Depreciation at Delta Air Lines: The 'Fresh Start', Spanish Version SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Finance & Accounting
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Depreciation at Delta Air Lines: The 'Fresh Start', Spanish Version
When students have the English-language PDF of this Brief Case in a coursepack, they will also have the option to purchase an audio version.In estimating depreciation for accounting purposes, Delta Air Lines has changed its assumptions about aircraft lifespan and residual values four times in the last thirty years or so. In the most recent changes, Delta adopted fair value accounting as part of its "fresh start" emergence from bankruptcy. Each of these policy changes has affected future asset values as well as present and future income. Students should organize their case analysis around three types of questions: (1) the estimated life cycle of commercial passenger airplanes; (2) the uses of financial reports, including the purpose of depreciation in reporting on assets and periodic income; and (3) alternative procedures for reporting asset book values and income that might better serve users of financial reports.
Swot Analysis of "Depreciation at Delta Air Lines: The 'Fresh Start', Spanish Version" written by William J. Bruns Jr. includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Depreciation Delta facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Depreciation at Delta Air Lines: The 'Fresh Start', Spanish Version case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Financial management and Finance & Accounting.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Depreciation at Delta Air Lines: The 'Fresh Start', Spanish Version casestudy better are - – increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing commodity prices, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies,
increasing energy prices, technology disruption, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Depreciation at Delta Air Lines: The 'Fresh Start', Spanish Version
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Depreciation at Delta Air Lines: The 'Fresh Start', Spanish Version case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Depreciation Delta, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Depreciation Delta 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 Depreciation at Delta Air Lines: The 'Fresh Start', Spanish Version can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Depreciation at Delta Air Lines: The 'Fresh Start', Spanish Version case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Depreciation Delta
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 Depreciation Delta
Strengths Depreciation at Delta Air Lines: The 'Fresh Start', Spanish Version | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Depreciation Delta in Depreciation at Delta Air Lines: The 'Fresh Start', Spanish Version Harvard Business Review case study are -
Training and development
– Depreciation Delta has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Depreciation at Delta Air Lines: The 'Fresh Start', Spanish Version 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.
Digital Transformation in Finance & Accounting segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Depreciation Delta digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Depreciation Delta 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.
Organizational Resilience of Depreciation Delta
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Depreciation Delta does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Diverse revenue streams
– Depreciation Delta is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Depreciation at Delta Air Lines: The 'Fresh Start', Spanish Version 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Depreciation Delta is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Analytics focus
– Depreciation Delta 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 William J. Bruns Jr. 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Depreciation Delta in the sector have low bargaining power. Depreciation at Delta Air Lines: The 'Fresh Start', Spanish Version has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Depreciation Delta to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Depreciation Delta 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 Depreciation at Delta Air Lines: The 'Fresh Start', Spanish Version - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Depreciation Delta 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Depreciation Delta in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Depreciation at Delta Air Lines: The 'Fresh Start', Spanish Version 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.
High brand equity
– Depreciation Delta has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Depreciation Delta to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Weaknesses Depreciation at Delta Air Lines: The 'Fresh Start', Spanish Version | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Depreciation at Delta Air Lines: The 'Fresh Start', Spanish Version are -
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Depreciation Delta 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Depreciation at Delta Air Lines: The 'Fresh Start', Spanish Version 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 Depreciation at Delta Air Lines: The 'Fresh Start', Spanish Version can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Depreciation Delta is planning to shift buying processes online.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Depreciation Delta 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. Depreciation Delta 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Depreciation Delta 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 - Depreciation at Delta Air Lines: The 'Fresh Start', Spanish Version should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Depreciation at Delta Air Lines: The 'Fresh Start', Spanish Version 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 Depreciation Delta 's lucrative customers.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Depreciation Delta is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Finance & Accounting segment. Depreciation Delta needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Depreciation Delta to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Lack of clear differentiation of Depreciation Delta products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Depreciation Delta needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
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 Depreciation Delta supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Depreciation at Delta Air Lines: The 'Fresh Start', Spanish Version, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Depreciation Delta vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Depreciation at Delta Air Lines: The 'Fresh Start', Spanish Version, it seems that the employees of Depreciation Delta don’t have comprehensive understanding of the firm’s strategy. This is reflected in number of promotional campaigns over the last few years that had mixed messaging and competing priorities. Some of the strategic activities and services promoted in the promotional campaigns were not consistent with the organization’s strategy.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Depreciation at Delta Air Lines: The 'Fresh Start', Spanish Version 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 Depreciation Delta has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Depreciation Delta, firm in the HBR case study Depreciation at Delta Air Lines: The 'Fresh Start', Spanish Version needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Opportunities Depreciation at Delta Air Lines: The 'Fresh Start', Spanish Version | 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 Depreciation at Delta Air Lines: The 'Fresh Start', Spanish Version are -
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Depreciation Delta 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 Depreciation at Delta Air Lines: The 'Fresh Start', Spanish Version - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Depreciation Delta to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Loyalty marketing
– Depreciation Delta 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Depreciation Delta can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Developing new processes and practices
– Depreciation Delta 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Depreciation Delta 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, Depreciation at Delta Air Lines: The 'Fresh Start', Spanish Version, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Depreciation Delta 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Depreciation Delta can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Depreciation at Delta Air Lines: The 'Fresh Start', Spanish Version 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.
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. Depreciation Delta 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. Depreciation Delta 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Depreciation Delta 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 Depreciation Delta to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Depreciation Delta to increase its market reach. Depreciation Delta will be able to reach out to new customers. Secondly 5G will also provide technology framework to build new tools and products that can help more immersive consumer experience and faster consumer journey.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Depreciation Delta 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Depreciation Delta 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Depreciation Delta 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.
Threats Depreciation at Delta Air Lines: The 'Fresh Start', Spanish Version External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Depreciation at Delta Air Lines: The 'Fresh Start', Spanish Version are -
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. Depreciation Delta can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Regulatory challenges
– Depreciation Delta needs to prepare for regulatory challenges as consumer protection groups and other pressure groups are vigorously advocating for more regulations on big business - to reduce inequality, to create a level playing field, to product data privacy and consumer privacy, to reduce the influence of big money on democratic institutions, etc. This can lead to significant changes in the Finance & Accounting industry regulations.
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 Depreciation Delta in the Finance & Accounting sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Depreciation Delta 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Depreciation Delta 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 wage structure of Depreciation Delta
– 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 Depreciation Delta.
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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Depreciation Delta 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 Depreciation Delta.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Depreciation at Delta Air Lines: The 'Fresh Start', Spanish Version, Depreciation Delta 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 .
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Depreciation Delta is facing in Finance & Accounting sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Instability in the European markets
– European Union markets are facing three big challenges post Covid – expanded balance sheets, Brexit related business disruption, and aggressive Russia looking to distract the existing security mechanism. Depreciation Delta 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.
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. Depreciation Delta needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Finance & Accounting industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Depreciation at Delta Air Lines: The 'Fresh Start', Spanish Version 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 Depreciation at Delta Air Lines: The 'Fresh Start', Spanish Version 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 Depreciation at Delta Air Lines: The 'Fresh Start', Spanish Version 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 Depreciation at Delta Air Lines: The 'Fresh Start', Spanish Version 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 Depreciation at Delta Air Lines: The 'Fresh Start', Spanish Version 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 Depreciation Delta needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
