Transportation Displays, Inc. (D): Exiting from a Successful Restructuring SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Finance & Accounting
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Transportation Displays, Inc. (D): Exiting from a Successful Restructuring
Following a successful corporate turnaround and, more recently, a leveraged recapitalization, management of a highly profitable, fast--growing outdoor advertising company must consider alternative ways to harvest cash flow from the company without jeopardizing the turnaround or incurring significant tax liabilities.
Authors :: Stuart C. Gilson, Vincent Hemmer, Eric Rahe, David Shorrock
Swot Analysis of "Transportation Displays, Inc. (D): Exiting from a Successful Restructuring" written by Stuart C. Gilson, Vincent Hemmer, Eric Rahe, David Shorrock includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Turnaround Incurring facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Transportation Displays, Inc. (D): Exiting from a Successful Restructuring case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Boards, Costs, Crisis management, Marketing, Policy, Reorganization and Finance & Accounting.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Transportation Displays, Inc. (D): Exiting from a Successful Restructuring casestudy better are - – increasing household debt because of falling income levels, technology disruption, there is backlash against globalization, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing commodity prices, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%,
increasing transportation and logistics costs, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Transportation Displays, Inc. (D): Exiting from a Successful Restructuring
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Transportation Displays, Inc. (D): Exiting from a Successful Restructuring case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Turnaround Incurring, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Turnaround Incurring 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 Transportation Displays, Inc. (D): Exiting from a Successful Restructuring can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Transportation Displays, Inc. (D): Exiting from a Successful Restructuring case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Turnaround Incurring
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 Turnaround Incurring
Strengths Transportation Displays, Inc. (D): Exiting from a Successful Restructuring | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Turnaround Incurring in Transportation Displays, Inc. (D): Exiting from a Successful Restructuring Harvard Business Review case study are -
Ability to lead change in Finance & Accounting field
– Turnaround Incurring 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 Turnaround Incurring in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Training and development
– Turnaround Incurring has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Transportation Displays, Inc. (D): Exiting from a Successful Restructuring 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.
Analytics focus
– Turnaround Incurring 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 Stuart C. Gilson, Vincent Hemmer, Eric Rahe, David Shorrock 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 Turnaround Incurring in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Turnaround Incurring is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Transportation Displays, Inc. (D): Exiting from a Successful Restructuring are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Transportation Displays, Inc. (D): Exiting from a Successful Restructuring 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Turnaround Incurring in the sector have low bargaining power. Transportation Displays, Inc. (D): Exiting from a Successful Restructuring has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Turnaround Incurring to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Strong track record of project management
– Turnaround Incurring is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Turnaround Incurring 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Turnaround Incurring 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 Transportation Displays, Inc. (D): Exiting from a Successful Restructuring - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Diverse revenue streams
– Turnaround Incurring is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Transportation Displays, Inc. (D): Exiting from a Successful Restructuring 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.
Learning organization
- Turnaround Incurring 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 Turnaround Incurring is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Transportation Displays, Inc. (D): Exiting from a Successful Restructuring Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Weaknesses Transportation Displays, Inc. (D): Exiting from a Successful Restructuring | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Transportation Displays, Inc. (D): Exiting from a Successful Restructuring are -
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Turnaround Incurring, firm in the HBR case study Transportation Displays, Inc. (D): Exiting from a Successful Restructuring needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Turnaround Incurring 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Transportation Displays, Inc. (D): Exiting from a Successful Restructuring 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 Turnaround Incurring 's lucrative customers.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Turnaround Incurring 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 - Transportation Displays, Inc. (D): Exiting from a Successful Restructuring should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Transportation Displays, Inc. (D): Exiting from a Successful Restructuring, 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 dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Transportation Displays, Inc. (D): Exiting from a Successful Restructuring 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 Turnaround Incurring has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Turnaround Incurring is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Transportation Displays, Inc. (D): Exiting from a Successful Restructuring can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Transportation Displays, Inc. (D): Exiting from a Successful Restructuring, is just above the industry average. Turnaround Incurring 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 decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Turnaround Incurring 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. Turnaround Incurring 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Turnaround Incurring 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Turnaround Incurring 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.
Opportunities Transportation Displays, Inc. (D): Exiting from a Successful Restructuring | 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 Transportation Displays, Inc. (D): Exiting from a Successful Restructuring are -
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. Turnaround Incurring can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Turnaround Incurring 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Turnaround Incurring 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, Turnaround Incurring can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Turnaround Incurring operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Finance & Accounting sector.
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 Turnaround Incurring 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 Turnaround Incurring has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Turnaround Incurring to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Transportation Displays, Inc. (D): Exiting from a Successful Restructuring case study. Turnaround Incurring can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Turnaround Incurring 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.
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. Turnaround Incurring 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
– Turnaround Incurring can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Transportation Displays, Inc. (D): Exiting from a Successful Restructuring 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Turnaround Incurring has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in the sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled, as illustrated in the Harvard case study Transportation Displays, Inc. (D): Exiting from a Successful Restructuring - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Turnaround Incurring to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Turnaround Incurring can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Turnaround Incurring 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Turnaround Incurring 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.
Threats Transportation Displays, Inc. (D): Exiting from a Successful Restructuring External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Transportation Displays, Inc. (D): Exiting from a Successful Restructuring are -
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Turnaround Incurring 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.
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 Turnaround Incurring in the Finance & Accounting sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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. Turnaround Incurring can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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. Turnaround Incurring needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Finance & Accounting industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Environmental challenges
– Turnaround Incurring 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. Turnaround Incurring can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Finance & Accounting industry.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Turnaround Incurring 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Transportation Displays, Inc. (D): Exiting from a Successful Restructuring, Turnaround Incurring 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 .
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Turnaround Incurring has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Finance & Accounting industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Turnaround Incurring 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Turnaround Incurring 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.
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. Turnaround Incurring 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.
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 Turnaround Incurring.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Turnaround Incurring 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 Transportation Displays, Inc. (D): Exiting from a Successful Restructuring .
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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Transportation Displays, Inc. (D): Exiting from a Successful Restructuring 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 Transportation Displays, Inc. (D): Exiting from a Successful Restructuring 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 Transportation Displays, Inc. (D): Exiting from a Successful Restructuring 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 Transportation Displays, Inc. (D): Exiting from a Successful Restructuring 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 Transportation Displays, Inc. (D): Exiting from a Successful Restructuring 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 Turnaround Incurring needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.