When It Takes a Network: Creating Strategy and Agility through Wargaming SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Finance & Accounting
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of When It Takes a Network: Creating Strategy and Agility through Wargaming
Rational, analytical, directed approaches for strategy creation and execution may work for creating value by conventional, hierarchically structured organizations operating in stable environments. However, when the basis of competition shifts from product features to an experience delivered by a network of independently acting participants in a complex and fast-evolving market environment, approaches based on command and control do not work. For order to emerge from such chaos and to gain more control over success, strategy based on reason alone is not enough to inspire action in others. To understand what it takes to effectively make strategy under such circumstances, this article shows how the UK's Royal Marines, in collaboration with more than a dozen different stakeholder groups, developed a novel adaptation of wargaming to affect strategic change in Afghanistan. It also demonstrates the broad applicability of this strategic approach.
Swot Analysis of "When It Takes a Network: Creating Strategy and Agility through Wargaming" written by Arnoud Franken, Harry Thomsett includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Wargaming Marines facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in When It Takes a Network: Creating Strategy and Agility through Wargaming case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Networking, Strategy and Finance & Accounting.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the When It Takes a Network: Creating Strategy and Agility through Wargaming casestudy better are - – increasing energy prices, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models,
increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, there is backlash against globalization, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of When It Takes a Network: Creating Strategy and Agility through Wargaming
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in When It Takes a Network: Creating Strategy and Agility through Wargaming case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Wargaming Marines, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Wargaming Marines 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 When It Takes a Network: Creating Strategy and Agility through Wargaming can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in When It Takes a Network: Creating Strategy and Agility through Wargaming case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Wargaming Marines
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 Wargaming Marines
Strengths When It Takes a Network: Creating Strategy and Agility through Wargaming | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Wargaming Marines in When It Takes a Network: Creating Strategy and Agility through Wargaming Harvard Business Review case study are -
Highly skilled collaborators
– Wargaming Marines 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 When It Takes a Network: Creating Strategy and Agility through Wargaming HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Strong track record of project management
– Wargaming Marines is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Learning organization
- Wargaming Marines 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 Wargaming Marines is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in When It Takes a Network: Creating Strategy and Agility through Wargaming Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Wargaming Marines 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Wargaming Marines is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in When It Takes a Network: Creating Strategy and Agility through Wargaming 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.
Digital Transformation in Finance & Accounting segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Wargaming Marines digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Wargaming Marines 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Wargaming Marines is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in When It Takes a Network: Creating Strategy and Agility through Wargaming Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Wargaming Marines 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Wargaming Marines in the sector have low bargaining power. When It Takes a Network: Creating Strategy and Agility through Wargaming has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Wargaming Marines to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Analytics focus
– Wargaming Marines 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 Arnoud Franken, Harry Thomsett 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 Wargaming Marines in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Training and development
– Wargaming Marines has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in When It Takes a Network: Creating Strategy and Agility through Wargaming 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.
Weaknesses When It Takes a Network: Creating Strategy and Agility through Wargaming | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of When It Takes a Network: Creating Strategy and Agility through Wargaming are -
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Wargaming Marines 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Wargaming Marines 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Wargaming Marines 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 - When It Takes a Network: Creating Strategy and Agility through Wargaming should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study When It Takes a Network: Creating Strategy and Agility through Wargaming 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 When It Takes a Network: Creating Strategy and Agility through Wargaming can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Wargaming Marines is planning to shift buying processes online.
Need for greater diversity
– Wargaming Marines 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 star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the When It Takes a Network: Creating Strategy and Agility through Wargaming 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 Wargaming Marines has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Wargaming Marines, firm in the HBR case study When It Takes a Network: Creating Strategy and Agility through Wargaming needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study When It Takes a Network: Creating Strategy and Agility through Wargaming 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 Wargaming Marines 's lucrative customers.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study When It Takes a Network: Creating Strategy and Agility through Wargaming, is just above the industry average. Wargaming Marines 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, Wargaming Marines 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. Wargaming Marines 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
Wargaming Marines 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.
Opportunities When It Takes a Network: Creating Strategy and Agility through Wargaming | 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 When It Takes a Network: Creating Strategy and Agility through Wargaming are -
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Wargaming Marines 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Wargaming Marines 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.
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 Wargaming Marines in the consumer business. Now Wargaming Marines can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
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 Wargaming Marines 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Wargaming Marines can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. When It Takes a Network: Creating Strategy and Agility through Wargaming 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.
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. Wargaming Marines can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Wargaming Marines 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, Wargaming Marines 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Wargaming Marines has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Wargaming Marines to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the When It Takes a Network: Creating Strategy and Agility through Wargaming case study. Wargaming Marines can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Wargaming Marines to increase its market reach. Wargaming Marines 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.
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. Wargaming Marines 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. Wargaming Marines 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 Wargaming Marines 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 Wargaming Marines to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Developing new processes and practices
– Wargaming Marines 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.
Threats When It Takes a Network: Creating Strategy and Agility through Wargaming External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study When It Takes a Network: Creating Strategy and Agility through Wargaming are -
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Wargaming Marines 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.
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 Wargaming Marines.
Aging population
– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Wargaming Marines has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Finance & Accounting industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Wargaming Marines 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.
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. Wargaming Marines 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
– Wargaming Marines 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Wargaming Marines 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.
Increasing wage structure of Wargaming Marines
– 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 Wargaming Marines.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study When It Takes a Network: Creating Strategy and Agility through Wargaming, Wargaming Marines 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 .
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. Wargaming Marines needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Finance & Accounting industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Wargaming Marines can face lack of demand in the market place because of Fed actions to reduce inflation. This can lead to sluggish growth in the economy, lower demands, lower investments, higher borrowing costs, and consolidation in the field.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Wargaming Marines 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 When It Takes a Network: Creating Strategy and Agility through Wargaming .
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Wargaming Marines with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of When It Takes a Network: Creating Strategy and Agility through Wargaming 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 When It Takes a Network: Creating Strategy and Agility through Wargaming 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 When It Takes a Network: Creating Strategy and Agility through Wargaming 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 When It Takes a Network: Creating Strategy and Agility through Wargaming 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 When It Takes a Network: Creating Strategy and Agility through Wargaming 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 Wargaming Marines needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.