Through the Eyes of a Whistle-Blower: How Sherry Hunt Spoke Up About Citibank's Mortgage Fraud SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
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Case Study Description of Through the Eyes of a Whistle-Blower: How Sherry Hunt Spoke Up About Citibank's Mortgage Fraud
In 2011, Sherry Hunt was a vice president and chief underwriter at CitiMortgage headquarters in the United States. For years she had been witnessing fraud, as the company bought billions of dollars in mortgage loans from external lenders that did not meet Citi credit policy and sold them to government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs). This resulted in Citi selling to GSEs such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pools of loans that were considerably defective and thus likely to default. Citi had also approved hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of defective mortgage files for U.S. Federal Housing Administration insurance. After reporting the mortgage defects in regular reports, notifying and working closely with her direct supervisor (who was subsequently asked to leave Citi after alerting the chairman of the board to these issues) to stop the purchase of defective loans, leaving anonymous tips on the FBI's and the Department of Housing and Urban Development's websites, and receiving threats from two of her superiors who demanded that she change the results of her quality control unit's reports, the shy and conflict-avoidant Hunt had to decide who she should tell about the fraud, and how. The case gives students the opportunity to recommend how Hunt should proceed based on their analysis of the stakeholders involved. To aid instructors, the case includes Kellogg-produced videos of Hunt-the only on-camera interviews she has ever given-explaining what happened after she reported the fraud to Citi HR and, later, the U.S. Department of Justice. Within the case, students are also briefly exposed to legislation and bodies pertinent to whistle-blowing in the United States, including the Dodd-Frank Act, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, and the SEC Office of the Whistleblower. This case won the 2014 competition for Outstanding Case on Anti-Corruption, supported by the Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME), an initiative of the UN Global Compact.
Swot Analysis of "Through the Eyes of a Whistle-Blower: How Sherry Hunt Spoke Up About Citibank's Mortgage Fraud" written by Adam Waytz, Vasilia Kilibarda includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Hunt Citi facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Through the Eyes of a Whistle-Blower: How Sherry Hunt Spoke Up About Citibank's Mortgage Fraud case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Communication, Decision making, Ethics, Gender, Public relations and Global Business.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Through the Eyes of a Whistle-Blower: How Sherry Hunt Spoke Up About Citibank's Mortgage Fraud casestudy better are - – technology disruption, increasing commodity prices, wage bills are increasing, increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing energy prices, increasing household debt because of falling income levels,
supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Through the Eyes of a Whistle-Blower: How Sherry Hunt Spoke Up About Citibank's Mortgage Fraud
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Through the Eyes of a Whistle-Blower: How Sherry Hunt Spoke Up About Citibank's Mortgage Fraud case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Hunt Citi, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Hunt Citi 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 Through the Eyes of a Whistle-Blower: How Sherry Hunt Spoke Up About Citibank's Mortgage Fraud can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Through the Eyes of a Whistle-Blower: How Sherry Hunt Spoke Up About Citibank's Mortgage Fraud case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Hunt Citi
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Global Business field.
4. Making a Global Business topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Hunt Citi
Strengths Through the Eyes of a Whistle-Blower: How Sherry Hunt Spoke Up About Citibank's Mortgage Fraud | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Hunt Citi in Through the Eyes of a Whistle-Blower: How Sherry Hunt Spoke Up About Citibank's Mortgage Fraud Harvard Business Review case study are -
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Hunt Citi in the sector have low bargaining power. Through the Eyes of a Whistle-Blower: How Sherry Hunt Spoke Up About Citibank's Mortgage Fraud has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Hunt Citi to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Through the Eyes of a Whistle-Blower: How Sherry Hunt Spoke Up About Citibank's Mortgage Fraud 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 switching costs
– The high switching costs that Hunt Citi 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Hunt Citi is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Innovation driven organization
– Hunt Citi is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Through the Eyes of a Whistle-Blower: How Sherry Hunt Spoke Up About Citibank's Mortgage Fraud Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Hunt Citi 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Hunt Citi is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Through the Eyes of a Whistle-Blower: How Sherry Hunt Spoke Up About Citibank's Mortgage Fraud are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Ability to lead change in Global Business field
– Hunt Citi 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 Hunt Citi in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Global Business industry
– Through the Eyes of a Whistle-Blower: How Sherry Hunt Spoke Up About Citibank's Mortgage Fraud firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Hunt Citi to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Global Business industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Hunt Citi to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Hunt Citi has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Hunt Citi has effective processes in place that helps in exploring new product needs, doing quick pilot testing, and then launching the products quickly using its extensive distribution network.
