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Santander Acquires Abbey: The Jack Project SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution

Case Study Description of Santander Acquires Abbey: The Jack Project


The case, 'Santander Acquires Abbey: The Jack Project', applies a general strategic management focus to an analysis of the 'Jack Project', the Spanish banking group's IT centric project to acquire Abbey. The case focuses on JosA? MarA?a Fuster, chief information officer (CIO) and his perspective in leveraging IT to integrate Abbey. The following issues are explored: (1) the value of IT; (2) the generation of synergies in M&A; and (3) the prioritisation of IT-related options comparing two different realities. At the end of the case, students will examine how PartenA?n, Grupo Santander's core IT system, leveraged this acquisition and made an impact on the bank's long-term market position.

Authors :: Javier Busquets, Joan Rodon, Lluis Vera

Topics :: Leadership & Managing People

Tags :: Mergers & acquisitions, SWOT Analysis, SWOT Matrix, TOWS, Weighted SWOT Analysis

Swot Analysis of "Santander Acquires Abbey: The Jack Project" written by Javier Busquets, Joan Rodon, Lluis Vera includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Abbey Jack facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Santander Acquires Abbey: The Jack Project case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Mergers & acquisitions and Leadership & Managing People.


Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Santander Acquires Abbey: The Jack Project casestudy better are - – technology disruption, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, wage bills are increasing, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, etc



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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Santander Acquires Abbey: The Jack Project


SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Santander Acquires Abbey: The Jack Project case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Abbey Jack, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Abbey Jack 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 Santander Acquires Abbey: The Jack Project can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Santander Acquires Abbey: The Jack Project case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Abbey Jack
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Leadership & Managing People field.
4. Making a Leadership & Managing People topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Abbey Jack




Strengths Santander Acquires Abbey: The Jack Project | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Abbey Jack in Santander Acquires Abbey: The Jack Project Harvard Business Review case study are -

Superior customer experience

– The customer experience strategy of Abbey Jack in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.

High switching costs

– The high switching costs that Abbey Jack 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.

Diverse revenue streams

– Abbey Jack is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Santander Acquires Abbey: The Jack Project 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.

Organizational Resilience of Abbey Jack

– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Abbey Jack does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.

High brand equity

– Abbey Jack has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Abbey Jack to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.

Operational resilience

– The operational resilience strategy in the Santander Acquires Abbey: The Jack Project 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.

Strong track record of project management

– Abbey Jack is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.

Successful track record of launching new products

– Abbey Jack has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Abbey Jack 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

– Abbey Jack is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Santander Acquires Abbey: The Jack Project are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.

Highly skilled collaborators

– Abbey Jack 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 Santander Acquires Abbey: The Jack Project HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.

Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry

– Santander Acquires Abbey: The Jack Project firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Abbey Jack to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Abbey Jack to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.

Analytics focus

– Abbey Jack 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 Javier Busquets, Joan Rodon, Lluis Vera 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 Santander Acquires Abbey: The Jack Project | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of Santander Acquires Abbey: The Jack Project are -

Slow to harness new channels of communication

– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Abbey Jack is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Santander Acquires Abbey: The Jack Project can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.

Aligning sales with marketing

– It come across in the case study Santander Acquires Abbey: The Jack Project 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 Santander Acquires Abbey: The Jack Project can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Abbey Jack is planning to shift buying processes online.

Products dominated business model

– Even though Abbey Jack 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 - Santander Acquires Abbey: The Jack Project should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.

Ability to respond to the competition

– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Santander Acquires Abbey: The Jack Project, in the dynamic environment Abbey Jack has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Abbey Jack has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.

Slow decision making process

– As mentioned earlier in the report, Abbey Jack 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. Abbey Jack 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.

Compensation and incentives

– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Santander Acquires Abbey: The Jack Project, is just above the industry average. Abbey Jack 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.

Skills based hiring

– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Abbey Jack has created an environment where the organization is dominated by functional specialists rather than management generalist. This has resulted into product oriented approach rather than marketing oriented approach or consumers oriented approach.

Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy

– From the instances in the HBR case study Santander Acquires Abbey: The Jack Project, it seems that the employees of Abbey Jack 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.

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 Abbey Jack supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Santander Acquires Abbey: The Jack Project, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Abbey Jack vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.

Capital Spending Reduction

– Even during the low interest decade, Abbey Jack 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.

Low market penetration in new markets

– Outside its home market of Abbey Jack, firm in the HBR case study Santander Acquires Abbey: The Jack Project needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.




Opportunities Santander Acquires Abbey: The Jack Project | 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 Santander Acquires Abbey: The Jack Project are -

Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities

– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Abbey Jack 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 Abbey Jack to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.

Creating value in data economy

– The success of analytics program of Abbey Jack has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Abbey Jack to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Santander Acquires Abbey: The Jack Project case study. Abbey Jack 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 Leadership & Managing People industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Abbey Jack can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.

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 Abbey Jack in the consumer business. Now Abbey Jack can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.

Using analytics as competitive advantage

– Abbey Jack 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 Santander Acquires Abbey: The Jack Project - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Abbey Jack to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.

Lowering marketing communication costs

– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Abbey Jack in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Leadership & Managing People segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.

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. Abbey Jack can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.

Buying journey improvements

– Abbey Jack can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Santander Acquires Abbey: The Jack Project 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.

Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains

– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Abbey Jack 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, Santander Acquires Abbey: The Jack Project, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.

Leveraging digital technologies

– Abbey Jack 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 Leadership & Managing People industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Abbey Jack 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. Abbey Jack 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.

Manufacturing automation

– Abbey Jack can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Leadership & Managing People 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.

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 Abbey Jack 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.




Threats Santander Acquires Abbey: The Jack Project External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis


The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Santander Acquires Abbey: The Jack Project are -

Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins

– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Abbey Jack 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 Santander Acquires Abbey: The Jack Project .

Easy access to finance

– Easy access to finance in Leadership & Managing People field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Abbey Jack can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.

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 Abbey Jack in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.

Consumer confidence and its impact on Abbey Jack 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.

Trade war between China and United States

– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Abbey Jack in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The Leadership & Managing People 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.

Environmental challenges

– Abbey Jack 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. Abbey Jack can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.

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 Abbey Jack business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.

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. Abbey Jack 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.

Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution

– Abbey Jack has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Abbey Jack needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Leadership & Managing People 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 Abbey Jack.

High dependence on third party suppliers

– Abbey Jack 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.

Increasing wage structure of Abbey Jack

– 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 Abbey Jack.

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.




Weighted SWOT Analysis of Santander Acquires Abbey: The Jack Project 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 Santander Acquires Abbey: The Jack Project 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 Santander Acquires Abbey: The Jack Project 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 Santander Acquires Abbey: The Jack Project 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 Santander Acquires Abbey: The Jack Project 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 Abbey Jack needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.



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