Ponce de Leon: Confidential Instructions for Donald Sanger, Chief Financial Officer, Panama Studios SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Ponce de Leon: Confidential Instructions for Donald Sanger, Chief Financial Officer, Panama Studios
Ponce de Leon (POL) is a four-party negotiation exercise in which a film studio is trying to sign a major actress to star in an upcoming movie. The negotiation centers around the different extrinsic and intrinsic motivations underlying each of these party's approach to the movie, and therefore to the negotiation. The exercise allows exploration of the risks of "monetizing" different types of extrinsic (e.g. pay, awards, status) and intrinsic (e.g. love of the work, values) motivation.
Swot Analysis of "Ponce de Leon: Confidential Instructions for Donald Sanger, Chief Financial Officer, Panama Studios" written by Ian I. Larkin includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Leon Ponce facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Ponce de Leon: Confidential Instructions for Donald Sanger, Chief Financial Officer, Panama Studios case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Difficult conversations, Influence, Motivating people, Negotiations and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Ponce de Leon: Confidential Instructions for Donald Sanger, Chief Financial Officer, Panama Studios casestudy better are - – technology disruption, geopolitical disruptions, increasing transportation and logistics costs, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing commodity prices,
cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Ponce de Leon: Confidential Instructions for Donald Sanger, Chief Financial Officer, Panama Studios
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Ponce de Leon: Confidential Instructions for Donald Sanger, Chief Financial Officer, Panama Studios case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Leon Ponce, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Leon Ponce 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 Ponce de Leon: Confidential Instructions for Donald Sanger, Chief Financial Officer, Panama Studios can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Ponce de Leon: Confidential Instructions for Donald Sanger, Chief Financial Officer, Panama Studios case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Leon Ponce
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 Leon Ponce
Strengths Ponce de Leon: Confidential Instructions for Donald Sanger, Chief Financial Officer, Panama Studios | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Leon Ponce in Ponce de Leon: Confidential Instructions for Donald Sanger, Chief Financial Officer, Panama Studios Harvard Business Review case study are -
Training and development
– Leon Ponce has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Ponce de Leon: Confidential Instructions for Donald Sanger, Chief Financial Officer, Panama Studios 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Leon Ponce is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Ponce de Leon: Confidential Instructions for Donald Sanger, Chief Financial Officer, Panama Studios are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Leon Ponce 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 Leon Ponce in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Diverse revenue streams
– Leon Ponce is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Ponce de Leon: Confidential Instructions for Donald Sanger, Chief Financial Officer, Panama Studios 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Ponce de Leon: Confidential Instructions for Donald Sanger, Chief Financial Officer, Panama Studios 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Leon Ponce 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 Ponce de Leon: Confidential Instructions for Donald Sanger, Chief Financial Officer, Panama Studios HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Leon Ponce has built up over years in its products and services combo offer has resulted in high retention of customers, lower marketing costs, and greater ability of the firm to focus on its customers.