Learning organization
- Hunt Citi 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 Hunt Citi is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Through the Eyes of a Whistle-Blower: How Sherry Hunt Spoke Up About Citibank's Mortgage Fraud Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Hunt Citi in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Weaknesses Through the Eyes of a Whistle-Blower: How Sherry Hunt Spoke Up About Citibank's Mortgage Fraud | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Through the Eyes of a Whistle-Blower: How Sherry Hunt Spoke Up About Citibank's Mortgage Fraud are -
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Through the Eyes of a Whistle-Blower: How Sherry Hunt Spoke Up About Citibank's Mortgage Fraud, in the dynamic environment Hunt Citi has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Hunt Citi has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Hunt Citi 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Hunt Citi 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Hunt Citi 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Hunt Citi products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Hunt Citi needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Through the Eyes of a Whistle-Blower: How Sherry Hunt Spoke Up About Citibank's Mortgage Fraud, is just above the industry average. Hunt Citi 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Through the Eyes of a Whistle-Blower: How Sherry Hunt Spoke Up About Citibank's Mortgage Fraud 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 Hunt Citi has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Through the Eyes of a Whistle-Blower: How Sherry Hunt Spoke Up About Citibank's Mortgage Fraud 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 Through the Eyes of a Whistle-Blower: How Sherry Hunt Spoke Up About Citibank's Mortgage Fraud can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Hunt Citi is planning to shift buying processes online.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Hunt Citi 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.
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 Hunt Citi supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Through the Eyes of a Whistle-Blower: How Sherry Hunt Spoke Up About Citibank's Mortgage Fraud, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Hunt Citi vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Hunt Citi is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Global Business segment. Hunt Citi needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Hunt Citi to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Opportunities Through the Eyes of a Whistle-Blower: How Sherry Hunt Spoke Up About Citibank's Mortgage Fraud | 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 Through the Eyes of a Whistle-Blower: How Sherry Hunt Spoke Up About Citibank's Mortgage Fraud are -
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Hunt Citi in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Global Business segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Hunt Citi has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Hunt Citi to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Through the Eyes of a Whistle-Blower: How Sherry Hunt Spoke Up About Citibank's Mortgage Fraud case study. Hunt Citi can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Hunt Citi can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Global Business industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Hunt Citi can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
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 Hunt Citi in the consumer business. Now Hunt Citi can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Hunt Citi 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 Through the Eyes of a Whistle-Blower: How Sherry Hunt Spoke Up About Citibank's Mortgage Fraud - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Hunt Citi to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Loyalty marketing
– Hunt Citi 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 Hunt Citi 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.
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. Hunt Citi can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Developing new processes and practices
– Hunt Citi can develop new processes and procedures in Global Business 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Hunt Citi can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Global Business segment. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Hunt Citi 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 Global Business segment.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Hunt Citi is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Through the Eyes of a Whistle-Blower: How Sherry Hunt Spoke Up About Citibank's Mortgage Fraud 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.
Threats Through the Eyes of a Whistle-Blower: How Sherry Hunt Spoke Up About Citibank's Mortgage Fraud External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Through the Eyes of a Whistle-Blower: How Sherry Hunt Spoke Up About Citibank's Mortgage Fraud are -
Increasing wage structure of Hunt Citi
– 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 Hunt Citi.
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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Hunt Citi 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 Through the Eyes of a Whistle-Blower: How Sherry Hunt Spoke Up About Citibank's Mortgage Fraud .
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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Hunt Citi 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.
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 Hunt Citi.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Hunt Citi 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Hunt Citi with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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. Hunt Citi 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.
Environmental challenges
– Hunt Citi 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. Hunt Citi can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Global Business industry.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Hunt Citi 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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Global Business field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Hunt Citi can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Hunt Citi in the Global Business industry. The Global Business 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Through the Eyes of a Whistle-Blower: How Sherry Hunt Spoke Up About Citibank's Mortgage Fraud 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 Through the Eyes of a Whistle-Blower: How Sherry Hunt Spoke Up About Citibank's Mortgage Fraud 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 Through the Eyes of a Whistle-Blower: How Sherry Hunt Spoke Up About Citibank's Mortgage Fraud 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 Through the Eyes of a Whistle-Blower: How Sherry Hunt Spoke Up About Citibank's Mortgage Fraud 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 Through the Eyes of a Whistle-Blower: How Sherry Hunt Spoke Up About Citibank's Mortgage Fraud 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 Hunt Citi needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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