Jennifer Parks at PillarPoint Home Loans: Developing a New-Growth Initiative SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Jennifer Parks at PillarPoint Home Loans: Developing a New-Growth Initiative
Jennifer Parks, a newly appointed business development officer at PillarPoint Home Loans, is given a mandate to identify and develop a new-growth initiative for her company, a small mortgage division of one of the largest U.S. credit card issuers. The company has more than 60 million accounts worldwide and a reputation as a leader in direct marketing and online services. After studying the industry, Parks identifies what she believes is a high-potential growth opportunity: a home mortgage product aimed at high-net-worth customers of the parent company. As she gets ready to present her idea to PillarPoint's executives, what should she propose as the next steps for moving the initiative forward?
Swot Analysis of "Jennifer Parks at PillarPoint Home Loans: Developing a New-Growth Initiative" written by Jeanne M. Liedtka, Gosia Glinska includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Pillarpoint Parks facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Jennifer Parks at PillarPoint Home Loans: Developing a New-Growth Initiative case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Innovation, Marketing and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Jennifer Parks at PillarPoint Home Loans: Developing a New-Growth Initiative casestudy better are - – customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing commodity prices, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing household debt because of falling income levels,
there is backlash against globalization, wage bills are increasing, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Jennifer Parks at PillarPoint Home Loans: Developing a New-Growth Initiative
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Jennifer Parks at PillarPoint Home Loans: Developing a New-Growth Initiative case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Pillarpoint Parks, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Pillarpoint Parks operates in.
According to Harvard Business Review, 75% of the managers use SWOT analysis for various purposes such as – evaluating current scenario, strategic planning, new venture feasibility, personal growth goals, new market entry, Go To market strategies, portfolio management and strategic trade-off assessment, organizational restructuring, etc.
SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix
SWOT analysis of Jennifer Parks at PillarPoint Home Loans: Developing a New-Growth Initiative can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Jennifer Parks at PillarPoint Home Loans: Developing a New-Growth Initiative case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Pillarpoint Parks
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 Pillarpoint Parks
Strengths Jennifer Parks at PillarPoint Home Loans: Developing a New-Growth Initiative | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Pillarpoint Parks in Jennifer Parks at PillarPoint Home Loans: Developing a New-Growth Initiative Harvard Business Review case study are -
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Pillarpoint Parks in the sector have low bargaining power. Jennifer Parks at PillarPoint Home Loans: Developing a New-Growth Initiative has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Pillarpoint Parks to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Pillarpoint Parks has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Pillarpoint Parks 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.
Analytics focus
– Pillarpoint Parks 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 Jeanne M. Liedtka, Gosia Glinska 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.
Ability to lead change in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field
– Pillarpoint Parks is one of the leading players in its industry. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in its segment but also across the whole industry. The ability to lead change has enabled Pillarpoint Parks in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Diverse revenue streams
– Pillarpoint Parks is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Jennifer Parks at PillarPoint Home Loans: Developing a New-Growth Initiative 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
– Pillarpoint Parks has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive segment. Secondly the value chain collaborators of the firm in Jennifer Parks at PillarPoint Home Loans: Developing a New-Growth Initiative HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Pillarpoint Parks has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in, as mentioned in case study Jennifer Parks at PillarPoint Home Loans: Developing a New-Growth Initiative - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Pillarpoint Parks is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Jennifer Parks at PillarPoint Home Loans: Developing a New-Growth Initiative are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Organizational Resilience of Pillarpoint Parks
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Pillarpoint Parks does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry
– Jennifer Parks at PillarPoint Home Loans: Developing a New-Growth Initiative firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Pillarpoint Parks to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Pillarpoint Parks to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Pillarpoint Parks 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.
High brand equity
– Pillarpoint Parks has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Pillarpoint Parks to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Weaknesses Jennifer Parks at PillarPoint Home Loans: Developing a New-Growth Initiative | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Jennifer Parks at PillarPoint Home Loans: Developing a New-Growth Initiative are -
Need for greater diversity
– Pillarpoint Parks has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Jennifer Parks at PillarPoint Home Loans: Developing a New-Growth Initiative 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 Pillarpoint Parks has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Pillarpoint Parks is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Jennifer Parks at PillarPoint Home Loans: Developing a New-Growth Initiative can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Pillarpoint Parks is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment. Pillarpoint Parks needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Pillarpoint Parks to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Pillarpoint Parks has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the industry over the last five years. Pillarpoint Parks even though has strong showing on digital transformation primary two stages, it has struggled to capitalize the power of digital transformation in marketing efforts and new venture efforts.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Pillarpoint Parks needs to come up with a strategy to reduce the workers concern regarding automation. Without a clear strategy, it could lead to disruption and uncertainty within the organization.
