Who's #1: INSEAD, Harvard, Wharton, LBS? (A): Designing Research to Measure the Strength of Business Schools Brands SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Sales & Marketing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Who's #1: INSEAD, Harvard, Wharton, LBS? (A): Designing Research to Measure the Strength of Business Schools Brands
In 2017, the Financial Times ranked INSEAD's MBA programme #1 in the world for the second year in a row. The Dean of INSEAD, Ilian Mihov, commissioned a large-scale study to understand the shool's brand equity compared to its peers. The goal is to optimize INSEAD's positioning, value proposition and communication, to attract the best MBA students. Case A asks students to develop a survey that will measure the strengths and weaknesses of the INSEAD brand compared to its key competitors. They must select the performance measures, relevant competitors and the relevant sample. Case B provides results from a survey of 4,000 GMAT-takers who rated 18 business schools. Students analyze the data to measure the strength of the INSEAD brand and its image compared with its competitors. To optimize the school's positioning, students must identify the most important attributes used when choosing an MBA programme. Please visit the dedicated case website "https://cases.insead.edu/who-is-number-one" to access supplementary material.
Swot Analysis of "Who's #1: INSEAD, Harvard, Wharton, LBS? (A): Designing Research to Measure the Strength of Business Schools Brands" written by Joerg Niessing, Pierre Chandon includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Insead Insead's facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Who's #1: INSEAD, Harvard, Wharton, LBS? (A): Designing Research to Measure the Strength of Business Schools Brands case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Branding, International business, Market research, Performance measurement and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Who's #1: INSEAD, Harvard, Wharton, LBS? (A): Designing Research to Measure the Strength of Business Schools Brands casestudy better are - – digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing commodity prices, increasing energy prices, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation,
there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Who's #1: INSEAD, Harvard, Wharton, LBS? (A): Designing Research to Measure the Strength of Business Schools Brands
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Who's #1: INSEAD, Harvard, Wharton, LBS? (A): Designing Research to Measure the Strength of Business Schools Brands case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Insead Insead's, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Insead Insead'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 Who's #1: INSEAD, Harvard, Wharton, LBS? (A): Designing Research to Measure the Strength of Business Schools Brands can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Who's #1: INSEAD, Harvard, Wharton, LBS? (A): Designing Research to Measure the Strength of Business Schools Brands case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Insead Insead's
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Sales & Marketing field.
4. Making a Sales & Marketing topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Insead Insead's
Strengths Who's #1: INSEAD, Harvard, Wharton, LBS? (A): Designing Research to Measure the Strength of Business Schools Brands | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Insead Insead's in Who's #1: INSEAD, Harvard, Wharton, LBS? (A): Designing Research to Measure the Strength of Business Schools Brands Harvard Business Review case study are -
Learning organization
- Insead Insead's 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 Insead Insead's is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Who's #1: INSEAD, Harvard, Wharton, LBS? (A): Designing Research to Measure the Strength of Business Schools Brands Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
High brand equity
– Insead Insead's has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Insead Insead's to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Insead Insead's is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Who's #1: INSEAD, Harvard, Wharton, LBS? (A): Designing Research to Measure the Strength of Business Schools Brands are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Sales & Marketing industry
– Who's #1: INSEAD, Harvard, Wharton, LBS? (A): Designing Research to Measure the Strength of Business Schools Brands firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Insead Insead's to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Insead Insead's to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Insead Insead's 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Insead Insead'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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Insead Insead's is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Who's #1: INSEAD, Harvard, Wharton, LBS? (A): Designing Research to Measure the Strength of Business Schools Brands 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.
