Navigating Turbulent Waters: Glitnir Bank's Communication Challenge During a Macroeconomic Crisis SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
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Case Study Description of Navigating Turbulent Waters: Glitnir Bank's Communication Challenge During a Macroeconomic Crisis
Glitnir Bank is an Icelandic company following an aggressive growth strategy that relies heavily on foreign debt. Access to such debt is suddenly curtailed when there is a downturn in market sentiment regarding the Icelandic economy as a whole. Students will reflect on the essential elements of a communications strategy, including the role of the media and analysts. Class discussion will focus on creating infrastructure that will increase the bank's ability to communicate effectively in an environment of macroeconomic uncertainty.
Authors :: Michael D. Kimbrough, Gregory S. Miller, Vincent Dessain, Ane Damgaard Jensen
Swot Analysis of "Navigating Turbulent Waters: Glitnir Bank's Communication Challenge During a Macroeconomic Crisis" written by Michael D. Kimbrough, Gregory S. Miller, Vincent Dessain, Ane Damgaard Jensen includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Glitnir Icelandic facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Navigating Turbulent Waters: Glitnir Bank's Communication Challenge During a Macroeconomic Crisis case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Communication, Corporate communications, Economics, Economy, International business, Marketing and Finance & Accounting.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Navigating Turbulent Waters: Glitnir Bank's Communication Challenge During a Macroeconomic Crisis casestudy better are - – increasing household debt because of falling income levels, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing commodity prices,
there is increasing trade war between United States & China, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Navigating Turbulent Waters: Glitnir Bank's Communication Challenge During a Macroeconomic Crisis
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Navigating Turbulent Waters: Glitnir Bank's Communication Challenge During a Macroeconomic Crisis case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Glitnir Icelandic, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Glitnir Icelandic 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 Navigating Turbulent Waters: Glitnir Bank's Communication Challenge During a Macroeconomic Crisis can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Navigating Turbulent Waters: Glitnir Bank's Communication Challenge During a Macroeconomic Crisis case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Glitnir Icelandic
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Finance & Accounting field.
4. Making a Finance & Accounting topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Glitnir Icelandic
Strengths Navigating Turbulent Waters: Glitnir Bank's Communication Challenge During a Macroeconomic Crisis | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Glitnir Icelandic in Navigating Turbulent Waters: Glitnir Bank's Communication Challenge During a Macroeconomic Crisis Harvard Business Review case study are -
Strong track record of project management
– Glitnir Icelandic 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
– Glitnir Icelandic is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Navigating Turbulent Waters: Glitnir Bank's Communication Challenge During a Macroeconomic Crisis 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Glitnir Icelandic 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 Navigating Turbulent Waters: Glitnir Bank's Communication Challenge During a Macroeconomic Crisis HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Analytics focus
– Glitnir Icelandic 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 Michael D. Kimbrough, Gregory S. Miller, Vincent Dessain, Ane Damgaard Jensen 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Glitnir Icelandic has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Glitnir Icelandic 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.
Organizational Resilience of Glitnir Icelandic
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Glitnir Icelandic does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Innovation driven organization
– Glitnir Icelandic is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Navigating Turbulent Waters: Glitnir Bank's Communication Challenge During a Macroeconomic Crisis Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Training and development
– Glitnir Icelandic has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Navigating Turbulent Waters: Glitnir Bank's Communication Challenge During a Macroeconomic Crisis 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Navigating Turbulent Waters: Glitnir Bank's Communication Challenge During a Macroeconomic Crisis 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.
