Oregon Shakespeare Festival (B): The 2015-2025 Long Range Plan SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Oregon Shakespeare Festival (B): The 2015-2025 Long Range Plan
Supplement to case SM104. In September 2015, Executive Director Cynthia Rider and Artistic Director Bill Rauch submitted the 2015-2025 OSF Long Range Plan to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival board. With the festival leadership finally in place and stable, they collectively created their first strategic plan, and the company headed into its 81st season with an 82-page guiding document. Throughout his first eight years, Bill Rauch had remained notable for his vision and drive for the company to grow and change. The theater's national profile developed substantially, making it "something of a mecca for the theater arts." Major programming and capital expansions occurred, as did unforeseen challenges such as an increase in nearby forest fires and a successful unionization attempt. As Rider and Rauch looked to build on their successes and handle these challenges, they developed a new kind of strategic plan. More concise, external facing, and focused on vision than previous plans, the new document sought to push the company into an ambitious future. Whether the new plan has stretched OSF far enough, or perhaps too far, remains to be seen.
Authors :: William F. Meehan III, Emily Sophia Knapp
Swot Analysis of "Oregon Shakespeare Festival (B): The 2015-2025 Long Range Plan" written by William F. Meehan III, Emily Sophia Knapp includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Rauch Festival facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Oregon Shakespeare Festival (B): The 2015-2025 Long Range Plan case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Communication, Strategic planning, Strategy execution and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (B): The 2015-2025 Long Range Plan casestudy better are - – challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, geopolitical disruptions, there is backlash against globalization, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs,
central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing transportation and logistics costs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Oregon Shakespeare Festival (B): The 2015-2025 Long Range Plan
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Oregon Shakespeare Festival (B): The 2015-2025 Long Range Plan case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Rauch Festival, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Rauch Festival 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 Oregon Shakespeare Festival (B): The 2015-2025 Long Range Plan can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Oregon Shakespeare Festival (B): The 2015-2025 Long Range Plan case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Rauch Festival
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 Rauch Festival
Strengths Oregon Shakespeare Festival (B): The 2015-2025 Long Range Plan | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Rauch Festival in Oregon Shakespeare Festival (B): The 2015-2025 Long Range Plan Harvard Business Review case study are -
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Rauch Festival in the sector have low bargaining power. Oregon Shakespeare Festival (B): The 2015-2025 Long Range Plan has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Rauch Festival to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Diverse revenue streams
– Rauch Festival is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Oregon Shakespeare Festival (B): The 2015-2025 Long Range Plan 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 lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Rauch Festival 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 Rauch Festival in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (B): The 2015-2025 Long Range Plan 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Rauch Festival 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 Oregon Shakespeare Festival (B): The 2015-2025 Long Range Plan HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– Oregon Shakespeare Festival (B): The 2015-2025 Long Range Plan firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Rauch Festival to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Rauch Festival to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Training and development
– Rauch Festival has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Oregon Shakespeare Festival (B): The 2015-2025 Long Range Plan 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Rauch Festival 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 Oregon Shakespeare Festival (B): The 2015-2025 Long Range Plan - 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 brand equity
– Rauch Festival has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Rauch Festival to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Organizational Resilience of Rauch Festival
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Rauch Festival does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Innovation driven organization
– Rauch Festival is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Oregon Shakespeare Festival (B): The 2015-2025 Long Range Plan Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Rauch Festival is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (B): The 2015-2025 Long Range Plan are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Weaknesses Oregon Shakespeare Festival (B): The 2015-2025 Long Range Plan | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Oregon Shakespeare Festival (B): The 2015-2025 Long Range Plan are -
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Rauch Festival 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Rauch Festival 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. Rauch Festival 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 cash cycle compare to competitors
Rauch Festival 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Rauch Festival 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 - Oregon Shakespeare Festival (B): The 2015-2025 Long Range Plan should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Oregon Shakespeare Festival (B): The 2015-2025 Long Range Plan, is just above the industry average. Rauch Festival needs to redesign the compensation structure and incentives to increase the revenue per employees. Some of the steps that it can take are – hiring more specialists on project basis, etc.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Oregon Shakespeare Festival (B): The 2015-2025 Long Range Plan HBR case study mentions - Rauch Festival 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (B): The 2015-2025 Long Range Plan 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 Rauch Festival has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Oregon Shakespeare Festival (B): The 2015-2025 Long Range Plan 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 Rauch Festival 's lucrative customers.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Oregon Shakespeare Festival (B): The 2015-2025 Long Range Plan, it seems that the employees of Rauch Festival 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.
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 Rauch Festival supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Oregon Shakespeare Festival (B): The 2015-2025 Long Range Plan, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Rauch Festival vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Rauch Festival is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Rauch Festival needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Rauch Festival to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Opportunities Oregon Shakespeare Festival (B): The 2015-2025 Long Range Plan | 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 Oregon Shakespeare Festival (B): The 2015-2025 Long Range Plan are -
Loyalty marketing
– Rauch Festival 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Rauch Festival 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Rauch Festival can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Rauch Festival operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Manufacturing automation
– Rauch Festival 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Rauch Festival can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Oregon Shakespeare Festival (B): The 2015-2025 Long Range Plan 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Rauch Festival 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, Oregon Shakespeare Festival (B): The 2015-2025 Long Range Plan, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Rauch Festival is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Oregon Shakespeare Festival (B): The 2015-2025 Long Range Plan 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.
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. Rauch Festival can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Rauch Festival 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 Oregon Shakespeare Festival (B): The 2015-2025 Long Range Plan - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Rauch Festival to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Rauch Festival can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Developing new processes and practices
– Rauch Festival 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.
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 Rauch Festival 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Rauch Festival 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.
Threats Oregon Shakespeare Festival (B): The 2015-2025 Long Range Plan External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Oregon Shakespeare Festival (B): The 2015-2025 Long Range Plan are -
Consumer confidence and its impact on Rauch Festival demand
– There is a high probability of declining consumer confidence, given – high inflammation rate, rise of gig economy, lower job stability, increasing cost of living, higher interest rates, and aging demography. All the factors contribute to people saving higher rate of their income, resulting in lower consumer demand in the industry and other sectors.
Backlash against dominant players
– US Congress and other legislative arms of the government are getting tough on big business especially technology companies. The digital arm of Rauch Festival business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Instability in the European markets
– European Union markets are facing three big challenges post Covid – expanded balance sheets, Brexit related business disruption, and aggressive Russia looking to distract the existing security mechanism. Rauch Festival 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Rauch Festival 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Rauch Festival with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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. Rauch Festival needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Increasing wage structure of Rauch Festival
– 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 Rauch Festival.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Oregon Shakespeare Festival (B): The 2015-2025 Long Range Plan, Rauch Festival 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. Rauch Festival 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 Rauch Festival 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Rauch Festival has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Rauch Festival 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Rauch Festival 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.
Environmental challenges
– Rauch Festival 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. Rauch Festival can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Oregon Shakespeare Festival (B): The 2015-2025 Long Range Plan 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 Oregon Shakespeare Festival (B): The 2015-2025 Long Range Plan 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 Oregon Shakespeare Festival (B): The 2015-2025 Long Range Plan 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 Oregon Shakespeare Festival (B): The 2015-2025 Long Range Plan 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 Oregon Shakespeare Festival (B): The 2015-2025 Long Range Plan 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 Rauch Festival needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.