Autopsy of a Data Breach: The Target Case SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Autopsy of a Data Breach: The Target Case
This case revisits the events in late 2013 that gave rise to what was at the time the largest breach of confidential data in history. Indeed, on December 19, 2013, Target announced that its computer network had been infiltrated by cybercriminals who stole 40 million debit and credit card numbers as well as the personal information of some 70 million additional customers. The case presents the cybercriminals' activities leading up to the breach, details of the commission of the theft, the measures that Target had put in place to deter such attacks, its ill-fated response during the attack and, finally, the impact of the breach on Target as well as on the retail industry as a whole.
Swot Analysis of "Autopsy of a Data Breach: The Target Case" written by Line Dube includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Breach Cybercriminals facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Autopsy of a Data Breach: The Target Case case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, IT, Security & privacy and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Autopsy of a Data Breach: The Target Case casestudy better are - – talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, technology disruption, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion,
wage bills are increasing, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Autopsy of a Data Breach: The Target Case
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Autopsy of a Data Breach: The Target Case case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Breach Cybercriminals, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Breach Cybercriminals 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 Autopsy of a Data Breach: The Target Case can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Autopsy of a Data Breach: The Target Case case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Breach Cybercriminals
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 Breach Cybercriminals
Strengths Autopsy of a Data Breach: The Target Case | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Breach Cybercriminals in Autopsy of a Data Breach: The Target Case Harvard Business Review case study are -
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Breach Cybercriminals in the sector have low bargaining power. Autopsy of a Data Breach: The Target Case has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Breach Cybercriminals to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Organizational Resilience of Breach Cybercriminals
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Breach Cybercriminals does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Breach Cybercriminals has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Breach Cybercriminals 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.
High brand equity
– Breach Cybercriminals has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Breach Cybercriminals to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Training and development
– Breach Cybercriminals has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Autopsy of a Data Breach: The Target Case 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Breach Cybercriminals is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Autopsy of a Data Breach: The Target Case 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Breach Cybercriminals 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.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Breach Cybercriminals 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 Breach Cybercriminals in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Breach Cybercriminals digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Breach Cybercriminals 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Breach Cybercriminals 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 Autopsy of a Data Breach: The Target Case HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Breach Cybercriminals 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– Autopsy of a Data Breach: The Target Case firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Breach Cybercriminals to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Breach Cybercriminals to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Weaknesses Autopsy of a Data Breach: The Target Case | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Autopsy of a Data Breach: The Target Case are -
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Autopsy of a Data Breach: The Target Case HBR case study mentions - Breach Cybercriminals 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Breach Cybercriminals is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Autopsy of a Data Breach: The Target Case can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Line Dube suggests that, Breach Cybercriminals 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 Breach Cybercriminals 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 - Autopsy of a Data Breach: The Target Case should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Breach Cybercriminals 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Autopsy of a Data Breach: The Target Case 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 Breach Cybercriminals has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Breach Cybercriminals 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Breach Cybercriminals 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 operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Autopsy of a Data Breach: The Target Case 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 Breach Cybercriminals 's lucrative customers.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Autopsy of a Data Breach: The Target Case, in the dynamic environment Breach Cybercriminals has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Breach Cybercriminals has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Lack of clear differentiation of Breach Cybercriminals products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Breach Cybercriminals needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Opportunities Autopsy of a Data Breach: The Target Case | 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 Autopsy of a Data Breach: The Target Case are -
Buying journey improvements
– Breach Cybercriminals can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Autopsy of a Data Breach: The Target Case 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Breach Cybercriminals has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Breach Cybercriminals to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Autopsy of a Data Breach: The Target Case case study. Breach Cybercriminals can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Loyalty marketing
– Breach Cybercriminals 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Breach Cybercriminals 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Breach Cybercriminals 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 Breach Cybercriminals in the consumer business. Now Breach Cybercriminals can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Breach Cybercriminals 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 Autopsy of a Data Breach: The Target Case - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Breach Cybercriminals 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. Breach Cybercriminals can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
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. Breach Cybercriminals can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Breach Cybercriminals 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 Breach Cybercriminals to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Breach Cybercriminals 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Breach Cybercriminals to conduct training and development for its employees across the world. This will result in not only reducing the cost of training but also help employees in different part of the world to integrate with the headquarter work culture, ethos, and standards.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Breach Cybercriminals 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.
Threats Autopsy of a Data Breach: The Target Case External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Autopsy of a Data Breach: The Target Case are -
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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Breach Cybercriminals 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 Autopsy of a Data Breach: The Target Case .
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Breach Cybercriminals has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Breach Cybercriminals 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Breach Cybercriminals 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 wage structure of Breach Cybercriminals
– 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 Breach Cybercriminals.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Breach Cybercriminals with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Breach Cybercriminals 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.
Environmental challenges
– Breach Cybercriminals 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. Breach Cybercriminals 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 Breach Cybercriminals is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, 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. Breach Cybercriminals will face different problems in different parts of Europe. For example it will face inflationary pressures in UK, France, and Germany, balance sheet expansion and demand challenges in Southern European countries, and geopolitical instability in the Eastern Europe.
Aging population
– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.
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 Breach Cybercriminals.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Breach Cybercriminals 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Autopsy of a Data Breach: The Target Case 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 Autopsy of a Data Breach: The Target Case 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 Autopsy of a Data Breach: The Target Case 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 Autopsy of a Data Breach: The Target Case 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 Autopsy of a Data Breach: The Target Case 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 Breach Cybercriminals needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
