A.J. Washington: Retaining an NFL Star SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of A.J. Washington: Retaining an NFL Star
General Manager Luke Kolville, of the Los Angeles Spartans, struggles with the best approach to negotiate a long-term contract for his star quarterback. The agent for Washington is relatively new to the industry and has his sights set particularly high. Kolville needs to weigh a number of effects this negotiation will have on the player, his teammates, and the long-term prospects of the team.
Swot Analysis of "A.J. Washington: Retaining an NFL Star" written by Andrew Wasynczuk, Nicole Bennett includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Kolville Washington facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in A.J. Washington: Retaining an NFL Star case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Employee retention, Motivating people, Negotiations, Talent management and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the A.J. Washington: Retaining an NFL Star casestudy better are - – increasing commodity prices, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing transportation and logistics costs, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models,
technology disruption, geopolitical disruptions, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of A.J. Washington: Retaining an NFL Star
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in A.J. Washington: Retaining an NFL Star case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Kolville Washington, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Kolville Washington 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 A.J. Washington: Retaining an NFL Star can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in A.J. Washington: Retaining an NFL Star case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Kolville Washington
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 Kolville Washington
Strengths A.J. Washington: Retaining an NFL Star | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Kolville Washington in A.J. Washington: Retaining an NFL Star Harvard Business Review case study are -
Analytics focus
– Kolville Washington 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 Andrew Wasynczuk, Nicole Bennett 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.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Kolville Washington 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 Kolville Washington in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Organizational Resilience of Kolville Washington
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Kolville Washington does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Strong track record of project management
– Kolville Washington is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Learning organization
- Kolville Washington 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 Kolville Washington is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in A.J. Washington: Retaining an NFL Star Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Kolville Washington is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the A.J. Washington: Retaining an NFL Star are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Kolville Washington has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Kolville Washington 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the A.J. Washington: Retaining an NFL Star 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Kolville Washington in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Kolville Washington in the sector have low bargaining power. A.J. Washington: Retaining an NFL Star has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Kolville Washington to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Kolville Washington 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 A.J. Washington: Retaining an NFL Star HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Training and development
– Kolville Washington has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in A.J. Washington: Retaining an NFL Star 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.
Weaknesses A.J. Washington: Retaining an NFL Star | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of A.J. Washington: Retaining an NFL Star are -
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study A.J. Washington: Retaining an NFL Star, in the dynamic environment Kolville Washington has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Kolville Washington has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study A.J. Washington: Retaining an NFL Star, it seems that the employees of Kolville Washington 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study A.J. Washington: Retaining an NFL Star 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 A.J. Washington: Retaining an NFL Star can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Kolville Washington is planning to shift buying processes online.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Kolville Washington 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 - A.J. Washington: Retaining an NFL Star should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Lack of clear differentiation of Kolville Washington products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Kolville Washington needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As A.J. Washington: Retaining an NFL Star HBR case study mentions - Kolville Washington 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study A.J. Washington: Retaining an NFL Star, 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Kolville Washington 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study A.J. Washington: Retaining an NFL Star, is just above the industry average. Kolville Washington 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.
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 Kolville Washington supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - A.J. Washington: Retaining an NFL Star, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Kolville Washington vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Kolville Washington 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. Kolville Washington 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.
Opportunities A.J. Washington: Retaining an NFL Star | 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 A.J. Washington: Retaining an NFL Star are -
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Kolville Washington 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Kolville Washington 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.
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. Kolville Washington 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 Kolville Washington has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Kolville Washington to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the A.J. Washington: Retaining an NFL Star case study. Kolville Washington can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Kolville Washington 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.
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. Kolville Washington can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Kolville Washington is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. A.J. Washington: Retaining an NFL Star 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Kolville Washington to increase its market reach. Kolville Washington will be able to reach out to new customers. Secondly 5G will also provide technology framework to build new tools and products that can help more immersive consumer experience and faster consumer journey.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Kolville Washington 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Kolville Washington 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, A.J. Washington: Retaining an NFL Star, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Developing new processes and practices
– Kolville Washington 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, Kolville Washington can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Kolville Washington operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Buying journey improvements
– Kolville Washington can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. A.J. Washington: Retaining an NFL Star 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.
Threats A.J. Washington: Retaining an NFL Star External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study A.J. Washington: Retaining an NFL Star are -
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. Kolville Washington 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.
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 Kolville Washington business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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. Kolville Washington 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
– Kolville Washington has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Kolville Washington 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.
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.
Regulatory challenges
– Kolville Washington 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.
Environmental challenges
– Kolville Washington 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. Kolville Washington 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 Kolville Washington 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.
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 Kolville Washington.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Kolville Washington 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.
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 Kolville Washington in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study A.J. Washington: Retaining an NFL Star, Kolville Washington 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 .
Increasing wage structure of Kolville Washington
– 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 Kolville Washington.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of A.J. Washington: Retaining an NFL Star 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 A.J. Washington: Retaining an NFL Star 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 A.J. Washington: Retaining an NFL Star 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 A.J. Washington: Retaining an NFL Star 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 A.J. Washington: Retaining an NFL Star 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 Kolville Washington needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.