Case Study Description of Queue Management: Elimination, Expectation, and Enhancement
The mathematical relationships predicting average waiting time as a function of arrival patterns, service time distributions, number and types of servers, and various queue disciplines are well known. In this note, we address the problem of managing queues by managing perceptions of waiting. Basic operations-management principles can easily address issues of fairness: form one line instead of many; apply first-come, first-served principles (unless an "express lane" can be formed in a way that everyone finds fair); do not allow line jumping. Innovative approaches to queue management, though, can alleviate or reverse the boredom and manage expectations, making the process less painful for customers and front-line employees through three mechanisms: (1) eliminating or reducing the wait, (2) managing expectations, and (3) enhancing the experience. We discuss numerous examples of innovative queue management that fit into this framework.
Swot Analysis of "Queue Management: Elimination, Expectation, and Enhancement" written by Elliott N. Weiss, Chad Tucker includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Queue Waiting facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Queue Management: Elimination, Expectation, and Enhancement case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Technology & Operations.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Queue Management: Elimination, Expectation, and Enhancement casestudy better are - – increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing energy prices, increasing commodity prices, wage bills are increasing, geopolitical disruptions, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%,
customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Queue Management: Elimination, Expectation, and Enhancement
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Queue Management: Elimination, Expectation, and Enhancement case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Queue Waiting, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Queue Waiting 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 Queue Management: Elimination, Expectation, and Enhancement can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Queue Management: Elimination, Expectation, and Enhancement case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Queue Waiting
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 Queue Waiting
Strengths Queue Management: Elimination, Expectation, and Enhancement | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Queue Waiting in Queue Management: Elimination, Expectation, and Enhancement Harvard Business Review case study are -
Highly skilled collaborators
– Queue Waiting 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 Queue Management: Elimination, Expectation, and Enhancement HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Learning organization
- Queue Waiting 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 Queue Waiting is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Queue Management: Elimination, Expectation, and Enhancement Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Organizational Resilience of Queue Waiting
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Queue Waiting does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Queue Waiting are driving operational speed, building greater agility, and keeping the organization nimble to compete with new competitors. It helps are organization to ideate new ideas, and execute them swiftly in the marketplace.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Technology & Operations industry
– Queue Management: Elimination, Expectation, and Enhancement firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Queue Waiting to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Technology & Operations industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Queue Waiting to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Diverse revenue streams
– Queue Waiting is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Queue Management: Elimination, Expectation, and Enhancement 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Queue Waiting in the sector have low bargaining power. Queue Management: Elimination, Expectation, and Enhancement has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Queue Waiting to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Queue Waiting has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Queue Waiting 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Queue Waiting in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Queue Waiting 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 Queue Management: Elimination, Expectation, and Enhancement - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Innovation driven organization
– Queue Waiting is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Queue Management: Elimination, Expectation, and Enhancement Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Digital Transformation in Technology & Operations segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Queue Waiting digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Queue Waiting 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.
Weaknesses Queue Management: Elimination, Expectation, and Enhancement | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Queue Management: Elimination, Expectation, and Enhancement are -
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Queue Waiting 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Queue Waiting 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 - Queue Management: Elimination, Expectation, and Enhancement 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 Queue Management: Elimination, Expectation, and Enhancement, is just above the industry average. Queue Waiting 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Queue Waiting is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Technology & Operations segment. Queue Waiting needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Queue Waiting to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Queue Management: Elimination, Expectation, and Enhancement, 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Elliott N. Weiss, Chad Tucker suggests that, Queue Waiting 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Queue Waiting 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Queue Waiting is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Queue Management: Elimination, Expectation, and Enhancement can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Queue Waiting 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Queue Waiting, firm in the HBR case study Queue Management: Elimination, Expectation, and Enhancement needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Queue Management: Elimination, Expectation, and Enhancement 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 Queue Waiting has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Opportunities Queue Management: Elimination, Expectation, and Enhancement | 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 Queue Management: Elimination, Expectation, and Enhancement are -
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. Queue Waiting 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, Queue Waiting can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Queue Waiting operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Technology & Operations sector.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Queue Waiting 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 Queue Management: Elimination, Expectation, and Enhancement - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Queue Waiting to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Queue Waiting can make experimentation a productive activity and build a culture of innovation using approaches such as – mining transaction data, A/B testing of websites and selling platforms, engaging potential customers over various needs, and building on small ideas in the Technology & Operations segment.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Queue Waiting in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Technology & Operations segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Queue Waiting has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Queue Waiting to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Queue Management: Elimination, Expectation, and Enhancement case study. Queue Waiting can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
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. Queue Waiting 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 Queue Waiting 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Queue Waiting 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Queue Waiting 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Queue Waiting 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Queue Waiting 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Queue Waiting can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Queue Management: Elimination, Expectation, and Enhancement 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.
Threats Queue Management: Elimination, Expectation, and Enhancement External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Queue Management: Elimination, Expectation, and Enhancement are -
Increasing wage structure of Queue Waiting
– 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 Queue Waiting.
Environmental challenges
– Queue Waiting 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. Queue Waiting can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Technology & Operations industry.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Queue Waiting 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 dependence on third party suppliers
– Queue Waiting 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.
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 Queue Waiting in the Technology & Operations sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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 Queue Waiting business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Queue Waiting has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Technology & Operations industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Queue Waiting needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Technology & Operations sector. According to Mckinsey study top managers believe that the adoption of technology in operations, communications is 20-25 times faster than what they planned in the beginning of 2019.
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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Queue Waiting 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Queue Waiting 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Queue Management: Elimination, Expectation, and Enhancement, Queue Waiting 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 .
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 Queue Waiting.
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. Queue Waiting 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Queue Management: Elimination, Expectation, and Enhancement 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 Queue Management: Elimination, Expectation, and Enhancement 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 Queue Management: Elimination, Expectation, and Enhancement 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 Queue Management: Elimination, Expectation, and Enhancement 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 Queue Management: Elimination, Expectation, and Enhancement 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 Queue Waiting needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.