Case Study Description of MacDonald, Dettwiler & Associates Ltd. (C)
MacDonald, Dettwiler & Associates Ltd. (C) is the third part of a three-part case. The director and chair of the governance committee at MacDonald, Dettwiler & Associates Ltd. (MDA) reflects upon the past two-and-a-half months. He and other members of the board of directors faced difficult decisions but were pleased to see that their decisions had almost unanimous support from stockholders. As he read the business section of the newspaper, he wondered whether the decisions had been considered carefully with all the stakeholders in mind.
Swot Analysis of "MacDonald, Dettwiler & Associates Ltd. (C)" written by Murray J. Bryant, Ryan Kalt includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Dettwiler Macdonald facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in MacDonald, Dettwiler & Associates Ltd. (C) case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the MacDonald, Dettwiler & Associates Ltd. (C) casestudy better are - – digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing transportation and logistics costs, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%,
customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of MacDonald, Dettwiler & Associates Ltd. (C)
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in MacDonald, Dettwiler & Associates Ltd. (C) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Dettwiler Macdonald, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Dettwiler Macdonald 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 MacDonald, Dettwiler & Associates Ltd. (C) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in MacDonald, Dettwiler & Associates Ltd. (C) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Dettwiler Macdonald
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 Dettwiler Macdonald
Strengths MacDonald, Dettwiler & Associates Ltd. (C) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Dettwiler Macdonald in MacDonald, Dettwiler & Associates Ltd. (C) Harvard Business Review case study are -
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Dettwiler Macdonald 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 MacDonald, Dettwiler & Associates Ltd. (C) - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Dettwiler Macdonald 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
- Dettwiler Macdonald 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 Dettwiler Macdonald is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in MacDonald, Dettwiler & Associates Ltd. (C) Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Analytics focus
– Dettwiler Macdonald 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 Murray J. Bryant, Ryan Kalt 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Dettwiler Macdonald is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in MacDonald, Dettwiler & Associates Ltd. (C) 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Dettwiler Macdonald 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.
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Dettwiler Macdonald digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Dettwiler Macdonald 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Dettwiler Macdonald has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Dettwiler Macdonald 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.
Organizational Resilience of Dettwiler Macdonald
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Dettwiler Macdonald does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Training and development
– Dettwiler Macdonald has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in MacDonald, Dettwiler & Associates Ltd. (C) 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Dettwiler Macdonald is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in MacDonald, Dettwiler & Associates Ltd. (C) Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Dettwiler Macdonald in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Weaknesses MacDonald, Dettwiler & Associates Ltd. (C) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of MacDonald, Dettwiler & Associates Ltd. (C) are -
Lack of clear differentiation of Dettwiler Macdonald products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Dettwiler Macdonald needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Dettwiler Macdonald 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. Dettwiler Macdonald 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 MacDonald, Dettwiler & Associates Ltd. (C) 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 Dettwiler Macdonald 's lucrative customers.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Dettwiler Macdonald is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study MacDonald, Dettwiler & Associates Ltd. (C) can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the MacDonald, Dettwiler & Associates Ltd. (C) 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 Dettwiler Macdonald has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Dettwiler Macdonald 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 - MacDonald, Dettwiler & Associates Ltd. (C) should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Dettwiler Macdonald 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study MacDonald, Dettwiler & Associates Ltd. (C) 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 MacDonald, Dettwiler & Associates Ltd. (C) can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Dettwiler Macdonald is planning to shift buying processes online.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Murray J. Bryant, Ryan Kalt suggests that, Dettwiler Macdonald 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study MacDonald, Dettwiler & Associates Ltd. (C), 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Dettwiler Macdonald 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.
Opportunities MacDonald, Dettwiler & Associates Ltd. (C) | 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 MacDonald, Dettwiler & Associates Ltd. (C) are -
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Dettwiler Macdonald 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, MacDonald, Dettwiler & Associates Ltd. (C), to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Dettwiler Macdonald to conduct training and development for its employees across the world. This will result in not only reducing the cost of training but also help employees in different part of the world to integrate with the headquarter work culture, ethos, and standards.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Dettwiler Macdonald 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Dettwiler Macdonald 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 MacDonald, Dettwiler & Associates Ltd. (C) - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Dettwiler Macdonald to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Developing new processes and practices
– Dettwiler Macdonald 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.
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. Dettwiler Macdonald can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Manufacturing automation
– Dettwiler Macdonald 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. Dettwiler Macdonald can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Loyalty marketing
– Dettwiler Macdonald 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Dettwiler Macdonald can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. MacDonald, Dettwiler & Associates Ltd. (C) 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Dettwiler Macdonald 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Dettwiler Macdonald 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 Dettwiler Macdonald in the consumer business. Now Dettwiler Macdonald can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Threats MacDonald, Dettwiler & Associates Ltd. (C) External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study MacDonald, Dettwiler & Associates Ltd. (C) are -
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Dettwiler Macdonald 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Dettwiler Macdonald 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, Dettwiler Macdonald 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 MacDonald, Dettwiler & Associates Ltd. (C) .
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. Dettwiler Macdonald 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.
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 MacDonald, Dettwiler & Associates Ltd. (C), Dettwiler Macdonald 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 .
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. Dettwiler Macdonald needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Dettwiler Macdonald with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Increasing wage structure of Dettwiler Macdonald
– 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 Dettwiler Macdonald.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Dettwiler Macdonald is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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 Dettwiler Macdonald in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Dettwiler Macdonald 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 Dettwiler Macdonald.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of MacDonald, Dettwiler & Associates Ltd. (C) 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 MacDonald, Dettwiler & Associates Ltd. (C) 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 MacDonald, Dettwiler & Associates Ltd. (C) 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 MacDonald, Dettwiler & Associates Ltd. (C) 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 MacDonald, Dettwiler & Associates Ltd. (C) 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 Dettwiler Macdonald needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.