Rough Justice: Stuart Eizenstat and Holocaust-era Asset Restitution (A) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Global Business
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Rough Justice: Stuart Eizenstat and Holocaust-era Asset Restitution (A)
Beginning in 1994, a series of articles and public disclosures indicated that Swiss banks may have retained assets belonging to victims of the Holocaust, and also may have engaged in long term attempts to block survivors' ability to recover those assets after World War II. Stuart Eizenstat, a longtime government official, and U.S. Special Envoy for Property Restitution, undertook a complex multi-year negotiation between victims' representatives, advocacy groups, government officials, and the banks in an unprecedented attempt to obtain restitution for the victims. Unifying fractous parties within an uncertain legal, social, and business landscape, Eizenstat used a unique approach of quantifying "rough justice" in order to enforce the accountability of corporate entities and governments for past injustices in Switzerland, which forms the basis of this study.
Swot Analysis of "Rough Justice: Stuart Eizenstat and Holocaust-era Asset Restitution (A)" written by James K. Sebenius, Laurence A. Green includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Eizenstat Restitution facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Rough Justice: Stuart Eizenstat and Holocaust-era Asset Restitution (A) case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Corporate governance, Government, Negotiations and Global Business.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Rough Justice: Stuart Eizenstat and Holocaust-era Asset Restitution (A) casestudy better are - – customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies,
increasing commodity prices, geopolitical disruptions, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Rough Justice: Stuart Eizenstat and Holocaust-era Asset Restitution (A)
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Rough Justice: Stuart Eizenstat and Holocaust-era Asset Restitution (A) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Eizenstat Restitution, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Eizenstat Restitution 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 Rough Justice: Stuart Eizenstat and Holocaust-era Asset Restitution (A) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Rough Justice: Stuart Eizenstat and Holocaust-era Asset Restitution (A) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Eizenstat Restitution
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 Eizenstat Restitution
Strengths Rough Justice: Stuart Eizenstat and Holocaust-era Asset Restitution (A) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Eizenstat Restitution in Rough Justice: Stuart Eizenstat and Holocaust-era Asset Restitution (A) Harvard Business Review case study are -
Highly skilled collaborators
– Eizenstat Restitution 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 Rough Justice: Stuart Eizenstat and Holocaust-era Asset Restitution (A) 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 Eizenstat Restitution in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Eizenstat Restitution in the sector have low bargaining power. Rough Justice: Stuart Eizenstat and Holocaust-era Asset Restitution (A) has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Eizenstat Restitution to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Training and development
– Eizenstat Restitution has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Rough Justice: Stuart Eizenstat and Holocaust-era Asset Restitution (A) 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Eizenstat Restitution 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.
Analytics focus
– Eizenstat Restitution 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 James K. Sebenius, Laurence A. Green 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.
Learning organization
- Eizenstat Restitution 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 Eizenstat Restitution is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Rough Justice: Stuart Eizenstat and Holocaust-era Asset Restitution (A) Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Rough Justice: Stuart Eizenstat and Holocaust-era Asset Restitution (A) 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Eizenstat Restitution 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Eizenstat Restitution is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Rough Justice: Stuart Eizenstat and Holocaust-era Asset Restitution (A) Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Strong track record of project management
– Eizenstat Restitution is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Diverse revenue streams
– Eizenstat Restitution is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Rough Justice: Stuart Eizenstat and Holocaust-era Asset Restitution (A) 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 Rough Justice: Stuart Eizenstat and Holocaust-era Asset Restitution (A) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Rough Justice: Stuart Eizenstat and Holocaust-era Asset Restitution (A) are -
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Rough Justice: Stuart Eizenstat and Holocaust-era Asset Restitution (A) 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 Rough Justice: Stuart Eizenstat and Holocaust-era Asset Restitution (A) can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Eizenstat Restitution is planning to shift buying processes online.
Lack of clear differentiation of Eizenstat Restitution products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Eizenstat Restitution needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Rough Justice: Stuart Eizenstat and Holocaust-era Asset Restitution (A) 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 Eizenstat Restitution has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Rough Justice: Stuart Eizenstat and Holocaust-era Asset Restitution (A), is just above the industry average. Eizenstat Restitution 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Eizenstat Restitution 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Eizenstat Restitution 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Rough Justice: Stuart Eizenstat and Holocaust-era Asset Restitution (A), 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Eizenstat Restitution is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Global Business segment. Eizenstat Restitution needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Eizenstat Restitution to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Eizenstat Restitution, firm in the HBR case study Rough Justice: Stuart Eizenstat and Holocaust-era Asset Restitution (A) needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Eizenstat Restitution has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the industry over the last five years. Eizenstat Restitution even though has strong showing on digital transformation primary two stages, it has struggled to capitalize the power of digital transformation in marketing efforts and new venture efforts.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Eizenstat Restitution 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.
Opportunities Rough Justice: Stuart Eizenstat and Holocaust-era Asset Restitution (A) | 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 Rough Justice: Stuart Eizenstat and Holocaust-era Asset Restitution (A) are -
Leveraging digital technologies
– Eizenstat Restitution 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, Eizenstat Restitution 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Eizenstat Restitution 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 Rough Justice: Stuart Eizenstat and Holocaust-era Asset Restitution (A) - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Eizenstat Restitution to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
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. Eizenstat Restitution can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Eizenstat Restitution can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Eizenstat Restitution operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Global Business sector.
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. Eizenstat Restitution can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Eizenstat Restitution can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Eizenstat Restitution 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, Rough Justice: Stuart Eizenstat and Holocaust-era Asset Restitution (A), 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 Eizenstat Restitution to increase its market reach. Eizenstat Restitution 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Eizenstat Restitution 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.
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 Eizenstat Restitution 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Eizenstat Restitution is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Rough Justice: Stuart Eizenstat and Holocaust-era Asset Restitution (A) case study suggests that firm can utilize new technology to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
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 Eizenstat Restitution in the consumer business. Now Eizenstat Restitution can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Threats Rough Justice: Stuart Eizenstat and Holocaust-era Asset Restitution (A) External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Rough Justice: Stuart Eizenstat and Holocaust-era Asset Restitution (A) are -
Increasing wage structure of Eizenstat Restitution
– 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 Eizenstat Restitution.
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 Eizenstat Restitution business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Eizenstat Restitution 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.
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 Eizenstat Restitution.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Eizenstat Restitution has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Global Business industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Eizenstat Restitution 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.
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. Eizenstat Restitution can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Eizenstat Restitution 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.
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.
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. Eizenstat Restitution needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Global Business industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Regulatory challenges
– Eizenstat Restitution needs to prepare for regulatory challenges as consumer protection groups and other pressure groups are vigorously advocating for more regulations on big business - to reduce inequality, to create a level playing field, to product data privacy and consumer privacy, to reduce the influence of big money on democratic institutions, etc. This can lead to significant changes in the Global Business industry regulations.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Eizenstat Restitution 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.
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 Eizenstat Restitution in the Global Business sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Eizenstat Restitution 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 Rough Justice: Stuart Eizenstat and Holocaust-era Asset Restitution (A) .
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Rough Justice: Stuart Eizenstat and Holocaust-era Asset Restitution (A) 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 Rough Justice: Stuart Eizenstat and Holocaust-era Asset Restitution (A) 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 Rough Justice: Stuart Eizenstat and Holocaust-era Asset Restitution (A) 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 Rough Justice: Stuart Eizenstat and Holocaust-era Asset Restitution (A) 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 Rough Justice: Stuart Eizenstat and Holocaust-era Asset Restitution (A) 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 Eizenstat Restitution needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
