Crisis at the Mill: Cash Flow Forecasting Exercise SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Crisis at the Mill: Cash Flow Forecasting Exercise
Emerging markets are challenging and require special expertise. India in particular is known to be a tricky business environment. The case follows two senior executives from Alvarez & Marsal's India practice as they deal with an urgent request from one of their US private equity clients, Sapphire Capital. A former employee is claiming that irregular activities by senior management are at the root of the company's financial difficulties. The turnaround team needs to act quickly yet must tread carefully in case the accusations prove unfounded. The second part of the case describes how the A&M team deals with the situation and the action they take to restore and restructure the ailing Indian company.
Authors :: Sankar Krishnan, Claudia Zeisberger, Anne-Marie Carrick, Nikhil Shah
Swot Analysis of "Crisis at the Mill: Cash Flow Forecasting Exercise" written by Sankar Krishnan, Claudia Zeisberger, Anne-Marie Carrick, Nikhil Shah includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Marsal's Alvarez facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Crisis at the Mill: Cash Flow Forecasting Exercise case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Corporate governance, Crisis management, Emerging markets, Ethics and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Crisis at the Mill: Cash Flow Forecasting Exercise casestudy better are - – central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing transportation and logistics costs, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, there is backlash against globalization, technology disruption,
increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing commodity prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Crisis at the Mill: Cash Flow Forecasting Exercise
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Crisis at the Mill: Cash Flow Forecasting Exercise case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Marsal's Alvarez, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Marsal's Alvarez 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 Crisis at the Mill: Cash Flow Forecasting Exercise can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Crisis at the Mill: Cash Flow Forecasting Exercise case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Marsal's Alvarez
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 Marsal's Alvarez
Strengths Crisis at the Mill: Cash Flow Forecasting Exercise | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Marsal's Alvarez in Crisis at the Mill: Cash Flow Forecasting Exercise Harvard Business Review case study are -
Innovation driven organization
– Marsal's Alvarez is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Crisis at the Mill: Cash Flow Forecasting Exercise Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
High brand equity
– Marsal's Alvarez has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Marsal's Alvarez to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Diverse revenue streams
– Marsal's Alvarez is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Crisis at the Mill: Cash Flow Forecasting Exercise 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 Marsal's Alvarez in the sector have low bargaining power. Crisis at the Mill: Cash Flow Forecasting Exercise has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Marsal's Alvarez to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Marsal's Alvarez in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Marsal's Alvarez 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 Crisis at the Mill: Cash Flow Forecasting Exercise - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Marsal's Alvarez 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.
Learning organization
- Marsal's Alvarez 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 Marsal's Alvarez is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Crisis at the Mill: Cash Flow Forecasting Exercise Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Ability to lead change in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field
– Marsal's Alvarez 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 Marsal's Alvarez in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Marsal's Alvarez has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Marsal's Alvarez 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Marsal's Alvarez is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Crisis at the Mill: Cash Flow Forecasting Exercise are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Crisis at the Mill: Cash Flow Forecasting Exercise 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.
Weaknesses Crisis at the Mill: Cash Flow Forecasting Exercise | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Crisis at the Mill: Cash Flow Forecasting Exercise are -
Lack of clear differentiation of Marsal's Alvarez products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Marsal's Alvarez needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Crisis at the Mill: Cash Flow Forecasting Exercise 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 Crisis at the Mill: Cash Flow Forecasting Exercise can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Marsal's Alvarez is planning to shift buying processes online.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Crisis at the Mill: Cash Flow Forecasting Exercise, in the dynamic environment Marsal's Alvarez has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Marsal's Alvarez has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Crisis at the Mill: Cash Flow Forecasting Exercise, is just above the industry average. Marsal's Alvarez 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Marsal's Alvarez 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Crisis at the Mill: Cash Flow Forecasting Exercise 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 Marsal's Alvarez 's lucrative customers.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Crisis at the Mill: Cash Flow Forecasting Exercise 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 Marsal's Alvarez has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Marsal's Alvarez 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 - Crisis at the Mill: Cash Flow Forecasting Exercise should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Need for greater diversity
– Marsal's Alvarez 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 Marsal's Alvarez is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment. Marsal's Alvarez needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Marsal's Alvarez to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Marsal's Alvarez 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.
Opportunities Crisis at the Mill: Cash Flow Forecasting Exercise | 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 Crisis at the Mill: Cash Flow Forecasting Exercise are -
Manufacturing automation
– Marsal's Alvarez 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Marsal's Alvarez 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Marsal's Alvarez 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Marsal's Alvarez 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 Crisis at the Mill: Cash Flow Forecasting Exercise - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Marsal's Alvarez to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Marsal's Alvarez has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Marsal's Alvarez to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Crisis at the Mill: Cash Flow Forecasting Exercise case study. Marsal's Alvarez can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
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. Marsal's Alvarez can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Identify volunteer opportunities
– Covid-19 has impacted working population in two ways – it has led to people soul searching about their professional choices, resulting in mass resignation. Secondly it has encouraged people to do things that they are passionate about. This has opened opportunities for businesses to build volunteer oriented socially driven projects. Marsal's Alvarez can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Marsal's Alvarez 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Marsal's Alvarez 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, Crisis at the Mill: Cash Flow Forecasting Exercise, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Marsal's Alvarez 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 Marsal's Alvarez to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Marsal's Alvarez can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Marsal's Alvarez 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Marsal's Alvarez can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Crisis at the Mill: Cash Flow Forecasting Exercise 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.
Threats Crisis at the Mill: Cash Flow Forecasting Exercise External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Crisis at the Mill: Cash Flow Forecasting Exercise are -
Increasing wage structure of Marsal's Alvarez
– 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 Marsal's Alvarez.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Marsal's Alvarez has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Marsal's Alvarez 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.
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 Marsal's Alvarez in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Marsal's Alvarez 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Crisis at the Mill: Cash Flow Forecasting Exercise, Marsal's Alvarez 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 .
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Marsal's Alvarez 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.
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. Marsal's Alvarez 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.
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. Marsal's Alvarez can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Marsal's Alvarez 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.
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 Marsal's Alvarez business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Marsal's Alvarez 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.
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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Marsal's Alvarez is facing in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Crisis at the Mill: Cash Flow Forecasting Exercise 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 Crisis at the Mill: Cash Flow Forecasting Exercise 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 Crisis at the Mill: Cash Flow Forecasting Exercise 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 Crisis at the Mill: Cash Flow Forecasting Exercise 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 Crisis at the Mill: Cash Flow Forecasting Exercise 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 Marsal's Alvarez needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.