The Fall of Banco Espirito Santo: Holy Spirit or Devil in Disguise? SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Global Business
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of The Fall of Banco Espirito Santo: Holy Spirit or Devil in Disguise?
In 2014, after nearly 150 years as one of Portugal's most wealthy and powerful families, the EspArito Santo family completely lost control of its empire, which included Banco EspArito Santo, Portugal's largest bank by market capitalization and second-largest private-sector bank in terms of assets, along with stakes in numerous financial, non-financial, privately held, and publicly traded companies. During the European financial crisis of 2010 to 2014, many of the family's companies required capital investment. To avoid family equity dilution, the family's patriarch, Ricardo EspArito Santo Silva Salgado, engaged in a creative money-go-round structure whereby Banco EspArito Santo would legally raise short-term commercial paper with high interest rates and sell them to third parties that were partially owned by the EspArito Santo family. These third parties then would sell that paper back to the bank's retail clients as safe investments similar to Portuguese deposits. The plan failed, and the house of cards that was the EspArito Santo empire collapsed. Students will consider whether Salgado and the board of Banco EspArito Santo acted appropriately or if they failed their fiduciary duties to the non-family shareholders of the bank.
Swot Analysis of "The Fall of Banco Espirito Santo: Holy Spirit or Devil in Disguise?" written by James Shein, Jason P. Hawbecker includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Santo Esparito facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in The Fall of Banco Espirito Santo: Holy Spirit or Devil in Disguise? case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Competitive strategy, Crisis management, Entrepreneurial finance, Ethics, Financial management, Public relations, Risk management and Global Business.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the The Fall of Banco Espirito Santo: Holy Spirit or Devil in Disguise? casestudy better are - – geopolitical disruptions, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing transportation and logistics costs, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation,
increasing household debt because of falling income levels, there is backlash against globalization, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of The Fall of Banco Espirito Santo: Holy Spirit or Devil in Disguise?
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in The Fall of Banco Espirito Santo: Holy Spirit or Devil in Disguise? case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Santo Esparito, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Santo Esparito 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 Fall of Banco Espirito Santo: Holy Spirit or Devil in Disguise? can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in The Fall of Banco Espirito Santo: Holy Spirit or Devil in Disguise? case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Santo Esparito
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 Santo Esparito
Strengths The Fall of Banco Espirito Santo: Holy Spirit or Devil in Disguise? | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Santo Esparito in The Fall of Banco Espirito Santo: Holy Spirit or Devil in Disguise? Harvard Business Review case study are -
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Santo Esparito 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.
Learning organization
- Santo Esparito 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 Santo Esparito is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in The Fall of Banco Espirito Santo: Holy Spirit or Devil in Disguise? Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Ability to lead change in Global Business field
– Santo Esparito 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 Santo Esparito in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Strong track record of project management
– Santo Esparito is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Santo Esparito 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 Fall of Banco Espirito Santo: Holy Spirit or Devil in Disguise? - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Organizational Resilience of Santo Esparito
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Santo Esparito does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the The Fall of Banco Espirito Santo: Holy Spirit or Devil in Disguise? 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 Global Business industry
– The Fall of Banco Espirito Santo: Holy Spirit or Devil in Disguise? firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Santo Esparito to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Global Business industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Santo Esparito to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Santo Esparito 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 Fall of Banco Espirito Santo: Holy Spirit or Devil in Disguise? HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Santo Esparito 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.
High brand equity
– Santo Esparito has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Santo Esparito to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Santo Esparito in the sector have low bargaining power. The Fall of Banco Espirito Santo: Holy Spirit or Devil in Disguise? has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Santo Esparito to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Weaknesses The Fall of Banco Espirito Santo: Holy Spirit or Devil in Disguise? | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of The Fall of Banco Espirito Santo: Holy Spirit or Devil in Disguise? are -
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study The Fall of Banco Espirito Santo: Holy Spirit or Devil in Disguise? 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 Fall of Banco Espirito Santo: Holy Spirit or Devil in Disguise? can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Santo Esparito is planning to shift buying processes online.
Need for greater diversity
– Santo Esparito 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 dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the The Fall of Banco Espirito Santo: Holy Spirit or Devil in Disguise? 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 Santo Esparito has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As The Fall of Banco Espirito Santo: Holy Spirit or Devil in Disguise? HBR case study mentions - Santo Esparito 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Santo Esparito 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 The Fall of Banco Espirito Santo: Holy Spirit or Devil in Disguise?, it seems that the employees of Santo Esparito 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 The Fall of Banco Espirito Santo: Holy Spirit or Devil in Disguise?, is just above the industry average. Santo Esparito 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Santo Esparito 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Santo Esparito is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study The Fall of Banco Espirito Santo: Holy Spirit or Devil in Disguise? can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Santo Esparito 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study The Fall of Banco Espirito Santo: Holy Spirit or Devil in Disguise?, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Global Business 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.
Opportunities The Fall of Banco Espirito Santo: Holy Spirit or Devil in Disguise? | 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 Fall of Banco Espirito Santo: Holy Spirit or Devil in Disguise? are -
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. Santo Esparito can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Manufacturing automation
– Santo Esparito 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Santo Esparito can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Santo Esparito operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Global Business sector.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Santo Esparito 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 Fall of Banco Espirito Santo: Holy Spirit or Devil in Disguise?, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Loyalty marketing
– Santo Esparito 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 Santo Esparito has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Santo Esparito to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the The Fall of Banco Espirito Santo: Holy Spirit or Devil in Disguise? case study. Santo Esparito can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Santo Esparito 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 Santo Esparito to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Buying journey improvements
– Santo Esparito can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. The Fall of Banco Espirito Santo: Holy Spirit or Devil in Disguise? 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Santo Esparito 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.
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. Santo Esparito 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 Santo Esparito can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Santo Esparito 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Santo Esparito 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.
Threats The Fall of Banco Espirito Santo: Holy Spirit or Devil in Disguise? External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study The Fall of Banco Espirito Santo: Holy Spirit or Devil in Disguise? are -
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 Santo Esparito in the Global Business sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Regulatory challenges
– Santo Esparito 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Santo Esparito 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 The Fall of Banco Espirito Santo: Holy Spirit or Devil in Disguise? .
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 Santo Esparito.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Santo Esparito has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Global Business industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Santo Esparito 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.
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. Santo Esparito will face different problems in different parts of Europe. For example it will face inflationary pressures in UK, France, and Germany, balance sheet expansion and demand challenges in Southern European countries, and geopolitical instability in the Eastern Europe.
Environmental challenges
– Santo Esparito 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. Santo Esparito can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Global Business industry.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Santo Esparito 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.
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 Fall of Banco Espirito Santo: Holy Spirit or Devil in Disguise?, Santo Esparito 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 .
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Santo Esparito with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Santo Esparito 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Santo Esparito 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.
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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of The Fall of Banco Espirito Santo: Holy Spirit or Devil in Disguise? 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 Fall of Banco Espirito Santo: Holy Spirit or Devil in Disguise? 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 Fall of Banco Espirito Santo: Holy Spirit or Devil in Disguise? 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 Fall of Banco Espirito Santo: Holy Spirit or Devil in Disguise? 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 Fall of Banco Espirito Santo: Holy Spirit or Devil in Disguise? 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 Santo Esparito needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.