Re-Defining WSGN's Value Proposition and Positioning: Insight Generation for Fashion and Lifestyle Industries SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Re-Defining WSGN's Value Proposition and Positioning: Insight Generation for Fashion and Lifestyle Industries
WGSN is the world's largest fashion trend forecasting agency, supplying services to 95% of the Fortune 500 fashion brands. The case examines the global strategy of WGSN, which strives to enrich its robust online platform while adding more physical presence in the markets where it is growing, particularly in North America and Asia. The case examines the role of style in fashion by focusing of the content it provides to fashion designers, buyers, merchandizers and executives. The flagship market for WGSN, the fashion industry, is divided into 14 product categories each of which require a high level of expertise on the part of the firm's trend analysts. WGSN covers all aspects of the fashion calendar from the collections to the catwalks, from ads to in-store displays. Clients use WGSN's curated platform to design, buy and price products in line with market trends. The case also examines a gap in WGSN's global presence, the French market, where local competitors defend their market share with a combination of trend books and online data. A pure player like WGSN faces strong headwinds in this key location.
Authors :: Frederic Godart, David Dubois, Brian Henry
Swot Analysis of "Re-Defining WSGN's Value Proposition and Positioning: Insight Generation for Fashion and Lifestyle Industries" written by Frederic Godart, David Dubois, Brian Henry includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Wgsn Fashion facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Re-Defining WSGN's Value Proposition and Positioning: Insight Generation for Fashion and Lifestyle Industries case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Sales and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Re-Defining WSGN's Value Proposition and Positioning: Insight Generation for Fashion and Lifestyle Industries casestudy better are - – competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing commodity prices, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, technology disruption, wage bills are increasing, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings,
increasing transportation and logistics costs, geopolitical disruptions, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Re-Defining WSGN's Value Proposition and Positioning: Insight Generation for Fashion and Lifestyle Industries
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Re-Defining WSGN's Value Proposition and Positioning: Insight Generation for Fashion and Lifestyle Industries case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Wgsn Fashion, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Wgsn Fashion 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 Re-Defining WSGN's Value Proposition and Positioning: Insight Generation for Fashion and Lifestyle Industries can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Re-Defining WSGN's Value Proposition and Positioning: Insight Generation for Fashion and Lifestyle Industries case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Wgsn Fashion
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 Wgsn Fashion
Strengths Re-Defining WSGN's Value Proposition and Positioning: Insight Generation for Fashion and Lifestyle Industries | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Wgsn Fashion in Re-Defining WSGN's Value Proposition and Positioning: Insight Generation for Fashion and Lifestyle Industries Harvard Business Review case study are -
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Wgsn Fashion 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Wgsn Fashion has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Wgsn Fashion 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Wgsn Fashion is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Re-Defining WSGN's Value Proposition and Positioning: Insight Generation for Fashion and Lifestyle Industries 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 Wgsn Fashion
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Wgsn Fashion does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Diverse revenue streams
– Wgsn Fashion is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Re-Defining WSGN's Value Proposition and Positioning: Insight Generation for Fashion and Lifestyle Industries 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Wgsn Fashion 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 Re-Defining WSGN's Value Proposition and Positioning: Insight Generation for Fashion and Lifestyle Industries - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Wgsn Fashion in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Strong track record of project management
– Wgsn Fashion 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 Wgsn Fashion 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.
Training and development
– Wgsn Fashion has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Re-Defining WSGN's Value Proposition and Positioning: Insight Generation for Fashion and Lifestyle Industries 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.
