The Women's Tennis Association Comes to China - But Who? (B) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Global Business
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of The Women's Tennis Association Comes to China - But Who? (B)
In 2007, the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) was facing a saturated market for women's tennis and identified Asia as a growth area. Subsequently, it committed to opening a regional office in Beijing but was unsure how to approach staffing the local office. The dilemma revolved around the intricacies of determining the appropriate mix of local employees and expatriates. The goal of the staffing plan was to achieve a quick, efficient and lasting presence to successfully bring women's tennis to a developing market. The chief operating officer realized that it was no small task to analyze all the different factors to determine the best mix of employees.
Swot Analysis of "The Women's Tennis Association Comes to China - But Who? (B)" written by W. Glenn Rowe, Sharda Prashad includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Tennis Women's facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in The Women's Tennis Association Comes to China - But Who? (B) case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Government, Marketing and Global Business.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the The Women's Tennis Association Comes to China - But Who? (B) casestudy better are - – technology disruption, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, there is backlash against globalization, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, wage bills are increasing,
digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of The Women's Tennis Association Comes to China - But Who? (B)
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in The Women's Tennis Association Comes to China - But Who? (B) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Tennis Women's, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Tennis Women's 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 The Women's Tennis Association Comes to China - But Who? (B) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in The Women's Tennis Association Comes to China - But Who? (B) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Tennis Women's
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 Tennis Women's
Strengths The Women's Tennis Association Comes to China - But Who? (B) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Tennis Women's in The Women's Tennis Association Comes to China - But Who? (B) Harvard Business Review case study are -
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Tennis Women's in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Tennis Women's 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.
Ability to lead change in Global Business field
– Tennis Women's 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 Tennis Women's in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the The Women's Tennis Association Comes to China - But Who? (B) 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Tennis Women's 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Tennis Women's is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in The Women's Tennis Association Comes to China - But Who? (B) Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Tennis Women's has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Tennis Women's 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Global Business industry
– The Women's Tennis Association Comes to China - But Who? (B) firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Tennis Women's to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Global Business industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Tennis Women's to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Tennis Women's is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the The Women's Tennis Association Comes to China - But Who? (B) are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Training and development
– Tennis Women's has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in The Women's Tennis Association Comes to China - But Who? (B) 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Tennis Women's in the sector have low bargaining power. The Women's Tennis Association Comes to China - But Who? (B) has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Tennis Women's to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Diverse revenue streams
– Tennis Women's is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in The Women's Tennis Association Comes to China - But Who? (B) 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 The Women's Tennis Association Comes to China - But Who? (B) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of The Women's Tennis Association Comes to China - But Who? (B) are -
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Tennis Women's has borrowed money from the capital market at higher rates. It needs to restructure the interest payment and costs so that it can compete better and improve profitability.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the The Women's Tennis Association Comes to China - But Who? (B) 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 Tennis Women's has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
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 Tennis Women's supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - The Women's Tennis Association Comes to China - But Who? (B), it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Tennis Women's vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Tennis Women's needs to come up with a strategy to reduce the workers concern regarding automation. Without a clear strategy, it could lead to disruption and uncertainty within the organization.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Tennis Women's, firm in the HBR case study The Women's Tennis Association Comes to China - But Who? (B) needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Lack of clear differentiation of Tennis Women's products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Tennis Women's needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Tennis Women's 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Tennis Women's is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study The Women's Tennis Association Comes to China - But Who? (B) can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Tennis Women's has not been able to do capital spending to the tune of the competition. This has resulted into fewer innovations and company facing stiff competition from both existing competitors and new entrants who are disrupting the industry using digital technology.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Tennis Women's 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. Tennis Women's 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Tennis Women's 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 The Women's Tennis Association Comes to China - But Who? (B) | 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 The Women's Tennis Association Comes to China - But Who? (B) are -
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Tennis Women's is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. The Women's Tennis Association Comes to China - But Who? (B) 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Tennis Women's can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Tennis Women's operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Global Business sector.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Tennis Women's can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Tennis Women's 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Tennis Women's to increase its market reach. Tennis Women's 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Tennis Women's 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Tennis Women's has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Tennis Women's to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the The Women's Tennis Association Comes to China - But Who? (B) case study. Tennis Women's can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Buying journey improvements
– Tennis Women's can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. The Women's Tennis Association Comes to China - But Who? (B) 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 Tennis Women's in the consumer business. Now Tennis Women's can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Tennis Women's 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 Tennis Women's to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Tennis Women's 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Global Business industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Tennis Women's can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
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 Tennis Women's 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.
Threats The Women's Tennis Association Comes to China - But Who? (B) External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study The Women's Tennis Association Comes to China - But Who? (B) are -
Increasing wage structure of Tennis Women's
– 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 Tennis Women's.
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.
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 Tennis Women's business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, 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
– Tennis Women's 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Tennis Women's has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Global Business industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Tennis Women's needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Global Business sector. According to Mckinsey study top managers believe that the adoption of technology in operations, communications is 20-25 times faster than what they planned in the beginning of 2019.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Tennis Women's with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Tennis Women's 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.
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 Tennis Women's in the Global Business sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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 Tennis Women's.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Tennis Women's 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.
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. Tennis Women's 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.
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. Tennis Women's can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of The Women's Tennis Association Comes to China - But Who? (B) 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 The Women's Tennis Association Comes to China - But Who? (B) 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 The Women's Tennis Association Comes to China - But Who? (B) 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 The Women's Tennis Association Comes to China - But Who? (B) 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 The Women's Tennis Association Comes to China - But Who? (B) 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 Tennis Women's needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
