Slots, Tables, and All that Jazz: Managing Customer Profitability at the MGM Grand Hotel SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Technology & Operations
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Slots, Tables, and All that Jazz: Managing Customer Profitability at the MGM Grand Hotel
The MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas had detailed information on loyal gaming customers, but could its information systems also be tailored to nongaming customers? As the nongaming business sectors became increasingly profitable both at the MGM Grand and in Las Vegas generally, understanding the nongaming customers appeared to be of critical importance to the continuing growth of the resort.
Authors :: Dennis Campbell, F. Asis Martinez-Jerez, Marc J. Epstein, Joshua Bellin
Swot Analysis of "Slots, Tables, and All that Jazz: Managing Customer Profitability at the MGM Grand Hotel" written by Dennis Campbell, F. Asis Martinez-Jerez, Marc J. Epstein, Joshua Bellin includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Nongaming Mgm facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Slots, Tables, and All that Jazz: Managing Customer Profitability at the MGM Grand Hotel case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Customers, Financial analysis, IT, Sales and Technology & Operations.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Slots, Tables, and All that Jazz: Managing Customer Profitability at the MGM Grand Hotel casestudy better are - – talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, wage bills are increasing, geopolitical disruptions,
increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing commodity prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Slots, Tables, and All that Jazz: Managing Customer Profitability at the MGM Grand Hotel
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Slots, Tables, and All that Jazz: Managing Customer Profitability at the MGM Grand Hotel case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Nongaming Mgm, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Nongaming Mgm 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 Slots, Tables, and All that Jazz: Managing Customer Profitability at the MGM Grand Hotel can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Slots, Tables, and All that Jazz: Managing Customer Profitability at the MGM Grand Hotel case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Nongaming Mgm
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 Nongaming Mgm
Strengths Slots, Tables, and All that Jazz: Managing Customer Profitability at the MGM Grand Hotel | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Nongaming Mgm in Slots, Tables, and All that Jazz: Managing Customer Profitability at the MGM Grand Hotel Harvard Business Review case study are -
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Slots, Tables, and All that Jazz: Managing Customer Profitability at the MGM Grand Hotel 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.
Analytics focus
– Nongaming Mgm 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 Dennis Campbell, F. Asis Martinez-Jerez, Marc J. Epstein, Joshua Bellin 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Nongaming Mgm in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Nongaming Mgm is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Slots, Tables, and All that Jazz: Managing Customer Profitability at the MGM Grand Hotel 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 brand equity
– Nongaming Mgm has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Nongaming Mgm to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Technology & Operations industry
– Slots, Tables, and All that Jazz: Managing Customer Profitability at the MGM Grand Hotel firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Nongaming Mgm to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Technology & Operations industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Nongaming Mgm to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Diverse revenue streams
– Nongaming Mgm is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Slots, Tables, and All that Jazz: Managing Customer Profitability at the MGM Grand Hotel 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Nongaming Mgm is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Organizational Resilience of Nongaming Mgm
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Nongaming Mgm 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 Nongaming Mgm 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Nongaming Mgm has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Nongaming Mgm 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Nongaming Mgm in the sector have low bargaining power. Slots, Tables, and All that Jazz: Managing Customer Profitability at the MGM Grand Hotel has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Nongaming Mgm to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Weaknesses Slots, Tables, and All that Jazz: Managing Customer Profitability at the MGM Grand Hotel | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Slots, Tables, and All that Jazz: Managing Customer Profitability at the MGM Grand Hotel are -
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Slots, Tables, and All that Jazz: Managing Customer Profitability at the MGM Grand Hotel 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 Nongaming Mgm has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Dennis Campbell, F. Asis Martinez-Jerez, Marc J. Epstein, Joshua Bellin suggests that, Nongaming Mgm 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.
