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The National Women's Soccer League: Towards the Successful Professionalization of Women's Soccer? SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution

Case Study Description of The National Women's Soccer League: Towards the Successful Professionalization of Women's Soccer?


The sport of soccer (more commonly known as "football" outside North America) has long been a predominantly men's game: men's clubs on every continent generate huge revenues and the FIFA World Cup is the most popular and profitable sporting event on the planet. Slowly but surely, however, women's soccer is starting to emerge from the long shadow cast by its male counterpart. In 2016, for example, 70,454 spectators gathered at Rio's Maracana stadium to watch a women's soccer semi-final between Sweden and Brazil. The previous year, 53,341 spectators attended the final of the 7th FIFA Women's World Cup at BC Place in Vancouver, Canada. And now, the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL), founded in the United States in 2013, is attempting to prove that a national women's professional league can be profitable. In short, all the stars seem to be aligned for the professionalization of women's soccer, i.e., the organizational transformation familiar to the federations, clubs, national teams, and other organizations that make up the core of this truly global sport. The case examines the history, issues, and challenges faced by attempts on American soil to carve out a place for women at the highest levels of the world's most practised sport.

Authors :: Sebastien Arcand, Jerome Bilodeau, Joseph Facal, Stephanie Fortier-Grondin

Topics :: Strategy & Execution

Tags :: Corporate governance, Ethics, Gender, SWOT Analysis, SWOT Matrix, TOWS, Weighted SWOT Analysis

Swot Analysis of "The National Women's Soccer League: Towards the Successful Professionalization of Women's Soccer?" written by Sebastien Arcand, Jerome Bilodeau, Joseph Facal, Stephanie Fortier-Grondin includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Soccer Women's facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in The National Women's Soccer League: Towards the Successful Professionalization of Women's Soccer? case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Corporate governance, Ethics, Gender and Strategy & Execution.


Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the The National Women's Soccer League: Towards the Successful Professionalization of Women's Soccer? casestudy better are - – geopolitical disruptions, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, there is backlash against globalization, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing commodity prices, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, etc



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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of The National Women's Soccer League: Towards the Successful Professionalization of Women's Soccer?


SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in The National Women's Soccer League: Towards the Successful Professionalization of Women's Soccer? case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Soccer Women's, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Soccer Women'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 The National Women's Soccer League: Towards the Successful Professionalization of Women's Soccer? can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in The National Women's Soccer League: Towards the Successful Professionalization of Women's Soccer? case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Soccer Women'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 Soccer Women's




Strengths The National Women's Soccer League: Towards the Successful Professionalization of Women's Soccer? | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Soccer Women's in The National Women's Soccer League: Towards the Successful Professionalization of Women's Soccer? Harvard Business Review case study are -

Organizational Resilience of Soccer Women's

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

Low bargaining power of suppliers

– Suppliers of Soccer Women's in the sector have low bargaining power. The National Women's Soccer League: Towards the Successful Professionalization of Women's Soccer? has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Soccer Women's to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.

Learning organization

- Soccer Women'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 Soccer Women's is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in The National Women's Soccer League: Towards the Successful Professionalization of Women's Soccer? Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.

Successful track record of launching new products

– Soccer Women's has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Soccer Women's 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.

Digital Transformation in Strategy & Execution segment

- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Soccer Women's digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Soccer Women'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 Soccer Women's in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.

High switching costs

– The high switching costs that Soccer Women'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.

Ability to recruit top talent

– Soccer Women's is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the The National Women's Soccer League: Towards the Successful Professionalization of Women's Soccer? are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.

Innovation driven organization

– Soccer Women's is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in The National Women's Soccer League: Towards the Successful Professionalization of Women's Soccer? Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.

Analytics focus

– Soccer Women'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 Sebastien Arcand, Jerome Bilodeau, Joseph Facal, Stephanie Fortier-Grondin 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.

Strong track record of project management

– Soccer Women'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.

Highly skilled collaborators

– Soccer Women'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 The National Women's Soccer League: Towards the Successful Professionalization of Women's Soccer? HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.






Weaknesses The National Women's Soccer League: Towards the Successful Professionalization of Women's Soccer? | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of The National Women's Soccer League: Towards the Successful Professionalization of Women's Soccer? are -

Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy

– From the instances in the HBR case study The National Women's Soccer League: Towards the Successful Professionalization of Women's Soccer?, it seems that the employees of Soccer Women'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.

