IT Governance at Oxford Industries: Information Architecture for Financial Data SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
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Case Study Description of IT Governance at Oxford Industries: Information Architecture for Financial Data
At the end of 2005, Atlanta-based Oxford Industries was closing on its third major acquisition in as many years. Two-and-a-half years earlier, Oxford had acquired the Tommy Bahama brand in Seattle, and one year later, it had purchased London-based Ben Sherman. As Oxford's CIO, John Baumgartner has managed over the last three years to provide systems support to establish visibility into the day-to-day financial activities of the legacy company and the newly acquired operating companies, while at the same time minimizing any negative impacts on the profitability of the newly acquired companies through business process and system changes. As additional acquisitions are planned, however, balancing these two objectives is becoming more and more difficult. The degree to which the acquired organizations should function independently or be brought under one corporate information system is becoming an increasingly pressing issue.
Swot Analysis of "IT Governance at Oxford Industries: Information Architecture for Financial Data" written by Michael Wybo, Carmen Bernier includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Oxford Acquired facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in IT Governance at Oxford Industries: Information Architecture for Financial Data case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, IT, Manufacturing, Mergers & acquisitions and Finance & Accounting.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the IT Governance at Oxford Industries: Information Architecture for Financial Data casestudy better are - – geopolitical disruptions, technology disruption, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy,
increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of IT Governance at Oxford Industries: Information Architecture for Financial Data
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in IT Governance at Oxford Industries: Information Architecture for Financial Data case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Oxford Acquired, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Oxford Acquired 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 IT Governance at Oxford Industries: Information Architecture for Financial Data can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in IT Governance at Oxford Industries: Information Architecture for Financial Data case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Oxford Acquired
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 Oxford Acquired
Strengths IT Governance at Oxford Industries: Information Architecture for Financial Data | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Oxford Acquired in IT Governance at Oxford Industries: Information Architecture for Financial Data Harvard Business Review case study are -
Strong track record of project management
– Oxford Acquired is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Innovation driven organization
– Oxford Acquired is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in IT Governance at Oxford Industries: Information Architecture for Financial Data 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
– Oxford Acquired has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Oxford Acquired 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.
Digital Transformation in Finance & Accounting segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Oxford Acquired digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Oxford Acquired has successfully integrated the four key components of digital transformation – digital integration in processes, digital integration in marketing and customer relationship management, digital integration into the value chain, and using technology to explore new products and market opportunities.
Organizational Resilience of Oxford Acquired
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Oxford Acquired does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Training and development
– Oxford Acquired has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in IT Governance at Oxford Industries: Information Architecture for Financial Data 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Oxford Acquired in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Oxford Acquired 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Oxford Acquired is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in IT Governance at Oxford Industries: Information Architecture for Financial Data 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.
High brand equity
– Oxford Acquired has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Oxford Acquired to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Learning organization
- Oxford Acquired 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 Oxford Acquired is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in IT Governance at Oxford Industries: Information Architecture for Financial Data Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Oxford Acquired in the sector have low bargaining power. IT Governance at Oxford Industries: Information Architecture for Financial Data has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Oxford Acquired to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Weaknesses IT Governance at Oxford Industries: Information Architecture for Financial Data | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of IT Governance at Oxford Industries: Information Architecture for Financial Data are -
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Oxford Acquired 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Oxford Acquired 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Oxford Acquired 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 - IT Governance at Oxford Industries: Information Architecture for Financial Data should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Oxford Acquired 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study IT Governance at Oxford Industries: Information Architecture for Financial Data, in the dynamic environment Oxford Acquired has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Oxford Acquired has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Oxford Acquired 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Oxford Acquired 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Michael Wybo, Carmen Bernier suggests that, Oxford Acquired 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study IT Governance at Oxford Industries: Information Architecture for Financial Data, it seems that the employees of Oxford Acquired 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study IT Governance at Oxford Industries: Information Architecture for Financial Data, is just above the industry average. Oxford Acquired 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study IT Governance at Oxford Industries: Information Architecture for Financial Data 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 IT Governance at Oxford Industries: Information Architecture for Financial Data can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Oxford Acquired is planning to shift buying processes online.
Opportunities IT Governance at Oxford Industries: Information Architecture for Financial Data | 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 IT Governance at Oxford Industries: Information Architecture for Financial Data are -
Leveraging digital technologies
– Oxford Acquired 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Oxford Acquired 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 Finance & Accounting segment.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Oxford Acquired has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Oxford Acquired to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the IT Governance at Oxford Industries: Information Architecture for Financial Data case study. Oxford Acquired can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Finance & Accounting industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Oxford Acquired 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. Oxford Acquired 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Oxford Acquired 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Oxford Acquired 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, IT Governance at Oxford Industries: Information Architecture for Financial Data, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Oxford Acquired in the consumer business. Now Oxford Acquired can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Oxford Acquired 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Oxford Acquired to increase its market reach. Oxford Acquired 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Oxford Acquired 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Oxford Acquired can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. IT Governance at Oxford Industries: Information Architecture for Financial Data 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, Oxford Acquired can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Oxford Acquired operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Finance & Accounting sector.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Oxford Acquired can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Threats IT Governance at Oxford Industries: Information Architecture for Financial Data External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study IT Governance at Oxford Industries: Information Architecture for Financial Data are -
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. Oxford Acquired can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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. Oxford Acquired 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.
Environmental challenges
– Oxford Acquired 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. Oxford Acquired can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Finance & Accounting industry.
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 Oxford Acquired.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Oxford Acquired 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Oxford Acquired 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, Oxford Acquired 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 IT Governance at Oxford Industries: Information Architecture for Financial Data .
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Oxford Acquired is facing in Finance & Accounting sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Oxford Acquired has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Finance & Accounting industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Oxford Acquired 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.
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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Oxford Acquired with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Increasing wage structure of Oxford Acquired
– 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 Oxford Acquired.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Oxford Acquired 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of IT Governance at Oxford Industries: Information Architecture for Financial Data 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 IT Governance at Oxford Industries: Information Architecture for Financial Data 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 IT Governance at Oxford Industries: Information Architecture for Financial Data 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 IT Governance at Oxford Industries: Information Architecture for Financial Data 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 IT Governance at Oxford Industries: Information Architecture for Financial Data 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 Oxford Acquired needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.