Bonnier News in 2016 and Beyond: Balancing Legacy and Innovation SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Bonnier News in 2016 and Beyond: Balancing Legacy and Innovation
Bonnier News was Sweden's leading media group and a paragon in the nation's cultural, economic, and political circles. It was one of six divisions of Bonnier AB, a company founded by Gerhard Bonnier in 1804 that remained wholly owned by the Bonnier family, with 8,000 employees and operations in 15 countries. Bonnier News, which published three major papers in Stockholm, Dagens Nyheter, Dagens Industri, and Expressen and the southern Swedish daily Sydsvenskan, faced a major transition in the spring of 2016 as CEO Gunilla Herlitz prepared to retire. Herlitz's tenure had coincided with momentous upheavals in the newspaper industry, the rise of the digital era, and a period of unending change at Bonnier AB. Indeed, when Herlitz assumed her position, Bonnier was "a company in a financial crisis" struggling to adapt to the constantly changing media and advertising environment. In 2009, its flagship paper Dagens Nyheter lost more than 100 million Swedish kronor (SEK), or 10,780,985 euros (a??). However, by 2010, just one year after Herlitz became its editor and CEO, the paper was already showing a healthy profit of 143 million SEK (a??15,400,217). By 2014, five years into Herlitz's tenure, DN was again winning awards. Herlitz went on to apply many of the same tactics to the Bonnier News business area and its properties. This case explores the transformation of Bonnier News under Herlitz and considers the overall strategy of its newspapers and the strategic development of its business model going forward.
Swot Analysis of "Bonnier News in 2016 and Beyond: Balancing Legacy and Innovation" written by Robert A. Burgelman, Sheila Melvin includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Bonnier Herlitz facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Bonnier News in 2016 and Beyond: Balancing Legacy and Innovation case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Internet, Leadership, Organizational culture, Strategy execution and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Bonnier News in 2016 and Beyond: Balancing Legacy and Innovation casestudy better are - – supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing energy prices, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, wage bills are increasing,
talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Bonnier News in 2016 and Beyond: Balancing Legacy and Innovation
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Bonnier News in 2016 and Beyond: Balancing Legacy and Innovation case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Bonnier Herlitz, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Bonnier Herlitz 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 Bonnier News in 2016 and Beyond: Balancing Legacy and Innovation can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Bonnier News in 2016 and Beyond: Balancing Legacy and Innovation case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Bonnier Herlitz
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 Bonnier Herlitz
Strengths Bonnier News in 2016 and Beyond: Balancing Legacy and Innovation | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Bonnier Herlitz in Bonnier News in 2016 and Beyond: Balancing Legacy and Innovation Harvard Business Review case study are -
Innovation driven organization
– Bonnier Herlitz is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Bonnier News in 2016 and Beyond: Balancing Legacy and Innovation 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 Bonnier Herlitz
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Bonnier Herlitz does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Bonnier Herlitz 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 Bonnier Herlitz in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Bonnier Herlitz 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Bonnier News in 2016 and Beyond: Balancing Legacy and Innovation 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.
Training and development
– Bonnier Herlitz has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Bonnier News in 2016 and Beyond: Balancing Legacy and Innovation Harvard Business Review case study by analyzing – employees retention, in-house promotion, loyalty, new venture initiation, lack of conflict, and high level of both employees and customer engagement.
Learning organization
- Bonnier Herlitz 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 Bonnier Herlitz is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Bonnier News in 2016 and Beyond: Balancing Legacy and Innovation Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
High brand equity
– Bonnier Herlitz has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Bonnier Herlitz to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Bonnier Herlitz digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Bonnier Herlitz 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– Bonnier News in 2016 and Beyond: Balancing Legacy and Innovation firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Bonnier Herlitz to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Bonnier Herlitz to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Bonnier Herlitz has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Bonnier Herlitz 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Bonnier Herlitz 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 Bonnier News in 2016 and Beyond: Balancing Legacy and Innovation HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Weaknesses Bonnier News in 2016 and Beyond: Balancing Legacy and Innovation | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Bonnier News in 2016 and Beyond: Balancing Legacy and Innovation are -
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Bonnier News in 2016 and Beyond: Balancing Legacy and Innovation HBR case study mentions - Bonnier Herlitz 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Bonnier Herlitz products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Bonnier Herlitz needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Bonnier News in 2016 and Beyond: Balancing Legacy and Innovation 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 Bonnier News in 2016 and Beyond: Balancing Legacy and Innovation can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Bonnier Herlitz is planning to shift buying processes online.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Bonnier Herlitz 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 - Bonnier News in 2016 and Beyond: Balancing Legacy and Innovation should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Bonnier Herlitz 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.
