Live from the Met: Opera in the 21st Century (B) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Live from the Met: Opera in the 21st Century (B)
This two-part case looks at the issues related to the Metropolitan Opera's decision to start transmitting its productions in high definition (HD) to movie theatres after the arrival of its new general manager, Peter Gelb, on August 1, 2006. Part A provides students with all the details needed to assess this decision. It outlines the Met's general and competitive position within the performing arts at the time Gelb took over management, explains the Met's business environment (Political, Economic, Social, and Technological (PEST) analysis, its direct and indirect competition in New York and from other major opera houses in the U.S. and around the world), and the facts needed to analyse the various distribution methods available to the Met. It allows students to determine the viability of Gelb's plan to take the Met into movie houses, considering its implications for the company and the changes it would require to the Met's traditional business model as well as its competitive environment. Part B introduces students to the factors underlying the Live in HD project implemented by Gelb and its commercial and financial success. It concludes with a discussion of the possible next steps in the wake of this technological innovation, given that some challenges remain (such as lowering the average age of Met audiences) and their implications from a competitive perspective.
Swot Analysis of "Live from the Met: Opera in the 21st Century (B)" written by Sebastien Boutonnet, Serge Poisson-de-Haro includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Met's Gelb facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Live from the Met: Opera in the 21st Century (B) case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Technology and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Live from the Met: Opera in the 21st Century (B) casestudy better are - – wage bills are increasing, geopolitical disruptions, increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, technology disruption, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy,
competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Live from the Met: Opera in the 21st Century (B)
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Live from the Met: Opera in the 21st Century (B) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Met's Gelb, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Met's Gelb 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 Live from the Met: Opera in the 21st Century (B) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Live from the Met: Opera in the 21st Century (B) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Met's Gelb
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 Met's Gelb
Strengths Live from the Met: Opera in the 21st Century (B) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Met's Gelb in Live from the Met: Opera in the 21st Century (B) Harvard Business Review case study are -
Diverse revenue streams
– Met's Gelb is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Live from the Met: Opera in the 21st Century (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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Met's Gelb is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Live from the Met: Opera in the 21st Century (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.
Analytics focus
– Met's Gelb 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 Sebastien Boutonnet, Serge Poisson-de-Haro 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Met's Gelb 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 Live from the Met: Opera in the 21st Century (B) HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Met's Gelb in the sector have low bargaining power. Live from the Met: Opera in the 21st Century (B) has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Met's Gelb to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Training and development
– Met's Gelb has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Live from the Met: Opera in the 21st Century (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.
Innovation driven organization
– Met's Gelb is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Live from the Met: Opera in the 21st Century (B) Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Organizational Resilience of Met's Gelb
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Met's Gelb does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Met's Gelb 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
– Met's Gelb 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 Met's Gelb in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Met's Gelb 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 Live from the Met: Opera in the 21st Century (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.
Learning organization
- Met's Gelb 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 Met's Gelb is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Live from the Met: Opera in the 21st Century (B) Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Weaknesses Live from the Met: Opera in the 21st Century (B) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Live from the Met: Opera in the 21st Century (B) are -
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Live from the Met: Opera in the 21st Century (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 Live from the Met: Opera in the 21st Century (B) can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Met's Gelb is planning to shift buying processes online.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Live from the Met: Opera in the 21st Century (B), it seems that the employees of Met's Gelb 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Met's Gelb 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 dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Live from the Met: Opera in the 21st Century (B) 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 Met's Gelb has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Live from the Met: Opera in the 21st Century (B), is just above the industry average. Met's Gelb 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 bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Sebastien Boutonnet, Serge Poisson-de-Haro suggests that, Met's Gelb 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Met's Gelb 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 - Live from the Met: Opera in the 21st Century (B) should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Met's Gelb 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.
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 Met's Gelb supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Live from the Met: Opera in the 21st Century (B), it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Met's Gelb vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Live from the Met: Opera in the 21st Century (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 Met's Gelb 's lucrative customers.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Met's Gelb 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. Met's Gelb 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 Live from the Met: Opera in the 21st Century (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 Live from the Met: Opera in the 21st Century (B) are -
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Met's Gelb 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Met's Gelb has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Met's Gelb to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Live from the Met: Opera in the 21st Century (B) case study. Met's Gelb can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Met's Gelb 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Met's Gelb 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.
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 Met's Gelb in the consumer business. Now Met's Gelb can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Met's Gelb to increase its market reach. Met's Gelb 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Met's Gelb can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Met's Gelb 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 Live from the Met: Opera in the 21st Century (B) - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Met's Gelb to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
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. Met's Gelb can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Met's Gelb 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 Met's Gelb to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Met's Gelb is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Live from the Met: Opera in the 21st Century (B) 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Met's Gelb 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.
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. Met's Gelb can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Threats Live from the Met: Opera in the 21st Century (B) External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Live from the Met: Opera in the 21st Century (B) are -
Regulatory challenges
– Met's Gelb 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Met's Gelb 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 Live from the Met: Opera in the 21st Century (B) .
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. Met's Gelb 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Met's Gelb 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Met's Gelb is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Environmental challenges
– Met's Gelb 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. Met's Gelb 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. Met's Gelb needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Live from the Met: Opera in the 21st Century (B), Met's Gelb 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 .
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. Met's Gelb 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
– Met's Gelb has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Met's Gelb 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Met's Gelb 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.
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.
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 Met's Gelb in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Live from the Met: Opera in the 21st Century (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 Live from the Met: Opera in the 21st Century (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 Live from the Met: Opera in the 21st Century (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 Live from the Met: Opera in the 21st Century (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 Live from the Met: Opera in the 21st Century (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 Met's Gelb needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
