Global Fun: The Internationalization of Theme Parks SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Global Business
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Global Fun: The Internationalization of Theme Parks
This case is available in only hard copy format (HBP does not have digital distribution rights to the content). As a result, a digital Educator Copy of the case is not available through this web site.A fictitious private equity firm considers whether to buy the international theme park business of the LEGO Group. Considers the origins of theme parks in the United States; the international expansion of Disney theme parks to Tokyo and Paris since the 1970s; and the expansion of the theme park business of the LEGO Group from its home in Billund, Denmark, to Great Britain, Germany, and the United States. The LEGO Group has now announced that it intends to sell the business. Explores the rationale for international theme park business and, in particular, the drivers of profitability of parks in different locations.
Swot Analysis of "Global Fun: The Internationalization of Theme Parks" written by Geoffrey G. Jones, Steve Shaheen includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Theme Parks facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Global Fun: The Internationalization of Theme Parks case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, International business and Global Business.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Global Fun: The Internationalization of Theme Parks casestudy better are - – increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion,
increasing household debt because of falling income levels, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Global Fun: The Internationalization of Theme Parks
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Global Fun: The Internationalization of Theme Parks case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Theme Parks, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Theme Parks 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 Global Fun: The Internationalization of Theme Parks can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Global Fun: The Internationalization of Theme Parks case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Theme Parks
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 Theme Parks
Strengths Global Fun: The Internationalization of Theme Parks | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Theme Parks in Global Fun: The Internationalization of Theme Parks Harvard Business Review case study are -
Innovation driven organization
– Theme Parks is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Global Fun: The Internationalization of Theme Parks Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Theme Parks is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Global Fun: The Internationalization of Theme Parks are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Ability to lead change in Global Business field
– Theme Parks 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 Theme Parks in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
High brand equity
– Theme Parks has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Theme Parks to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Theme Parks in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Theme Parks 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 Global Fun: The Internationalization of Theme Parks HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Strong track record of project management
– Theme Parks is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Diverse revenue streams
– Theme Parks is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Global Fun: The Internationalization of Theme Parks 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Global Business industry
– Global Fun: The Internationalization of Theme Parks firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Theme Parks to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Global Business industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Theme Parks to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Theme Parks 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 Global Fun: The Internationalization of Theme Parks - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Global Fun: The Internationalization of Theme Parks 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 Theme Parks 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.
Weaknesses Global Fun: The Internationalization of Theme Parks | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Global Fun: The Internationalization of Theme Parks are -
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Global Fun: The Internationalization of Theme Parks 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 Theme Parks has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Geoffrey G. Jones, Steve Shaheen suggests that, Theme Parks 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Global Fun: The Internationalization of Theme Parks HBR case study mentions - Theme Parks takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the industry in last five years.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Global Fun: The Internationalization of Theme Parks 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 Theme Parks 's lucrative customers.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Theme Parks 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Theme Parks 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Theme Parks 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Theme Parks 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 decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Theme Parks 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. Theme Parks 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Global Fun: The Internationalization of Theme Parks, it seems that the employees of Theme Parks 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 cash cycle compare to competitors
Theme Parks has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Opportunities Global Fun: The Internationalization of Theme Parks | 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 Global Fun: The Internationalization of Theme Parks are -
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Theme Parks 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
– Theme Parks 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 Theme Parks can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Theme Parks 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 Theme Parks to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
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. Theme Parks can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Theme Parks 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 Global Fun: The Internationalization of Theme Parks - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Theme Parks to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Theme Parks can make experimentation a productive activity and build a culture of innovation using approaches such as – mining transaction data, A/B testing of websites and selling platforms, engaging potential customers over various needs, and building on small ideas in the Global Business segment.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Theme Parks 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Theme Parks can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Global Fun: The Internationalization of Theme Parks 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Theme Parks can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Theme Parks operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Global Business sector.
Manufacturing automation
– Theme Parks 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Theme Parks to increase its market reach. Theme Parks 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.
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. Theme Parks can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Threats Global Fun: The Internationalization of Theme Parks External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Global Fun: The Internationalization of Theme Parks 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.
Environmental challenges
– Theme Parks 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. Theme Parks can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Global Business industry.
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 Theme Parks in the Global Business sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Theme Parks in the Global Business industry. The Global Business industry is already at various protected from local competition in China, with the rise of trade war the protection levels may go up. This presents a clear threat of current business model in Chinese market.
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 Theme Parks business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Theme Parks is facing in Global Business sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Instability in the European markets
– European Union markets are facing three big challenges post Covid – expanded balance sheets, Brexit related business disruption, and aggressive Russia looking to distract the existing security mechanism. Theme Parks 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 Theme Parks
– 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 Theme Parks.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Global Fun: The Internationalization of Theme Parks, Theme Parks 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 .
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Theme Parks 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Theme Parks has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Global Business industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Theme Parks 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Theme Parks 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 Global Fun: The Internationalization of Theme Parks .
Regulatory challenges
– Theme Parks 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Global Fun: The Internationalization of Theme Parks 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 Global Fun: The Internationalization of Theme Parks 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 Global Fun: The Internationalization of Theme Parks 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 Global Fun: The Internationalization of Theme Parks 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 Global Fun: The Internationalization of Theme Parks 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 Theme Parks needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.