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 Bonnier Herlitz supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Bonnier News in 2016 and Beyond: Balancing Legacy and Innovation, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Bonnier Herlitz vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Bonnier Herlitz 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Bonnier Herlitz 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Bonnier Herlitz is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Bonnier Herlitz needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Bonnier Herlitz to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Bonnier News in 2016 and Beyond: Balancing Legacy and Innovation, it seems that the employees of Bonnier Herlitz 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 bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Robert A. Burgelman, Sheila Melvin suggests that, Bonnier Herlitz 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.
Opportunities Bonnier News in 2016 and Beyond: Balancing Legacy and Innovation | 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 Bonnier News in 2016 and Beyond: Balancing Legacy and Innovation are -
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Bonnier Herlitz 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Bonnier Herlitz 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.
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. Bonnier Herlitz can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
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 Bonnier Herlitz to reconfigure its entire business model. For example it can used blockchain based technologies to reduce piracy of its products in the big markets such as China. Secondly it can use the popularity of e-commerce in various developing markets to build a Direct to Customer business model rather than the current Channel Heavy distribution network.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Bonnier Herlitz has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Bonnier Herlitz to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Bonnier News in 2016 and Beyond: Balancing Legacy and Innovation case study. Bonnier Herlitz can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, 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 Bonnier Herlitz in the consumer business. Now Bonnier Herlitz can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Leadership & Managing People industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Bonnier Herlitz can take advantage of these changes in consumer behavior to build a far more efficient business model. For example consumer regular ordering of products can reduce both last mile delivery costs and market penetration costs. Bonnier Herlitz can further use this consumer data to build better customer loyalty, provide better products and service collection, and improve the value proposition in inflationary times.
Loyalty marketing
– Bonnier Herlitz 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.
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. Bonnier Herlitz 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, Bonnier Herlitz is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Bonnier News in 2016 and Beyond: Balancing Legacy and Innovation 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Bonnier Herlitz 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Bonnier Herlitz can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Bonnier Herlitz operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Bonnier Herlitz 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, Bonnier News in 2016 and Beyond: Balancing Legacy and Innovation, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Threats Bonnier News in 2016 and Beyond: Balancing Legacy and Innovation External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Bonnier News in 2016 and Beyond: Balancing Legacy and Innovation are -
Consumer confidence and its impact on Bonnier Herlitz 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Bonnier News in 2016 and Beyond: Balancing Legacy and Innovation, Bonnier Herlitz 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. Bonnier Herlitz can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Bonnier Herlitz 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 Bonnier Herlitz with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Bonnier Herlitz 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 Bonnier News in 2016 and Beyond: Balancing Legacy and Innovation .
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 Bonnier Herlitz business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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
– Bonnier Herlitz 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.
Technology disruption because of hacks, piracy etc
– The colonial pipeline illustrated, how vulnerable modern organization are to international hackers, miscreants, and disruptors. The cyber security interruption, data leaks, etc can seriously jeopardize the future growth of the organization.
Environmental challenges
– Bonnier Herlitz 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. Bonnier Herlitz can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Bonnier Herlitz is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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 Bonnier Herlitz.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Bonnier News in 2016 and Beyond: Balancing Legacy and Innovation 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 Bonnier News in 2016 and Beyond: Balancing Legacy and Innovation 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 Bonnier News in 2016 and Beyond: Balancing Legacy and Innovation 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 Bonnier News in 2016 and Beyond: Balancing Legacy and Innovation 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 Bonnier News in 2016 and Beyond: Balancing Legacy and Innovation 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 Bonnier Herlitz needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
