Frontier Adventure Racing: Pack Lightly, Go Like Hell, Never Give Up SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Frontier Adventure Racing: Pack Lightly, Go Like Hell, Never Give Up
Frontier Adventure Racing is a relatively young company that is facing some significant financial issues. The company president, owner and organizer of Canada's most recognized series of adventure races (Raid the North), is passionate and knowledgeable about the sport of adventure racing. Also, as the captain of Canada's top adventure racing team, his profile has loaned credibility to his own company and has heightened media coverage of its races. The company has great products, a solid international reputation among adventure racers, and good name recognition in the field. Even so, the company is up against some serious financial hurdles, having made little or no profit four years in a row. The Sports Network and The Outdoor Life Network have offered two hours of television coverage for the company's next race and half of the ad spots during the show if Frontier Adventure Racing is willing to pay the production costs. This kind of coverage would boost the company's visibility, but where could the company come up with the funding? Already faced with the problem of finding new sponsors, a bill for sponsorship, and a need for TV production costs over and above the normal cash requirements, the president knows the situation is difficult at best, and wonders what possible options are available to him.
Swot Analysis of "Frontier Adventure Racing: Pack Lightly, Go Like Hell, Never Give Up" written by Stewart Thornhill, Charlene Zietsma includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Adventure Racing facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Frontier Adventure Racing: Pack Lightly, Go Like Hell, Never Give Up case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Financial management, Organizational culture and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Frontier Adventure Racing: Pack Lightly, Go Like Hell, Never Give Up casestudy better are - – cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, geopolitical disruptions, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, there is backlash against globalization, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, wage bills are increasing,
customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, technology disruption, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Frontier Adventure Racing: Pack Lightly, Go Like Hell, Never Give Up
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Frontier Adventure Racing: Pack Lightly, Go Like Hell, Never Give Up case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Adventure Racing, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Adventure Racing 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 Frontier Adventure Racing: Pack Lightly, Go Like Hell, Never Give Up can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Frontier Adventure Racing: Pack Lightly, Go Like Hell, Never Give Up case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Adventure Racing
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 Adventure Racing
Strengths Frontier Adventure Racing: Pack Lightly, Go Like Hell, Never Give Up | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Adventure Racing in Frontier Adventure Racing: Pack Lightly, Go Like Hell, Never Give Up Harvard Business Review case study are -
Diverse revenue streams
– Adventure Racing is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Frontier Adventure Racing: Pack Lightly, Go Like Hell, Never Give Up 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.
Ability to lead change in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field
– Adventure Racing 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 Adventure Racing in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Adventure Racing is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Frontier Adventure Racing: Pack Lightly, Go Like Hell, Never Give Up are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Adventure Racing has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Adventure Racing 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Adventure Racing 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.
Organizational Resilience of Adventure Racing
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Adventure Racing does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Strong track record of project management
– Adventure Racing is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Analytics focus
– Adventure Racing 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 Stewart Thornhill, Charlene Zietsma 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.
Learning organization
- Adventure Racing 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 Adventure Racing is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Frontier Adventure Racing: Pack Lightly, Go Like Hell, Never Give Up Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Innovation driven organization
– Adventure Racing is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Frontier Adventure Racing: Pack Lightly, Go Like Hell, Never Give Up Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Adventure Racing 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry
– Frontier Adventure Racing: Pack Lightly, Go Like Hell, Never Give Up firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Adventure Racing to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Adventure Racing to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Weaknesses Frontier Adventure Racing: Pack Lightly, Go Like Hell, Never Give Up | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Frontier Adventure Racing: Pack Lightly, Go Like Hell, Never Give Up are -
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Adventure Racing 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Frontier Adventure Racing: Pack Lightly, Go Like Hell, Never Give Up 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 Adventure Racing has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Adventure Racing 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Frontier Adventure Racing: Pack Lightly, Go Like Hell, Never Give Up HBR case study mentions - Adventure Racing 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Adventure Racing 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 - Frontier Adventure Racing: Pack Lightly, Go Like Hell, Never Give Up should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Adventure Racing is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment. Adventure Racing needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Adventure Racing to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Adventure Racing is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Frontier Adventure Racing: Pack Lightly, Go Like Hell, Never Give Up can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Adventure Racing 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Frontier Adventure Racing: Pack Lightly, Go Like Hell, Never Give Up, is just above the industry average. Adventure Racing 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Frontier Adventure Racing: Pack Lightly, Go Like Hell, Never Give Up, it seems that the employees of Adventure Racing don’t have comprehensive understanding of the firm’s strategy. This is reflected in number of promotional campaigns over the last few years that had mixed messaging and competing priorities. Some of the strategic activities and services promoted in the promotional campaigns were not consistent with the organization’s strategy.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Adventure Racing 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. Adventure Racing 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 Frontier Adventure Racing: Pack Lightly, Go Like Hell, Never Give Up | 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 Frontier Adventure Racing: Pack Lightly, Go Like Hell, Never Give Up are -
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 Adventure Racing 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Adventure Racing can leverage digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate the production process, customer analytics to get better insights into consumer behavior, realtime digital dashboards to get better sales tracking, logistics and transportation, product tracking, etc.
Manufacturing automation
– Adventure Racing 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.
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 Adventure Racing in the consumer business. Now Adventure Racing can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Adventure Racing 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Adventure Racing can take advantage of these changes in consumer behavior to build a far more efficient business model. For example consumer regular ordering of products can reduce both last mile delivery costs and market penetration costs. Adventure Racing can further use this consumer data to build better customer loyalty, provide better products and service collection, and improve the value proposition in inflationary times.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Adventure Racing can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Adventure Racing operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Adventure Racing is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Frontier Adventure Racing: Pack Lightly, Go Like Hell, Never Give Up 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.
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. Adventure Racing can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Adventure Racing 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Adventure Racing can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Adventure Racing 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 Adventure Racing to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Adventure Racing 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 Frontier Adventure Racing: Pack Lightly, Go Like Hell, Never Give Up - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Adventure Racing to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Threats Frontier Adventure Racing: Pack Lightly, Go Like Hell, Never Give Up External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Frontier Adventure Racing: Pack Lightly, Go Like Hell, Never Give Up are -
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Adventure Racing 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Adventure Racing 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 Adventure Racing 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.
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. Adventure Racing can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Frontier Adventure Racing: Pack Lightly, Go Like Hell, Never Give Up, Adventure Racing 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 .
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 Adventure Racing in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Adventure Racing 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.
Increasing wage structure of Adventure Racing
– 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 Adventure Racing.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Adventure Racing 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.
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 Adventure Racing.
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. Adventure Racing 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.
Environmental challenges
– Adventure Racing 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. Adventure Racing can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Frontier Adventure Racing: Pack Lightly, Go Like Hell, Never Give Up 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 Frontier Adventure Racing: Pack Lightly, Go Like Hell, Never Give Up 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 Frontier Adventure Racing: Pack Lightly, Go Like Hell, Never Give Up 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 Frontier Adventure Racing: Pack Lightly, Go Like Hell, Never Give Up 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 Frontier Adventure Racing: Pack Lightly, Go Like Hell, Never Give Up 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 Adventure Racing needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