Digital Transformation in Sales & Marketing segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Insead Insead's digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Insead Insead's has successfully integrated the four key components of digital transformation – digital integration in processes, digital integration in marketing and customer relationship management, digital integration into the value chain, and using technology to explore new products and market opportunities.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Insead Insead's in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Innovation driven organization
– Insead Insead's is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Who's #1: INSEAD, Harvard, Wharton, LBS? (A): Designing Research to Measure the Strength of Business Schools Brands Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Insead Insead'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 Who's #1: INSEAD, Harvard, Wharton, LBS? (A): Designing Research to Measure the Strength of Business Schools Brands - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Insead Insead's 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 Who's #1: INSEAD, Harvard, Wharton, LBS? (A): Designing Research to Measure the Strength of Business Schools Brands HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Weaknesses Who's #1: INSEAD, Harvard, Wharton, LBS? (A): Designing Research to Measure the Strength of Business Schools Brands | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Who's #1: INSEAD, Harvard, Wharton, LBS? (A): Designing Research to Measure the Strength of Business Schools Brands are -
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Insead Insead's 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Who's #1: INSEAD, Harvard, Wharton, LBS? (A): Designing Research to Measure the Strength of Business Schools Brands, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Sales & Marketing 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Insead Insead's is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Sales & Marketing segment. Insead Insead's needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Insead Insead's to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Who's #1: INSEAD, Harvard, Wharton, LBS? (A): Designing Research to Measure the Strength of Business Schools Brands 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 Insead Insead's has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Insead Insead's, firm in the HBR case study Who's #1: INSEAD, Harvard, Wharton, LBS? (A): Designing Research to Measure the Strength of Business Schools Brands needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Who's #1: INSEAD, Harvard, Wharton, LBS? (A): Designing Research to Measure the Strength of Business Schools Brands HBR case study mentions - Insead Insead's 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Joerg Niessing, Pierre Chandon suggests that, Insead Insead's 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Who's #1: INSEAD, Harvard, Wharton, LBS? (A): Designing Research to Measure the Strength of Business Schools Brands, is just above the industry average. Insead Insead'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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Insead Insead's is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Who's #1: INSEAD, Harvard, Wharton, LBS? (A): Designing Research to Measure the Strength of Business Schools Brands 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 cash cycle compare to competitors
Insead Insead'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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Insead Insead's products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Insead Insead's needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Opportunities Who's #1: INSEAD, Harvard, Wharton, LBS? (A): Designing Research to Measure the Strength of Business Schools Brands | 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 Who's #1: INSEAD, Harvard, Wharton, LBS? (A): Designing Research to Measure the Strength of Business Schools Brands are -
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Insead Insead's is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Who's #1: INSEAD, Harvard, Wharton, LBS? (A): Designing Research to Measure the Strength of Business Schools Brands 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Insead Insead's 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, Who's #1: INSEAD, Harvard, Wharton, LBS? (A): Designing Research to Measure the Strength of Business Schools Brands, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Insead Insead'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 Sales & Marketing segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
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 Insead Insead'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.
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 Insead Insead's in the consumer business. Now Insead Insead's can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
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. Insead Insead's can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Buying journey improvements
– Insead Insead's can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Who's #1: INSEAD, Harvard, Wharton, LBS? (A): Designing Research to Measure the Strength of Business Schools Brands 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Insead Insead's 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Insead Insead'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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Insead Insead's to increase its market reach. Insead Insead's 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Insead Insead's can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Insead Insead's operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Sales & Marketing sector.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Sales & Marketing industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Insead Insead'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 Insead Insead'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 Insead Insead's to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Threats Who's #1: INSEAD, Harvard, Wharton, LBS? (A): Designing Research to Measure the Strength of Business Schools Brands External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Who's #1: INSEAD, Harvard, Wharton, LBS? (A): Designing Research to Measure the Strength of Business Schools Brands are -
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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Insead Insead's 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Insead Insead'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.
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. Insead Insead's needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Sales & Marketing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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 Insead Insead's in the Sales & Marketing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Regulatory challenges
– Insead Insead'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 Sales & Marketing industry regulations.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Insead Insead's with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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 Insead Insead's business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Sales & Marketing field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Insead Insead's 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 Who's #1: INSEAD, Harvard, Wharton, LBS? (A): Designing Research to Measure the Strength of Business Schools Brands, Insead Insead'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 Sales & Marketing .
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Insead Insead's is facing in Sales & Marketing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Insead Insead's has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Sales & Marketing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Insead Insead's needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Sales & Marketing 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Insead Insead's 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Who's #1: INSEAD, Harvard, Wharton, LBS? (A): Designing Research to Measure the Strength of Business Schools Brands 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 Who's #1: INSEAD, Harvard, Wharton, LBS? (A): Designing Research to Measure the Strength of Business Schools Brands 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 Who's #1: INSEAD, Harvard, Wharton, LBS? (A): Designing Research to Measure the Strength of Business Schools Brands 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 Who's #1: INSEAD, Harvard, Wharton, LBS? (A): Designing Research to Measure the Strength of Business Schools Brands 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 Who's #1: INSEAD, Harvard, Wharton, LBS? (A): Designing Research to Measure the Strength of Business Schools Brands 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 Insead Insead's needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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