Case Study Description of Wells Fargo Online Financial Services (B), Spanish Version
Describes how the Balanced Scorecard built by the Online Financial Services (OFS) group is used to select the highest-priority initiatives for the organization. Currently, initiatives arise continually throughout the organization, and management spends considerable time reviewing, approving, and, often , canceling initiatives. OFS develops a ranking procedure, based on the Balanced Scorecard, to align initiatives with the group's strategy. Currently 11 proposals have made it through the first two screening processes. Students evaluate these proposals according to the strategic themes described in the Balanced Scorecard plus supplementary criteria developed by senior managers.
Swot Analysis of "Wells Fargo Online Financial Services (B), Spanish Version" written by Robert S. Kaplan, Nicole Tempest includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Ofs Scorecard facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Wells Fargo Online Financial Services (B), Spanish Version case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Balanced scorecard, Change management, Entrepreneurship, Financial analysis, Financial management, Internet, Strategy and Finance & Accounting.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Wells Fargo Online Financial Services (B), Spanish Version casestudy better are - – increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing energy prices, increasing transportation and logistics costs, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies,
banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, wage bills are increasing, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Wells Fargo Online Financial Services (B), Spanish Version
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Wells Fargo Online Financial Services (B), Spanish Version case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Ofs Scorecard, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Ofs Scorecard 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 Wells Fargo Online Financial Services (B), Spanish Version can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Wells Fargo Online Financial Services (B), Spanish Version case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Ofs Scorecard
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 Ofs Scorecard
Strengths Wells Fargo Online Financial Services (B), Spanish Version | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Ofs Scorecard in Wells Fargo Online Financial Services (B), Spanish Version Harvard Business Review case study are -
Ability to lead change in Finance & Accounting field
– Ofs Scorecard 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 Ofs Scorecard in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Strong track record of project management
– Ofs Scorecard 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
– Ofs Scorecard is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Wells Fargo Online Financial Services (B), Spanish Version 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Ofs Scorecard 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 Wells Fargo Online Financial Services (B), Spanish Version HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Ofs Scorecard has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Ofs Scorecard 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Wells Fargo Online Financial Services (B), Spanish Version 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Ofs Scorecard in the sector have low bargaining power. Wells Fargo Online Financial Services (B), Spanish Version has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Ofs Scorecard to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Ofs Scorecard 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Ofs Scorecard 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 Wells Fargo Online Financial Services (B), Spanish Version - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Analytics focus
– Ofs Scorecard 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 Robert S. Kaplan, Nicole Tempest 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Ofs Scorecard in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
High brand equity
– Ofs Scorecard has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Ofs Scorecard to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Weaknesses Wells Fargo Online Financial Services (B), Spanish Version | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Wells Fargo Online Financial Services (B), Spanish Version are -
Products dominated business model
– Even though Ofs Scorecard 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 - Wells Fargo Online Financial Services (B), Spanish Version should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Ofs Scorecard is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Finance & Accounting segment. Ofs Scorecard needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Ofs Scorecard to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Ofs Scorecard 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Ofs Scorecard products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Ofs Scorecard 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 Ofs Scorecard 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Wells Fargo Online Financial Services (B), Spanish Version 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 Ofs Scorecard has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Need for greater diversity
– Ofs Scorecard 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Robert S. Kaplan, Nicole Tempest suggests that, Ofs Scorecard 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 operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Wells Fargo Online Financial Services (B), Spanish Version 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 Ofs Scorecard 's lucrative customers.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Ofs Scorecard, firm in the HBR case study Wells Fargo Online Financial Services (B), Spanish Version needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Wells Fargo Online Financial Services (B), Spanish Version that the firm needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department in the case Wells Fargo Online Financial Services (B), Spanish Version can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Ofs Scorecard is planning to shift buying processes online.
Opportunities Wells Fargo Online Financial Services (B), Spanish Version | 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 Wells Fargo Online Financial Services (B), Spanish Version are -
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Ofs Scorecard can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
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 Ofs Scorecard in the consumer business. Now Ofs Scorecard 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 Ofs Scorecard 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 Ofs Scorecard to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Ofs Scorecard 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Ofs Scorecard 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Ofs Scorecard 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, Wells Fargo Online Financial Services (B), Spanish Version, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Loyalty marketing
– Ofs Scorecard has focused on building a highly responsive customer relationship management platform. This platform is built on in-house data and driven by analytics and artificial intelligence. The customer analytics can help the organization to fine tune its loyalty marketing efforts, increase the wallet share of the organization, reduce wastage on mainstream advertising spending, build better pricing strategies using personalization, etc.
Reconfiguring business model
– The expansion of digital payment system, the bringing down of international transactions costs using Bitcoin and other blockchain based currencies, etc can help Ofs Scorecard 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Ofs Scorecard is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Wells Fargo Online Financial Services (B), Spanish Version 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Ofs Scorecard 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 Finance & Accounting segment.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Ofs Scorecard in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Finance & Accounting segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
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. Ofs Scorecard 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. Ofs Scorecard 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Ofs Scorecard 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.
Threats Wells Fargo Online Financial Services (B), Spanish Version External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Wells Fargo Online Financial Services (B), Spanish Version are -
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 Ofs Scorecard in the Finance & Accounting sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Ofs Scorecard is facing in Finance & Accounting sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Ofs Scorecard 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 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Ofs Scorecard 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 Wells Fargo Online Financial Services (B), Spanish Version .
Consumer confidence and its impact on Ofs Scorecard 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. Ofs Scorecard 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.
Environmental challenges
– Ofs Scorecard 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. Ofs Scorecard can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Finance & Accounting industry.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Wells Fargo Online Financial Services (B), Spanish Version, Ofs Scorecard may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Finance & Accounting .
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 Ofs Scorecard.
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. Ofs Scorecard can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Ofs Scorecard in the Finance & Accounting industry. The Finance & Accounting 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Wells Fargo Online Financial Services (B), Spanish Version 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 Wells Fargo Online Financial Services (B), Spanish Version 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 Wells Fargo Online Financial Services (B), Spanish Version 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 Wells Fargo Online Financial Services (B), Spanish Version 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 Wells Fargo Online Financial Services (B), Spanish Version 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 Ofs Scorecard needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
