Case Study Description of Lyric Dinner Theater, Video Supplement
Video supplement to the Lyric Dinner Theater HBS case #8130423 & 813044 which can be shown at the end of class discussion. Provides more in-depth and personal perspective of Rivka Belzer, the case protagonist, who presents information on the outcome. Allows students to experience the general manager's comments and perspectives surrounding questions and issues raised during the class prior to a wrap up.
Swot Analysis of "Lyric Dinner Theater, Video Supplement" written by James M. Sharpe includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Lyric Dinner facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Lyric Dinner Theater, Video Supplement case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Career planning, Crisis management, Entrepreneurial management, Hiring, Negotiations, Operations management, Recession and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Lyric Dinner Theater, Video Supplement casestudy better are - – increasing transportation and logistics costs, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, wage bills are increasing, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, geopolitical disruptions,
increasing energy prices, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Lyric Dinner Theater, Video Supplement
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Lyric Dinner Theater, Video Supplement case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Lyric Dinner, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Lyric Dinner 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 Lyric Dinner Theater, Video Supplement can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Lyric Dinner Theater, Video Supplement case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Lyric Dinner
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 Lyric Dinner
Strengths Lyric Dinner Theater, Video Supplement | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Lyric Dinner in Lyric Dinner Theater, Video Supplement Harvard Business Review case study are -
Strong track record of project management
– Lyric Dinner is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry
– Lyric Dinner Theater, Video Supplement firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Lyric Dinner to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Lyric Dinner to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Lyric Dinner in the sector have low bargaining power. Lyric Dinner Theater, Video Supplement has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Lyric Dinner to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Learning organization
- Lyric Dinner 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 Lyric Dinner is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Lyric Dinner Theater, Video Supplement Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Ability to lead change in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field
– Lyric Dinner 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 Lyric Dinner in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
High brand equity
– Lyric Dinner has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Lyric Dinner to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Lyric Dinner has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Lyric Dinner 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Lyric Dinner 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 Lyric Dinner Theater, Video Supplement - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Organizational Resilience of Lyric Dinner
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Lyric Dinner does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Lyric Dinner is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Lyric Dinner Theater, Video Supplement are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Lyric Dinner 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Lyric Dinner Theater, Video Supplement 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 Lyric Dinner Theater, Video Supplement | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Lyric Dinner Theater, Video Supplement are -
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Lyric Dinner Theater, Video Supplement, it seems that the employees of Lyric Dinner 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Lyric Dinner 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Lyric Dinner Theater, Video Supplement HBR case study mentions - Lyric Dinner 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Lyric Dinner Theater, Video Supplement, in the dynamic environment Lyric Dinner has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Lyric Dinner has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Lyric Dinner is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Lyric Dinner Theater, Video Supplement can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Lyric Dinner Theater, Video Supplement 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 Lyric Dinner 's lucrative customers.
Need for greater diversity
– Lyric Dinner 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Lyric Dinner Theater, Video Supplement, is just above the industry average. Lyric Dinner needs to redesign the compensation structure and incentives to increase the revenue per employees. Some of the steps that it can take are – hiring more specialists on project basis, etc.
High dependence on existing supply chain
– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of Lyric Dinner supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Lyric Dinner Theater, Video Supplement, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Lyric Dinner vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Lack of clear differentiation of Lyric Dinner products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Lyric Dinner needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Lyric Dinner Theater, Video Supplement, 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.
Opportunities Lyric Dinner Theater, Video Supplement | 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 Lyric Dinner Theater, Video Supplement are -
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 Lyric Dinner in the consumer business. Now Lyric Dinner can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Loyalty marketing
– Lyric Dinner 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Lyric Dinner 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Lyric Dinner 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Lyric Dinner can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Lyric Dinner Theater, Video Supplement 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Lyric Dinner can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Lyric Dinner 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, Lyric Dinner is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Lyric Dinner Theater, Video Supplement 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Lyric Dinner can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
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. Lyric Dinner can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Lyric Dinner 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.
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. Lyric Dinner 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. Lyric Dinner 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Lyric Dinner has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Lyric Dinner to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Lyric Dinner Theater, Video Supplement case study. Lyric Dinner can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Manufacturing automation
– Lyric Dinner 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.
Threats Lyric Dinner Theater, Video Supplement External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Lyric Dinner Theater, Video Supplement 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 Lyric Dinner in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Lyric Dinner has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Lyric Dinner 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.
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. Lyric Dinner can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Lyric Dinner 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 Lyric Dinner Theater, Video Supplement .
Consumer confidence and its impact on Lyric Dinner 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.
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. Lyric Dinner 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.
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 Lyric Dinner.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Lyric Dinner 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.
Environmental challenges
– Lyric Dinner 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. Lyric Dinner can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Lyric Dinner Theater, Video Supplement, Lyric Dinner 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 .
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Lyric Dinner with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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. Lyric Dinner needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Lyric Dinner Theater, Video Supplement 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 Lyric Dinner Theater, Video Supplement 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 Lyric Dinner Theater, Video Supplement 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 Lyric Dinner Theater, Video Supplement 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 Lyric Dinner Theater, Video Supplement 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 Lyric Dinner needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.