Corporate Governance: The Jack Wright Series #11-How Directors Get Into Trouble-Interlocking Directors SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
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Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Corporate Governance: The Jack Wright Series #11-How Directors Get Into Trouble-Interlocking Directors
This case finds Jack Wright and the Mega Corporation board having to deal with a conflict situation involving a director and a "sticky situation" that has emerged from another board on which the director sits. The discussion must deal with both the director's dilemma on the other board and Jack's responsibilities as Chair of the Mega board.
Swot Analysis of "Corporate Governance: The Jack Wright Series #11-How Directors Get Into Trouble-Interlocking Directors" written by John L. Colley includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Wright Mega facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Corporate Governance: The Jack Wright Series #11-How Directors Get Into Trouble-Interlocking Directors case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Compensation, Financial management, Labor, Regulation and Finance & Accounting.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Corporate Governance: The Jack Wright Series #11-How Directors Get Into Trouble-Interlocking Directors casestudy better are - – increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing transportation and logistics costs, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing commodity prices,
competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Corporate Governance: The Jack Wright Series #11-How Directors Get Into Trouble-Interlocking Directors
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Corporate Governance: The Jack Wright Series #11-How Directors Get Into Trouble-Interlocking Directors case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Wright Mega, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Wright Mega operates in.
According to Harvard Business Review, 75% of the managers use SWOT analysis for various purposes such as – evaluating current scenario, strategic planning, new venture feasibility, personal growth goals, new market entry, Go To market strategies, portfolio management and strategic trade-off assessment, organizational restructuring, etc.
SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix
SWOT analysis of Corporate Governance: The Jack Wright Series #11-How Directors Get Into Trouble-Interlocking Directors can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Corporate Governance: The Jack Wright Series #11-How Directors Get Into Trouble-Interlocking Directors case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Wright Mega
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Finance & Accounting field.
4. Making a Finance & Accounting topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Wright Mega
Strengths Corporate Governance: The Jack Wright Series #11-How Directors Get Into Trouble-Interlocking Directors | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Wright Mega in Corporate Governance: The Jack Wright Series #11-How Directors Get Into Trouble-Interlocking Directors Harvard Business Review case study are -
Analytics focus
– Wright Mega is putting a lot of focus on utilizing the power of analytics in business decision making. This has put it among the leading players in the industry. The technology infrastructure suggested by John L. Colley 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.
High brand equity
– Wright Mega has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Wright Mega to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Wright Mega in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Finance & Accounting industry
– Corporate Governance: The Jack Wright Series #11-How Directors Get Into Trouble-Interlocking Directors firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Wright Mega to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Finance & Accounting industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Wright Mega to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Wright Mega has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive segment. Secondly the value chain collaborators of the firm in Corporate Governance: The Jack Wright Series #11-How Directors Get Into Trouble-Interlocking Directors HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Wright Mega 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Corporate Governance: The Jack Wright Series #11-How Directors Get Into Trouble-Interlocking Directors 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Wright Mega is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Corporate Governance: The Jack Wright Series #11-How Directors Get Into Trouble-Interlocking Directors 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Wright Mega in the sector have low bargaining power. Corporate Governance: The Jack Wright Series #11-How Directors Get Into Trouble-Interlocking Directors has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Wright Mega to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Ability to lead change in Finance & Accounting field
– Wright Mega is one of the leading players in its industry. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in its segment but also across the whole industry. The ability to lead change has enabled Wright Mega in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Organizational Resilience of Wright Mega
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Wright Mega does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Learning organization
- Wright Mega 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 Wright Mega is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Corporate Governance: The Jack Wright Series #11-How Directors Get Into Trouble-Interlocking Directors Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Weaknesses Corporate Governance: The Jack Wright Series #11-How Directors Get Into Trouble-Interlocking Directors | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Corporate Governance: The Jack Wright Series #11-How Directors Get Into Trouble-Interlocking Directors are -
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Wright Mega 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 bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, John L. Colley suggests that, Wright Mega 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Wright Mega, firm in the HBR case study Corporate Governance: The Jack Wright Series #11-How Directors Get Into Trouble-Interlocking Directors needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Corporate Governance: The Jack Wright Series #11-How Directors Get Into Trouble-Interlocking Directors, in the dynamic environment Wright Mega has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Wright Mega has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Corporate Governance: The Jack Wright Series #11-How Directors Get Into Trouble-Interlocking Directors has high operating costs in the. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Wright Mega 's lucrative customers.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Wright Mega 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Wright Mega 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Corporate Governance: The Jack Wright Series #11-How Directors Get Into Trouble-Interlocking Directors 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 Corporate Governance: The Jack Wright Series #11-How Directors Get Into Trouble-Interlocking Directors can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Wright Mega is planning to shift buying processes online.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Wright Mega has some of the most successful products in the industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. firm in the HBR case study - Corporate Governance: The Jack Wright Series #11-How Directors Get Into Trouble-Interlocking Directors should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Wright Mega is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Finance & Accounting segment. Wright Mega needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Wright Mega to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Corporate Governance: The Jack Wright Series #11-How Directors Get Into Trouble-Interlocking Directors, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Finance & Accounting strategy. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.