Analytics focus
– Wgsn Fashion is putting a lot of focus on utilizing the power of analytics in business decision making. This has put it among the leading players in the industry. The technology infrastructure suggested by Frederic Godart, David Dubois, Brian Henry can also help it to harness the power of analytics for – marketing optimization, demand forecasting, customer relationship management, inventory management, information sharing across the value chain etc.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Wgsn Fashion in the sector have low bargaining power. Re-Defining WSGN's Value Proposition and Positioning: Insight Generation for Fashion and Lifestyle Industries has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Wgsn Fashion to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Weaknesses Re-Defining WSGN's Value Proposition and Positioning: Insight Generation for Fashion and Lifestyle Industries | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Re-Defining WSGN's Value Proposition and Positioning: Insight Generation for Fashion and Lifestyle Industries are -
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Re-Defining WSGN's Value Proposition and Positioning: Insight Generation for Fashion and Lifestyle Industries, 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Re-Defining WSGN's Value Proposition and Positioning: Insight Generation for Fashion and Lifestyle Industries 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 Wgsn Fashion 's lucrative customers.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Re-Defining WSGN's Value Proposition and Positioning: Insight Generation for Fashion and Lifestyle Industries HBR case study mentions - Wgsn Fashion 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 Wgsn Fashion 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Wgsn Fashion 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. Wgsn Fashion 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Wgsn Fashion 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Re-Defining WSGN's Value Proposition and Positioning: Insight Generation for Fashion and Lifestyle Industries, in the dynamic environment Wgsn Fashion has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Wgsn Fashion has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Wgsn Fashion 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 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 Wgsn Fashion supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Re-Defining WSGN's Value Proposition and Positioning: Insight Generation for Fashion and Lifestyle Industries, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Wgsn Fashion vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Wgsn Fashion 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 - Re-Defining WSGN's Value Proposition and Positioning: Insight Generation for Fashion and Lifestyle Industries should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Need for greater diversity
– Wgsn Fashion has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.
Opportunities Re-Defining WSGN's Value Proposition and Positioning: Insight Generation for Fashion and Lifestyle Industries | 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 Re-Defining WSGN's Value Proposition and Positioning: Insight Generation for Fashion and Lifestyle Industries are -
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 Wgsn Fashion in the consumer business. Now Wgsn Fashion can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Developing new processes and practices
– Wgsn Fashion 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Wgsn Fashion 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, Re-Defining WSGN's Value Proposition and Positioning: Insight Generation for Fashion and Lifestyle Industries, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Loyalty marketing
– Wgsn Fashion 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Wgsn Fashion can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Wgsn Fashion operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Wgsn Fashion can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Wgsn Fashion to increase its market reach. Wgsn Fashion 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.
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. Wgsn Fashion can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Wgsn Fashion 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 Re-Defining WSGN's Value Proposition and Positioning: Insight Generation for Fashion and Lifestyle Industries - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Wgsn Fashion to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Wgsn Fashion 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Wgsn Fashion 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Wgsn Fashion can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Re-Defining WSGN's Value Proposition and Positioning: Insight Generation for Fashion and Lifestyle Industries 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 Wgsn Fashion 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.
Threats Re-Defining WSGN's Value Proposition and Positioning: Insight Generation for Fashion and Lifestyle Industries External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Re-Defining WSGN's Value Proposition and Positioning: Insight Generation for Fashion and Lifestyle Industries are -
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Wgsn Fashion is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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. Wgsn Fashion needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Wgsn Fashion has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Wgsn Fashion needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Leadership & Managing People sector. According to Mckinsey study top managers believe that the adoption of technology in operations, communications is 20-25 times faster than what they planned in the beginning of 2019.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Wgsn Fashion 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Re-Defining WSGN's Value Proposition and Positioning: Insight Generation for Fashion and Lifestyle Industries, Wgsn Fashion 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 .
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Wgsn Fashion 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Wgsn Fashion 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.
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. Wgsn Fashion 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.
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 Wgsn Fashion in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Wgsn Fashion 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Wgsn Fashion 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.
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 Wgsn Fashion.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Re-Defining WSGN's Value Proposition and Positioning: Insight Generation for Fashion and Lifestyle Industries 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 Re-Defining WSGN's Value Proposition and Positioning: Insight Generation for Fashion and Lifestyle Industries 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 Re-Defining WSGN's Value Proposition and Positioning: Insight Generation for Fashion and Lifestyle Industries 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 Re-Defining WSGN's Value Proposition and Positioning: Insight Generation for Fashion and Lifestyle Industries 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 Re-Defining WSGN's Value Proposition and Positioning: Insight Generation for Fashion and Lifestyle Industries 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 Wgsn Fashion needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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