Swot Analysis of "Planetary Resources, Inc. (B): Choosing the Next Tack" written by Anette Mikes, Amram Migdal includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Tack Planetary facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Planetary Resources, Inc. (B): Choosing the Next Tack case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Finance & Accounting.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Planetary Resources, Inc. (B): Choosing the Next Tack casestudy better are - – increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing energy prices, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, geopolitical disruptions, wage bills are increasing, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, there is increasing trade war between United States & China,
competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Planetary Resources, Inc. (B): Choosing the Next Tack
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Planetary Resources, Inc. (B): Choosing the Next Tack case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Tack Planetary, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Tack Planetary 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 Planetary Resources, Inc. (B): Choosing the Next Tack can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Planetary Resources, Inc. (B): Choosing the Next Tack case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Tack Planetary
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 Tack Planetary
Strengths Planetary Resources, Inc. (B): Choosing the Next Tack | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Tack Planetary in Planetary Resources, Inc. (B): Choosing the Next Tack Harvard Business Review case study are -
Highly skilled collaborators
– Tack Planetary 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 Planetary Resources, Inc. (B): Choosing the Next Tack HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Organizational Resilience of Tack Planetary
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Tack Planetary does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Tack Planetary is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Planetary Resources, Inc. (B): Choosing the Next Tack are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Analytics focus
– Tack Planetary 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 Anette Mikes, Amram Migdal 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.
Learning organization
- Tack Planetary 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 Tack Planetary is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Planetary Resources, Inc. (B): Choosing the Next Tack Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Innovation driven organization
– Tack Planetary is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Planetary Resources, Inc. (B): Choosing the Next Tack Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Training and development
– Tack Planetary has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Planetary Resources, Inc. (B): Choosing the Next Tack 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Tack Planetary in the sector have low bargaining power. Planetary Resources, Inc. (B): Choosing the Next Tack has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Tack Planetary to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Strong track record of project management
– Tack Planetary 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 Tack Planetary digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Tack Planetary 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Tack Planetary is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Planetary Resources, Inc. (B): Choosing the Next Tack 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 switching costs
– The high switching costs that Tack Planetary 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 Planetary Resources, Inc. (B): Choosing the Next Tack | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Planetary Resources, Inc. (B): Choosing the Next Tack are -
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Planetary Resources, Inc. (B): Choosing the Next Tack, it seems that the employees of Tack Planetary 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 Planetary Resources, Inc. (B): Choosing the Next Tack 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 Tack Planetary has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Planetary Resources, Inc. (B): Choosing the Next Tack 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 Planetary Resources, Inc. (B): Choosing the Next Tack can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Tack Planetary is planning to shift buying processes online.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Tack Planetary, firm in the HBR case study Planetary Resources, Inc. (B): Choosing the Next Tack needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Planetary Resources, Inc. (B): Choosing the Next Tack, is just above the industry average. Tack Planetary 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Planetary Resources, Inc. (B): Choosing the Next Tack HBR case study mentions - Tack Planetary takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the industry in last five years.
High dependence on existing supply chain
– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of Tack Planetary supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Planetary Resources, Inc. (B): Choosing the Next Tack, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Tack Planetary vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Planetary Resources, Inc. (B): Choosing the Next Tack, 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Tack Planetary 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Tack Planetary 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Tack Planetary is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Planetary Resources, Inc. (B): Choosing the Next Tack can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Opportunities Planetary Resources, Inc. (B): Choosing the Next Tack | 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 Planetary Resources, Inc. (B): Choosing the Next Tack are -
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. Tack Planetary 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. Tack Planetary 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Tack Planetary 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, Planetary Resources, Inc. (B): Choosing the Next Tack, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Loyalty marketing
– Tack Planetary 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
– Tack Planetary 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 Tack Planetary 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Tack Planetary can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Tack Planetary operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Finance & Accounting sector.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Tack Planetary 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.
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 Tack Planetary 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Tack Planetary 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Tack Planetary has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Tack Planetary to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Planetary Resources, Inc. (B): Choosing the Next Tack case study. Tack Planetary can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
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 Tack Planetary in the consumer business. Now Tack Planetary can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
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. Tack Planetary can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Developing new processes and practices
– Tack Planetary 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.
Threats Planetary Resources, Inc. (B): Choosing the Next Tack External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Planetary Resources, Inc. (B): Choosing the Next Tack are -
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 Tack Planetary 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 Tack Planetary.
Increasing wage structure of Tack Planetary
– 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 Tack Planetary.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Tack Planetary has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Finance & Accounting industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Tack Planetary 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.
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
– Tack Planetary 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Planetary Resources, Inc. (B): Choosing the Next Tack, Tack Planetary 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 .
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. Tack Planetary needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Finance & Accounting industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Tack Planetary 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. Tack Planetary 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.
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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Tack Planetary 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.
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 Tack Planetary business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Planetary Resources, Inc. (B): Choosing the Next Tack 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 Planetary Resources, Inc. (B): Choosing the Next Tack 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 Planetary Resources, Inc. (B): Choosing the Next Tack 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 Planetary Resources, Inc. (B): Choosing the Next Tack 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 Planetary Resources, Inc. (B): Choosing the Next Tack 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 Tack Planetary needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
