Reviews Ireland's economic development over the past hundred years and how the government turned this small island's economy around. Ireland's population had dropped from eight million in the late 19th century to three million by 1990. It was considered the poorest European Union country, known for its extreme poverty, high unemployment, and bleak economic future. Through increased linkage to Europe, Ireland became a global trading economy. Its overall success stemmed from a low tax rate, a well-educated population, and a skilled and flexible workforce. Explores all of these aspects of Ireland's "economic miracle."
Swot Analysis of "Ireland: Celtic Tiger" written by Don Haider includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Ireland's Ireland facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Ireland: Celtic Tiger case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Economics, Globalization, Strategic planning and Global Business.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Ireland: Celtic Tiger casestudy better are - – there is increasing trade war between United States & China, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, technology disruption, there is backlash against globalization, increasing energy prices, increasing transportation and logistics costs,
supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Ireland: Celtic Tiger
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Ireland: Celtic Tiger case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Ireland's Ireland, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Ireland's Ireland 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 Ireland: Celtic Tiger can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Ireland: Celtic Tiger case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Ireland's Ireland
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 Ireland's Ireland
Strengths Ireland: Celtic Tiger | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Ireland's Ireland in Ireland: Celtic Tiger Harvard Business Review case study are -
Strong track record of project management
– Ireland's Ireland is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Ireland's Ireland in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Learning organization
- Ireland's Ireland 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 Ireland's Ireland is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Ireland: Celtic Tiger Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Ireland's Ireland is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Ireland: Celtic Tiger are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Innovation driven organization
– Ireland's Ireland is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Ireland: Celtic Tiger 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 Ireland's Ireland 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Ireland's Ireland 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 Ireland: Celtic Tiger - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Ireland's Ireland in the sector have low bargaining power. Ireland: Celtic Tiger has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Ireland's Ireland to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Ireland's Ireland has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Ireland's Ireland 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Ireland's Ireland is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Ireland: Celtic Tiger 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.
Training and development
– Ireland's Ireland has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Ireland: Celtic Tiger 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Global Business industry
– Ireland: Celtic Tiger firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Ireland's Ireland to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Global Business industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Ireland's Ireland to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Weaknesses Ireland: Celtic Tiger | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Ireland: Celtic Tiger are -
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Ireland's Ireland 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Ireland: Celtic Tiger, is just above the industry average. Ireland's Ireland 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, Ireland's Ireland 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. Ireland's Ireland 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Ireland's Ireland 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.
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 Ireland's Ireland supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Ireland: Celtic Tiger, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Ireland's Ireland vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Ireland: Celtic Tiger, it seems that the employees of Ireland's Ireland 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Ireland's Ireland 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 - Ireland: Celtic Tiger should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Ireland: Celtic Tiger HBR case study mentions - Ireland's Ireland takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the industry in last five years.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Ireland: Celtic Tiger 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 Ireland: Celtic Tiger can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Ireland's Ireland is planning to shift buying processes online.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Ireland's Ireland 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Ireland's Ireland, firm in the HBR case study Ireland: Celtic Tiger needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Opportunities Ireland: Celtic Tiger | 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 Ireland: Celtic Tiger are -
Developing new processes and practices
– Ireland's Ireland 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Ireland's Ireland 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Ireland's Ireland 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Ireland's Ireland 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 Ireland's Ireland to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Ireland's Ireland 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 Ireland: Celtic Tiger - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Ireland's Ireland to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Ireland's Ireland 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Ireland's Ireland 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Ireland's Ireland is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Ireland: Celtic Tiger 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Ireland's Ireland 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, Ireland: Celtic Tiger, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
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 Ireland's Ireland 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.
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. Ireland's Ireland can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Ireland's Ireland to increase its market reach. Ireland's Ireland 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.
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 Ireland's Ireland in the consumer business. Now Ireland's Ireland can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Threats Ireland: Celtic Tiger External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Ireland: Celtic Tiger are -
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Ireland's Ireland has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Global Business industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Ireland's Ireland needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Global Business 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Ireland's Ireland is facing in Global Business sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Ireland's Ireland 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.
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 Ireland's Ireland in the Global Business sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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. Ireland's Ireland can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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 wage structure of Ireland's Ireland
– 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 Ireland's Ireland.
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. Ireland's Ireland will face different problems in different parts of Europe. For example it will face inflationary pressures in UK, France, and Germany, balance sheet expansion and demand challenges in Southern European countries, and geopolitical instability in the Eastern Europe.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Ireland's Ireland 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.
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 Ireland's Ireland business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Ireland: Celtic Tiger, Ireland's Ireland may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Global Business .
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 Ireland's Ireland.
Environmental challenges
– Ireland's Ireland 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. Ireland's Ireland can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Global Business industry.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Ireland: Celtic Tiger 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 Ireland: Celtic Tiger 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 Ireland: Celtic Tiger 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 Ireland: Celtic Tiger 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 Ireland: Celtic Tiger 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 Ireland's Ireland needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.