Eldeco: Playing in the Big League SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Finance & Accounting
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Eldeco: Playing in the Big League
In 2001, Pankaj Bajaj is considering whether to go forward with a residential development outside New Delhi. Facing an uncooperative local authority, he must determine how to evaluate the risks of proceeding against the potential loss of a golden opportunity to bring Eldeco, his real estate development company, into the top tier of industry players.
Authors :: Arthur I Segel, Nicolas P. Retsinas, Siddharth Yog
Swot Analysis of "Eldeco: Playing in the Big League" written by Arthur I Segel, Nicolas P. Retsinas, Siddharth Yog includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Eldeco Uncooperative facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Eldeco: Playing in the Big League case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Entrepreneurial finance, Policy, Risk management and Finance & Accounting.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Eldeco: Playing in the Big League casestudy better are - – talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, there is backlash against globalization, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing transportation and logistics costs, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, geopolitical disruptions,
wage bills are increasing, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Eldeco: Playing in the Big League
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Eldeco: Playing in the Big League case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Eldeco Uncooperative, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Eldeco Uncooperative 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 Eldeco: Playing in the Big League can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Eldeco: Playing in the Big League case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Eldeco Uncooperative
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 Eldeco Uncooperative
Strengths Eldeco: Playing in the Big League | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Eldeco Uncooperative in Eldeco: Playing in the Big League Harvard Business Review case study are -
Digital Transformation in Finance & Accounting segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Eldeco Uncooperative digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Eldeco Uncooperative has successfully integrated the four key components of digital transformation – digital integration in processes, digital integration in marketing and customer relationship management, digital integration into the value chain, and using technology to explore new products and market opportunities.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Eldeco Uncooperative 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 Eldeco: Playing in the Big League HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Eldeco Uncooperative in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Innovation driven organization
– Eldeco Uncooperative is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Eldeco: Playing in the Big League Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Eldeco: Playing in the Big League 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Finance & Accounting industry
– Eldeco: Playing in the Big League firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Eldeco Uncooperative to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Finance & Accounting industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Eldeco Uncooperative to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Organizational Resilience of Eldeco Uncooperative
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Eldeco Uncooperative does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Eldeco Uncooperative 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 Eldeco: Playing in the Big League - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Eldeco Uncooperative has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Eldeco Uncooperative 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
– Eldeco Uncooperative is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Eldeco: Playing in the Big League are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Training and development
– Eldeco Uncooperative has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Eldeco: Playing in the Big League 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Eldeco Uncooperative 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.
Weaknesses Eldeco: Playing in the Big League | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Eldeco: Playing in the Big League are -
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Arthur I Segel, Nicolas P. Retsinas, Siddharth Yog suggests that, Eldeco Uncooperative 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Eldeco Uncooperative 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Eldeco Uncooperative 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Eldeco: Playing in the Big League, it seems that the employees of Eldeco Uncooperative 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Eldeco: Playing in the Big League, is just above the industry average. Eldeco Uncooperative 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 operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Eldeco: Playing in the Big League 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 Eldeco Uncooperative 's lucrative customers.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Eldeco Uncooperative 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 Eldeco: Playing in the Big League 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 Eldeco: Playing in the Big League can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Eldeco Uncooperative is planning to shift buying processes online.
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 Eldeco Uncooperative supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Eldeco: Playing in the Big League, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Eldeco Uncooperative vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Eldeco Uncooperative 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Eldeco: Playing in the Big League 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 Eldeco Uncooperative has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Opportunities Eldeco: Playing in the Big League | 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 Eldeco: Playing in the Big League are -
Leveraging digital technologies
– Eldeco Uncooperative 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Eldeco Uncooperative 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Eldeco Uncooperative can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Eldeco Uncooperative operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Finance & Accounting sector.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Eldeco Uncooperative 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 Eldeco: Playing in the Big League - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Eldeco Uncooperative to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Loyalty marketing
– Eldeco Uncooperative 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Eldeco Uncooperative has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Eldeco Uncooperative to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Eldeco: Playing in the Big League case study. Eldeco Uncooperative can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Eldeco Uncooperative 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.
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. Eldeco Uncooperative can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
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 Eldeco Uncooperative in the consumer business. Now Eldeco Uncooperative can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Eldeco Uncooperative 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Eldeco Uncooperative can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Eldeco Uncooperative 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 Eldeco Uncooperative to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Buying journey improvements
– Eldeco Uncooperative can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Eldeco: Playing in the Big League 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 Eldeco: Playing in the Big League External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Eldeco: Playing in the Big League are -
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Eldeco Uncooperative 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.
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 Eldeco Uncooperative.
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. Eldeco Uncooperative needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Finance & Accounting industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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 Eldeco Uncooperative in the Finance & Accounting sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Eldeco Uncooperative 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 Eldeco: Playing in the Big League .
Increasing wage structure of Eldeco Uncooperative
– 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 Eldeco Uncooperative.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Finance & Accounting field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Eldeco Uncooperative can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Eldeco Uncooperative with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Eldeco Uncooperative has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Finance & Accounting industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Eldeco Uncooperative needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Finance & Accounting sector. According to Mckinsey study top managers believe that the adoption of technology in operations, communications is 20-25 times faster than what they planned in the beginning of 2019.
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 Eldeco Uncooperative 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 Eldeco: Playing in the Big League, Eldeco Uncooperative 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 .
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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Eldeco Uncooperative 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Eldeco: Playing in the Big League 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 Eldeco: Playing in the Big League 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 Eldeco: Playing in the Big League 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 Eldeco: Playing in the Big League 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 Eldeco: Playing in the Big League 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 Eldeco Uncooperative needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.