Crisis Management: North American Sporting League Visits Mexico City (D) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Crisis Management: North American Sporting League Visits Mexico City (D)
A major sports league has decided to run its season opening game in Mexico City. When the teams arrive in the country four days before the event, two of Team A's star players are kidnapped. The (A) case provides relevant background information about the league, the team, the players, and the planned activities surrounding the season opening game. It also describes what is initially known about the crisis situation. In cases (B) through (F), additional information is revealed as the crisis unfolds. With each case, students are given important issues and questions to consider and discuss.
Swot Analysis of "Crisis Management: North American Sporting League Visits Mexico City (D)" written by George Foster includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that League Season facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Crisis Management: North American Sporting League Visits Mexico City (D) case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Crisis management, Risk management and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Crisis Management: North American Sporting League Visits Mexico City (D) casestudy better are - – increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing energy prices, increasing commodity prices, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing transportation and logistics costs,
challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, technology disruption, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Crisis Management: North American Sporting League Visits Mexico City (D)
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Crisis Management: North American Sporting League Visits Mexico City (D) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the League Season, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which League Season 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 Crisis Management: North American Sporting League Visits Mexico City (D) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Crisis Management: North American Sporting League Visits Mexico City (D) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of League Season
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 League Season
Strengths Crisis Management: North American Sporting League Visits Mexico City (D) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of League Season in Crisis Management: North American Sporting League Visits Mexico City (D) Harvard Business Review case study are -
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of League Season in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– League Season 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 League Season in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Highly skilled collaborators
– League Season 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 Crisis Management: North American Sporting League Visits Mexico City (D) 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
– Crisis Management: North American Sporting League Visits Mexico City (D) firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled League Season to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped League Season to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of League Season in the sector have low bargaining power. Crisis Management: North American Sporting League Visits Mexico City (D) has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps League Season to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the League Season are driving operational speed, building greater agility, and keeping the organization nimble to compete with new competitors. It helps are organization to ideate new ideas, and execute them swiftly in the marketplace.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– League Season 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 Crisis Management: North American Sporting League Visits Mexico City (D) - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Strong track record of project management
– League Season 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
– League Season has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. League Season 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
– League Season is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Crisis Management: North American Sporting League Visits Mexico City (D) 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
– League Season has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled League Season to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Learning organization
- League Season 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 League Season is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Crisis Management: North American Sporting League Visits Mexico City (D) Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Weaknesses Crisis Management: North American Sporting League Visits Mexico City (D) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Crisis Management: North American Sporting League Visits Mexico City (D) are -
Products dominated business model
– Even though League Season 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 - Crisis Management: North American Sporting League Visits Mexico City (D) should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Lack of clear differentiation of League Season products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, League Season needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Crisis Management: North American Sporting League Visits Mexico City (D) HBR case study mentions - League Season 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, League Season 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 star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Crisis Management: North American Sporting League Visits Mexico City (D) 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 League Season has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of League Season is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. League Season needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help League Season to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, League Season 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, League Season is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Crisis Management: North American Sporting League Visits Mexico City (D) can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Crisis Management: North American Sporting League Visits Mexico City (D), is just above the industry average. League Season 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, League Season 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. League Season 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Crisis Management: North American Sporting League Visits Mexico City (D) 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 League Season 's lucrative customers.
Opportunities Crisis Management: North American Sporting League Visits Mexico City (D) | 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 Crisis Management: North American Sporting League Visits Mexico City (D) are -
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for League Season 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– League Season 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 Crisis Management: North American Sporting League Visits Mexico City (D) - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help League Season to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
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. League Season can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of League Season has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help League Season to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Crisis Management: North American Sporting League Visits Mexico City (D) case study. League Season can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for League Season 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.
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 League Season in the consumer business. Now League Season can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Manufacturing automation
– League Season 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.
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. League Season can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Leveraging digital technologies
– League Season 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, League Season is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Crisis Management: North American Sporting League Visits Mexico City (D) 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.
Loyalty marketing
– League Season 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.
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 League Season 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 Leadership & Managing People industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. League Season 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. League Season 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.
Threats Crisis Management: North American Sporting League Visits Mexico City (D) External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Crisis Management: North American Sporting League Visits Mexico City (D) are -
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, League Season 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 Crisis Management: North American Sporting League Visits Mexico City (D) .
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for League Season 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on League Season 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.
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 League Season 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. League Season 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 League Season 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. League Season can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– League Season has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, League Season 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.
Environmental challenges
– League Season 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. League Season can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
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. League Season needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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.
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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents League Season with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Crisis Management: North American Sporting League Visits Mexico City (D) 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 Crisis Management: North American Sporting League Visits Mexico City (D) 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 Crisis Management: North American Sporting League Visits Mexico City (D) 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 Crisis Management: North American Sporting League Visits Mexico City (D) 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 Crisis Management: North American Sporting League Visits Mexico City (D) 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 League Season needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
