British Columbia Automobile Association: Post-strike and Looking Towards the Future SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of British Columbia Automobile Association: Post-strike and Looking Towards the Future
The vice-president of human resources of the British Columbia Automobile Association (BCAA) had just concluded negotiating the first collective agreements for two separate bargaining units with the association's union, who represented about 25 per cent of BCAA's workforce. BCAA's senior management wanted to find a way to reconcile with its unionized employees while still carrying on with the biggest cultural change in the company's century-long history. They wondered how best to proceed. The case serves as a discussion vehicle for how companies can manage labor relations post-strike, while attempting to implement strategic change.
Swot Analysis of "British Columbia Automobile Association: Post-strike and Looking Towards the Future" written by Charlene Zietsma, Ken Mark includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Bcaa's Columbia facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in British Columbia Automobile Association: Post-strike and Looking Towards the Future case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the British Columbia Automobile Association: Post-strike and Looking Towards the Future casestudy better are - – increasing commodity prices, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, geopolitical disruptions, wage bills are increasing, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, technology disruption, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation,
competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of British Columbia Automobile Association: Post-strike and Looking Towards the Future
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in British Columbia Automobile Association: Post-strike and Looking Towards the Future case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Bcaa's Columbia, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Bcaa's Columbia 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 British Columbia Automobile Association: Post-strike and Looking Towards the Future can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in British Columbia Automobile Association: Post-strike and Looking Towards the Future case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Bcaa's Columbia
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 Bcaa's Columbia
Strengths British Columbia Automobile Association: Post-strike and Looking Towards the Future | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Bcaa's Columbia in British Columbia Automobile Association: Post-strike and Looking Towards the Future Harvard Business Review case study are -
Strong track record of project management
– Bcaa's Columbia is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Innovation driven organization
– Bcaa's Columbia is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in British Columbia Automobile Association: Post-strike and Looking Towards the Future Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Bcaa's Columbia in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Bcaa's Columbia 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 British Columbia Automobile Association: Post-strike and Looking Towards the Future HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
High brand equity
– Bcaa's Columbia has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Bcaa's Columbia to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Digital Transformation in Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Bcaa's Columbia digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Bcaa's Columbia 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Bcaa's Columbia 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.
Training and development
– Bcaa's Columbia has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in British Columbia Automobile Association: Post-strike and Looking Towards the Future Harvard Business Review case study by analyzing – employees retention, in-house promotion, loyalty, new venture initiation, lack of conflict, and high level of both employees and customer engagement.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Bcaa's Columbia 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the British Columbia Automobile Association: Post-strike and Looking Towards the Future 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.
Organizational Resilience of Bcaa's Columbia
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Bcaa's Columbia does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Analytics focus
– Bcaa's Columbia 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 Charlene Zietsma, Ken Mark 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.
Weaknesses British Columbia Automobile Association: Post-strike and Looking Towards the Future | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of British Columbia Automobile Association: Post-strike and Looking Towards the Future are -
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Charlene Zietsma, Ken Mark suggests that, Bcaa's Columbia 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 Bcaa's Columbia 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 - British Columbia Automobile Association: Post-strike and Looking Towards the Future should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study British Columbia Automobile Association: Post-strike and Looking Towards the Future 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 British Columbia Automobile Association: Post-strike and Looking Towards the Future can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Bcaa's Columbia is planning to shift buying processes online.
Need for greater diversity
– Bcaa's Columbia 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Bcaa's Columbia is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment. Bcaa's Columbia needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Bcaa's Columbia to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Bcaa's Columbia 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Bcaa's Columbia 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Bcaa's Columbia, firm in the HBR case study British Columbia Automobile Association: Post-strike and Looking Towards the Future needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As British Columbia Automobile Association: Post-strike and Looking Towards the Future HBR case study mentions - Bcaa's Columbia takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the industry in last five years.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Bcaa's Columbia is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study British Columbia Automobile Association: Post-strike and Looking Towards the Future can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Bcaa's Columbia 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. Bcaa's Columbia 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.
Opportunities British Columbia Automobile Association: Post-strike and Looking Towards the Future | 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 British Columbia Automobile Association: Post-strike and Looking Towards the Future are -
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Bcaa's Columbia 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Bcaa's Columbia 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Bcaa's Columbia 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Bcaa's Columbia can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Bcaa's Columbia can make experimentation a productive activity and build a culture of innovation using approaches such as – mining transaction data, A/B testing of websites and selling platforms, engaging potential customers over various needs, and building on small ideas in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment.
Loyalty marketing
– Bcaa's Columbia 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.
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 Bcaa's Columbia in the consumer business. Now Bcaa's Columbia can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Bcaa's Columbia to increase its market reach. Bcaa's Columbia 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.
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 Bcaa's Columbia 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Bcaa's Columbia can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Bcaa's Columbia 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, British Columbia Automobile Association: Post-strike and Looking Towards the Future, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Bcaa's Columbia is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. British Columbia Automobile Association: Post-strike and Looking Towards the Future 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Bcaa's Columbia 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 British Columbia Automobile Association: Post-strike and Looking Towards the Future - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Bcaa's Columbia to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Threats British Columbia Automobile Association: Post-strike and Looking Towards the Future External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study British Columbia Automobile Association: Post-strike and Looking Towards the Future are -
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Bcaa's Columbia 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 British Columbia Automobile Association: Post-strike and Looking Towards the Future .
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. Bcaa's Columbia 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 Bcaa's Columbia is facing in Innovation & Entrepreneurship 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
– Bcaa's Columbia 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
– Bcaa's Columbia 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Bcaa's Columbia 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Bcaa's Columbia with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Bcaa's Columbia has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Bcaa's Columbia needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship 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.
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 Bcaa's Columbia.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study British Columbia Automobile Association: Post-strike and Looking Towards the Future, Bcaa's Columbia 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 .
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. Bcaa's Columbia 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.
Increasing wage structure of Bcaa's Columbia
– 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 Bcaa's Columbia.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of British Columbia Automobile Association: Post-strike and Looking Towards the Future 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 British Columbia Automobile Association: Post-strike and Looking Towards the Future 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 British Columbia Automobile Association: Post-strike and Looking Towards the Future 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 British Columbia Automobile Association: Post-strike and Looking Towards the Future 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 British Columbia Automobile Association: Post-strike and Looking Towards the Future 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 Bcaa's Columbia needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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