Who's #1: INSEAD, Harvard, Wharton, LBS? (A): Designing Research to Measure the Strength of Business Schools Brands SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Sales & Marketing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Who's #1: INSEAD, Harvard, Wharton, LBS? (A): Designing Research to Measure the Strength of Business Schools Brands
In 2017, the Financial Times ranked INSEAD's MBA programme #1 in the world for the second year in a row. The Dean of INSEAD, Ilian Mihov, commissioned a large-scale study to understand the shool's brand equity compared to its peers. The goal is to optimize INSEAD's positioning, value proposition and communication, to attract the best MBA students. Case A asks students to develop a survey that will measure the strengths and weaknesses of the INSEAD brand compared to its key competitors. They must select the performance measures, relevant competitors and the relevant sample. Case B provides results from a survey of 4,000 GMAT-takers who rated 18 business schools. Students analyze the data to measure the strength of the INSEAD brand and its image compared with its competitors. To optimize the school's positioning, students must identify the most important attributes used when choosing an MBA programme. Please visit the dedicated case website "https://cases.insead.edu/who-is-number-one" to access supplementary material.
Swot Analysis of "Who's #1: INSEAD, Harvard, Wharton, LBS? (A): Designing Research to Measure the Strength of Business Schools Brands" written by Joerg Niessing, Pierre Chandon includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Insead Insead's facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Who's #1: INSEAD, Harvard, Wharton, LBS? (A): Designing Research to Measure the Strength of Business Schools Brands case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Branding, International business, Market research, Performance measurement and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Who's #1: INSEAD, Harvard, Wharton, LBS? (A): Designing Research to Measure the Strength of Business Schools Brands casestudy better are - – wage bills are increasing, increasing energy prices, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings,
competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing commodity prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Who's #1: INSEAD, Harvard, Wharton, LBS? (A): Designing Research to Measure the Strength of Business Schools Brands
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Who's #1: INSEAD, Harvard, Wharton, LBS? (A): Designing Research to Measure the Strength of Business Schools Brands case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Insead Insead's, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Insead Insead's operates in.
According to Harvard Business Review, 75% of the managers use SWOT analysis for various purposes such as – evaluating current scenario, strategic planning, new venture feasibility, personal growth goals, new market entry, Go To market strategies, portfolio management and strategic trade-off assessment, organizational restructuring, etc.
SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix
SWOT analysis of Who's #1: INSEAD, Harvard, Wharton, LBS? (A): Designing Research to Measure the Strength of Business Schools Brands can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Who's #1: INSEAD, Harvard, Wharton, LBS? (A): Designing Research to Measure the Strength of Business Schools Brands case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Insead Insead's
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Sales & Marketing field.
4. Making a Sales & Marketing topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Insead Insead's
Strengths Who's #1: INSEAD, Harvard, Wharton, LBS? (A): Designing Research to Measure the Strength of Business Schools Brands | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Insead Insead's in Who's #1: INSEAD, Harvard, Wharton, LBS? (A): Designing Research to Measure the Strength of Business Schools Brands Harvard Business Review case study are -
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Insead Insead's has built up over years in its products and services combo offer has resulted in high retention of customers, lower marketing costs, and greater ability of the firm to focus on its customers.
Strong track record of project management
– Insead Insead's is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Insead Insead's has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in, as mentioned in case study Who's #1: INSEAD, Harvard, Wharton, LBS? (A): Designing Research to Measure the Strength of Business Schools Brands - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
High brand equity
– Insead Insead's has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Insead Insead's to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Ability to lead change in Sales & Marketing field
– Insead Insead's is one of the leading players in its industry. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in its segment but also across the whole industry. The ability to lead change has enabled Insead Insead's in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Learning organization
- Insead Insead's is a learning organization. It has inculcated three key characters of learning organization in its processes and operations – exploration, creativity, and expansiveness. The work place at Insead Insead's is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Who's #1: INSEAD, Harvard, Wharton, LBS? (A): Designing Research to Measure the Strength of Business Schools Brands Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Sales & Marketing industry
– Who's #1: INSEAD, Harvard, Wharton, LBS? (A): Designing Research to Measure the Strength of Business Schools Brands firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Insead Insead's to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Insead Insead's to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Diverse revenue streams
– Insead Insead's is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Who's #1: INSEAD, Harvard, Wharton, LBS? (A): Designing Research to Measure the Strength of Business Schools Brands case study a diverse revenue stream that has helped it to survive disruptions such as global pandemic in Covid-19, financial disruption of 2008, and supply chain disruption of 2021.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Insead Insead's 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Insead Insead's in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Training and development
– Insead Insead's has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Who's #1: INSEAD, Harvard, Wharton, LBS? (A): Designing Research to Measure the Strength of Business Schools Brands 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.
