La Corpo, Act II: The Second Year SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of La Corpo, Act II: The Second Year
This set of two cases describes how two MBA alumni acquired a long-established business in France, and, despite all their efforts to modernise it, grow it and apply best practices as learned in business school (Case A), finally turned it into a loss-making and cash-bleeding company (Case B).
Swot Analysis of "La Corpo, Act II: The Second Year" written by Monica Perez Cuevas, Patrick Turner, Timothy Bovard, Anne-Marie Carrick includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Corpo Modernise facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in La Corpo, Act II: The Second Year case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Entrepreneurship, Negotiations and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the La Corpo, Act II: The Second Year casestudy better are - – technology disruption, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, there is backlash against globalization, increasing transportation and logistics costs,
increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing energy prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of La Corpo, Act II: The Second Year
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in La Corpo, Act II: The Second Year case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Corpo Modernise, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Corpo Modernise 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 La Corpo, Act II: The Second Year can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in La Corpo, Act II: The Second Year case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Corpo Modernise
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field.
4. Making a Innovation & Entrepreneurship topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Corpo Modernise
Strengths La Corpo, Act II: The Second Year | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Corpo Modernise in La Corpo, Act II: The Second Year Harvard Business Review case study are -
High brand equity
– Corpo Modernise has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Corpo Modernise to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Corpo Modernise in the sector have low bargaining power. La Corpo, Act II: The Second Year has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Corpo Modernise to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Training and development
– Corpo Modernise has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in La Corpo, Act II: The Second Year 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Corpo Modernise 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.
Ability to lead change in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field
– Corpo Modernise 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 Corpo Modernise in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Corpo Modernise 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.
Learning organization
- Corpo Modernise is a learning organization. It has inculcated three key characters of learning organization in its processes and operations – exploration, creativity, and expansiveness. The work place at Corpo Modernise is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in La Corpo, Act II: The Second Year Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Corpo Modernise has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Corpo Modernise 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Corpo Modernise is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the La Corpo, Act II: The Second Year are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Corpo Modernise 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 La Corpo, Act II: The Second Year - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Strong track record of project management
– Corpo Modernise is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Organizational Resilience of Corpo Modernise
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Corpo Modernise does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Weaknesses La Corpo, Act II: The Second Year | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of La Corpo, Act II: The Second Year are -
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As La Corpo, Act II: The Second Year HBR case study mentions - Corpo Modernise 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Corpo Modernise is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study La Corpo, Act II: The Second Year can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Need for greater diversity
– Corpo Modernise 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Corpo Modernise 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study La Corpo, Act II: The Second Year, in the dynamic environment Corpo Modernise has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Corpo Modernise has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Corpo Modernise, firm in the HBR case study La Corpo, Act II: The Second Year needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Monica Perez Cuevas, Patrick Turner, Timothy Bovard, Anne-Marie Carrick suggests that, Corpo Modernise 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.
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 Corpo Modernise supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - La Corpo, Act II: The Second Year, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Corpo Modernise vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Corpo Modernise 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. Corpo Modernise 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study La Corpo, Act II: The Second Year 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 Corpo Modernise 's lucrative customers.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study La Corpo, Act II: The Second Year, it seems that the employees of Corpo Modernise 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.
Opportunities La Corpo, Act II: The Second Year | 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 La Corpo, Act II: The Second Year are -
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Corpo Modernise 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, La Corpo, Act II: The Second Year, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Corpo Modernise 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.
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. Corpo Modernise can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Corpo Modernise 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 La Corpo, Act II: The Second Year - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Corpo Modernise to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
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 Corpo Modernise 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Corpo Modernise 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Corpo Modernise can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. La Corpo, Act II: The Second Year 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, Corpo Modernise can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Corpo Modernise operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector.
Developing new processes and practices
– Corpo Modernise can develop new processes and procedures in Innovation & Entrepreneurship 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Corpo Modernise can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Corpo Modernise 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Corpo Modernise to increase its market reach. Corpo Modernise 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Corpo Modernise 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 Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment.
Threats La Corpo, Act II: The Second Year External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study La Corpo, Act II: The Second Year are -
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. Corpo Modernise 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Corpo Modernise is facing in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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 Corpo Modernise business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Aging population
– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Corpo Modernise in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The Innovation & Entrepreneurship 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.
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
– Corpo Modernise 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Corpo Modernise 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 Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry regulations.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Corpo Modernise 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 La Corpo, Act II: The Second Year .
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study La Corpo, Act II: The Second Year, Corpo Modernise may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Innovation & Entrepreneurship .
Consumer confidence and its impact on Corpo Modernise 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Corpo Modernise 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.
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 Corpo Modernise.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of La Corpo, Act II: The Second Year 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 La Corpo, Act II: The Second Year 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 La Corpo, Act II: The Second Year 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 La Corpo, Act II: The Second Year 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 La Corpo, Act II: The Second Year 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 Corpo Modernise needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