Ability to lead change in Finance & Accounting field
– Glitnir Icelandic 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 Glitnir Icelandic in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Finance & Accounting industry
– Navigating Turbulent Waters: Glitnir Bank's Communication Challenge During a Macroeconomic Crisis firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Glitnir Icelandic to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Finance & Accounting industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Glitnir Icelandic to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
High brand equity
– Glitnir Icelandic has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Glitnir Icelandic to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Weaknesses Navigating Turbulent Waters: Glitnir Bank's Communication Challenge During a Macroeconomic Crisis | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Navigating Turbulent Waters: Glitnir Bank's Communication Challenge During a Macroeconomic Crisis are -
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Navigating Turbulent Waters: Glitnir Bank's Communication Challenge During a Macroeconomic Crisis 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 Glitnir Icelandic has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Navigating Turbulent Waters: Glitnir Bank's Communication Challenge During a Macroeconomic Crisis HBR case study mentions - Glitnir Icelandic 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 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 Glitnir Icelandic supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Navigating Turbulent Waters: Glitnir Bank's Communication Challenge During a Macroeconomic Crisis, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Glitnir Icelandic vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Navigating Turbulent Waters: Glitnir Bank's Communication Challenge During a Macroeconomic Crisis, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Finance & Accounting 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Glitnir Icelandic 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Glitnir Icelandic is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Navigating Turbulent Waters: Glitnir Bank's Communication Challenge During a Macroeconomic Crisis can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Glitnir Icelandic 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. Glitnir Icelandic 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Glitnir Icelandic products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Glitnir Icelandic needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Michael D. Kimbrough, Gregory S. Miller, Vincent Dessain, Ane Damgaard Jensen suggests that, Glitnir Icelandic is facing high bargaining power of the channel partners. So far it has not able to streamline the operations to reduce the bargaining power of the value chain partners in the industry.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Navigating Turbulent Waters: Glitnir Bank's Communication Challenge During a Macroeconomic Crisis 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 Glitnir Icelandic 's lucrative customers.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Glitnir Icelandic 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.
Opportunities Navigating Turbulent Waters: Glitnir Bank's Communication Challenge During a Macroeconomic Crisis | 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 Navigating Turbulent Waters: Glitnir Bank's Communication Challenge During a Macroeconomic Crisis are -
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Glitnir Icelandic can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Glitnir Icelandic can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Glitnir Icelandic operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Finance & Accounting sector.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Glitnir Icelandic has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Glitnir Icelandic to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Navigating Turbulent Waters: Glitnir Bank's Communication Challenge During a Macroeconomic Crisis case study. Glitnir Icelandic can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Glitnir Icelandic 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Glitnir Icelandic in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Finance & Accounting segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Glitnir Icelandic 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 Finance & Accounting segment.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Finance & Accounting industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Glitnir Icelandic 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. Glitnir Icelandic 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Glitnir Icelandic is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Navigating Turbulent Waters: Glitnir Bank's Communication Challenge During a Macroeconomic Crisis 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Glitnir Icelandic 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Glitnir Icelandic to increase its market reach. Glitnir Icelandic 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Glitnir Icelandic can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Navigating Turbulent Waters: Glitnir Bank's Communication Challenge During a Macroeconomic Crisis 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Glitnir Icelandic 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Finance & Accounting industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Glitnir Icelandic can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Threats Navigating Turbulent Waters: Glitnir Bank's Communication Challenge During a Macroeconomic Crisis External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Navigating Turbulent Waters: Glitnir Bank's Communication Challenge During a Macroeconomic Crisis are -
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Glitnir Icelandic with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Glitnir Icelandic 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.
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 Glitnir Icelandic business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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. Glitnir Icelandic needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Finance & Accounting industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Environmental challenges
– Glitnir Icelandic 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. Glitnir Icelandic can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Finance & Accounting industry.
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 Glitnir Icelandic.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Glitnir Icelandic is facing in Finance & Accounting sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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. Glitnir Icelandic 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Glitnir Icelandic 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 Finance & Accounting industry regulations.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Glitnir Icelandic in the Finance & Accounting industry. The Finance & Accounting 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Navigating Turbulent Waters: Glitnir Bank's Communication Challenge During a Macroeconomic Crisis, Glitnir Icelandic may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Finance & Accounting .
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Navigating Turbulent Waters: Glitnir Bank's Communication Challenge During a Macroeconomic Crisis 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 Navigating Turbulent Waters: Glitnir Bank's Communication Challenge During a Macroeconomic Crisis 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 Navigating Turbulent Waters: Glitnir Bank's Communication Challenge During a Macroeconomic Crisis 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 Navigating Turbulent Waters: Glitnir Bank's Communication Challenge During a Macroeconomic Crisis 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 Navigating Turbulent Waters: Glitnir Bank's Communication Challenge During a Macroeconomic Crisis 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 Glitnir Icelandic needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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