Garry Halper Menswear Limited: A Loan Request for an Export Order SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Finance & Accounting
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Garry Halper Menswear Limited: A Loan Request for an Export Order
Garry Halper Menswear Limited (GHM) is a medium-sized manufacturer of superior-quality men's suits and jackets that up to now have largely been distributed in Canada. The firm has landed a very large order for men's suits with Sutton's in the United States. To meet the order, the firm has decided to import partly completed suits from China. The treasurer of GHM must assess the financing needs and related risks that result from this large increase in sales. At the same time, he believes that the company's present bank is timid in its response to the firm's needs, and he would like to consider another banking relationship.
Authors :: James E. Hatch, Stephen R. Foerster, Steven Cox, Manpreet Hora
Swot Analysis of "Garry Halper Menswear Limited: A Loan Request for an Export Order" written by James E. Hatch, Stephen R. Foerster, Steven Cox, Manpreet Hora includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Suits Ghm facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Garry Halper Menswear Limited: A Loan Request for an Export Order case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Finance & Accounting.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Garry Halper Menswear Limited: A Loan Request for an Export Order casestudy better are - – central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , there is increasing trade war between United States & China, there is backlash against globalization, geopolitical disruptions,
increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Garry Halper Menswear Limited: A Loan Request for an Export Order
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Garry Halper Menswear Limited: A Loan Request for an Export Order case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Suits Ghm, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Suits Ghm 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 Garry Halper Menswear Limited: A Loan Request for an Export Order can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Garry Halper Menswear Limited: A Loan Request for an Export Order case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Suits Ghm
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 Suits Ghm
Strengths Garry Halper Menswear Limited: A Loan Request for an Export Order | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Suits Ghm in Garry Halper Menswear Limited: A Loan Request for an Export Order Harvard Business Review case study are -
Organizational Resilience of Suits Ghm
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Suits Ghm does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Digital Transformation in Finance & Accounting segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Suits Ghm digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Suits Ghm 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Garry Halper Menswear Limited: A Loan Request for an Export Order 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.
Learning organization
- Suits Ghm 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 Suits Ghm is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Garry Halper Menswear Limited: A Loan Request for an Export Order Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Suits Ghm is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Garry Halper Menswear Limited: A Loan Request for an Export Order 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
– Suits Ghm has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Suits Ghm to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Suits Ghm 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.
Training and development
– Suits Ghm has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Garry Halper Menswear Limited: A Loan Request for an Export Order 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)
– Suits Ghm 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 Garry Halper Menswear Limited: A Loan Request for an Export Order - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Suits Ghm in the sector have low bargaining power. Garry Halper Menswear Limited: A Loan Request for an Export Order has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Suits Ghm to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Innovation driven organization
– Suits Ghm is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Garry Halper Menswear Limited: A Loan Request for an Export Order Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Strong track record of project management
– Suits Ghm is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Weaknesses Garry Halper Menswear Limited: A Loan Request for an Export Order | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Garry Halper Menswear Limited: A Loan Request for an Export Order are -
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Garry Halper Menswear Limited: A Loan Request for an Export Order 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 Suits Ghm has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Garry Halper Menswear Limited: A Loan Request for an Export Order 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 Suits Ghm 's lucrative customers.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Garry Halper Menswear Limited: A Loan Request for an Export Order, is just above the industry average. Suits Ghm 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Suits Ghm is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Finance & Accounting segment. Suits Ghm needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Suits Ghm to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Suits Ghm 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Suits Ghm products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Suits Ghm needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Suits Ghm 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. Suits Ghm 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Garry Halper Menswear Limited: A Loan Request for an Export Order, it seems that the employees of Suits Ghm 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Suits Ghm 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 - Garry Halper Menswear Limited: A Loan Request for an Export Order should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Garry Halper Menswear Limited: A Loan Request for an Export Order HBR case study mentions - Suits Ghm 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Suits Ghm 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.
Opportunities Garry Halper Menswear Limited: A Loan Request for an Export Order | 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 Garry Halper Menswear Limited: A Loan Request for an Export Order are -
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Suits Ghm 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Suits Ghm 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. Suits Ghm 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. Suits Ghm 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Suits Ghm can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Suits Ghm operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Finance & Accounting sector.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Suits Ghm 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Suits Ghm 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 Suits Ghm to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Suits Ghm 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Suits Ghm can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Suits Ghm 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.
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 Suits Ghm in the consumer business. Now Suits Ghm can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Buying journey improvements
– Suits Ghm can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Garry Halper Menswear Limited: A Loan Request for an Export Order 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 Suits Ghm 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 Suits Ghm has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Suits Ghm to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Garry Halper Menswear Limited: A Loan Request for an Export Order case study. Suits Ghm can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Threats Garry Halper Menswear Limited: A Loan Request for an Export Order External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Garry Halper Menswear Limited: A Loan Request for an Export Order are -
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Suits Ghm 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Suits Ghm with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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. Suits Ghm needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Finance & Accounting industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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 Suits Ghm.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Suits Ghm 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Garry Halper Menswear Limited: A Loan Request for an Export Order, Suits Ghm 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 .
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 Suits Ghm in the Finance & Accounting sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Suits Ghm is facing in Finance & Accounting sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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. Suits Ghm can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Suits Ghm has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Finance & Accounting industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Suits Ghm 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Suits Ghm 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Suits Ghm can face downward pressure on margins from increasing competition from international players. The international players have stable revenue in their home market and can use those resources to penetrate prominent markets illustrated in HBR case study Garry Halper Menswear Limited: A Loan Request for an Export Order .
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Garry Halper Menswear Limited: A Loan Request for an Export Order 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 Garry Halper Menswear Limited: A Loan Request for an Export Order 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 Garry Halper Menswear Limited: A Loan Request for an Export Order 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 Garry Halper Menswear Limited: A Loan Request for an Export Order 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 Garry Halper Menswear Limited: A Loan Request for an Export Order 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 Suits Ghm needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.