Lack of clear differentiation of Pillarpoint Parks products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Pillarpoint Parks needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Pillarpoint Parks, firm in the HBR case study Jennifer Parks at PillarPoint Home Loans: Developing a New-Growth Initiative needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Jennifer Parks at PillarPoint Home Loans: Developing a New-Growth Initiative, 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Pillarpoint Parks has borrowed money from the capital market at higher rates. It needs to restructure the interest payment and costs so that it can compete better and improve profitability.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Jennifer Parks at PillarPoint Home Loans: Developing a New-Growth Initiative, in the dynamic environment Pillarpoint Parks has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Pillarpoint Parks has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Opportunities Jennifer Parks at PillarPoint Home Loans: Developing a New-Growth Initiative | 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 Jennifer Parks at PillarPoint Home Loans: Developing a New-Growth Initiative are -
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Pillarpoint Parks 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Pillarpoint Parks has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Pillarpoint Parks to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Jennifer Parks at PillarPoint Home Loans: Developing a New-Growth Initiative case study. Pillarpoint Parks can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Pillarpoint Parks to expand its talent hiring zone. According to McKinsey Global Institute, 20% of the high end workforce in fields such as finance, information technology, can continously work from remote local post Covid-19. This presents a really great opportunity for Pillarpoint Parks to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Pillarpoint Parks has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in the sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled, as illustrated in the Harvard case study Jennifer Parks at PillarPoint Home Loans: Developing a New-Growth Initiative - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Pillarpoint Parks to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Pillarpoint Parks can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Pillarpoint Parks can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Pillarpoint Parks operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Pillarpoint Parks to increase its market reach. Pillarpoint Parks will be able to reach out to new customers. Secondly 5G will also provide technology framework to build new tools and products that can help more immersive consumer experience and faster consumer journey.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Pillarpoint Parks is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Jennifer Parks at PillarPoint Home Loans: Developing a New-Growth Initiative 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.
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 Pillarpoint Parks in the consumer business. Now Pillarpoint Parks can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Pillarpoint Parks 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, Jennifer Parks at PillarPoint Home Loans: Developing a New-Growth Initiative, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Manufacturing automation
– Pillarpoint Parks 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Pillarpoint Parks to conduct training and development for its employees across the world. This will result in not only reducing the cost of training but also help employees in different part of the world to integrate with the headquarter work culture, ethos, and standards.
Loyalty marketing
– Pillarpoint Parks has focused on building a highly responsive customer relationship management platform. This platform is built on in-house data and driven by analytics and artificial intelligence. The customer analytics can help the organization to fine tune its loyalty marketing efforts, increase the wallet share of the organization, reduce wastage on mainstream advertising spending, build better pricing strategies using personalization, etc.
Threats Jennifer Parks at PillarPoint Home Loans: Developing a New-Growth Initiative External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Jennifer Parks at PillarPoint Home Loans: Developing a New-Growth Initiative 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 Pillarpoint Parks in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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. Pillarpoint Parks needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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 Pillarpoint Parks business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Environmental challenges
– Pillarpoint Parks needs to have a robust strategy against the disruptions arising from climate change and energy requirements. EU has identified it as key priority area and spending 30% of its 880 billion Euros European post Covid-19 recovery funds on green technology. Pillarpoint Parks can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry.
Increasing wage structure of Pillarpoint Parks
– Post Covid-19 there is a sharp increase in the wages especially in the jobs that require interaction with people. The increasing wages can put downward pressure on the margins of Pillarpoint Parks.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Pillarpoint Parks 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.
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 Pillarpoint Parks.
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. Pillarpoint Parks will face different problems in different parts of Europe. For example it will face inflationary pressures in UK, France, and Germany, balance sheet expansion and demand challenges in Southern European countries, and geopolitical instability in the Eastern Europe.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Pillarpoint Parks 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Pillarpoint Parks can face downward pressure on margins from increasing competition from international players. The international players have stable revenue in their home market and can use those resources to penetrate prominent markets illustrated in HBR case study Jennifer Parks at PillarPoint Home Loans: Developing a New-Growth Initiative .
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Pillarpoint Parks high dependence on third party suppliers can disrupt its processes and delivery mechanism. For example -the current troubles of car makers because of chip shortage is because the chip companies started producing chips for electronic companies rather than car manufacturers.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Jennifer Parks at PillarPoint Home Loans: Developing a New-Growth Initiative, Pillarpoint Parks may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Innovation & Entrepreneurship .
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Jennifer Parks at PillarPoint Home Loans: Developing a New-Growth Initiative 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 Jennifer Parks at PillarPoint Home Loans: Developing a New-Growth Initiative 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 Jennifer Parks at PillarPoint Home Loans: Developing a New-Growth Initiative 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 Jennifer Parks at PillarPoint Home Loans: Developing a New-Growth Initiative 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 Jennifer Parks at PillarPoint Home Loans: Developing a New-Growth Initiative 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 Pillarpoint Parks needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
