Case Study Description of Canada's Response to Sarbanes-Oxley
The case reviews responses by governments, securities commissions and others to the U.S. Sarbanes-Oxley Act. It discusses the certification of financial statements and internal controls, the role of boards and board committees, including the audit committee, and issues of auditor independence. The Canadian Public Accountability Board is also discussed.
Swot Analysis of "Canada's Response to Sarbanes-Oxley" written by Vaughan Radcliffe, Brooke Harley includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Oxley Sarbanes facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Canada's Response to Sarbanes-Oxley case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Boards, Performance measurement, Regulation and Global Business.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Canada's Response to Sarbanes-Oxley casestudy better are - – increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, there is backlash against globalization, geopolitical disruptions, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing commodity prices, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies,
talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Canada's Response to Sarbanes-Oxley
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Canada's Response to Sarbanes-Oxley case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Oxley Sarbanes, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Oxley Sarbanes 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 Canada's Response to Sarbanes-Oxley can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Canada's Response to Sarbanes-Oxley case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Oxley Sarbanes
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 Oxley Sarbanes
Strengths Canada's Response to Sarbanes-Oxley | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Oxley Sarbanes in Canada's Response to Sarbanes-Oxley Harvard Business Review case study are -
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Oxley Sarbanes 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 Canada's Response to Sarbanes-Oxley - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Oxley Sarbanes 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Oxley Sarbanes is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Canada's Response to Sarbanes-Oxley 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Oxley Sarbanes is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Oxley Sarbanes 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Global Business industry
– Canada's Response to Sarbanes-Oxley firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Oxley Sarbanes to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Global Business industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Oxley Sarbanes to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Training and development
– Oxley Sarbanes has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Canada's Response to Sarbanes-Oxley 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 brand equity
– Oxley Sarbanes has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Oxley Sarbanes to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Analytics focus
– Oxley Sarbanes is putting a lot of focus on utilizing the power of analytics in business decision making. This has put it among the leading players in the industry. The technology infrastructure suggested by Vaughan Radcliffe, Brooke Harley can also help it to harness the power of analytics for – marketing optimization, demand forecasting, customer relationship management, inventory management, information sharing across the value chain etc.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Canada's Response to Sarbanes-Oxley 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Oxley Sarbanes 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 Canada's Response to Sarbanes-Oxley HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Digital Transformation in Global Business segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Oxley Sarbanes digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Oxley Sarbanes 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.
Weaknesses Canada's Response to Sarbanes-Oxley | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Canada's Response to Sarbanes-Oxley are -
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Oxley Sarbanes is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Global Business segment. Oxley Sarbanes needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Oxley Sarbanes to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Canada's Response to Sarbanes-Oxley 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 Oxley Sarbanes has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Canada's Response to Sarbanes-Oxley HBR case study mentions - Oxley Sarbanes 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Oxley Sarbanes is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Canada's Response to Sarbanes-Oxley can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Canada's Response to Sarbanes-Oxley, in the dynamic environment Oxley Sarbanes has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Oxley Sarbanes has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Canada's Response to Sarbanes-Oxley 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 Oxley Sarbanes 's lucrative customers.
Lack of clear differentiation of Oxley Sarbanes products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Oxley Sarbanes needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Oxley Sarbanes, firm in the HBR case study Canada's Response to Sarbanes-Oxley needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Oxley Sarbanes has borrowed money from the capital market at higher rates. It needs to restructure the interest payment and costs so that it can compete better and improve profitability.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Canada's Response to Sarbanes-Oxley 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 Canada's Response to Sarbanes-Oxley can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Oxley Sarbanes is planning to shift buying processes online.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Canada's Response to Sarbanes-Oxley, is just above the industry average. Oxley Sarbanes 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.
Opportunities Canada's Response to Sarbanes-Oxley | 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 Canada's Response to Sarbanes-Oxley are -
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Oxley Sarbanes 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Oxley Sarbanes 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 Oxley Sarbanes can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Global Business industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Oxley Sarbanes can take advantage of these changes in consumer behavior to build a far more efficient business model. For example consumer regular ordering of products can reduce both last mile delivery costs and market penetration costs. Oxley Sarbanes can further use this consumer data to build better customer loyalty, provide better products and service collection, and improve the value proposition in inflationary times.
Buying journey improvements
– Oxley Sarbanes can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Canada's Response to Sarbanes-Oxley 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Oxley Sarbanes can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Oxley Sarbanes operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Global Business sector.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Oxley Sarbanes can make experimentation a productive activity and build a culture of innovation using approaches such as – mining transaction data, A/B testing of websites and selling platforms, engaging potential customers over various needs, and building on small ideas in the Global Business segment.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Oxley Sarbanes 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 Canada's Response to Sarbanes-Oxley - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Oxley Sarbanes to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Oxley Sarbanes 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Oxley Sarbanes 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 Oxley Sarbanes to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Oxley Sarbanes in the consumer business. Now Oxley Sarbanes can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Oxley Sarbanes 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Oxley Sarbanes 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.
Threats Canada's Response to Sarbanes-Oxley External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Canada's Response to Sarbanes-Oxley are -
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Oxley Sarbanes in the Global Business industry. The Global Business industry is already at various protected from local competition in China, with the rise of trade war the protection levels may go up. This presents a clear threat of current business model in Chinese market.
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. Oxley Sarbanes 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Oxley Sarbanes 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Oxley Sarbanes 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.
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. Oxley Sarbanes needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Global Business industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Oxley Sarbanes 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 Canada's Response to Sarbanes-Oxley .
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Oxley Sarbanes 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
– Oxley Sarbanes 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Oxley Sarbanes has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Global Business industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Oxley Sarbanes 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.
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.
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 Oxley Sarbanes 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 Canada's Response to Sarbanes-Oxley, Oxley Sarbanes 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 Oxley Sarbanes.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Canada's Response to Sarbanes-Oxley 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 Canada's Response to Sarbanes-Oxley 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 Canada's Response to Sarbanes-Oxley 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 Canada's Response to Sarbanes-Oxley 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 Canada's Response to Sarbanes-Oxley 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 Oxley Sarbanes needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.