better Serve the Customer External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study British Airways: Using Information Systems to Better Serve the Customer are -
Regulatory challenges
– Customer Scanning 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Customer Scanning 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Customer Scanning 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 British Airways: Using Information Systems to Better Serve the Customer .
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.
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 Customer Scanning.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Customer Scanning has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Technology & Operations industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Customer Scanning 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Customer Scanning 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.
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 Customer Scanning business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study British Airways: Using Information Systems to Better Serve the Customer, Customer Scanning 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 Customer Scanning
– 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 Customer Scanning.
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.
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. Customer Scanning 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.
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 Customer Scanning in the Technology & Operations sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of British Airways: Using Information Systems to Better Serve the Customer 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 British Airways: Using Information Systems to Better Serve the Customer 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 British Airways: Using Information Systems to Better Serve the Customer 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 British Airways: Using Information Systems to Better Serve the Customer 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 British Airways: Using Information Systems to Better Serve the Customer 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 Customer Scanning needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