Learning organization
- Leon Ponce 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 Leon Ponce is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Ponce de Leon: Confidential Instructions for Donald Sanger, Chief Financial Officer, Panama Studios Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Organizational Resilience of Leon Ponce
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Leon Ponce does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
High brand equity
– Leon Ponce has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Leon Ponce to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Strong track record of project management
– Leon Ponce 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
– Leon Ponce 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 Ian I. Larkin 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 Ponce de Leon: Confidential Instructions for Donald Sanger, Chief Financial Officer, Panama Studios | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Ponce de Leon: Confidential Instructions for Donald Sanger, Chief Financial Officer, Panama Studios are -
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Ponce de Leon: Confidential Instructions for Donald Sanger, Chief Financial Officer, Panama Studios, is just above the industry average. Leon Ponce 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Leon Ponce products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Leon Ponce needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Leon Ponce, firm in the HBR case study Ponce de Leon: Confidential Instructions for Donald Sanger, Chief Financial Officer, Panama Studios needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Leon Ponce is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Ponce de Leon: Confidential Instructions for Donald Sanger, Chief Financial Officer, Panama Studios 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 Ponce de Leon: Confidential Instructions for Donald Sanger, Chief Financial Officer, Panama Studios 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 Ponce de Leon: Confidential Instructions for Donald Sanger, Chief Financial Officer, Panama Studios can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Leon Ponce is planning to shift buying processes online.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Leon Ponce is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Leon Ponce needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Leon Ponce to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Leon Ponce needs to come up with a strategy to reduce the workers concern regarding automation. Without a clear strategy, it could lead to disruption and uncertainty within the organization.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Leon Ponce 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Ponce de Leon: Confidential Instructions for Donald Sanger, Chief Financial Officer, Panama Studios, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Leadership & Managing People 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Ponce de Leon: Confidential Instructions for Donald Sanger, Chief Financial Officer, Panama Studios, it seems that the employees of Leon Ponce 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 to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Ponce de Leon: Confidential Instructions for Donald Sanger, Chief Financial Officer, Panama Studios HBR case study mentions - Leon Ponce 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.
Opportunities Ponce de Leon: Confidential Instructions for Donald Sanger, Chief Financial Officer, Panama Studios | 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 Ponce de Leon: Confidential Instructions for Donald Sanger, Chief Financial Officer, Panama Studios are -
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Leon Ponce can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Leon Ponce operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Leon Ponce 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 Leadership & Managing People segment.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Leon Ponce 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Leon Ponce 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, Ponce de Leon: Confidential Instructions for Donald Sanger, Chief Financial Officer, Panama Studios, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Buying journey improvements
– Leon Ponce can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Ponce de Leon: Confidential Instructions for Donald Sanger, Chief Financial Officer, Panama Studios 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Leon Ponce 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 Ponce de Leon: Confidential Instructions for Donald Sanger, Chief Financial Officer, Panama Studios - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Leon Ponce to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Leon Ponce can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
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. Leon Ponce can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Leon Ponce 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.
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. Leon Ponce 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. Leon Ponce 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Leon Ponce 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 Leon Ponce to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
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 Leon Ponce 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Leon Ponce is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Ponce de Leon: Confidential Instructions for Donald Sanger, Chief Financial Officer, Panama Studios 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 Ponce de Leon: Confidential Instructions for Donald Sanger, Chief Financial Officer, Panama Studios External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Ponce de Leon: Confidential Instructions for Donald Sanger, Chief Financial Officer, Panama Studios are -
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Leon Ponce high dependence on third party suppliers can disrupt its processes and delivery mechanism. For example -the current troubles of car makers because of chip shortage is because the chip companies started producing chips for electronic companies rather than car manufacturers.
Aging population
– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Ponce de Leon: Confidential Instructions for Donald Sanger, Chief Financial Officer, Panama Studios, Leon Ponce may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Leadership & Managing People .
Environmental challenges
– Leon Ponce 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. Leon Ponce can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Leon Ponce 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Leon Ponce 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 Leadership & Managing People industry regulations.
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. Leon Ponce needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Increasing wage structure of Leon Ponce
– 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 Leon Ponce.
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 Leon Ponce in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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. Leon Ponce 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, Leon Ponce 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 Ponce de Leon: Confidential Instructions for Donald Sanger, Chief Financial Officer, Panama Studios .
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 Leon Ponce business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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 Leon Ponce.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Ponce de Leon: Confidential Instructions for Donald Sanger, Chief Financial Officer, Panama Studios 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 Ponce de Leon: Confidential Instructions for Donald Sanger, Chief Financial Officer, Panama Studios 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 Ponce de Leon: Confidential Instructions for Donald Sanger, Chief Financial Officer, Panama Studios 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 Ponce de Leon: Confidential Instructions for Donald Sanger, Chief Financial Officer, Panama Studios 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 Ponce de Leon: Confidential Instructions for Donald Sanger, Chief Financial Officer, Panama Studios 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 Leon Ponce needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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