Harrah's Entertainment Inc.: Real-Time CRM in a Service Supply Chain SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Technology & Operations
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Harrah's Entertainment Inc.: Real-Time CRM in a Service Supply Chain
With 26 casinos in 13 U.S. states and $4.5 billion in revenue in 2003, Harrah's Entertainment Inc. was one of the leading brand names in the casino entertainment industry. Bill Harrah, the founder of Harrah's, was passionate about getting to know his customers and had instilled a deeply rooted commitment to customer satisfaction into Harrah's corporate philosophy. In 2003, Harrah's was focused on building loyalty and value with its target customers through a unique combination of great service, excellent products, unsurpassed distribution, operational excellence, and technology leadership. Through innovative customer relationship management strategies, effective management of its service supply chain, and sizable investments in enabling information technology, the company was at the forefront in attracting, serving, and retaining its customers.
Authors :: Hau Lee, Seungjin Whang, Kamram Ahsan, Earl Gordon
Swot Analysis of "Harrah's Entertainment Inc.: Real-Time CRM in a Service Supply Chain" written by Hau Lee, Seungjin Whang, Kamram Ahsan, Earl Gordon includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Harrah's Entertainment facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Harrah's Entertainment Inc.: Real-Time CRM in a Service Supply Chain case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, IT, Supply chain and Technology & Operations.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Harrah's Entertainment Inc.: Real-Time CRM in a Service Supply Chain casestudy better are - – increasing commodity prices, wage bills are increasing, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, there is backlash against globalization, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing household debt because of falling income levels,
supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Harrah's Entertainment Inc.: Real-Time CRM in a Service Supply Chain
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Harrah's Entertainment Inc.: Real-Time CRM in a Service Supply Chain case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Harrah's Entertainment, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Harrah's Entertainment 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 Harrah's Entertainment Inc.: Real-Time CRM in a Service Supply Chain can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Harrah's Entertainment Inc.: Real-Time CRM in a Service Supply Chain case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Harrah's Entertainment
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 Harrah's Entertainment
Strengths Harrah's Entertainment Inc.: Real-Time CRM in a Service Supply Chain | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Harrah's Entertainment in Harrah's Entertainment Inc.: Real-Time CRM in a Service Supply Chain Harvard Business Review case study are -
Highly skilled collaborators
– Harrah's Entertainment 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 Harrah's Entertainment Inc.: Real-Time CRM in a Service Supply Chain HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Harrah's Entertainment has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Harrah's Entertainment has effective processes in place that helps in exploring new product needs, doing quick pilot testing, and then launching the products quickly using its extensive distribution network.
Learning organization
- Harrah's Entertainment 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 Harrah's Entertainment is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Harrah's Entertainment Inc.: Real-Time CRM in a Service Supply Chain Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Harrah's Entertainment is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Harrah's Entertainment Inc.: Real-Time CRM in a Service Supply Chain are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Strong track record of project management
– Harrah's Entertainment 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 Harrah's Entertainment in the sector have low bargaining power. Harrah's Entertainment Inc.: Real-Time CRM in a Service Supply Chain has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Harrah's Entertainment to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Harrah's Entertainment in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Technology & Operations industry
– Harrah's Entertainment Inc.: Real-Time CRM in a Service Supply Chain firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Harrah's Entertainment to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Technology & Operations industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Harrah's Entertainment to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Training and development
– Harrah's Entertainment has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Harrah's Entertainment Inc.: Real-Time CRM in a Service Supply Chain 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 Harrah's Entertainment 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Harrah's Entertainment Inc.: Real-Time CRM in a Service Supply Chain 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.
