Canadian Sponsorship Scandal: The Whistleblower's Perspective SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Global Business
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Canadian Sponsorship Scandal: The Whistleblower's Perspective
This case is about the Sponsorship Scandal that plagued Canada's federal government in the mid-1990s. The case is told in the words of the federal government bureaucrat who blew the whistle about the corruption. The way federal civil servants dealt with the whistleblower's revelations is examined.
Authors :: Allan Cutler, Ruth McKay, Francois Brouard
Swot Analysis of "Canadian Sponsorship Scandal: The Whistleblower's Perspective" written by Allan Cutler, Ruth McKay, Francois Brouard includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Whistleblower's Federal facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Canadian Sponsorship Scandal: The Whistleblower's Perspective case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Ethics, Leadership and Global Business.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Canadian Sponsorship Scandal: The Whistleblower's Perspective 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 government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, technology disruption, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, geopolitical disruptions,
wage bills are increasing, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Canadian Sponsorship Scandal: The Whistleblower's Perspective
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Canadian Sponsorship Scandal: The Whistleblower's Perspective case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Whistleblower's Federal, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Whistleblower's Federal 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 Canadian Sponsorship Scandal: The Whistleblower's Perspective can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Canadian Sponsorship Scandal: The Whistleblower's Perspective case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Whistleblower's Federal
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 Whistleblower's Federal
Strengths Canadian Sponsorship Scandal: The Whistleblower's Perspective | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Whistleblower's Federal in Canadian Sponsorship Scandal: The Whistleblower's Perspective Harvard Business Review case study are -
Analytics focus
– Whistleblower's Federal 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 Allan Cutler, Ruth McKay, Francois Brouard 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.
Organizational Resilience of Whistleblower's Federal
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Whistleblower's Federal does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Strong track record of project management
– Whistleblower's Federal is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Whistleblower's Federal 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 Canadian Sponsorship Scandal: The Whistleblower's Perspective - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
High brand equity
– Whistleblower's Federal has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Whistleblower's Federal to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Whistleblower's Federal 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 Whistleblower's Federal in the sector have low bargaining power. Canadian Sponsorship Scandal: The Whistleblower's Perspective has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Whistleblower's Federal to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Training and development
– Whistleblower's Federal has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Canadian Sponsorship Scandal: The Whistleblower's Perspective 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Global Business industry
– Canadian Sponsorship Scandal: The Whistleblower's Perspective firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Whistleblower's Federal to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Global Business industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Whistleblower's Federal to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Whistleblower's Federal 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 Whistleblower's Federal digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Whistleblower's Federal 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Whistleblower's Federal is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Canadian Sponsorship Scandal: The Whistleblower's Perspective 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 Canadian Sponsorship Scandal: The Whistleblower's Perspective | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Canadian Sponsorship Scandal: The Whistleblower's Perspective are -
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Canadian Sponsorship Scandal: The Whistleblower's Perspective, it seems that the employees of Whistleblower's Federal 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Canadian Sponsorship Scandal: The Whistleblower's Perspective 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 Whistleblower's Federal has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Canadian Sponsorship Scandal: The Whistleblower's Perspective, 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Whistleblower's Federal 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Whistleblower's Federal is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Global Business segment. Whistleblower's Federal needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Whistleblower's Federal to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Whistleblower's Federal 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. Whistleblower's Federal 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Canadian Sponsorship Scandal: The Whistleblower's Perspective, is just above the industry average. Whistleblower's Federal 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Allan Cutler, Ruth McKay, Francois Brouard suggests that, Whistleblower's Federal 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Whistleblower's Federal, firm in the HBR case study Canadian Sponsorship Scandal: The Whistleblower's Perspective needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Canadian Sponsorship Scandal: The Whistleblower's Perspective HBR case study mentions - Whistleblower's Federal 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Canadian Sponsorship Scandal: The Whistleblower's Perspective 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 Canadian Sponsorship Scandal: The Whistleblower's Perspective can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Whistleblower's Federal is planning to shift buying processes online.
Opportunities Canadian Sponsorship Scandal: The Whistleblower's Perspective | 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 Canadian Sponsorship Scandal: The Whistleblower's Perspective are -
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Whistleblower's Federal to increase its market reach. Whistleblower's Federal 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Whistleblower's Federal 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 Whistleblower's Federal 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Whistleblower's Federal 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.
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 Whistleblower's Federal 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.
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. Whistleblower's Federal 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. Whistleblower's Federal 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Whistleblower's Federal to expand its talent hiring zone. According to McKinsey Global Institute, 20% of the high end workforce in fields such as finance, information technology, can continously work from remote local post Covid-19. This presents a really great opportunity for Whistleblower's Federal to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Developing new processes and practices
– Whistleblower's Federal 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. Whistleblower's Federal can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Whistleblower's Federal can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Whistleblower's Federal operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Global Business sector.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Whistleblower's Federal has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Whistleblower's Federal to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Canadian Sponsorship Scandal: The Whistleblower's Perspective case study. Whistleblower's Federal can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Manufacturing automation
– Whistleblower's Federal can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Global Business segment. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Whistleblower's Federal is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Canadian Sponsorship Scandal: The Whistleblower's Perspective 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.
Threats Canadian Sponsorship Scandal: The Whistleblower's Perspective External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Canadian Sponsorship Scandal: The Whistleblower's Perspective are -
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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Whistleblower's Federal is facing in Global Business sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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
– Whistleblower's Federal 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Canadian Sponsorship Scandal: The Whistleblower's Perspective, Whistleblower's Federal 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 .
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. Whistleblower's Federal 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.
Increasing wage structure of Whistleblower's Federal
– 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 Whistleblower's Federal.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Whistleblower's Federal 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.
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. Whistleblower's Federal needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Global Business industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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. Whistleblower's Federal can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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 Whistleblower's Federal.
Environmental challenges
– Whistleblower's Federal 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. Whistleblower's Federal can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Global Business industry.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Whistleblower's Federal 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Canadian Sponsorship Scandal: The Whistleblower's Perspective 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 Canadian Sponsorship Scandal: The Whistleblower's Perspective 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 Canadian Sponsorship Scandal: The Whistleblower's Perspective 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 Canadian Sponsorship Scandal: The Whistleblower's Perspective 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 Canadian Sponsorship Scandal: The Whistleblower's Perspective 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 Whistleblower's Federal needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.