Analytics focus
– Insead Insead'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 Joerg Niessing, Pierre Chandon 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 Who's #1: INSEAD, Harvard, Wharton, LBS? (A): Designing Research to Measure the Strength of Business Schools Brands | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Who's #1: INSEAD, Harvard, Wharton, LBS? (A): Designing Research to Measure the Strength of Business Schools Brands are -
Lack of clear differentiation of Insead Insead's products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Insead Insead's needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Insead Insead's 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Who's #1: INSEAD, Harvard, Wharton, LBS? (A): Designing Research to Measure the Strength of Business Schools Brands, it seems that the employees of Insead Insead'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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Who's #1: INSEAD, Harvard, Wharton, LBS? (A): Designing Research to Measure the Strength of Business Schools Brands HBR case study mentions - Insead Insead's takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the industry in last five years.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Who's #1: INSEAD, Harvard, Wharton, LBS? (A): Designing Research to Measure the Strength of Business Schools Brands 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 Insead Insead's 's lucrative customers.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Who's #1: INSEAD, Harvard, Wharton, LBS? (A): Designing Research to Measure the Strength of Business Schools Brands, is just above the industry average. Insead Insead's needs to redesign the compensation structure and incentives to increase the revenue per employees. Some of the steps that it can take are – hiring more specialists on project basis, etc.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Who's #1: INSEAD, Harvard, Wharton, LBS? (A): Designing Research to Measure the Strength of Business Schools Brands HBR case study still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Insead Insead's has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Who's #1: INSEAD, Harvard, Wharton, LBS? (A): Designing Research to Measure the Strength of Business Schools Brands 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 Who's #1: INSEAD, Harvard, Wharton, LBS? (A): Designing Research to Measure the Strength of Business Schools Brands can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Insead Insead's is planning to shift buying processes online.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Insead Insead's is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Sales & Marketing segment. Insead Insead's needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Insead Insead's to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Need for greater diversity
– Insead Insead'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, Insead Insead's is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Who's #1: INSEAD, Harvard, Wharton, LBS? (A): Designing Research to Measure the Strength of Business Schools Brands can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Opportunities Who's #1: INSEAD, Harvard, Wharton, LBS? (A): Designing Research to Measure the Strength of Business Schools Brands | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities highlighted in the Harvard Business Review case study Who's #1: INSEAD, Harvard, Wharton, LBS? (A): Designing Research to Measure the Strength of Business Schools Brands are -
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Insead Insead's 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.
Identify volunteer opportunities
– Covid-19 has impacted working population in two ways – it has led to people soul searching about their professional choices, resulting in mass resignation. Secondly it has encouraged people to do things that they are passionate about. This has opened opportunities for businesses to build volunteer oriented socially driven projects. Insead Insead's can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Sales & Marketing industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Insead Insead's can take advantage of these changes in consumer behavior to build a far more efficient business model. For example consumer regular ordering of products can reduce both last mile delivery costs and market penetration costs. Insead Insead's can further use this consumer data to build better customer loyalty, provide better products and service collection, and improve the value proposition in inflationary times.
