Billy Beane and the Oakland Athletics (A): Disruptive Innovation in Major League Baseball SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution

Case Study Description of Billy Beane and the Oakland Athletics (A): Disruptive Innovation in Major League Baseball

Billy Beane and the Oakland A's have 'changed the game' in terms of talent identification, analytics, and player investment in Major League Baseball (MLB). Cases A and B are designed to provide and inspire learning on these topics by recounting Billy Beane's success as the Oakland A's General Manager over the past 16 seasons (1998 to 2013). The case, through analysis of performance and financial data over this time period, establishes Beane as the most efficient GM in MLB and shares concepts, information and data to allow for improved understanding of the barriers and drivers to the adoption of new and disruptive innovations in the sport business.

Authors :: George Foster, Norm Oa??Reilly, Ryan Lippert, Carlos Shimizu

Topics :: Innovation & Entrepreneurship

Tags :: Disruptive innovation, SWOT Analysis, SWOT Matrix, TOWS, Weighted SWOT Analysis

Swot Analysis of "Billy Beane and the Oakland Athletics (A): Disruptive Innovation in Major League Baseball" written by George Foster, Norm Oa??Reilly, Ryan Lippert, Carlos Shimizu includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Beane Billy facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Billy Beane and the Oakland Athletics (A): Disruptive Innovation in Major League Baseball case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Disruptive innovation and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.

Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Billy Beane and the Oakland Athletics (A): Disruptive Innovation in Major League Baseball casestudy better are - – central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, there is backlash against globalization, increasing commodity prices, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, wage bills are increasing, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , etc

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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Billy Beane and the Oakland Athletics (A): Disruptive Innovation in Major League Baseball

SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Billy Beane and the Oakland Athletics (A): Disruptive Innovation in Major League Baseball case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Beane Billy, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Beane Billy 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.

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SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix

SWOT analysis of Billy Beane and the Oakland Athletics (A): Disruptive Innovation in Major League Baseball can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Billy Beane and the Oakland Athletics (A): Disruptive Innovation in Major League Baseball case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Beane Billy
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 Beane Billy

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Strengths Billy Beane and the Oakland Athletics (A): Disruptive Innovation in Major League Baseball | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Beane Billy in Billy Beane and the Oakland Athletics (A): Disruptive Innovation in Major League Baseball Harvard Business Review case study are -

Low bargaining power of suppliers

– Suppliers of Beane Billy in the sector have low bargaining power. Billy Beane and the Oakland Athletics (A): Disruptive Innovation in Major League Baseball has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Beane Billy to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.

Organizational Resilience of Beane Billy

– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Beane Billy does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.

Highly skilled collaborators

– Beane Billy 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 Billy Beane and the Oakland Athletics (A): Disruptive Innovation in Major League Baseball HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.

Digital Transformation in Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment

- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Beane Billy digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Beane Billy has successfully integrated the four key components of digital transformation – digital integration in processes, digital integration in marketing and customer relationship management, digital integration into the value chain, and using technology to explore new products and market opportunities.

Training and development

– Beane Billy has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Billy Beane and the Oakland Athletics (A): Disruptive Innovation in Major League Baseball 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.

Analytics focus

– Beane Billy 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 George Foster, Norm Oa??Reilly, Ryan Lippert, Carlos Shimizu 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.

Strong track record of project management

– Beane Billy is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.

Operational resilience

– The operational resilience strategy in the Billy Beane and the Oakland Athletics (A): Disruptive Innovation in Major League Baseball 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

– Beane Billy is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Billy Beane and the Oakland Athletics (A): Disruptive Innovation in Major League Baseball 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.

Learning organization

- Beane Billy 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 Beane Billy is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Billy Beane and the Oakland Athletics (A): Disruptive Innovation in Major League Baseball Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.

Innovation driven organization

– Beane Billy is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Billy Beane and the Oakland Athletics (A): Disruptive Innovation in Major League Baseball 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

– Beane Billy is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Billy Beane and the Oakland Athletics (A): Disruptive Innovation in Major League Baseball are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.

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Weaknesses Billy Beane and the Oakland Athletics (A): Disruptive Innovation in Major League Baseball | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of Billy Beane and the Oakland Athletics (A): Disruptive Innovation in Major League Baseball are -

Slow to strategic competitive environment developments

– As Billy Beane and the Oakland Athletics (A): Disruptive Innovation in Major League Baseball HBR case study mentions - Beane Billy 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.

