Fleetway: Where the Fun Never Stops SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Finance & Accounting
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Fleetway: Where the Fun Never Stops
In 2018, the vice-president of operations at Fleetway set out to make some decisions regarding the company's future strategy. Fleetway, a family entertainment centre in London, Ontario, was a popular destination for family fun. With a new entrant in the region and a few expansion opportunities to choose from, the vice-president had to decide whether adding go-karting or an escape room presented the best opportunity for future success. Doing both was feasible too, but should Fleetway become a premium service offering or remain in its current space? The expansion could better position the company for future success because most family entertainment centres had slowly moved toward a premium service mix, as represented by a new local competitor. Should Fleetway move toward a premium service offering or remain operating in its current space?
Swot Analysis of "Fleetway: Where the Fun Never Stops" written by Jeremiah De Sousa, Ian Dunn includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Fleetway Premium facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Fleetway: Where the Fun Never Stops case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Decision making, Policy, Strategy and Finance & Accounting.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Fleetway: Where the Fun Never Stops casestudy better are - – increasing household debt because of falling income levels, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, geopolitical disruptions, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic ,
increasing energy prices, there is backlash against globalization, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Fleetway: Where the Fun Never Stops
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Fleetway: Where the Fun Never Stops case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Fleetway Premium, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Fleetway Premium 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 Fleetway: Where the Fun Never Stops can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Fleetway: Where the Fun Never Stops case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Fleetway Premium
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Finance & Accounting field.
4. Making a Finance & Accounting topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Fleetway Premium
Strengths Fleetway: Where the Fun Never Stops | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Fleetway Premium in Fleetway: Where the Fun Never Stops Harvard Business Review case study are -
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Fleetway Premium 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 Fleetway: Where the Fun Never Stops - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Learning organization
- Fleetway Premium 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 Fleetway Premium is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Fleetway: Where the Fun Never Stops Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Diverse revenue streams
– Fleetway Premium is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Fleetway: Where the Fun Never Stops 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Finance & Accounting industry
– Fleetway: Where the Fun Never Stops firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Fleetway Premium to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Finance & Accounting industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Fleetway Premium to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Fleetway: Where the Fun Never Stops Harvard Business Review case study comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the industry, building diversified operations across different geographies so that disruption in one part of the world doesn’t impact the overall performance of the firm, and integrating the various business operations and processes through its digital transformation drive.
Strong track record of project management
– Fleetway Premium is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Training and development
– Fleetway Premium has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Fleetway: Where the Fun Never Stops 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.
Organizational Resilience of Fleetway Premium
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Fleetway Premium does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Innovation driven organization
– Fleetway Premium is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Fleetway: Where the Fun Never Stops Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Fleetway Premium has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Fleetway Premium 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Fleetway Premium is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Fleetway: Where the Fun Never Stops are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Fleetway Premium in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Weaknesses Fleetway: Where the Fun Never Stops | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Fleetway: Where the Fun Never Stops are -
Lack of clear differentiation of Fleetway Premium products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Fleetway Premium needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Fleetway Premium 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. Fleetway Premium 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Fleetway Premium 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Fleetway Premium 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Fleetway: Where the Fun Never Stops HBR case study mentions - Fleetway Premium 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Fleetway Premium, firm in the HBR case study Fleetway: Where the Fun Never Stops needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Fleetway: Where the Fun Never Stops 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 Fleetway Premium 's lucrative customers.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Fleetway: Where the Fun Never Stops, it seems that the employees of Fleetway Premium don’t have comprehensive understanding of the firm’s strategy. This is reflected in number of promotional campaigns over the last few years that had mixed messaging and competing priorities. Some of the strategic activities and services promoted in the promotional campaigns were not consistent with the organization’s strategy.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Fleetway Premium is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Fleetway: Where the Fun Never Stops can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Fleetway: Where the Fun Never Stops, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Finance & Accounting 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Fleetway Premium 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 - Fleetway: Where the Fun Never Stops should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Opportunities Fleetway: Where the Fun Never Stops | 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 Fleetway: Where the Fun Never Stops are -
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Fleetway Premium 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 Fleetway Premium to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Loyalty marketing
– Fleetway Premium 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Fleetway Premium can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Finance & Accounting 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Fleetway Premium 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Fleetway Premium 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, Fleetway: Where the Fun Never Stops, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Buying journey improvements
– Fleetway Premium can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Fleetway: Where the Fun Never Stops 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Fleetway Premium can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Fleetway Premium operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Finance & Accounting sector.
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. Fleetway Premium 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 Fleetway Premium 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Fleetway Premium in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Finance & Accounting segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Fleetway Premium has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Fleetway Premium to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Fleetway: Where the Fun Never Stops case study. Fleetway Premium can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Developing new processes and practices
– Fleetway Premium can develop new processes and procedures in Finance & Accounting 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Fleetway Premium 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 Fleetway: Where the Fun Never Stops - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Fleetway Premium to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Threats Fleetway: Where the Fun Never Stops External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Fleetway: Where the Fun Never Stops are -
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Fleetway Premium 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Fleetway Premium in the Finance & Accounting industry. The Finance & Accounting 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Fleetway Premium has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Finance & Accounting industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Fleetway Premium needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Finance & Accounting 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Fleetway Premium with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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. Fleetway Premium 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.
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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Finance & Accounting field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Fleetway Premium can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Fleetway Premium 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.
Environmental challenges
– Fleetway Premium 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. Fleetway Premium can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Finance & Accounting industry.
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. Fleetway Premium needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Finance & Accounting industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Fleetway Premium is facing in Finance & Accounting sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Technology disruption because of hacks, piracy etc
– The colonial pipeline illustrated, how vulnerable modern organization are to international hackers, miscreants, and disruptors. The cyber security interruption, data leaks, etc can seriously jeopardize the future growth of the organization.
Increasing wage structure of Fleetway Premium
– 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 Fleetway Premium.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Fleetway: Where the Fun Never Stops 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 Fleetway: Where the Fun Never Stops 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 Fleetway: Where the Fun Never Stops 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 Fleetway: Where the Fun Never Stops 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 Fleetway: Where the Fun Never Stops 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 Fleetway Premium needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.