Case Study Description of Germany's Bundesliga: Does Money Score Goals?
During one of the most nerve-wracking football matches of the 2012-2013 Bundesliga season, life-long friends Franz Dully and Max Vogel begin arguing about whether the wealth of a football club determines its success during the season. In order to disprove Vogel's claim that "money scores goals," Dully must analyze the Bundesliga's current market values, points earned, and mid-season leader data.
Authors :: Karl Schmedders, Charlotte Snyder, Sophie Tinz
Swot Analysis of "Germany's Bundesliga: Does Money Score Goals?" written by Karl Schmedders, Charlotte Snyder, Sophie Tinz includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Dully Bundesliga facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Germany's Bundesliga: Does Money Score Goals? case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Decision making, Financial analysis, Market research and Finance & Accounting.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Germany's Bundesliga: Does Money Score Goals? casestudy better are - – central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, technology disruption, wage bills are increasing, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion,
increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing energy prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Germany's Bundesliga: Does Money Score Goals?
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Germany's Bundesliga: Does Money Score Goals? case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Dully Bundesliga, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Dully Bundesliga 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 Germany's Bundesliga: Does Money Score Goals? can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Germany's Bundesliga: Does Money Score Goals? case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Dully Bundesliga
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 Dully Bundesliga
Strengths Germany's Bundesliga: Does Money Score Goals? | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Dully Bundesliga in Germany's Bundesliga: Does Money Score Goals? Harvard Business Review case study are -
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Dully Bundesliga 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Dully Bundesliga in the sector have low bargaining power. Germany's Bundesliga: Does Money Score Goals? has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Dully Bundesliga to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Ability to lead change in Finance & Accounting field
– Dully Bundesliga 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 Dully Bundesliga in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Learning organization
- Dully Bundesliga 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 Dully Bundesliga is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Germany's Bundesliga: Does Money Score Goals? Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Dully Bundesliga 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 Germany's Bundesliga: Does Money Score Goals? - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Finance & Accounting industry
– Germany's Bundesliga: Does Money Score Goals? firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Dully Bundesliga to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Finance & Accounting industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Dully Bundesliga to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Training and development
– Dully Bundesliga has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Germany's Bundesliga: Does Money Score Goals? 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 Dully Bundesliga in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
High brand equity
– Dully Bundesliga has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Dully Bundesliga to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Dully Bundesliga 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Dully Bundesliga is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Germany's Bundesliga: Does Money Score Goals? are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Innovation driven organization
– Dully Bundesliga is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Germany's Bundesliga: Does Money Score Goals? Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Weaknesses Germany's Bundesliga: Does Money Score Goals? | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Germany's Bundesliga: Does Money Score Goals? are -
Lack of clear differentiation of Dully Bundesliga products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Dully Bundesliga needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Germany's Bundesliga: Does Money Score Goals? 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 Dully Bundesliga 's lucrative customers.
Need for greater diversity
– Dully Bundesliga 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Dully Bundesliga 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Dully Bundesliga 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Germany's Bundesliga: Does Money Score Goals?, in the dynamic environment Dully Bundesliga has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Dully Bundesliga has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Germany's Bundesliga: Does Money Score Goals?, it seems that the employees of Dully Bundesliga 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Dully Bundesliga 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Dully Bundesliga 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 - Germany's Bundesliga: Does Money Score Goals? should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Dully Bundesliga, firm in the HBR case study Germany's Bundesliga: Does Money Score Goals? needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Dully Bundesliga is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Finance & Accounting segment. Dully Bundesliga needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Dully Bundesliga to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Opportunities Germany's Bundesliga: Does Money Score Goals? | 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 Germany's Bundesliga: Does Money Score Goals? are -
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 Dully Bundesliga in the consumer business. Now Dully Bundesliga can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Dully Bundesliga 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 Dully Bundesliga to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Dully Bundesliga 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, Germany's Bundesliga: Does Money Score Goals?, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Dully Bundesliga 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Dully Bundesliga can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Finance & Accounting segment. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Dully Bundesliga is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Germany's Bundesliga: Does Money Score Goals? 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Dully Bundesliga 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.
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. Dully Bundesliga 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. Dully Bundesliga 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, Dully Bundesliga 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.
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. Dully Bundesliga can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Buying journey improvements
– Dully Bundesliga can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Germany's Bundesliga: Does Money Score Goals? suggest that firm can provide automated chats to help consumers solve their own problems, provide online suggestions to get maximum out of the products and services, and help consumers to build a community where they can interact with each other to develop new features and uses.
Reconfiguring business model
– The expansion of digital payment system, the bringing down of international transactions costs using Bitcoin and other blockchain based currencies, etc can help Dully Bundesliga 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 Dully Bundesliga has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Dully Bundesliga to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Germany's Bundesliga: Does Money Score Goals? case study. Dully Bundesliga can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Threats Germany's Bundesliga: Does Money Score Goals? External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Germany's Bundesliga: Does Money Score Goals? are -
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Dully Bundesliga 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
– Dully Bundesliga has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Finance & Accounting industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Dully Bundesliga 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.
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 Dully Bundesliga business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Dully Bundesliga can face lack of demand in the market place because of Fed actions to reduce inflation. This can lead to sluggish growth in the economy, lower demands, lower investments, higher borrowing costs, and consolidation in the field.
Increasing wage structure of Dully Bundesliga
– 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 Dully Bundesliga.
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. Dully Bundesliga needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Finance & Accounting industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Dully Bundesliga 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Dully Bundesliga 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Dully Bundesliga with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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 Dully Bundesliga.
Environmental challenges
– Dully Bundesliga 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. Dully Bundesliga can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Finance & Accounting industry.
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 Dully Bundesliga in the Finance & Accounting sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Dully Bundesliga 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 Germany's Bundesliga: Does Money Score Goals? 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 Germany's Bundesliga: Does Money Score Goals? 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 Germany's Bundesliga: Does Money Score Goals? 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 Germany's Bundesliga: Does Money Score Goals? 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 Germany's Bundesliga: Does Money Score Goals? 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 Dully Bundesliga needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.