Ability to lead change in Technology & Operations field
– Harrah's Entertainment 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 Harrah's Entertainment in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Weaknesses Harrah's Entertainment Inc.: Real-Time CRM in a Service Supply Chain | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Harrah's Entertainment Inc.: Real-Time CRM in a Service Supply Chain are -
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Harrah's Entertainment, firm in the HBR case study Harrah's Entertainment Inc.: Real-Time CRM in a Service Supply Chain needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Harrah's Entertainment Inc.: Real-Time CRM in a Service Supply Chain, 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Harrah's Entertainment Inc.: Real-Time CRM in a Service Supply Chain, is just above the industry average. Harrah's Entertainment needs to redesign the compensation structure and incentives to increase the revenue per employees. Some of the steps that it can take are – hiring more specialists on project basis, 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 Harrah's Entertainment supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Harrah's Entertainment Inc.: Real-Time CRM in a Service Supply Chain, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Harrah's Entertainment vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Harrah's Entertainment Inc.: Real-Time CRM in a Service Supply Chain has high operating costs in the. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Harrah's Entertainment 's lucrative customers.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Harrah's Entertainment 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, Harrah's Entertainment 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 bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Hau Lee, Seungjin Whang, Kamram Ahsan, Earl Gordon suggests that, Harrah's Entertainment 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Harrah's Entertainment Inc.: Real-Time CRM in a Service Supply Chain, in the dynamic environment Harrah's Entertainment has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Harrah's Entertainment 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 Harrah's Entertainment products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Harrah's Entertainment needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Need for greater diversity
– Harrah's Entertainment 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.
Opportunities Harrah's Entertainment Inc.: Real-Time CRM in a Service Supply Chain | 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 Harrah's Entertainment Inc.: Real-Time CRM in a Service Supply Chain are -
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Harrah's Entertainment can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
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 Harrah's Entertainment in the consumer business. Now Harrah's Entertainment can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Loyalty marketing
– Harrah's Entertainment 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Harrah's Entertainment can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Harrah's Entertainment operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Technology & Operations sector.
Reconfiguring business model
– The expansion of digital payment system, the bringing down of international transactions costs using Bitcoin and other blockchain based currencies, etc can help Harrah's Entertainment to reconfigure its entire business model. For example it can used blockchain based technologies to reduce piracy of its products in the big markets such as China. Secondly it can use the popularity of e-commerce in various developing markets to build a Direct to Customer business model rather than the current Channel Heavy distribution network.
Buying journey improvements
– Harrah's Entertainment can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Harrah's Entertainment Inc.: Real-Time CRM in a Service Supply Chain 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Harrah's Entertainment 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, Harrah's Entertainment Inc.: Real-Time CRM in a Service Supply Chain, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Developing new processes and practices
– Harrah's Entertainment 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Harrah's Entertainment to increase its market reach. Harrah's Entertainment 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. Harrah's Entertainment can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Harrah's Entertainment has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Harrah's Entertainment to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Harrah's Entertainment Inc.: Real-Time CRM in a Service Supply Chain case study. Harrah's Entertainment can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
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. Harrah's Entertainment can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Harrah's Entertainment 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 Harrah's Entertainment to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Threats Harrah's Entertainment Inc.: Real-Time CRM in a Service Supply Chain External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Harrah's Entertainment Inc.: Real-Time CRM in a Service Supply Chain are -
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Harrah's Entertainment 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Harrah's Entertainment 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 Harrah's Entertainment Inc.: Real-Time CRM in a Service Supply Chain .
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 Harrah's Entertainment business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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. Harrah's Entertainment 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 Harrah's Entertainment Inc.: Real-Time CRM in a Service Supply Chain, Harrah's Entertainment 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 .
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Harrah's Entertainment 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.
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 Harrah's Entertainment in the Technology & Operations sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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. Harrah's Entertainment 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Harrah's Entertainment 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.
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 Harrah's Entertainment.
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. Harrah's Entertainment needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Technology & Operations industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Regulatory challenges
– Harrah's Entertainment 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Harrah's Entertainment Inc.: Real-Time CRM in a Service Supply Chain 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 Harrah's Entertainment Inc.: Real-Time CRM in a Service Supply Chain 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 Harrah's Entertainment Inc.: Real-Time CRM in a Service Supply Chain 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 Harrah's Entertainment Inc.: Real-Time CRM in a Service Supply Chain 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 Harrah's Entertainment Inc.: Real-Time CRM in a Service Supply Chain 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 Harrah's Entertainment needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