Workers concerns about automation

– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Soccer Women's 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 to strategic competitive environment developments

– As The National Women's Soccer League: Towards the Successful Professionalization of Women's Soccer? HBR case study mentions - Soccer Women'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.

Need for greater diversity

– Soccer Women'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.

Slow to harness new channels of communication

– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Soccer Women's is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study The National Women's Soccer League: Towards the Successful Professionalization of Women's Soccer? can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.

Ability to respond to the competition

– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study The National Women's Soccer League: Towards the Successful Professionalization of Women's Soccer?, in the dynamic environment Soccer Women's has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Soccer Women's has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.

Compensation and incentives

– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study The National Women's Soccer League: Towards the Successful Professionalization of Women's Soccer?, is just above the industry average. Soccer Women'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.

Aligning sales with marketing

– It come across in the case study The National Women's Soccer League: Towards the Successful Professionalization of Women's Soccer? 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 The National Women's Soccer League: Towards the Successful Professionalization of Women's Soccer? can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Soccer Women's is planning to shift buying processes online.

Increasing silos among functional specialists

– The organizational structure of Soccer Women's is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Strategy & Execution segment. Soccer Women's needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Soccer Women's to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.

High bargaining power of channel partners

– Because of the regulatory requirements, Sebastien Arcand, Jerome Bilodeau, Joseph Facal, Stephanie Fortier-Grondin suggests that, Soccer Women'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.

Low market penetration in new markets

– Outside its home market of Soccer Women's, firm in the HBR case study The National Women's Soccer League: Towards the Successful Professionalization of Women's Soccer? needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.




Opportunities The National Women's Soccer League: Towards the Successful Professionalization of Women's Soccer? | 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 The National Women's Soccer League: Towards the Successful Professionalization of Women's Soccer? are -

Leveraging digital technologies

– Soccer Women'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.

Better consumer reach

– The expansion of the 5G network will help Soccer Women's to increase its market reach. Soccer Women'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.

Developing new processes and practices

– Soccer Women'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.

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 Soccer Women's in the consumer business. Now Soccer Women's can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.

Loyalty marketing

– Soccer Women'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.

Using analytics as competitive advantage

– Soccer Women's 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 The National Women's Soccer League: Towards the Successful Professionalization of Women's Soccer? - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Soccer Women's to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.

Learning at scale

– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Soccer Women'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.

Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains

– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Soccer Women'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, The National Women's Soccer League: Towards the Successful Professionalization of Women's Soccer?, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.

Building a culture of innovation

– managers at Soccer Women's 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 Strategy & Execution segment.

Lowering marketing communication costs

– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Soccer Women'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.

Manufacturing automation

– Soccer Women's can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Strategy & Execution segment. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.

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. Soccer Women's can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.

Increase in government spending

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




Threats The National Women's Soccer League: Towards the Successful Professionalization of Women's Soccer? External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis


The threats mentioned in the HBR case study The National Women's Soccer League: Towards the Successful Professionalization of Women's Soccer? 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.

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 Soccer Women's in the Strategy & Execution sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.

Capital market disruption

– During the Covid-19, Dow Jones has touched record high. The valuations of a number of companies are way beyond their existing business model potential. This can lead to capital market correction which can put a number of suppliers, collaborators, value chain partners in great financial difficulty. It will directly impact the business of Soccer Women's.

Barriers of entry lowering

– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Soccer Women's with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.

Regulatory challenges

– Soccer Women'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.

Shortening product life cycle

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

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. Soccer Women'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.

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 Soccer Women's business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.

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. Soccer Women's needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Strategy & Execution industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.

Increasing wage structure of Soccer Women's

– Post Covid-19 there is a sharp increase in the wages especially in the jobs that require interaction with people. The increasing wages can put downward pressure on the margins of Soccer Women's.

Learning curve for new practices

– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study The National Women's Soccer League: Towards the Successful Professionalization of Women's Soccer?, Soccer Women'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 .

Consumer confidence and its impact on Soccer Women'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.




Weighted SWOT Analysis of The National Women's Soccer League: Towards the Successful Professionalization of Women's Soccer? 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 The National Women's Soccer League: Towards the Successful Professionalization of Women's Soccer? 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 The National Women's Soccer League: Towards the Successful Professionalization of Women's Soccer? 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 The National Women's Soccer League: Towards the Successful Professionalization of Women's Soccer? 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 The National Women's Soccer League: Towards the Successful Professionalization of Women's Soccer? 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 Soccer Women's needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.



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