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 Nongaming Mgm supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Slots, Tables, and All that Jazz: Managing Customer Profitability at the MGM Grand Hotel, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Nongaming Mgm vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Slots, Tables, and All that Jazz: Managing Customer Profitability at the MGM Grand Hotel, 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 Slots, Tables, and All that Jazz: Managing Customer Profitability at the MGM Grand Hotel, it seems that the employees of Nongaming Mgm 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Nongaming Mgm products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Nongaming Mgm needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Slots, Tables, and All that Jazz: Managing Customer Profitability at the MGM Grand Hotel HBR case study mentions - Nongaming Mgm 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 Nongaming Mgm 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 - Slots, Tables, and All that Jazz: Managing Customer Profitability at the MGM Grand Hotel should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Need for greater diversity
– Nongaming Mgm 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, Nongaming Mgm 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Nongaming Mgm has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the industry over the last five years. Nongaming Mgm even though has strong showing on digital transformation primary two stages, it has struggled to capitalize the power of digital transformation in marketing efforts and new venture efforts.
Opportunities Slots, Tables, and All that Jazz: Managing Customer Profitability at the MGM Grand Hotel | 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 Slots, Tables, and All that Jazz: Managing Customer Profitability at the MGM Grand Hotel are -
Buying journey improvements
– Nongaming Mgm can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Slots, Tables, and All that Jazz: Managing Customer Profitability at the MGM Grand Hotel 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Nongaming Mgm 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Nongaming Mgm to increase its market reach. Nongaming Mgm 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Nongaming Mgm 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Nongaming Mgm 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 Slots, Tables, and All that Jazz: Managing Customer Profitability at the MGM Grand Hotel - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Nongaming Mgm to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Nongaming Mgm is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Slots, Tables, and All that Jazz: Managing Customer Profitability at the MGM Grand Hotel 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
– Nongaming Mgm 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 Nongaming Mgm has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Nongaming Mgm to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Slots, Tables, and All that Jazz: Managing Customer Profitability at the MGM Grand Hotel case study. Nongaming Mgm can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Technology & Operations industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Nongaming Mgm 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. Nongaming Mgm 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 Nongaming Mgm 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Nongaming Mgm 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Nongaming Mgm can build a diversified supply chain model across various countries in - South East Asia, India, and other parts of the world. This reconfiguration of global supply chain can help, as suggested in case study, Slots, Tables, and All that Jazz: Managing Customer Profitability at the MGM Grand Hotel, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Nongaming Mgm 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 Nongaming Mgm to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Threats Slots, Tables, and All that Jazz: Managing Customer Profitability at the MGM Grand Hotel External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Slots, Tables, and All that Jazz: Managing Customer Profitability at the MGM Grand Hotel are -
Consumer confidence and its impact on Nongaming Mgm 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 acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Nongaming Mgm has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Technology & Operations industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Nongaming Mgm 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
– Nongaming Mgm can face lack of demand in the market place because of Fed actions to reduce inflation. This can lead to sluggish growth in the economy, lower demands, lower investments, higher borrowing costs, and consolidation in the field.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Nongaming Mgm 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.
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 Nongaming Mgm.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Slots, Tables, and All that Jazz: Managing Customer Profitability at the MGM Grand Hotel, Nongaming Mgm 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 international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Nongaming Mgm 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 Slots, Tables, and All that Jazz: Managing Customer Profitability at the MGM Grand Hotel .
Environmental challenges
– Nongaming Mgm 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. Nongaming Mgm can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Technology & Operations industry.
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.
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 Nongaming Mgm in the Technology & Operations sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Nongaming Mgm is facing in Technology & Operations sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Nongaming Mgm 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.
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. Nongaming Mgm can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Slots, Tables, and All that Jazz: Managing Customer Profitability at the MGM Grand Hotel 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 Slots, Tables, and All that Jazz: Managing Customer Profitability at the MGM Grand Hotel 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 Slots, Tables, and All that Jazz: Managing Customer Profitability at the MGM Grand Hotel 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 Slots, Tables, and All that Jazz: Managing Customer Profitability at the MGM Grand Hotel 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 Slots, Tables, and All that Jazz: Managing Customer Profitability at the MGM Grand Hotel 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 Nongaming Mgm needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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