Aligning sales with marketing

– It come across in the case study Billy Beane and the Oakland Athletics (A): Disruptive Innovation in Major League Baseball 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 Billy Beane and the Oakland Athletics (A): Disruptive Innovation in Major League Baseball can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Beane Billy is planning to shift buying processes online.

No frontier risks strategy

– After analyzing the HBR case study Billy Beane and the Oakland Athletics (A): Disruptive Innovation in Major League Baseball, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Innovation & Entrepreneurship 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.

High dependence on star products

– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Billy Beane and the Oakland Athletics (A): Disruptive Innovation in Major League Baseball 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 Beane Billy has relatively successful track record of launching new products.

Compensation and incentives

– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Billy Beane and the Oakland Athletics (A): Disruptive Innovation in Major League Baseball, is just above the industry average. Beane Billy needs to redesign the compensation structure and incentives to increase the revenue per employees. Some of the steps that it can take are – hiring more specialists on project basis, etc.

High cash cycle compare to competitors

Beane Billy 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.

Capital Spending Reduction

– Even during the low interest decade, Beane Billy 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.

Interest costs

– Compare to the competition, Beane Billy 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, George Foster, Norm Oa??Reilly, Ryan Lippert, Carlos Shimizu suggests that, Beane Billy 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.

Products dominated business model

– Even though Beane Billy 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 - Billy Beane and the Oakland Athletics (A): Disruptive Innovation in Major League Baseball should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.

Skills based hiring

– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Beane Billy 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.

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Opportunities Billy Beane and the Oakland Athletics (A): Disruptive Innovation in Major League Baseball | 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 Billy Beane and the Oakland Athletics (A): Disruptive Innovation in Major League Baseball are -

Manufacturing automation

– Beane Billy can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Innovation & Entrepreneurship 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.

Buying journey improvements

– Beane Billy can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Billy Beane and the Oakland Athletics (A): Disruptive Innovation in Major League Baseball 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.

Lowering marketing communication costs

– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Beane Billy in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.

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 Beane Billy in the consumer business. Now Beane Billy 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 Beane Billy 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 Beane Billy to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.

Learning at scale

– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Beane Billy 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.

Increase in government spending

– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Beane Billy can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Beane Billy operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector.

Reforming the budgeting process

- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Beane Billy can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.

Better consumer reach

– The expansion of the 5G network will help Beane Billy to increase its market reach. Beane Billy 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.

Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains

– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Beane Billy 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, Billy Beane and the Oakland Athletics (A): Disruptive Innovation in Major League Baseball, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.

Developing new processes and practices

– Beane Billy 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.

Redefining models of collaboration and team work

– As explained in the weaknesses section, Beane Billy is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Billy Beane and the Oakland Athletics (A): Disruptive Innovation in Major League Baseball 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.

Loyalty marketing

– Beane Billy 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.

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Threats Billy Beane and the Oakland Athletics (A): Disruptive Innovation in Major League Baseball External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Billy Beane and the Oakland Athletics (A): Disruptive Innovation in Major League Baseball are -

High level of anxiety and lack of motivation

– the Great Resignation in United States is the sign of broader dissatisfaction among the workforce in United States. Beane Billy needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.

Shortening product life cycle

– it is one of the major threat that Beane Billy is facing in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.

Learning curve for new practices

– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Billy Beane and the Oakland Athletics (A): Disruptive Innovation in Major League Baseball, Beane Billy 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 .

Regulatory challenges

– Beane Billy 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.

Easy access to finance

– Easy access to finance in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Beane Billy can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.

Stagnating economy with rate increase

– Beane Billy 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.

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 Beane Billy in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.

Consumer confidence and its impact on Beane Billy 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.

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.

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 Beane Billy.

Environmental challenges

– Beane Billy 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. Beane Billy can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry.

Barriers of entry lowering

– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Beane Billy with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.

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.

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Weighted SWOT Analysis of Billy Beane and the Oakland Athletics (A): Disruptive Innovation in Major League Baseball 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 Billy Beane and the Oakland Athletics (A): Disruptive Innovation in Major League Baseball 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 Billy Beane and the Oakland Athletics (A): Disruptive Innovation in Major League Baseball 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 Billy Beane and the Oakland Athletics (A): Disruptive Innovation in Major League Baseball 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 Billy Beane and the Oakland Athletics (A): Disruptive Innovation in Major League Baseball 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 Beane Billy needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.

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