Case Study Description of Casablanca Finance Group
Examines the founding and development of an investment bank in Morocco. Two Moroccan expatriates return from Paris and enter the brokerage business. Over the next six years they build the leading financial services firm in the country. Concludes with a series of challenges in 1999.
Swot Analysis of "Casablanca Finance Group" written by Robert E. Kennedy, Ismail Douiri includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Casablanca Moroccan facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Casablanca Finance Group case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Globalization and Global Business.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Casablanca Finance Group casestudy better are - – increasing transportation and logistics costs, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, wage bills are increasing, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing energy prices,
cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Casablanca Finance Group
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Casablanca Finance Group case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Casablanca Moroccan, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Casablanca Moroccan 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 Casablanca Finance Group can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Casablanca Finance Group case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Casablanca Moroccan
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 Casablanca Moroccan
Strengths Casablanca Finance Group | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Casablanca Moroccan in Casablanca Finance Group Harvard Business Review case study are -
Organizational Resilience of Casablanca Moroccan
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Casablanca Moroccan does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Casablanca Moroccan in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Analytics focus
– Casablanca Moroccan 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 Robert E. Kennedy, Ismail Douiri 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Casablanca Moroccan is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Learning organization
- Casablanca Moroccan 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 Casablanca Moroccan is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Casablanca Finance Group Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Casablanca Moroccan 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 Casablanca Finance Group HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Casablanca Moroccan has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Casablanca Moroccan 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Casablanca Moroccan is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Casablanca Finance Group Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Casablanca Moroccan 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.
Digital Transformation in Global Business segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Casablanca Moroccan digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Casablanca Moroccan 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Global Business industry
– Casablanca Finance Group firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Casablanca Moroccan to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Global Business industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Casablanca Moroccan to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Diverse revenue streams
– Casablanca Moroccan is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Casablanca Finance Group 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.
Weaknesses Casablanca Finance Group | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Casablanca Finance Group are -
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Casablanca Moroccan 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 Casablanca Finance Group 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 Casablanca Finance Group can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Casablanca Moroccan is planning to shift buying processes online.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Casablanca Moroccan 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Casablanca Finance Group, 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.
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 Casablanca Moroccan supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Casablanca Finance Group, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Casablanca Moroccan vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Casablanca Finance Group HBR case study mentions - Casablanca Moroccan 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Casablanca Moroccan 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Casablanca Moroccan is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Global Business segment. Casablanca Moroccan needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Casablanca Moroccan to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Lack of clear differentiation of Casablanca Moroccan products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Casablanca Moroccan needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Casablanca Finance Group 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 Casablanca Moroccan 's lucrative customers.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Casablanca Finance Group, in the dynamic environment Casablanca Moroccan has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Casablanca Moroccan has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Opportunities Casablanca Finance Group | 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 Casablanca Finance Group are -
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Casablanca Moroccan 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Casablanca Moroccan can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Casablanca Finance Group 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Casablanca Moroccan 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.
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 Casablanca Moroccan in the consumer business. Now Casablanca Moroccan can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Casablanca Moroccan can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Casablanca Moroccan operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Global Business sector.
Developing new processes and practices
– Casablanca Moroccan 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.
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. Casablanca Moroccan can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Reconfiguring business model
– The expansion of digital payment system, the bringing down of international transactions costs using Bitcoin and other blockchain based currencies, etc can help Casablanca Moroccan to reconfigure its entire business model. For example it can used blockchain based technologies to reduce piracy of its products in the big markets such as China. Secondly it can use the popularity of e-commerce in various developing markets to build a Direct to Customer business model rather than the current Channel Heavy distribution network.
Loyalty marketing
– Casablanca Moroccan 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Casablanca Moroccan 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, Casablanca Finance Group, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Casablanca Moroccan to increase its market reach. Casablanca Moroccan 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, Casablanca Moroccan 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Casablanca Moroccan has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Casablanca Moroccan to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Casablanca Finance Group case study. Casablanca Moroccan can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Threats Casablanca Finance Group External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Casablanca Finance Group are -
Consumer confidence and its impact on Casablanca Moroccan 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.
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. Casablanca Moroccan can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Casablanca Moroccan has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Global Business industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Casablanca Moroccan 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Casablanca Moroccan 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Casablanca Moroccan with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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 Casablanca Moroccan in the Global Business sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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. Casablanca Moroccan 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
– Casablanca Moroccan 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. Casablanca Moroccan can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Global Business industry.
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 Casablanca Moroccan 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 Casablanca Finance Group, Casablanca Moroccan 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 .
Increasing wage structure of Casablanca Moroccan
– 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 Casablanca Moroccan.
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.
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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Casablanca Finance Group 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 Casablanca Finance Group 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 Casablanca Finance Group 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 Casablanca Finance Group 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 Casablanca Finance Group 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 Casablanca Moroccan needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.