Developing new processes and practices
– Insead Insead's can develop new processes and procedures in Sales & Marketing 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Insead Insead'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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Insead Insead's to expand its talent hiring zone. According to McKinsey Global Institute, 20% of the high end workforce in fields such as finance, information technology, can continously work from remote local post Covid-19. This presents a really great opportunity for Insead Insead's to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Reconfiguring business model
– The expansion of digital payment system, the bringing down of international transactions costs using Bitcoin and other blockchain based currencies, etc can help Insead Insead's to reconfigure its entire business model. For example it can used blockchain based technologies to reduce piracy of its products in the big markets such as China. Secondly it can use the popularity of e-commerce in various developing markets to build a Direct to Customer business model rather than the current Channel Heavy distribution network.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Insead Insead's can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Sales & Marketing industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Insead Insead's can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Insead Insead's in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Sales & Marketing segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Insead Insead's has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Insead Insead's to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Who's #1: INSEAD, Harvard, Wharton, LBS? (A): Designing Research to Measure the Strength of Business Schools Brands case study. Insead Insead's can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Buying journey improvements
– Insead Insead's can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Who's #1: INSEAD, Harvard, Wharton, LBS? (A): Designing Research to Measure the Strength of Business Schools Brands suggest that firm can provide automated chats to help consumers solve their own problems, provide online suggestions to get maximum out of the products and services, and help consumers to build a community where they can interact with each other to develop new features and uses.
Manufacturing automation
– Insead Insead's can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Sales & Marketing 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.
Threats Who's #1: INSEAD, Harvard, Wharton, LBS? (A): Designing Research to Measure the Strength of Business Schools Brands External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Who's #1: INSEAD, Harvard, Wharton, LBS? (A): Designing Research to Measure the Strength of Business Schools Brands are -
Consumer confidence and its impact on Insead Insead's demand
– There is a high probability of declining consumer confidence, given – high inflammation rate, rise of gig economy, lower job stability, increasing cost of living, higher interest rates, and aging demography. All the factors contribute to people saving higher rate of their income, resulting in lower consumer demand in the industry and other sectors.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Insead Insead's 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 Who's #1: INSEAD, Harvard, Wharton, LBS? (A): Designing Research to Measure the Strength of Business Schools Brands .
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Insead Insead's has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Sales & Marketing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Insead Insead's needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Sales & Marketing sector. According to Mckinsey study top managers believe that the adoption of technology in operations, communications is 20-25 times faster than what they planned in the beginning of 2019.
Increasing wage structure of Insead Insead'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 Insead Insead's.
Environmental challenges
– Insead Insead's 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. Insead Insead's can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing 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. Insead Insead's needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Sales & Marketing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Backlash against dominant players
– US Congress and other legislative arms of the government are getting tough on big business especially technology companies. The digital arm of Insead Insead's business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Sales & Marketing field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Insead Insead's can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Insead Insead's in the Sales & Marketing industry. The Sales & Marketing 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.
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.
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. Insead Insead'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.
Regulatory challenges
– Insead Insead's needs to prepare for regulatory challenges as consumer protection groups and other pressure groups are vigorously advocating for more regulations on big business - to reduce inequality, to create a level playing field, to product data privacy and consumer privacy, to reduce the influence of big money on democratic institutions, etc. This can lead to significant changes in the Sales & Marketing industry regulations.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Who's #1: INSEAD, Harvard, Wharton, LBS? (A): Designing Research to Measure the Strength of Business Schools Brands Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers in the HBR case study Who's #1: INSEAD, Harvard, Wharton, LBS? (A): Designing Research to Measure the Strength of Business Schools Brands needs to zero down on the relative importance of each factor mentioned in the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants.
We can provide the relative importance to each factor by assigning relative weights. Weighted SWOT analysis process is a three stage process –
First stage for doing weighted SWOT analysis of the case study Who's #1: INSEAD, Harvard, Wharton, LBS? (A): Designing Research to Measure the Strength of Business Schools Brands is to rank the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. This will help you to assess the most important strengths and weaknesses of the firm and which one of the strengths and weaknesses mentioned in the initial lists are marginal and can be left out.
Second stage for conducting weighted SWOT analysis of the Harvard case study Who's #1: INSEAD, Harvard, Wharton, LBS? (A): Designing Research to Measure the Strength of Business Schools Brands is to give probabilities to the external strategic factors thus better understanding the opportunities and threats arising out of macro environment changes and developments.
Third stage of constructing weighted SWOT analysis of Who's #1: INSEAD, Harvard, Wharton, LBS? (A): Designing Research to Measure the Strength of Business Schools Brands is to provide strategic recommendations includes – joining likelihood of external strategic factors such as opportunities and threats to the internal strategic factors – strengths and weaknesses. You should start with external factors as they will provide the direction of the overall industry. Secondly by joining probabilities with internal strategic factors can help the company not only strategic fit but also the most probably strategic trade-off that Insead Insead's needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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