Ann Taylor Stores Corporation-Deferred Taxes SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Finance & Accounting
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Ann Taylor Stores Corporation-Deferred Taxes
Students are presented with the income-taxes footnote from Ann Taylor Stores Corporation's 2004 Annual Report and are asked to respond to several questions regarding information in the footnote. Questions center around what can be inferred about income-tax expense, deferred-tax expense, and deferred-tax assets and liabilities from the footnote.
Swot Analysis of "Ann Taylor Stores Corporation-Deferred Taxes" written by Luann J. Lynch includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Footnote Deferred facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Ann Taylor Stores Corporation-Deferred Taxes case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Corporate governance, Financial management and Finance & Accounting.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Ann Taylor Stores Corporation-Deferred Taxes casestudy better are - – challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing transportation and logistics costs, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy,
technology disruption, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Ann Taylor Stores Corporation-Deferred Taxes
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Ann Taylor Stores Corporation-Deferred Taxes case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Footnote Deferred, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Footnote Deferred 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 Ann Taylor Stores Corporation-Deferred Taxes can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Ann Taylor Stores Corporation-Deferred Taxes case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Footnote Deferred
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 Footnote Deferred
Strengths Ann Taylor Stores Corporation-Deferred Taxes | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Footnote Deferred in Ann Taylor Stores Corporation-Deferred Taxes Harvard Business Review case study are -
Training and development
– Footnote Deferred has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Ann Taylor Stores Corporation-Deferred Taxes 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Footnote Deferred 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 Ann Taylor Stores Corporation-Deferred Taxes - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Analytics focus
– Footnote Deferred 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 Luann J. Lynch 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Footnote Deferred is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Ann Taylor Stores Corporation-Deferred Taxes are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
High brand equity
– Footnote Deferred has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Footnote Deferred to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Learning organization
- Footnote Deferred 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 Footnote Deferred is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Ann Taylor Stores Corporation-Deferred Taxes Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Footnote Deferred has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Footnote Deferred 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Footnote Deferred 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Footnote Deferred in the sector have low bargaining power. Ann Taylor Stores Corporation-Deferred Taxes has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Footnote Deferred to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Footnote Deferred in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Footnote Deferred 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 Ann Taylor Stores Corporation-Deferred Taxes HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Innovation driven organization
– Footnote Deferred is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Ann Taylor Stores Corporation-Deferred Taxes Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Weaknesses Ann Taylor Stores Corporation-Deferred Taxes | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Ann Taylor Stores Corporation-Deferred Taxes are -
Lack of clear differentiation of Footnote Deferred products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Footnote Deferred needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Footnote Deferred 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Ann Taylor Stores Corporation-Deferred Taxes HBR case study mentions - Footnote Deferred 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Ann Taylor Stores Corporation-Deferred Taxes 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 Ann Taylor Stores Corporation-Deferred Taxes can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Footnote Deferred is planning to shift buying processes online.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Footnote Deferred, firm in the HBR case study Ann Taylor Stores Corporation-Deferred Taxes needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Need for greater diversity
– Footnote Deferred 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 decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Footnote Deferred 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. Footnote Deferred 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Footnote Deferred 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Footnote Deferred 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Ann Taylor Stores Corporation-Deferred Taxes 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 Footnote Deferred 's lucrative customers.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Footnote Deferred is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Finance & Accounting segment. Footnote Deferred needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Footnote Deferred to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Opportunities Ann Taylor Stores Corporation-Deferred Taxes | 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 Ann Taylor Stores Corporation-Deferred Taxes are -
Loyalty marketing
– Footnote Deferred 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Footnote Deferred 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Footnote Deferred 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Footnote Deferred 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, Ann Taylor Stores Corporation-Deferred Taxes, 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. Footnote Deferred can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
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. Footnote Deferred can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Footnote Deferred 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 Footnote Deferred to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Developing new processes and practices
– Footnote Deferred 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Footnote Deferred 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 Footnote Deferred has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Footnote Deferred to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Ann Taylor Stores Corporation-Deferred Taxes case study. Footnote Deferred can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
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 Footnote Deferred 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.
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. Footnote Deferred 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. Footnote Deferred 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Footnote Deferred can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Ann Taylor Stores Corporation-Deferred Taxes 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.
Threats Ann Taylor Stores Corporation-Deferred Taxes External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Ann Taylor Stores Corporation-Deferred Taxes are -
Increasing wage structure of Footnote Deferred
– 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 Footnote Deferred.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Footnote Deferred with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Footnote Deferred has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Finance & Accounting industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Footnote Deferred 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Footnote Deferred 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Ann Taylor Stores Corporation-Deferred Taxes, Footnote Deferred 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 .
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. Footnote Deferred 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Footnote Deferred 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Footnote Deferred is facing in Finance & Accounting sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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. Footnote Deferred 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.
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. Footnote Deferred needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Finance & Accounting 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 Footnote Deferred business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Footnote Deferred 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Ann Taylor Stores Corporation-Deferred Taxes 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 Ann Taylor Stores Corporation-Deferred Taxes 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 Ann Taylor Stores Corporation-Deferred Taxes 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 Ann Taylor Stores Corporation-Deferred Taxes 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 Ann Taylor Stores Corporation-Deferred Taxes 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 Footnote Deferred needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
