Digital Transformation at La Presse (A): Crafting a New Digital Strategy SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Strategy & Execution
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Digital Transformation at La Presse (A): Crafting a New Digital Strategy
This (real) case takes place in the context of the newspaper industry, which is being turned upside down by powerful socio-technological changes. It focuses on La Presse, one of the leading actors in the Canadian newspaper industry, which, faced with a survival crisis, has set out to innovate and reinvent its business model, including its value proposition, channels, costs, revenue streams, and key resources. The core driver of this reinvention is the design and marketing of its new digital product, the La Presse+ tablet app.
Swot Analysis of "Digital Transformation at La Presse (A): Crafting a New Digital Strategy" written by Camille Grange, Sandrine Prom Tep, Sylvain Senecal includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Presse La facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Digital Transformation at La Presse (A): Crafting a New Digital Strategy case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Disruptive innovation, IT, Risk management and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Digital Transformation at La Presse (A): Crafting a New Digital Strategy casestudy better are - – central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, wage bills are increasing, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing transportation and logistics costs,
technology disruption, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Digital Transformation at La Presse (A): Crafting a New Digital Strategy
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Digital Transformation at La Presse (A): Crafting a New Digital Strategy case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Presse La, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Presse La 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 Digital Transformation at La Presse (A): Crafting a New Digital Strategy can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Digital Transformation at La Presse (A): Crafting a New Digital Strategy case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Presse La
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 Presse La
Strengths Digital Transformation at La Presse (A): Crafting a New Digital Strategy | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Presse La in Digital Transformation at La Presse (A): Crafting a New Digital Strategy Harvard Business Review case study are -
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Presse La in the sector have low bargaining power. Digital Transformation at La Presse (A): Crafting a New Digital Strategy has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Presse La to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Presse La 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 Digital Transformation at La Presse (A): Crafting a New Digital Strategy - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Organizational Resilience of Presse La
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Presse La does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Presse La has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Presse La 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Strategy & Execution industry
– Digital Transformation at La Presse (A): Crafting a New Digital Strategy firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Presse La to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Presse La to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Strong track record of project management
– Presse La is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Presse La 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Presse La in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Presse La 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 Digital Transformation at La Presse (A): Crafting a New Digital Strategy HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Training and development
– Presse La has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Digital Transformation at La Presse (A): Crafting a New Digital Strategy 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Presse La 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.
Analytics focus
– Presse La 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 Camille Grange, Sandrine Prom Tep, Sylvain Senecal 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 Digital Transformation at La Presse (A): Crafting a New Digital Strategy | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Digital Transformation at La Presse (A): Crafting a New Digital Strategy are -
Products dominated business model
– Even though Presse La 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 - Digital Transformation at La Presse (A): Crafting a New Digital Strategy should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Digital Transformation at La Presse (A): Crafting a New Digital Strategy, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Strategy & Execution 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Presse La, firm in the HBR case study Digital Transformation at La Presse (A): Crafting a New Digital Strategy needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Digital Transformation at La Presse (A): Crafting a New Digital Strategy HBR case study mentions - Presse La 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 dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Digital Transformation at La Presse (A): Crafting a New Digital Strategy 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 Presse La has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Digital Transformation at La Presse (A): Crafting a New Digital Strategy has high operating costs in the. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Presse La 's lucrative customers.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Digital Transformation at La Presse (A): Crafting a New Digital Strategy, in the dynamic environment Presse La has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Presse La has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Need for greater diversity
– Presse La 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.
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 Presse La supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Digital Transformation at La Presse (A): Crafting a New Digital Strategy, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Presse La vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Presse La has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the industry over the last five years. Presse La even though has strong showing on digital transformation primary two stages, it has struggled to capitalize the power of digital transformation in marketing efforts and new venture efforts.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Presse La 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.
Opportunities Digital Transformation at La Presse (A): Crafting a New Digital Strategy | 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 Digital Transformation at La Presse (A): Crafting a New Digital Strategy are -
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Presse La 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, Presse La 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, Digital Transformation at La Presse (A): Crafting a New Digital Strategy, 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 Presse La 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
– Presse La 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.
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. Presse La can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Presse La 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Presse La has focused on building a highly responsive customer relationship management platform. This platform is built on in-house data and driven by analytics and artificial intelligence. The customer analytics can help the organization to fine tune its loyalty marketing efforts, increase the wallet share of the organization, reduce wastage on mainstream advertising spending, build better pricing strategies using personalization, etc.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Presse La can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Presse La operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Strategy & Execution sector.
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. Presse La can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Presse La can still utilize the low interest rates to borrow money for capital investment. Secondly it can also use the increase of government spending in infrastructure projects to get new business.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Presse La 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Presse La 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 Presse La to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Presse La is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Digital Transformation at La Presse (A): Crafting a New Digital Strategy 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.
Threats Digital Transformation at La Presse (A): Crafting a New Digital Strategy External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Digital Transformation at La Presse (A): Crafting a New Digital Strategy are -
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Presse La 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Presse La 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.
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 Presse La business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Environmental challenges
– Presse La 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. Presse La can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Presse La has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Strategy & Execution industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Presse La 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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Strategy & Execution field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Presse La can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Regulatory challenges
– Presse La 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Digital Transformation at La Presse (A): Crafting a New Digital Strategy, Presse La 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 .
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 Presse La in the Strategy & Execution sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Instability in the European markets
– European Union markets are facing three big challenges post Covid – expanded balance sheets, Brexit related business disruption, and aggressive Russia looking to distract the existing security mechanism. Presse La 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Presse La 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 Digital Transformation at La Presse (A): Crafting a New Digital Strategy .
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. Presse La needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Strategy & Execution industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Digital Transformation at La Presse (A): Crafting a New Digital Strategy 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 Digital Transformation at La Presse (A): Crafting a New Digital Strategy 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 Digital Transformation at La Presse (A): Crafting a New Digital Strategy 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 Digital Transformation at La Presse (A): Crafting a New Digital Strategy 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 Digital Transformation at La Presse (A): Crafting a New Digital Strategy 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 Presse La needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.