Opportunities Corporate Governance: The Jack Wright Series #11-How Directors Get Into Trouble-Interlocking Directors | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities highlighted in the Harvard Business Review case study Corporate Governance: The Jack Wright Series #11-How Directors Get Into Trouble-Interlocking Directors are -
Loyalty marketing
– Wright Mega 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Wright Mega 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Wright Mega can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Wright Mega operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Finance & Accounting sector.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Finance & Accounting industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Wright Mega can take advantage of these changes in consumer behavior to build a far more efficient business model. For example consumer regular ordering of products can reduce both last mile delivery costs and market penetration costs. Wright Mega 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Wright Mega 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Wright Mega can build a diversified supply chain model across various countries in - South East Asia, India, and other parts of the world. This reconfiguration of global supply chain can help, as suggested in case study, Corporate Governance: The Jack Wright Series #11-How Directors Get Into Trouble-Interlocking Directors, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Wright Mega has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in the sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled, as illustrated in the Harvard case study Corporate Governance: The Jack Wright Series #11-How Directors Get Into Trouble-Interlocking Directors - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Wright Mega to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Buying journey improvements
– Wright Mega can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Corporate Governance: The Jack Wright Series #11-How Directors Get Into Trouble-Interlocking Directors 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Wright Mega 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Wright Mega 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 Wright Mega in the consumer business. Now Wright Mega can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Finance & Accounting industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Wright Mega can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Wright Mega has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Wright Mega to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Corporate Governance: The Jack Wright Series #11-How Directors Get Into Trouble-Interlocking Directors case study. Wright Mega can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Threats Corporate Governance: The Jack Wright Series #11-How Directors Get Into Trouble-Interlocking Directors External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Corporate Governance: The Jack Wright Series #11-How Directors Get Into Trouble-Interlocking Directors are -
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Wright Mega 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Wright Mega 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.
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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Wright Mega 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.
Increasing wage structure of Wright Mega
– Post Covid-19 there is a sharp increase in the wages especially in the jobs that require interaction with people. The increasing wages can put downward pressure on the margins of Wright Mega.
Backlash against dominant players
– US Congress and other legislative arms of the government are getting tough on big business especially technology companies. The digital arm of Wright Mega business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, 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. Wright Mega 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Corporate Governance: The Jack Wright Series #11-How Directors Get Into Trouble-Interlocking Directors, Wright Mega 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 .
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 Wright Mega in the Finance & Accounting sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Wright Mega has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Finance & Accounting industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Wright Mega needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Finance & Accounting 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Wright Mega 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
– Wright Mega needs to prepare for regulatory challenges as consumer protection groups and other pressure groups are vigorously advocating for more regulations on big business - to reduce inequality, to create a level playing field, to product data privacy and consumer privacy, to reduce the influence of big money on democratic institutions, etc. This can lead to significant changes in the Finance & Accounting industry regulations.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Corporate Governance: The Jack Wright Series #11-How Directors Get Into Trouble-Interlocking Directors Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers in the HBR case study Corporate Governance: The Jack Wright Series #11-How Directors Get Into Trouble-Interlocking Directors needs to zero down on the relative importance of each factor mentioned in the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants.
We can provide the relative importance to each factor by assigning relative weights. Weighted SWOT analysis process is a three stage process –
First stage for doing weighted SWOT analysis of the case study Corporate Governance: The Jack Wright Series #11-How Directors Get Into Trouble-Interlocking Directors is to rank the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. This will help you to assess the most important strengths and weaknesses of the firm and which one of the strengths and weaknesses mentioned in the initial lists are marginal and can be left out.
Second stage for conducting weighted SWOT analysis of the Harvard case study Corporate Governance: The Jack Wright Series #11-How Directors Get Into Trouble-Interlocking Directors is to give probabilities to the external strategic factors thus better understanding the opportunities and threats arising out of macro environment changes and developments.
Third stage of constructing weighted SWOT analysis of Corporate Governance: The Jack Wright Series #11-How Directors Get Into Trouble-Interlocking Directors is to provide strategic recommendations includes – joining likelihood of external strategic factors such as opportunities and threats to the internal strategic factors – strengths and weaknesses. You should start with external factors as they will provide the direction of the overall industry. Secondly by joining probabilities with internal strategic factors can help the company not only strategic fit but also the most probably strategic trade-off that Wright Mega needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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