Corporate Governance: The Jack Wright Series #10-Dealing with External Pressures SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Finance & Accounting
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Corporate Governance: The Jack Wright Series #10-Dealing with External Pressures
This case finds Jack Wright, now Chairman of the Mega Corporation board, having to deal with an offer from a director to buy the company, in either a friendly or unfriendly fashion.
Swot Analysis of "Corporate Governance: The Jack Wright Series #10-Dealing with External Pressures" written by John L. Colley, Wallace Stettinius includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Wright Jack facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Corporate Governance: The Jack Wright Series #10-Dealing with External Pressures case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Compensation, Financial management, Labor, Operations management, Regulation and Finance & Accounting.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Corporate Governance: The Jack Wright Series #10-Dealing with External Pressures casestudy better are - – increasing transportation and logistics costs, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, there is backlash against globalization, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings,
increasing commodity prices, wage bills are increasing, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Corporate Governance: The Jack Wright Series #10-Dealing with External Pressures
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Corporate Governance: The Jack Wright Series #10-Dealing with External Pressures case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Wright Jack, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Wright Jack 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 Corporate Governance: The Jack Wright Series #10-Dealing with External Pressures can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Corporate Governance: The Jack Wright Series #10-Dealing with External Pressures case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Wright Jack
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 Wright Jack
Strengths Corporate Governance: The Jack Wright Series #10-Dealing with External Pressures | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Wright Jack in Corporate Governance: The Jack Wright Series #10-Dealing with External Pressures Harvard Business Review case study are -
Training and development
– Wright Jack has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Corporate Governance: The Jack Wright Series #10-Dealing with External Pressures 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.
High brand equity
– Wright Jack has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Wright Jack to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Corporate Governance: The Jack Wright Series #10-Dealing with External Pressures 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 Wright Jack 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Finance & Accounting industry
– Corporate Governance: The Jack Wright Series #10-Dealing with External Pressures firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Wright Jack to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Finance & Accounting industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Wright Jack to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Analytics focus
– Wright Jack 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 John L. Colley, Wallace Stettinius 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Wright Jack 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 Corporate Governance: The Jack Wright Series #10-Dealing with External Pressures - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Wright Jack 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 Corporate Governance: The Jack Wright Series #10-Dealing with External Pressures 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 Wright Jack in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Ability to lead change in Finance & Accounting field
– Wright Jack 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 Wright Jack in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Diverse revenue streams
– Wright Jack is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Corporate Governance: The Jack Wright Series #10-Dealing with External Pressures 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Wright Jack is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Weaknesses Corporate Governance: The Jack Wright Series #10-Dealing with External Pressures | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Corporate Governance: The Jack Wright Series #10-Dealing with External Pressures are -
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Corporate Governance: The Jack Wright Series #10-Dealing with External Pressures 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 Wright Jack 's lucrative customers.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Wright Jack, firm in the HBR case study Corporate Governance: The Jack Wright Series #10-Dealing with External Pressures needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, John L. Colley, Wallace Stettinius suggests that, Wright Jack 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Corporate Governance: The Jack Wright Series #10-Dealing with External Pressures, 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Corporate Governance: The Jack Wright Series #10-Dealing with External Pressures, is just above the industry average. Wright Jack 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Wright Jack 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 - Corporate Governance: The Jack Wright Series #10-Dealing with External Pressures should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Wright Jack 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Wright Jack is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Corporate Governance: The Jack Wright Series #10-Dealing with External Pressures 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 Corporate Governance: The Jack Wright Series #10-Dealing with External Pressures 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 Wright Jack has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Wright Jack is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Finance & Accounting segment. Wright Jack needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Wright Jack to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Corporate Governance: The Jack Wright Series #10-Dealing with External Pressures HBR case study mentions - Wright Jack 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.
Opportunities Corporate Governance: The Jack Wright Series #10-Dealing with External Pressures | 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 Corporate Governance: The Jack Wright Series #10-Dealing with External Pressures are -
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Wright Jack 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 Corporate Governance: The Jack Wright Series #10-Dealing with External Pressures - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Wright Jack to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
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 Wright Jack in the consumer business. Now Wright Jack can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Wright Jack 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Wright Jack 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.
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. Wright Jack 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. Wright Jack 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Wright Jack 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, Corporate Governance: The Jack Wright Series #10-Dealing with External Pressures, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
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. Wright Jack can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Loyalty marketing
– Wright Jack 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.
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. Wright Jack can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Developing new processes and practices
– Wright Jack can develop new processes and procedures in Finance & Accounting 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Wright Jack has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Wright Jack to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Corporate Governance: The Jack Wright Series #10-Dealing with External Pressures case study. Wright Jack can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Wright Jack 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Wright Jack is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Corporate Governance: The Jack Wright Series #10-Dealing with External Pressures 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 Corporate Governance: The Jack Wright Series #10-Dealing with External Pressures External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Corporate Governance: The Jack Wright Series #10-Dealing with External Pressures are -
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Wright Jack 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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Finance & Accounting field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Wright Jack can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Wright Jack 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.
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 Wright Jack.
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. Wright Jack needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Finance & Accounting industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Regulatory challenges
– Wright Jack 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.
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. Wright Jack 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.
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 Wright Jack business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Wright Jack 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 Corporate Governance: The Jack Wright Series #10-Dealing with External Pressures .
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Wright Jack 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Wright Jack is facing in Finance & Accounting sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Increasing wage structure of Wright Jack
– 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 Wright Jack.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Corporate Governance: The Jack Wright Series #10-Dealing with External Pressures 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 Corporate Governance: The Jack Wright Series #10-Dealing with External Pressures 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 Corporate Governance: The Jack Wright Series #10-Dealing with External Pressures 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 Corporate Governance: The Jack Wright Series #10-Dealing with External Pressures 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 Corporate Governance: The Jack Wright Series #10-Dealing with External Pressures 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 Wright Jack needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.