Wider Europe: The Challenge of EU Enlargement SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
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Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Wider Europe: The Challenge of EU Enlargement
This case is available in only hard copy format (HBP does not have digital distribution rights to the content). As a result, a digital Educator Copy of the case is not available through this web site.By 2002, the euphoria that accompanied the grandest achievement to date of Europe's 50-plus years of integration--full monetary union--was fading fast. European policy makers completed the historically unprecedented monetary integration of 12 countries, and then they turned their attention to an equally challenging issue: enlarging the European Union (EU). By the beginning of the 21st century, 13 countries clamored for membership in this most exclusive club of rich, democratic, European states. With so many prospective members knocking on the door, European policy makers were forced to decide quickly whom to let in and under what conditions.
Swot Analysis of "Wider Europe: The Challenge of EU Enlargement" written by Rawi Abdelal, Kimberly A. Haddad includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that European Eu facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Wider Europe: The Challenge of EU Enlargement case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Policy and Global Business.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Wider Europe: The Challenge of EU Enlargement casestudy better are - – there is backlash against globalization, increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, geopolitical disruptions, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing commodity prices, there is increasing trade war between United States & China,
supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , wage bills are increasing, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Wider Europe: The Challenge of EU Enlargement
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Wider Europe: The Challenge of EU Enlargement case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the European Eu, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which European Eu 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 Wider Europe: The Challenge of EU Enlargement can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Wider Europe: The Challenge of EU Enlargement case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of European Eu
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 European Eu
Strengths Wider Europe: The Challenge of EU Enlargement | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of European Eu in Wider Europe: The Challenge of EU Enlargement Harvard Business Review case study are -
Successful track record of launching new products
– European Eu has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. European Eu 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– European Eu is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Wider Europe: The Challenge of EU Enlargement are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Diverse revenue streams
– European Eu is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Wider Europe: The Challenge of EU Enlargement 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.
Learning organization
- European Eu 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 European Eu is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Wider Europe: The Challenge of EU Enlargement Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Digital Transformation in Global Business segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For European Eu digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. European Eu 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the European Eu 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.
Innovation driven organization
– European Eu is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Wider Europe: The Challenge of EU Enlargement Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Global Business industry
– Wider Europe: The Challenge of EU Enlargement firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled European Eu to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Global Business industry. The sustainable margins have also helped European Eu to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
High brand equity
– European Eu has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled European Eu to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Strong track record of project management
– European Eu is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Ability to lead change in Global Business field
– European Eu 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 European Eu in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– European Eu 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 Wider Europe: The Challenge of EU Enlargement - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Weaknesses Wider Europe: The Challenge of EU Enlargement | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Wider Europe: The Challenge of EU Enlargement are -
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Wider Europe: The Challenge of EU Enlargement, it seems that the employees of European Eu 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of European Eu is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Global Business segment. European Eu needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help European Eu to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, European Eu 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at European Eu 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 operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Wider Europe: The Challenge of EU Enlargement 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 European Eu 's lucrative customers.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, European Eu is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Wider Europe: The Challenge of EU Enlargement can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Wider Europe: The Challenge of EU Enlargement 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 European Eu has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Wider Europe: The Challenge of EU Enlargement, in the dynamic environment European Eu has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. European Eu has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Products dominated business model
– Even though European Eu 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 - Wider Europe: The Challenge of EU Enlargement should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of European Eu, firm in the HBR case study Wider Europe: The Challenge of EU Enlargement needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
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 European Eu supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Wider Europe: The Challenge of EU Enlargement, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left European Eu vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Opportunities Wider Europe: The Challenge of EU Enlargement | 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 Wider Europe: The Challenge of EU Enlargement are -
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. European Eu can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, European Eu is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Wider Europe: The Challenge of EU Enlargement 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– European Eu 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, European Eu 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, Wider Europe: The Challenge of EU Enlargement, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects European Eu can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for European Eu 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. European Eu can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Developing new processes and practices
– European Eu 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for European Eu 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.
Loyalty marketing
– European Eu 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help European Eu to increase its market reach. European Eu 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, European Eu 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.
Buying journey improvements
– European Eu can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Wider Europe: The Challenge of EU Enlargement suggest that firm can provide automated chats to help consumers solve their own problems, provide online suggestions to get maximum out of the products and services, and help consumers to build a community where they can interact with each other to develop new features and uses.
Threats Wider Europe: The Challenge of EU Enlargement External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Wider Europe: The Challenge of EU Enlargement are -
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 European Eu.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– European Eu has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Global Business industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, European Eu 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 European Eu is facing in Global Business sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– European Eu 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents European Eu with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Increasing wage structure of European Eu
– 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 European Eu.
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. European Eu 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.
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 European Eu in the Global Business sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Regulatory challenges
– European Eu 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 Global Business industry regulations.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– European Eu 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.
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. European Eu can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Environmental challenges
– European Eu 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. European Eu can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Global Business industry.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Wider Europe: The Challenge of EU Enlargement 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 Wider Europe: The Challenge of EU Enlargement 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 Wider Europe: The Challenge of EU Enlargement 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 Wider Europe: The Challenge of EU Enlargement 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 Wider Europe: The Challenge of EU Enlargement 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 European Eu needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.