The Big Easy, Not So Easy SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Finance & Accounting
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of The Big Easy, Not So Easy
Enterprise Community Partners must determine whether to rebuild the Lafitte housing projects in hurricane-ravaged New Orleans, and if so, how to mitigate the risks. Set in January 2007, more than a year after Hurricane Katrina made landfall, the case examines how Enterprise has a number of environmental, contractual, reputational, and legal risks to overcome in making the project a success. Given these risks, Enterprise is unsure whether to rebuild in New Orleans at all, and whether to renovate the site or redevelop it into a mixed-income community.
Authors :: Nicolas P. Retsinas, Arthur I Segel, Ben Creo
Swot Analysis of "The Big Easy, Not So Easy" written by Nicolas P. Retsinas, Arthur I Segel, Ben Creo includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Orleans Hurricane facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in The Big Easy, Not So Easy case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Emerging markets, Project management, Public relations, Risk management and Finance & Accounting.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the The Big Easy, Not So Easy casestudy better are - – increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing energy prices, there is backlash against globalization,
talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of The Big Easy, Not So Easy
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in The Big Easy, Not So Easy case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Orleans Hurricane, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Orleans Hurricane 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 The Big Easy, Not So Easy can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in The Big Easy, Not So Easy case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Orleans Hurricane
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 Orleans Hurricane
Strengths The Big Easy, Not So Easy | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Orleans Hurricane in The Big Easy, Not So Easy Harvard Business Review case study are -
Digital Transformation in Finance & Accounting segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Orleans Hurricane digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Orleans Hurricane 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.
Training and development
– Orleans Hurricane has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in The Big Easy, Not So Easy 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 lead change in Finance & Accounting field
– Orleans Hurricane 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 Orleans Hurricane in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Orleans Hurricane 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 The Big Easy, Not So Easy HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Orleans Hurricane 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Finance & Accounting industry
– The Big Easy, Not So Easy firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Orleans Hurricane to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Finance & Accounting industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Orleans Hurricane to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Orleans Hurricane 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
– Orleans Hurricane is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the The Big Easy, Not So Easy are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Orleans Hurricane 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 The Big Easy, Not So Easy - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Innovation driven organization
– Orleans Hurricane is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in The Big Easy, Not So Easy Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Learning organization
- Orleans Hurricane 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 Orleans Hurricane is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in The Big Easy, Not So Easy Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Orleans Hurricane has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Orleans Hurricane 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.
Weaknesses The Big Easy, Not So Easy | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of The Big Easy, Not So Easy are -
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Orleans Hurricane, firm in the HBR case study The Big Easy, Not So Easy needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Orleans Hurricane 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study The Big Easy, Not So Easy 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 The Big Easy, Not So Easy can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Orleans Hurricane is planning to shift buying processes online.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Orleans Hurricane is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Finance & Accounting segment. Orleans Hurricane needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Orleans Hurricane to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Lack of clear differentiation of Orleans Hurricane products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Orleans Hurricane needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Orleans Hurricane 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 bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Nicolas P. Retsinas, Arthur I Segel, Ben Creo suggests that, Orleans Hurricane 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study The Big Easy, Not So Easy, it seems that the employees of Orleans Hurricane 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 operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study The Big Easy, Not So Easy 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 Orleans Hurricane 's lucrative customers.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study The Big Easy, Not So Easy, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Finance & Accounting strategy. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study The Big Easy, Not So Easy, in the dynamic environment Orleans Hurricane has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Orleans Hurricane has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Opportunities The Big Easy, Not So Easy | 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 The Big Easy, Not So Easy are -
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. Orleans Hurricane 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. Orleans Hurricane 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Orleans Hurricane 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Orleans Hurricane to increase its market reach. Orleans Hurricane 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
– Orleans Hurricane 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Orleans Hurricane can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Orleans Hurricane operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Finance & Accounting sector.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Orleans Hurricane 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 Orleans Hurricane to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
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 Orleans Hurricane in the consumer business. Now Orleans Hurricane can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Loyalty marketing
– Orleans Hurricane 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.
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. Orleans Hurricane can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Orleans Hurricane can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Orleans Hurricane 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, The Big Easy, Not So Easy, 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 Orleans Hurricane 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Orleans Hurricane 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 The Big Easy, Not So Easy External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study The Big Easy, Not So Easy are -
Regulatory challenges
– Orleans Hurricane 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.
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. Orleans Hurricane 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.
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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Orleans Hurricane 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study The Big Easy, Not So Easy, Orleans Hurricane 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 Orleans Hurricane is facing in Finance & Accounting sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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 Orleans Hurricane.
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 Orleans Hurricane in the Finance & Accounting sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Orleans Hurricane 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 Orleans Hurricane business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Orleans Hurricane 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.
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. Orleans Hurricane needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Finance & Accounting industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Orleans Hurricane 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of The Big Easy, Not So Easy 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 The Big Easy, Not So Easy 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 The Big Easy, Not So Easy 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 The Big Easy, Not So Easy 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 The Big Easy, Not So Easy 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 Orleans Hurricane needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.