Case Study Description of Continental Cablevision, Inc./Fintelco Joint Venture
In February 1994, the senior management team at Continental Cablevision received the final joint-venture agreement from Fintelco, a potential partner in Argentina. The tasks for the student are to review the terms of the agreement, the outlook for the Argentine economy, and the corporate cultures at both companies to decide whether Continental should sign the agreement.
Swot Analysis of "Continental Cablevision, Inc./Fintelco Joint Venture" written by Robert F. Bruner, Katarina Paddack includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Fintelco Continental facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Continental Cablevision, Inc./Fintelco Joint Venture case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Entrepreneurship, Financial analysis, Financial management, Government and Finance & Accounting.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Continental Cablevision, Inc./Fintelco Joint Venture casestudy better are - – there is increasing trade war between United States & China, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, technology disruption, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing commodity prices,
there is backlash against globalization, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Continental Cablevision, Inc./Fintelco Joint Venture
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Continental Cablevision, Inc./Fintelco Joint Venture case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Fintelco Continental, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Fintelco Continental 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 Continental Cablevision, Inc./Fintelco Joint Venture can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Continental Cablevision, Inc./Fintelco Joint Venture case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Fintelco Continental
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Finance & Accounting field.
4. Making a Finance & Accounting topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Fintelco Continental
Strengths Continental Cablevision, Inc./Fintelco Joint Venture | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Fintelco Continental in Continental Cablevision, Inc./Fintelco Joint Venture Harvard Business Review case study are -
Ability to lead change in Finance & Accounting field
– Fintelco Continental 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 Fintelco Continental in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Diverse revenue streams
– Fintelco Continental is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Continental Cablevision, Inc./Fintelco Joint Venture 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Fintelco Continental in the sector have low bargaining power. Continental Cablevision, Inc./Fintelco Joint Venture has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Fintelco Continental to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Continental Cablevision, Inc./Fintelco Joint Venture 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.
High brand equity
– Fintelco Continental has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Fintelco Continental to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Analytics focus
– Fintelco Continental 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 Robert F. Bruner, Katarina Paddack 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Finance & Accounting industry
– Continental Cablevision, Inc./Fintelco Joint Venture firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Fintelco Continental to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Finance & Accounting industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Fintelco Continental to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Learning organization
- Fintelco Continental 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 Fintelco Continental is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Continental Cablevision, Inc./Fintelco Joint Venture Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Training and development
– Fintelco Continental has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Continental Cablevision, Inc./Fintelco Joint Venture 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.
Organizational Resilience of Fintelco Continental
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Fintelco Continental does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Digital Transformation in Finance & Accounting segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Fintelco Continental digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Fintelco Continental 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Fintelco Continental is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Continental Cablevision, Inc./Fintelco Joint Venture are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Weaknesses Continental Cablevision, Inc./Fintelco Joint Venture | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Continental Cablevision, Inc./Fintelco Joint Venture are -
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Continental Cablevision, Inc./Fintelco Joint Venture, in the dynamic environment Fintelco Continental has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Fintelco Continental has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Continental Cablevision, Inc./Fintelco Joint Venture, it seems that the employees of Fintelco Continental 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Fintelco Continental, firm in the HBR case study Continental Cablevision, Inc./Fintelco Joint Venture needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Fintelco Continental 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 cash cycle compare to competitors
Fintelco Continental has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Fintelco Continental 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Fintelco Continental 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Fintelco Continental 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. Fintelco Continental even though has strong showing on digital transformation primary two stages, it has struggled to capitalize the power of digital transformation in marketing efforts and new venture efforts.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Continental Cablevision, Inc./Fintelco Joint Venture 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 Fintelco Continental has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Continental Cablevision, Inc./Fintelco Joint Venture, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Finance & Accounting 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Fintelco Continental is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Finance & Accounting segment. Fintelco Continental needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Fintelco Continental to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Opportunities Continental Cablevision, Inc./Fintelco Joint Venture | 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 Continental Cablevision, Inc./Fintelco Joint Venture are -
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Fintelco Continental 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.
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 Fintelco Continental in the consumer business. Now Fintelco Continental can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Fintelco Continental can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Fintelco Continental operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Finance & Accounting sector.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Fintelco Continental 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
– Fintelco Continental can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Continental Cablevision, Inc./Fintelco Joint Venture 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Fintelco Continental 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 Finance & Accounting industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Fintelco Continental can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Fintelco Continental has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Fintelco Continental to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Continental Cablevision, Inc./Fintelco Joint Venture case study. Fintelco Continental can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Fintelco Continental in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Finance & Accounting segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Fintelco Continental 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 Finance & Accounting segment.
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. Fintelco Continental 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 Fintelco Continental 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 Fintelco Continental to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Fintelco Continental to increase its market reach. Fintelco Continental 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 Continental Cablevision, Inc./Fintelco Joint Venture External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Continental Cablevision, Inc./Fintelco Joint Venture are -
Regulatory challenges
– Fintelco Continental 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 Finance & Accounting industry regulations.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Fintelco Continental is facing in Finance & Accounting sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Fintelco Continental 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 Continental Cablevision, Inc./Fintelco Joint Venture .
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Finance & Accounting field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Fintelco Continental can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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 Fintelco Continental business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Fintelco Continental 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.
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. Fintelco Continental 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Continental Cablevision, Inc./Fintelco Joint Venture, Fintelco Continental may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Finance & Accounting .
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. Fintelco Continental needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Finance & Accounting industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Fintelco Continental 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Fintelco Continental in the Finance & Accounting industry. The Finance & Accounting 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Fintelco Continental with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Fintelco Continental has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Finance & Accounting industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Fintelco Continental needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Finance & Accounting 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Continental Cablevision, Inc./Fintelco Joint Venture 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 Continental Cablevision, Inc./Fintelco Joint Venture 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 Continental Cablevision, Inc./Fintelco Joint Venture 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 Continental Cablevision, Inc./Fintelco Joint Venture 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 Continental Cablevision, Inc./Fintelco Joint Venture 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 Fintelco Continental needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.