CityCenter (E): Blow up the Harmon? SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Finance & Accounting
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of CityCenter (E): Blow up the Harmon?
Casino owner considers whether to implode, complete, or do nothing with a 26 story vacant new building on the Las Vegas Strip. This case continues a series of pieces about the progress of CityCenter, an $11bn project in Las Vegas said to be the largest private construction project in the history of the United States. As in the prior observations of this project, issues around measurement of demand, architecture, construction, scheduling, and finance all interact. At the time of the case, court hearings have just started with a possible swing in the outcomes of $600,000,000.
Swot Analysis of "CityCenter (E): Blow up the Harmon?" written by John D. Macomber includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Citycenter Vegas facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in CityCenter (E): Blow up the Harmon? case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Finance & Accounting.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the CityCenter (E): Blow up the Harmon? casestudy better are - – there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing energy prices, increasing commodity prices, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, geopolitical disruptions, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing household debt because of falling income levels,
there is backlash against globalization, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of CityCenter (E): Blow up the Harmon?
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in CityCenter (E): Blow up the Harmon? case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Citycenter Vegas, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Citycenter Vegas 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 CityCenter (E): Blow up the Harmon? can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in CityCenter (E): Blow up the Harmon? case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Citycenter Vegas
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 Citycenter Vegas
Strengths CityCenter (E): Blow up the Harmon? | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Citycenter Vegas in CityCenter (E): Blow up the Harmon? Harvard Business Review case study are -
Ability to lead change in Finance & Accounting field
– Citycenter Vegas 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 Citycenter Vegas in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Learning organization
- Citycenter Vegas 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 Citycenter Vegas is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in CityCenter (E): Blow up the Harmon? Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Organizational Resilience of Citycenter Vegas
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Citycenter Vegas does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Innovation driven organization
– Citycenter Vegas is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in CityCenter (E): Blow up the Harmon? Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Digital Transformation in Finance & Accounting segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Citycenter Vegas digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Citycenter Vegas 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Citycenter Vegas 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 CityCenter (E): Blow up the Harmon? HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Training and development
– Citycenter Vegas has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in CityCenter (E): Blow up the Harmon? 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Citycenter Vegas is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the CityCenter (E): Blow up the Harmon? are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Citycenter Vegas 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Citycenter Vegas 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 Citycenter Vegas in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
High brand equity
– Citycenter Vegas has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Citycenter Vegas to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Weaknesses CityCenter (E): Blow up the Harmon? | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of CityCenter (E): Blow up the Harmon? are -
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, John D. Macomber suggests that, Citycenter Vegas 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Citycenter Vegas products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Citycenter Vegas needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the CityCenter (E): Blow up the Harmon? 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 Citycenter Vegas has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Citycenter Vegas 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study CityCenter (E): Blow up the Harmon? 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 CityCenter (E): Blow up the Harmon? can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Citycenter Vegas is planning to shift buying processes online.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Citycenter Vegas, firm in the HBR case study CityCenter (E): Blow up the Harmon? needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Citycenter Vegas is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study CityCenter (E): Blow up the Harmon? can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Citycenter Vegas 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 - CityCenter (E): Blow up the Harmon? should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Citycenter Vegas 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study CityCenter (E): Blow up the Harmon?, in the dynamic environment Citycenter Vegas has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Citycenter Vegas has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study CityCenter (E): Blow up the Harmon?, is just above the industry average. Citycenter Vegas 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.
Opportunities CityCenter (E): Blow up the Harmon? | 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 CityCenter (E): Blow up the Harmon? are -
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Citycenter Vegas 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 Citycenter Vegas to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Loyalty marketing
– Citycenter Vegas 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Citycenter Vegas 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.
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. Citycenter Vegas 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. Citycenter Vegas 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Citycenter Vegas has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Citycenter Vegas to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the CityCenter (E): Blow up the Harmon? case study. Citycenter Vegas can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
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. Citycenter Vegas can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
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 Citycenter Vegas 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.
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 Citycenter Vegas in the consumer business. Now Citycenter Vegas can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Developing new processes and practices
– Citycenter Vegas 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Citycenter Vegas 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 CityCenter (E): Blow up the Harmon? - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Citycenter Vegas to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Citycenter Vegas is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. CityCenter (E): Blow up the Harmon? 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Citycenter Vegas to increase its market reach. Citycenter Vegas 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Citycenter Vegas 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.
Threats CityCenter (E): Blow up the Harmon? External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study CityCenter (E): Blow up the Harmon? are -
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. Citycenter Vegas needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Finance & Accounting industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Citycenter Vegas 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 CityCenter (E): Blow up the Harmon? .
Environmental challenges
– Citycenter Vegas 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. Citycenter Vegas can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Finance & Accounting industry.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Citycenter Vegas 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.
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. Citycenter Vegas can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Citycenter Vegas with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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 Citycenter Vegas business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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.
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 Citycenter Vegas in the Finance & Accounting sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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. Citycenter Vegas 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Citycenter Vegas has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Finance & Accounting industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Citycenter Vegas 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.
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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Citycenter Vegas is facing in Finance & Accounting sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of CityCenter (E): Blow up the Harmon? 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 CityCenter (E): Blow up the Harmon? 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 CityCenter (E): Blow up the Harmon? 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 CityCenter (E): Blow up the Harmon? 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 CityCenter (E): Blow up the Harmon? 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 Citycenter Vegas needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.