Crisis Management: North American Sporting League Visits Mexico City (B) 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 (B)
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 (B)" 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 (B) 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 (B) casestudy better are - – increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, geopolitical disruptions, increasing commodity prices, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic ,
banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing transportation and logistics costs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Crisis Management: North American Sporting League Visits Mexico City (B)
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 (B) 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 (B) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Crisis Management: North American Sporting League Visits Mexico City (B) 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 (B) | 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 (B) Harvard Business Review case study are -
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 (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.
Diverse revenue streams
– League Season is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Crisis Management: North American Sporting League Visits Mexico City (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.
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 (B) 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.
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For League Season digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. League Season 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.
Training and development
– League Season has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Crisis Management: North American Sporting League Visits Mexico City (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.
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 (B) Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
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.
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 (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.
Innovation driven organization
– League Season is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Crisis Management: North American Sporting League Visits Mexico City (B) Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
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 (B) HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
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.
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.
Weaknesses Crisis Management: North American Sporting League Visits Mexico City (B) | 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 (B) are -
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 League Season supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Crisis Management: North American Sporting League Visits Mexico City (B), it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left League Season vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Crisis Management: North American Sporting League Visits Mexico City (B), 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at League Season 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
League Season 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, George Foster suggests that, League Season is facing high bargaining power of the channel partners. So far it has not able to streamline the operations to reduce the bargaining power of the value chain partners in the industry.
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.
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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Crisis Management: North American Sporting League Visits Mexico City (B) 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of League Season, firm in the HBR case study Crisis Management: North American Sporting League Visits Mexico City (B) needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Crisis Management: North American Sporting League Visits Mexico City (B) 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 Crisis Management: North American Sporting League Visits Mexico City (B) can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as League Season is planning to shift buying processes online.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Crisis Management: North American Sporting League Visits Mexico City (B) 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.
Opportunities Crisis Management: North American Sporting League Visits Mexico City (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 Crisis Management: North American Sporting League Visits Mexico City (B) are -
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.
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.
Buying journey improvements
– League Season can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Crisis Management: North American Sporting League Visits Mexico City (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.
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 (B) - 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.
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.
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.
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.
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 (B) case study. League Season 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
– League Season can develop new processes and procedures in Leadership & Managing People 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, League Season can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that League Season operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, League Season 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, Crisis Management: North American Sporting League Visits Mexico City (B), to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for League Season 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 League Season to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Threats Crisis Management: North American Sporting League Visits Mexico City (B) 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 (B) are -
Increasing wage structure of League Season
– 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 League Season.
Regulatory challenges
– League Season 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.
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.
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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Crisis Management: North American Sporting League Visits Mexico City (B), League Season 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 .
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.
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.
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.
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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– League Season 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.
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 (B) .
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 League Season.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that League Season is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Crisis Management: North American Sporting League Visits Mexico City (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 Crisis Management: North American Sporting League Visits Mexico City (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 Crisis Management: North American Sporting League Visits Mexico City (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 Crisis Management: North American Sporting League Visits Mexico City (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 Crisis Management: North American Sporting League Visits Mexico City (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 League Season needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
