City of Sarnia - Contract Policing Proposal SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Finance & Accounting
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of City of Sarnia - Contract Policing Proposal
In March 2010, a city in Southwestern Ontario received a costing proposal from the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP). The Mayor and the other city councilors must decide whether to disband its current municipally based Sarnia Police Services (SPS) and replace it with contract policing from the OPP. The City's request for the proposal had created much discomfort for the SPS employees, and had polarized the entire community. After analyzing the OPP contract proposal, the City planned to make several adjustments to the numbers to more closely reflect the current level of service provided by the SPS.
Swot Analysis of "City of Sarnia - Contract Policing Proposal" written by Ian Dunn, Elizabeth M.A. Grasby includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Opp Sps facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in City of Sarnia - Contract Policing Proposal case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Financial analysis, Government, Public relations and Finance & Accounting.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the City of Sarnia - Contract Policing Proposal casestudy better are - – digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , geopolitical disruptions, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing transportation and logistics costs, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, technology disruption,
there is backlash against globalization, wage bills are increasing, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of City of Sarnia - Contract Policing Proposal
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in City of Sarnia - Contract Policing Proposal case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Opp Sps, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Opp Sps 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 City of Sarnia - Contract Policing Proposal can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in City of Sarnia - Contract Policing Proposal case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Opp Sps
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 Opp Sps
Strengths City of Sarnia - Contract Policing Proposal | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Opp Sps in City of Sarnia - Contract Policing Proposal Harvard Business Review case study are -
Ability to lead change in Finance & Accounting field
– Opp Sps 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 Opp Sps in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Opp Sps are driving operational speed, building greater agility, and keeping the organization nimble to compete with new competitors. It helps are organization to ideate new ideas, and execute them swiftly in the marketplace.
High brand equity
– Opp Sps has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Opp Sps to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the City of Sarnia - Contract Policing Proposal 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.
Digital Transformation in Finance & Accounting segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Opp Sps digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Opp Sps 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.
Analytics focus
– Opp Sps 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 Ian Dunn, Elizabeth M.A. Grasby 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Opp Sps in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Strong track record of project management
– Opp Sps is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Training and development
– Opp Sps has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in City of Sarnia - Contract Policing Proposal 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Finance & Accounting industry
– City of Sarnia - Contract Policing Proposal firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Opp Sps to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Finance & Accounting industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Opp Sps to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Opp Sps 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 City of Sarnia - Contract Policing Proposal HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Innovation driven organization
– Opp Sps is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in City of Sarnia - Contract Policing Proposal Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Weaknesses City of Sarnia - Contract Policing Proposal | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of City of Sarnia - Contract Policing Proposal are -
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Opp Sps is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study City of Sarnia - Contract Policing Proposal can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Opp Sps 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study City of Sarnia - Contract Policing Proposal, 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Opp Sps, firm in the HBR case study City of Sarnia - Contract Policing Proposal needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study City of Sarnia - Contract Policing Proposal 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 City of Sarnia - Contract Policing Proposal can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Opp Sps is planning to shift buying processes online.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study City of Sarnia - Contract Policing Proposal, is just above the industry average. Opp Sps 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 Opp Sps is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Finance & Accounting segment. Opp Sps needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Opp Sps to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Opp Sps 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Opp Sps 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 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 Opp Sps supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - City of Sarnia - Contract Policing Proposal, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Opp Sps vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Ian Dunn, Elizabeth M.A. Grasby suggests that, Opp Sps is facing high bargaining power of the channel partners. So far it has not able to streamline the operations to reduce the bargaining power of the value chain partners in the industry.
Opportunities City of Sarnia - Contract Policing Proposal | 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 City of Sarnia - Contract Policing Proposal are -
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Opp Sps 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Opp Sps can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. City of Sarnia - Contract Policing Proposal 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Opp Sps can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Opp Sps operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Finance & Accounting sector.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Opp Sps is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. City of Sarnia - Contract Policing Proposal 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Opp Sps 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.
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 Opp Sps 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Opp Sps 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, City of Sarnia - Contract Policing Proposal, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
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. Opp Sps 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. Opp Sps 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.
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. Opp Sps can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Developing new processes and practices
– Opp Sps 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.
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 Opp Sps in the consumer business. Now Opp Sps 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. Opp Sps can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Opp Sps 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.
Threats City of Sarnia - Contract Policing Proposal External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study City of Sarnia - Contract Policing Proposal are -
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Opp Sps 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 Opp Sps with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Opp Sps 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. Opp Sps can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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 Opp Sps 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Opp Sps 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.
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 Opp Sps.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Opp Sps has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Finance & Accounting industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Opp Sps 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 Opp Sps business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Increasing wage structure of Opp Sps
– 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 Opp Sps.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Opp Sps 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 City of Sarnia - Contract Policing Proposal .
Environmental challenges
– Opp Sps 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. Opp Sps can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Finance & Accounting industry.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of City of Sarnia - Contract Policing Proposal 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 City of Sarnia - Contract Policing Proposal 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 City of Sarnia - Contract Policing Proposal 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 City of Sarnia - Contract Policing Proposal 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 City of Sarnia - Contract Policing Proposal 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 Opp Sps needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
