In the Crossfire: Guns, Legislative Leadership and Recall Politics in Colorado SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Global Business
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of In the Crossfire: Guns, Legislative Leadership and Recall Politics in Colorado
In 2013, democratic Colorado state senators John Morse and Angela Giron were recalled from office in the wake of a successful recall campaign launched by grassroots groups angered by the senators' support for newly-enacted gun control legislation. After Morse and Giron were recalled, Democrats retained a one-seat majority in the Senate. Some critics thought Morse should have anticipated the recall election result and resigned while others expressed concern that Morse's ouster had legitimized the use of recall politics-typically used to unseat politicians over ethical issues-as a way for voters to punish supporters of controversial issues. The case asks students to consider the benefits and drawbacks of recall elections and how they can be used by political activists and interest groups as a tool to manage political representation.
Swot Analysis of "In the Crossfire: Guns, Legislative Leadership and Recall Politics in Colorado" written by David King, Laura Winig includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Recall Morse facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in In the Crossfire: Guns, Legislative Leadership and Recall Politics in Colorado case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Risk management and Global Business.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the In the Crossfire: Guns, Legislative Leadership and Recall Politics in Colorado casestudy better are - – increasing transportation and logistics costs, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, wage bills are increasing, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing energy prices, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy,
central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of In the Crossfire: Guns, Legislative Leadership and Recall Politics in Colorado
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in In the Crossfire: Guns, Legislative Leadership and Recall Politics in Colorado case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Recall Morse, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Recall Morse 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 In the Crossfire: Guns, Legislative Leadership and Recall Politics in Colorado can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in In the Crossfire: Guns, Legislative Leadership and Recall Politics in Colorado case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Recall Morse
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 Recall Morse
Strengths In the Crossfire: Guns, Legislative Leadership and Recall Politics in Colorado | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Recall Morse in In the Crossfire: Guns, Legislative Leadership and Recall Politics in Colorado Harvard Business Review case study are -
Ability to lead change in Global Business field
– Recall Morse 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 Recall Morse in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Recall Morse 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 In the Crossfire: Guns, Legislative Leadership and Recall Politics in Colorado HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Global Business industry
– In the Crossfire: Guns, Legislative Leadership and Recall Politics in Colorado firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Recall Morse to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Global Business industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Recall Morse to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Training and development
– Recall Morse has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in In the Crossfire: Guns, Legislative Leadership and Recall Politics in Colorado 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Recall Morse is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the In the Crossfire: Guns, Legislative Leadership and Recall Politics in Colorado are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
High brand equity
– Recall Morse has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Recall Morse to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Digital Transformation in Global Business segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Recall Morse digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Recall Morse 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the In the Crossfire: Guns, Legislative Leadership and Recall Politics in Colorado 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Recall Morse 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 In the Crossfire: Guns, Legislative Leadership and Recall Politics in Colorado - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Recall Morse has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Recall Morse 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
– Recall Morse is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in In the Crossfire: Guns, Legislative Leadership and Recall Politics in Colorado 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 Recall Morse 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.
Weaknesses In the Crossfire: Guns, Legislative Leadership and Recall Politics in Colorado | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of In the Crossfire: Guns, Legislative Leadership and Recall Politics in Colorado are -
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Recall Morse 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study In the Crossfire: Guns, Legislative Leadership and Recall Politics in Colorado, in the dynamic environment Recall Morse has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Recall Morse 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 In the Crossfire: Guns, Legislative Leadership and Recall Politics in Colorado 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 Recall Morse 's lucrative customers.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Recall Morse 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, David King, Laura Winig suggests that, Recall Morse 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study In the Crossfire: Guns, Legislative Leadership and Recall Politics in Colorado, it seems that the employees of Recall Morse don’t have comprehensive understanding of the firm’s strategy. This is reflected in number of promotional campaigns over the last few years that had mixed messaging and competing priorities. Some of the strategic activities and services promoted in the promotional campaigns were not consistent with the organization’s strategy.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Recall Morse has some of the most successful products in the industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. firm in the HBR case study - In the Crossfire: Guns, Legislative Leadership and Recall Politics in Colorado should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Recall Morse is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Global Business segment. Recall Morse needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Recall Morse to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Recall Morse is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study In the Crossfire: Guns, Legislative Leadership and Recall Politics in Colorado can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the In the Crossfire: Guns, Legislative Leadership and Recall Politics in Colorado 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 Recall Morse has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Need for greater diversity
– Recall Morse 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.
Opportunities In the Crossfire: Guns, Legislative Leadership and Recall Politics in Colorado | 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 In the Crossfire: Guns, Legislative Leadership and Recall Politics in Colorado are -
Leveraging digital technologies
– Recall Morse 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Recall Morse can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. In the Crossfire: Guns, Legislative Leadership and Recall Politics in Colorado 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.
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 Recall Morse in the consumer business. Now Recall Morse can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Recall Morse has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Recall Morse to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the In the Crossfire: Guns, Legislative Leadership and Recall Politics in Colorado case study. Recall Morse can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
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 Recall Morse 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Recall Morse 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 In the Crossfire: Guns, Legislative Leadership and Recall Politics in Colorado - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Recall Morse to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
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. Recall Morse 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. Recall Morse 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Recall Morse 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 Recall Morse 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Recall Morse 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Recall Morse can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Developing new processes and practices
– Recall Morse 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Recall Morse to increase its market reach. Recall Morse 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.
Threats In the Crossfire: Guns, Legislative Leadership and Recall Politics in Colorado External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study In the Crossfire: Guns, Legislative Leadership and Recall Politics in Colorado are -
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study In the Crossfire: Guns, Legislative Leadership and Recall Politics in Colorado, Recall Morse 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 .
Consumer confidence and its impact on Recall Morse 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Recall Morse with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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. Recall Morse needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Global Business industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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 Recall Morse in the Global Business sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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 Recall Morse business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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 dependence on third party suppliers
– Recall Morse 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Recall Morse 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 In the Crossfire: Guns, Legislative Leadership and Recall Politics in Colorado .
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Recall Morse is facing in Global Business sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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. Recall Morse can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Regulatory challenges
– Recall Morse 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.
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 In the Crossfire: Guns, Legislative Leadership and Recall Politics in Colorado 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 In the Crossfire: Guns, Legislative Leadership and Recall Politics in Colorado 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 In the Crossfire: Guns, Legislative Leadership and Recall Politics in Colorado 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 In the Crossfire: Guns, Legislative Leadership and Recall Politics in Colorado 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 In the Crossfire: Guns, Legislative Leadership and Recall Politics in Colorado 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 Recall Morse needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
