Stratcomm (B): Morgan G. SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Stratcomm (B): Morgan G.
Morgan G., a new consultant hire at Change Analytics, a budding strategic planning consultancy in the Washington, DC, area, has been referred by a colleague in the industry to meet with Jess B., CEO of Stratcomm, a certified disadvantaged business enterprise. He understands that Jess is interested in meeting with him to craft a response to an 8(a) set-aside contract but needs to partner with another firm to complete the service offering requirements.
Swot Analysis of "Stratcomm (B): Morgan G." written by Melissa Thomas-Hunt, Rebecca Goldberg includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Stratcomm Jess facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Stratcomm (B): Morgan G. case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Strategic planning and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Stratcomm (B): Morgan G. casestudy better are - – challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, geopolitical disruptions, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings,
increasing energy prices, wage bills are increasing, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Stratcomm (B): Morgan G.
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Stratcomm (B): Morgan G. case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Stratcomm Jess, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Stratcomm Jess 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 Stratcomm (B): Morgan G. can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Stratcomm (B): Morgan G. case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Stratcomm Jess
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 Stratcomm Jess
Strengths Stratcomm (B): Morgan G. | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Stratcomm Jess in Stratcomm (B): Morgan G. Harvard Business Review case study are -
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Stratcomm Jess in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Stratcomm Jess has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Stratcomm Jess 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.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Stratcomm Jess 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 Stratcomm Jess in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
High brand equity
– Stratcomm Jess has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Stratcomm Jess to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Stratcomm Jess in the sector have low bargaining power. Stratcomm (B): Morgan G. has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Stratcomm Jess to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Organizational Resilience of Stratcomm Jess
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Stratcomm Jess does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Stratcomm Jess 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Stratcomm Jess is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Stratcomm Jess 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 Stratcomm (B): Morgan G. - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Diverse revenue streams
– Stratcomm Jess is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Stratcomm (B): Morgan G. 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Stratcomm Jess is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Stratcomm (B): Morgan G. are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Stratcomm Jess 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.
Weaknesses Stratcomm (B): Morgan G. | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Stratcomm (B): Morgan G. are -
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Stratcomm Jess 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Stratcomm Jess 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Stratcomm Jess products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Stratcomm Jess needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
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 Stratcomm Jess supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Stratcomm (B): Morgan G., it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Stratcomm Jess vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Stratcomm (B): Morgan G., it seems that the employees of Stratcomm Jess 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Stratcomm (B): Morgan G., in the dynamic environment Stratcomm Jess has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Stratcomm Jess has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Stratcomm Jess 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Stratcomm Jess is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Stratcomm (B): Morgan G. 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 operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Stratcomm (B): Morgan G. 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 Stratcomm Jess 's lucrative customers.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Stratcomm (B): Morgan G. 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 Stratcomm (B): Morgan G. can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Stratcomm Jess is planning to shift buying processes online.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Stratcomm Jess 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. Stratcomm Jess 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.
Opportunities Stratcomm (B): Morgan G. | 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 Stratcomm (B): Morgan G. are -
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 Stratcomm Jess 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Stratcomm Jess 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Stratcomm Jess can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Stratcomm Jess in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Leadership & Managing People segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Stratcomm Jess is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Stratcomm (B): Morgan G. 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Stratcomm Jess 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Stratcomm Jess has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Stratcomm Jess to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Stratcomm (B): Morgan G. case study. Stratcomm Jess can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Loyalty marketing
– Stratcomm Jess 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Stratcomm Jess 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, Stratcomm (B): Morgan G., to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Stratcomm Jess to increase its market reach. Stratcomm Jess 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Stratcomm Jess 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Stratcomm Jess 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 Stratcomm Jess to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Stratcomm Jess 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.
Threats Stratcomm (B): Morgan G. External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Stratcomm (B): Morgan G. are -
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 Stratcomm Jess.
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 Stratcomm Jess business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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 Stratcomm Jess in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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. Stratcomm Jess 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.
Increasing wage structure of Stratcomm Jess
– 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 Stratcomm Jess.
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.
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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Stratcomm Jess 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.
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. Stratcomm Jess needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Regulatory challenges
– Stratcomm Jess 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.
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. Stratcomm Jess can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Stratcomm Jess with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Stratcomm (B): Morgan G., Stratcomm Jess 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 .
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Stratcomm (B): Morgan G. 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 Stratcomm (B): Morgan G. 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 Stratcomm (B): Morgan G. 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 Stratcomm (B): Morgan G. 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 Stratcomm (B): Morgan G. 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 Stratcomm Jess needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
