Lisco Acquisition of a Minority Interest of Orion SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Finance & Accounting
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Lisco Acquisition of a Minority Interest of Orion
A wealth management company in Chile that provided financial advisory services to high net worth individuals and pension funds was at a crossroads. After 15 years in business, the company had become very successful. To increase its value without incurring undue corporate financial risk, the owner, who has invested most of his personal wealth in the company, has the opportunity to make an investment in a similar wealth management company in Columbia. What are the risks and rewards of such a complex international merger and acquisition for this medium-sized enterprise operating in an uncertain political and economic environment? Author Kimberley Howard is affiliated with Grant Mac Ewan College
Swot Analysis of "Lisco Acquisition of a Minority Interest of Orion" written by Richard Howard, Kimberley Howard includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Wealth Ewan facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Lisco Acquisition of a Minority Interest of Orion case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Financial management and Finance & Accounting.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Lisco Acquisition of a Minority Interest of Orion casestudy better are - – increasing commodity prices, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, geopolitical disruptions, increasing energy prices,
increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Lisco Acquisition of a Minority Interest of Orion
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Lisco Acquisition of a Minority Interest of Orion case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Wealth Ewan, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Wealth Ewan 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 Lisco Acquisition of a Minority Interest of Orion can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Lisco Acquisition of a Minority Interest of Orion case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Wealth Ewan
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 Wealth Ewan
Strengths Lisco Acquisition of a Minority Interest of Orion | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Wealth Ewan in Lisco Acquisition of a Minority Interest of Orion Harvard Business Review case study are -
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Lisco Acquisition of a Minority Interest of Orion 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Wealth Ewan in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Organizational Resilience of Wealth Ewan
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Wealth Ewan does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Strong track record of project management
– Wealth Ewan is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Digital Transformation in Finance & Accounting segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Wealth Ewan digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Wealth Ewan 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Wealth Ewan is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Lisco Acquisition of a Minority Interest of Orion are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Wealth Ewan 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 Lisco Acquisition of a Minority Interest of Orion HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Training and development
– Wealth Ewan has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Lisco Acquisition of a Minority Interest of Orion 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
– Wealth Ewan 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 Wealth Ewan in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Wealth Ewan in the sector have low bargaining power. Lisco Acquisition of a Minority Interest of Orion has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Wealth Ewan to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Wealth Ewan 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.
High brand equity
– Wealth Ewan has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Wealth Ewan to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Weaknesses Lisco Acquisition of a Minority Interest of Orion | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Lisco Acquisition of a Minority Interest of Orion are -
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Lisco Acquisition of a Minority Interest of Orion, it seems that the employees of Wealth Ewan 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, Wealth Ewan is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Lisco Acquisition of a Minority Interest of Orion can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Wealth Ewan 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 Wealth Ewan 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 - Lisco Acquisition of a Minority Interest of Orion should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Lisco Acquisition of a Minority Interest of Orion HBR case study mentions - Wealth Ewan 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Wealth Ewan 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Wealth Ewan 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 bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Richard Howard, Kimberley Howard suggests that, Wealth Ewan 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Wealth Ewan 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Lisco Acquisition of a Minority Interest of Orion 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 Lisco Acquisition of a Minority Interest of Orion can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Wealth Ewan is planning to shift buying processes online.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Lisco Acquisition of a Minority Interest of Orion 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 Wealth Ewan has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Opportunities Lisco Acquisition of a Minority Interest of Orion | 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 Lisco Acquisition of a Minority Interest of Orion are -
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Wealth Ewan 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 Lisco Acquisition of a Minority Interest of Orion - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Wealth Ewan to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Wealth Ewan can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Wealth Ewan operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Finance & Accounting sector.
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 Wealth Ewan 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Wealth Ewan has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Wealth Ewan to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Lisco Acquisition of a Minority Interest of Orion case study. Wealth Ewan can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Wealth Ewan is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Lisco Acquisition of a Minority Interest of Orion 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Wealth Ewan can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Lisco Acquisition of a Minority Interest of Orion 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.
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. Wealth Ewan can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Wealth Ewan 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Wealth Ewan 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.
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. Wealth Ewan can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
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 Wealth Ewan in the consumer business. Now Wealth Ewan can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Loyalty marketing
– Wealth Ewan 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Wealth Ewan to increase its market reach. Wealth Ewan 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 Lisco Acquisition of a Minority Interest of Orion External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Lisco Acquisition of a Minority Interest of Orion are -
Increasing wage structure of Wealth Ewan
– 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 Wealth Ewan.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Wealth Ewan has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Finance & Accounting industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Wealth Ewan 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Lisco Acquisition of a Minority Interest of Orion, Wealth Ewan 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 .
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 Wealth Ewan business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Wealth Ewan 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.
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.
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. Wealth Ewan 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.
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. Wealth Ewan can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Wealth Ewan 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.
New competition
– After the dotcom bust of 2001, financial crisis of 2008-09, the business formation in US economy had declined. But in 2020 alone, there are more than 1.5 million new business applications in United States. This can lead to greater competition for Wealth Ewan in the Finance & Accounting sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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 Wealth Ewan.
Regulatory challenges
– Wealth Ewan 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Lisco Acquisition of a Minority Interest of Orion 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 Lisco Acquisition of a Minority Interest of Orion 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 Lisco Acquisition of a Minority Interest of Orion 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 Lisco Acquisition of a Minority Interest of Orion 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 Lisco Acquisition of a Minority Interest of Orion 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 Wealth Ewan needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
