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Ivey Publishing: Making a Case for Paying the Price SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution

Case Study Description of Ivey Publishing: Making a Case for Paying the Price


In 2017, Ivey Publishing, a publisher and distributor of cases for the academic market, struggled with widespread copyright infringement, which affected its revenue stream. The digital revolution, which had an impact on so many other creative industries, including music, film, and computer software, had also affected the publisher. Ivey Publishing's sales team leader made a call to a business professor to elicit his support in encouraging his students to purchase cases from Ivey Publishing (rather than copying them from other students). Having failed to persuade this professor and others, the sales team leader reflected on what else she could do to strengthen Ivey Publishing's financial performance. Brent Beal is affiliated with University of Texas at Tyler. Karen MacMillan is affiliated with Wilfrid Laurier University.

Authors :: Brent D. Beal, Karen MacMillan

Topics :: Strategy & Execution

Tags :: Influence, Intellectual property, Pricing, SWOT Analysis, SWOT Matrix, TOWS, Weighted SWOT Analysis

Swot Analysis of "Ivey Publishing: Making a Case for Paying the Price" written by Brent D. Beal, Karen MacMillan includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Ivey Publishing's facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Ivey Publishing: Making a Case for Paying the Price case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Influence, Intellectual property, Pricing and Strategy & Execution.


Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Ivey Publishing: Making a Case for Paying the Price casestudy better are - – competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing commodity prices, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, geopolitical disruptions, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, etc



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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Ivey Publishing: Making a Case for Paying the Price


SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Ivey Publishing: Making a Case for Paying the Price case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Ivey Publishing's, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Ivey Publishing's 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 Ivey Publishing: Making a Case for Paying the Price can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Ivey Publishing: Making a Case for Paying the Price case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Ivey Publishing's
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Strategy & Execution field.
4. Making a Strategy & Execution topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Ivey Publishing's




Strengths Ivey Publishing: Making a Case for Paying the Price | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Ivey Publishing's in Ivey Publishing: Making a Case for Paying the Price Harvard Business Review case study are -

High brand equity

– Ivey Publishing's has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Ivey Publishing's to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.

Ability to recruit top talent

– Ivey Publishing's is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Ivey Publishing: Making a Case for Paying the Price are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.

Ability to lead change in Strategy & Execution field

– Ivey Publishing's 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 Ivey Publishing's in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.

Superior customer experience

– The customer experience strategy of Ivey Publishing's in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.

Organizational Resilience of Ivey Publishing's

– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Ivey Publishing's does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.

Innovation driven organization

– Ivey Publishing's is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Ivey Publishing: Making a Case for Paying the Price Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.

Training and development

– Ivey Publishing's has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Ivey Publishing: Making a Case for Paying the Price 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.

Low bargaining power of suppliers

– Suppliers of Ivey Publishing's in the sector have low bargaining power. Ivey Publishing: Making a Case for Paying the Price has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Ivey Publishing's to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.

Sustainable margins compare to other players in Strategy & Execution industry

– Ivey Publishing: Making a Case for Paying the Price firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Ivey Publishing's to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Ivey Publishing's to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.

Strong track record of project management

– Ivey Publishing's is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.

Effective Research and Development (R&D)

– Ivey Publishing's has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in, as mentioned in case study Ivey Publishing: Making a Case for Paying the Price - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.

Analytics focus

– Ivey Publishing's 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 Brent D. Beal, Karen MacMillan 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.






Weaknesses Ivey Publishing: Making a Case for Paying the Price | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of Ivey Publishing: Making a Case for Paying the Price are -

Aligning sales with marketing

– It come across in the case study Ivey Publishing: Making a Case for Paying the Price 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 Ivey Publishing: Making a Case for Paying the Price can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Ivey Publishing's is planning to shift buying processes online.

Products dominated business model

– Even though Ivey Publishing's 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 - Ivey Publishing: Making a Case for Paying the Price should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.

Compensation and incentives

– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Ivey Publishing: Making a Case for Paying the Price, is just above the industry average. Ivey Publishing's 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.

Lack of clear differentiation of Ivey Publishing's products

– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Ivey Publishing's needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.

High dependence on star products

– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Ivey Publishing: Making a Case for Paying the Price 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 Ivey Publishing's has relatively successful track record of launching new products.

Skills based hiring

– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Ivey Publishing's 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.

Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy

– From the instances in the HBR case study Ivey Publishing: Making a Case for Paying the Price, it seems that the employees of Ivey Publishing's 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.

Slow to harness new channels of communication

– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Ivey Publishing's is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Ivey Publishing: Making a Case for Paying the Price can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.

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 Ivey Publishing's supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Ivey Publishing: Making a Case for Paying the Price, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Ivey Publishing's vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.

High cash cycle compare to competitors

Ivey Publishing's 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.

Need for greater diversity

– Ivey Publishing's 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 Ivey Publishing: Making a Case for Paying the Price | 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 Ivey Publishing: Making a Case for Paying the Price are -

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. Ivey Publishing's can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.

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 Ivey Publishing's 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.

Reforming the budgeting process

- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Ivey Publishing's can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.

Increase in government spending

– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Ivey Publishing's can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Ivey Publishing's operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Strategy & Execution sector.

Creating value in data economy

– The success of analytics program of Ivey Publishing's has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Ivey Publishing's to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Ivey Publishing: Making a Case for Paying the Price case study. Ivey Publishing's can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.

Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions

– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Ivey Publishing's in the consumer business. Now Ivey Publishing's can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.

Finding new ways to collaborate

– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Strategy & Execution industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Ivey Publishing's 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 Ivey Publishing's 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 Ivey Publishing's to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.

Developing new processes and practices

– Ivey Publishing's can develop new processes and procedures in Strategy & Execution 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.

Lowering marketing communication costs

– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Ivey Publishing's in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Strategy & Execution segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.

Buying journey improvements

– Ivey Publishing's can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Ivey Publishing: Making a Case for Paying the Price 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.

Loyalty marketing

– Ivey Publishing's 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.

Learning at scale

– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Ivey Publishing's 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.




Threats Ivey Publishing: Making a Case for Paying the Price External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis


The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Ivey Publishing: Making a Case for Paying the Price are -

Shortening product life cycle

– it is one of the major threat that Ivey Publishing's is facing in Strategy & Execution sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.

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.

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. Ivey Publishing's 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.

Regulatory challenges

– Ivey Publishing's 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 Strategy & Execution industry regulations.

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.

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 Ivey Publishing's.

Environmental challenges

– Ivey Publishing's 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. Ivey Publishing's can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry.

Trade war between China and United States

– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Ivey Publishing's in the Strategy & Execution industry. The Strategy & Execution 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 Ivey Publishing's in the Strategy & Execution 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 Ivey Publishing: Making a Case for Paying the Price, Ivey Publishing's may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Strategy & Execution .

Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins

– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Ivey Publishing's 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 Ivey Publishing: Making a Case for Paying the Price .

Stagnating economy with rate increase

– Ivey Publishing's 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.

Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution

– Ivey Publishing's has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Strategy & Execution industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Ivey Publishing's needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Strategy & Execution 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.




Weighted SWOT Analysis of Ivey Publishing: Making a Case for Paying the Price 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 Ivey Publishing: Making a Case for Paying the Price 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 Ivey Publishing: Making a Case for Paying the Price 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 Ivey Publishing: Making a Case for Paying the Price 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 Ivey Publishing: Making a Case for Paying the Price 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 Ivey Publishing's needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.



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