Sink or Float: An Oliver Wyman and Duke Royalty Investment Opportunity SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Finance & Accounting
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Sink or Float: An Oliver Wyman and Duke Royalty Investment Opportunity
In late 2016, an analyst at Oliver Wyman (OW), was contemplating the high stakes of her new project. European riverboat company Temarca Group (Temarca) had just approached Duke Royalty (Duke) seeking ?9.0 million to expand its riverboat fleet at the time. The analyst had to consider the first potential investment for the newly-formed partnership. If a financing decision was made, Temarca would be one of the first investments in Duke's portfolio. The analyst had to ensure this investment was aligned with Duke's investment mandate, met the financial criteria, and delivered the targeted returns essential to please keystone investors. Similarly, she knew this deal would be highly scrutinized by the OW partners because Temarca would be OW's first fully-financed deal with Duke. With all this in mind, the analyst's task was to make a preliminary recommendation to the chief executive officer of Duke and a founding partner of OW about the soundness of the opportunity. She had to decide whether Duke should invest in Temarca or pass on this opportunity.
Swot Analysis of "Sink or Float: An Oliver Wyman and Duke Royalty Investment Opportunity" written by Mary Gillett, Amy Horrocks includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Temarca Duke facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Sink or Float: An Oliver Wyman and Duke Royalty Investment Opportunity case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Financial management and Finance & Accounting.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Sink or Float: An Oliver Wyman and Duke Royalty Investment Opportunity casestudy better are - – wage bills are increasing, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing commodity prices, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, geopolitical disruptions, increasing transportation and logistics costs,
competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Sink or Float: An Oliver Wyman and Duke Royalty Investment Opportunity
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Sink or Float: An Oliver Wyman and Duke Royalty Investment Opportunity case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Temarca Duke, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Temarca Duke 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 Sink or Float: An Oliver Wyman and Duke Royalty Investment Opportunity can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Sink or Float: An Oliver Wyman and Duke Royalty Investment Opportunity case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Temarca Duke
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 Temarca Duke
Strengths Sink or Float: An Oliver Wyman and Duke Royalty Investment Opportunity | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Temarca Duke in Sink or Float: An Oliver Wyman and Duke Royalty Investment Opportunity Harvard Business Review case study are -
Strong track record of project management
– Temarca Duke 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)
– Temarca Duke 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 Sink or Float: An Oliver Wyman and Duke Royalty Investment Opportunity - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Finance & Accounting industry
– Sink or Float: An Oliver Wyman and Duke Royalty Investment Opportunity firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Temarca Duke to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Finance & Accounting industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Temarca Duke to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Analytics focus
– Temarca Duke 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 Mary Gillett, Amy Horrocks 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Temarca Duke is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Sink or Float: An Oliver Wyman and Duke Royalty Investment Opportunity Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Learning organization
- Temarca Duke 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 Temarca Duke is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Sink or Float: An Oliver Wyman and Duke Royalty Investment Opportunity Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Temarca Duke 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Sink or Float: An Oliver Wyman and Duke Royalty Investment Opportunity 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Temarca Duke 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 Sink or Float: An Oliver Wyman and Duke Royalty Investment Opportunity HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Training and development
– Temarca Duke has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Sink or Float: An Oliver Wyman and Duke Royalty Investment Opportunity 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.
Ability to lead change in Finance & Accounting field
– Temarca Duke 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 Temarca Duke in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Temarca Duke 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.
Weaknesses Sink or Float: An Oliver Wyman and Duke Royalty Investment Opportunity | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Sink or Float: An Oliver Wyman and Duke Royalty Investment Opportunity are -
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Temarca Duke 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Sink or Float: An Oliver Wyman and Duke Royalty Investment Opportunity 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 Temarca Duke 's lucrative customers.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Sink or Float: An Oliver Wyman and Duke Royalty Investment Opportunity HBR case study mentions - Temarca Duke 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Sink or Float: An Oliver Wyman and Duke Royalty Investment Opportunity, it seems that the employees of Temarca Duke 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Sink or Float: An Oliver Wyman and Duke Royalty Investment Opportunity 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 Temarca Duke has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Temarca Duke 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. Temarca Duke 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Mary Gillett, Amy Horrocks suggests that, Temarca Duke 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Temarca Duke 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Temarca Duke has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Sink or Float: An Oliver Wyman and Duke Royalty Investment Opportunity, 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 Temarca Duke 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 - Sink or Float: An Oliver Wyman and Duke Royalty Investment Opportunity should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Opportunities Sink or Float: An Oliver Wyman and Duke Royalty Investment Opportunity | 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 Sink or Float: An Oliver Wyman and Duke Royalty Investment Opportunity are -
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Temarca Duke 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, Sink or Float: An Oliver Wyman and Duke Royalty Investment Opportunity, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Finance & Accounting industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Temarca Duke can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Loyalty marketing
– Temarca Duke 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
– Temarca Duke 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
– Temarca Duke 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Temarca Duke can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Sink or Float: An Oliver Wyman and Duke Royalty Investment Opportunity 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.
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 Temarca Duke 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Temarca Duke can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Temarca Duke 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. Temarca Duke can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Temarca Duke 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Temarca Duke can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Temarca Duke is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Sink or Float: An Oliver Wyman and Duke Royalty Investment Opportunity 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Temarca Duke to increase its market reach. Temarca Duke will be able to reach out to new customers. Secondly 5G will also provide technology framework to build new tools and products that can help more immersive consumer experience and faster consumer journey.
Threats Sink or Float: An Oliver Wyman and Duke Royalty Investment Opportunity External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Sink or Float: An Oliver Wyman and Duke Royalty Investment Opportunity are -
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 Temarca Duke business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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 Temarca Duke.
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. Temarca Duke can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Temarca Duke 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 Sink or Float: An Oliver Wyman and Duke Royalty Investment Opportunity .
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Sink or Float: An Oliver Wyman and Duke Royalty Investment Opportunity, Temarca Duke may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Finance & Accounting .
Consumer confidence and its impact on Temarca Duke 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Temarca Duke is facing in Finance & Accounting sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Regulatory challenges
– Temarca Duke 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 Finance & Accounting industry regulations.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Temarca Duke has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Finance & Accounting industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Temarca Duke 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Temarca Duke 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.
Increasing wage structure of Temarca Duke
– 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 Temarca Duke.
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. Temarca Duke needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Finance & Accounting industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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. Temarca Duke 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 Sink or Float: An Oliver Wyman and Duke Royalty Investment Opportunity 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 Sink or Float: An Oliver Wyman and Duke Royalty Investment Opportunity 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 Sink or Float: An Oliver Wyman and Duke Royalty Investment Opportunity 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 Sink or Float: An Oliver Wyman and Duke Royalty Investment Opportunity 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 Sink or Float: An Oliver Wyman and Duke Royalty Investment Opportunity 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 Temarca Duke needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
