Swot Analysis of "Smith Breeden Associates: The Equity Plus Fund (B)" written by Alberto Moel includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Breeden Smith facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Smith Breeden Associates: The Equity Plus Fund (B) case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Financial markets and Finance & Accounting.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Smith Breeden Associates: The Equity Plus Fund (B) casestudy better are - – challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing transportation and logistics costs, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, technology disruption,
there is backlash against globalization, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Smith Breeden Associates: The Equity Plus Fund (B)
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Smith Breeden Associates: The Equity Plus Fund (B) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Breeden Smith, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Breeden Smith 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 Smith Breeden Associates: The Equity Plus Fund (B) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Smith Breeden Associates: The Equity Plus Fund (B) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Breeden Smith
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Finance & Accounting field.
4. Making a Finance & Accounting topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Breeden Smith
Strengths Smith Breeden Associates: The Equity Plus Fund (B) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Breeden Smith in Smith Breeden Associates: The Equity Plus Fund (B) Harvard Business Review case study are -
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Breeden Smith 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Breeden Smith is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Smith Breeden Associates: The Equity Plus Fund (B) 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 brand equity
– Breeden Smith has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Breeden Smith to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Training and development
– Breeden Smith has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Smith Breeden Associates: The Equity Plus Fund (B) Harvard Business Review case study by analyzing – employees retention, in-house promotion, loyalty, new venture initiation, lack of conflict, and high level of both employees and customer engagement.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Smith Breeden Associates: The Equity Plus Fund (B) 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Breeden Smith is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Smith Breeden Associates: The Equity Plus Fund (B) Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Organizational Resilience of Breeden Smith
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Breeden Smith does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Breeden Smith 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 Smith Breeden Associates: The Equity Plus Fund (B) HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Digital Transformation in Finance & Accounting segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Breeden Smith digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Breeden Smith has successfully integrated the four key components of digital transformation – digital integration in processes, digital integration in marketing and customer relationship management, digital integration into the value chain, and using technology to explore new products and market opportunities.
Learning organization
- Breeden Smith 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 Breeden Smith is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Smith Breeden Associates: The Equity Plus Fund (B) Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Diverse revenue streams
– Breeden Smith is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Smith Breeden Associates: The Equity Plus Fund (B) 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Breeden Smith 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 Smith Breeden Associates: The Equity Plus Fund (B) - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Weaknesses Smith Breeden Associates: The Equity Plus Fund (B) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Smith Breeden Associates: The Equity Plus Fund (B) are -
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Smith Breeden Associates: The Equity Plus Fund (B) HBR case study mentions - Breeden Smith 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Smith Breeden Associates: The Equity Plus Fund (B) 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 Breeden Smith has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Breeden Smith is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Finance & Accounting segment. Breeden Smith needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Breeden Smith 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, Breeden Smith is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Smith Breeden Associates: The Equity Plus Fund (B) 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 cash cycle compare to competitors
Breeden Smith 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Breeden Smith 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 - Smith Breeden Associates: The Equity Plus Fund (B) should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Smith Breeden Associates: The Equity Plus Fund (B), it seems that the employees of Breeden Smith 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Breeden Smith 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Breeden Smith products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Breeden Smith needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Breeden Smith 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.
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 Breeden Smith supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Smith Breeden Associates: The Equity Plus Fund (B), it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Breeden Smith vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Opportunities Smith Breeden Associates: The Equity Plus Fund (B) | 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 Smith Breeden Associates: The Equity Plus Fund (B) are -
Buying journey improvements
– Breeden Smith can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Smith Breeden Associates: The Equity Plus Fund (B) 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Breeden Smith 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 Finance & Accounting segment.
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 Breeden Smith in the consumer business. Now Breeden Smith can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Breeden Smith 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Breeden Smith 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Breeden Smith 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Breeden Smith can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Breeden Smith operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Finance & Accounting sector.
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 Breeden Smith 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Finance & Accounting industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Breeden Smith 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. Breeden Smith 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Breeden Smith 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Breeden Smith has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Breeden Smith to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Smith Breeden Associates: The Equity Plus Fund (B) case study. Breeden Smith can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Developing new processes and practices
– Breeden Smith can develop new processes and procedures in Finance & Accounting 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Breeden Smith is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Smith Breeden Associates: The Equity Plus Fund (B) 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.
Threats Smith Breeden Associates: The Equity Plus Fund (B) External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Smith Breeden Associates: The Equity Plus Fund (B) are -
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Breeden Smith has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Finance & Accounting industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Breeden Smith needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Finance & Accounting 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Breeden Smith in the Finance & Accounting industry. The Finance & Accounting 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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Finance & Accounting field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Breeden Smith can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Breeden Smith 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.
Environmental challenges
– Breeden Smith 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. Breeden Smith can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Finance & Accounting industry.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Breeden Smith 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. Breeden Smith 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.
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 Breeden Smith in the Finance & Accounting sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Increasing wage structure of Breeden Smith
– 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 Breeden Smith.
Regulatory challenges
– Breeden Smith 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 Finance & Accounting industry regulations.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Breeden Smith is facing in Finance & Accounting sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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. Breeden Smith needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Finance & Accounting industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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 Breeden Smith business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Smith Breeden Associates: The Equity Plus Fund (B) 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 Smith Breeden Associates: The Equity Plus Fund (B) 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 Smith Breeden Associates: The Equity Plus Fund (B) 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 Smith Breeden Associates: The Equity Plus Fund (B) 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 Smith Breeden Associates: The Equity Plus Fund (B) 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 Breeden Smith needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
