Discovery Finds Its Way in India-Curiosity Built the Brand SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Discovery Finds Its Way in India-Curiosity Built the Brand
Discovery Communications Inc., an American global networks company, had entered the Indian television market in 1995 with its eponymous channel offering that focused on non-fiction, infotainment programming. Nearly two decades later, steered by a solid senior management team, it had built a formidable operation with 11 channels spanning various genres and created a strong brand presence in India. Though the company was a leader in almost all the genres in which it operated, the Discovery team knew that they could not afford to be complacent even for a single day in the extremely competitive Indian television market. With close to 800 channels fighting for viewership daily, they had to make quick and tough decisions day in and day out. Looking back on their journey and some of the strategic moves they had made in India, it was evident that they had managed to pick up certain distinct capabilities along the way. Not only had they successfully "Indianized" a global brand, they had also deftly overcome some of the challenges inherent to the television industry in India. What was next for Discovery? This was the question that the team was grappling with in 2014. With their most recent launch, "Discovery Kids," it seemed that they were once again moving in the direction of children's edutainment. Did this mean they were coming full circle? Could they successfully apply what they had learned from the past to the unknown future? How could they do things differently and yet stay true to their vision and brand promise of making the Discovery television experience deep and enriching? The case presents the hard choices that Discovery needed to make at several strategic junctures as the cable television market changed and evolved over the years. It facilitates an in-depth discussion on whether, and how, Discovery has developed the ability to make astute decisions and acquired the necessary agility to respond to the dynamic market in India.
Swot Analysis of "Discovery Finds Its Way in India-Curiosity Built the Brand" written by Edward W. Rogers, Geetika Shah includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Discovery Television facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Discovery Finds Its Way in India-Curiosity Built the Brand case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Competitive strategy, Decision making, Leadership, Risk management and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Discovery Finds Its Way in India-Curiosity Built the Brand casestudy better are - – wage bills are increasing, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing energy prices, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation,
digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing transportation and logistics costs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Discovery Finds Its Way in India-Curiosity Built the Brand
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Discovery Finds Its Way in India-Curiosity Built the Brand case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Discovery Television, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Discovery Television 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 Discovery Finds Its Way in India-Curiosity Built the Brand can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Discovery Finds Its Way in India-Curiosity Built the Brand case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Discovery Television
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 Discovery Television
Strengths Discovery Finds Its Way in India-Curiosity Built the Brand | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Discovery Television in Discovery Finds Its Way in India-Curiosity Built the Brand Harvard Business Review case study are -
Innovation driven organization
– Discovery Television is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Discovery Finds Its Way in India-Curiosity Built the Brand Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Learning organization
- Discovery Television 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 Discovery Television is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Discovery Finds Its Way in India-Curiosity Built the Brand Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Discovery Television 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.
Training and development
– Discovery Television has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Discovery Finds Its Way in India-Curiosity Built the Brand 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Discovery Television is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Discovery Finds Its Way in India-Curiosity Built the Brand are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Diverse revenue streams
– Discovery Television is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Discovery Finds Its Way in India-Curiosity Built the Brand 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Discovery Television in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Discovery Television digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Discovery Television 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Discovery Television 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 Discovery Finds Its Way in India-Curiosity Built the Brand - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Strong track record of project management
– Discovery Television is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Discovery Television 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Discovery Television in the sector have low bargaining power. Discovery Finds Its Way in India-Curiosity Built the Brand has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Discovery Television to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Weaknesses Discovery Finds Its Way in India-Curiosity Built the Brand | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Discovery Finds Its Way in India-Curiosity Built the Brand are -
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Discovery Television 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Discovery Television 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 bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Edward W. Rogers, Geetika Shah suggests that, Discovery Television 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Discovery Finds Its Way in India-Curiosity Built the Brand 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 Discovery Television 's lucrative customers.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Discovery Finds Its Way in India-Curiosity Built the Brand HBR case study mentions - Discovery Television 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Discovery Television 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Discovery Finds Its Way in India-Curiosity Built the Brand 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 Discovery Finds Its Way in India-Curiosity Built the Brand can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Discovery Television is planning to shift buying processes online.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Discovery Finds Its Way in India-Curiosity Built the Brand, 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Discovery Finds Its Way in India-Curiosity Built the Brand, in the dynamic environment Discovery Television has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Discovery Television has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Discovery Television is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Discovery Television needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Discovery Television to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Discovery Television 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 - Discovery Finds Its Way in India-Curiosity Built the Brand should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Opportunities Discovery Finds Its Way in India-Curiosity Built the Brand | 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 Discovery Finds Its Way in India-Curiosity Built the Brand are -
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Discovery Television can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Buying journey improvements
– Discovery Television can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Discovery Finds Its Way in India-Curiosity Built the Brand 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.
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 Discovery Television 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 Discovery Television has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Discovery Television to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Discovery Finds Its Way in India-Curiosity Built the Brand case study. Discovery Television can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, 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, Discovery Television can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Discovery Television operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
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. Discovery Television 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. Discovery Television 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Discovery Television is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Discovery Finds Its Way in India-Curiosity Built the Brand 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Discovery Television 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Discovery Television 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Discovery Television 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 Discovery Finds Its Way in India-Curiosity Built the Brand - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Discovery Television to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
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 Discovery Television in the consumer business. Now Discovery Television can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Discovery Television 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 Discovery Television to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Discovery Television to increase its market reach. Discovery Television 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.
Threats Discovery Finds Its Way in India-Curiosity Built the Brand External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Discovery Finds Its Way in India-Curiosity Built the Brand are -
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.
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. Discovery Television 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.
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. Discovery Television needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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 Discovery Television business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Increasing wage structure of Discovery Television
– 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 Discovery Television.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Discovery Television 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.
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 Discovery Television in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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. Discovery Television can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Environmental challenges
– Discovery Television 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. Discovery Television can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
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 Discovery Television.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Discovery Television 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, Discovery Television 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 Discovery Finds Its Way in India-Curiosity Built the Brand .
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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Discovery Finds Its Way in India-Curiosity Built the Brand 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 Discovery Finds Its Way in India-Curiosity Built the Brand 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 Discovery Finds Its Way in India-Curiosity Built the Brand 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 Discovery Finds Its Way in India-Curiosity Built the Brand 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 Discovery Finds Its Way in India-Curiosity Built the Brand 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 Discovery Television needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
