Big Spaceship: The Evolving Agency SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Big Spaceship: The Evolving Agency
"Big Spaceship: The Evolving Agency," discusses the evolution of Big Spaceship, an advertising and marketing agency, from a product-focused business to a relationship-oriented one as clients seek deeper and more meaningful long-term partnerships. The 15 year-old company had already evolved multiple times over its history as new technological platforms and services emerged to change the way people communicated and received information, and as the broader advertising industry changed. New and more aggressive competitors were emerging, and the industry was quickly consolidating. Big Spaceship had adjusted its strategy, organizational structure, and human capital accordingly. The company's founder and CEO, Michael Lebowitz, now wondered what he needed to do to keep his company competitive in the years to come. Had he found the right way to organize his people and structure the organization following the transition from project-based to relationship-based work, or were further changes necessary? How could he keep people engaged as the nature of the work evolved in some instances to become more predictable? What new systems and processes were needed to ensure a steady output of high quality work? Lebowitz was proud that the organization had retained a distinctly different feel from, and approach to work than, traditional advertising agencies, and Lebowitz and his colleagues wanted to maintain these intangible elements as the company evolved. But was this incompatible with his business goals?
Swot Analysis of "Big Spaceship: The Evolving Agency" written by Boris Groysberg, Matthew Preble includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Spaceship Lebowitz facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Big Spaceship: The Evolving Agency case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Marketing, Organizational culture, Organizational structure, Social platforms and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Big Spaceship: The Evolving Agency casestudy better are - – digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing transportation and logistics costs, technology disruption, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, geopolitical disruptions,
wage bills are increasing, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Big Spaceship: The Evolving Agency
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Big Spaceship: The Evolving Agency case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Spaceship Lebowitz, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Spaceship Lebowitz 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 Big Spaceship: The Evolving Agency can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Big Spaceship: The Evolving Agency case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Spaceship Lebowitz
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 Spaceship Lebowitz
Strengths Big Spaceship: The Evolving Agency | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Spaceship Lebowitz in Big Spaceship: The Evolving Agency Harvard Business Review case study are -
Diverse revenue streams
– Spaceship Lebowitz is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Big Spaceship: The Evolving Agency 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.
Analytics focus
– Spaceship Lebowitz 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 Boris Groysberg, Matthew Preble 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.
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Spaceship Lebowitz digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Spaceship Lebowitz 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.
Organizational Resilience of Spaceship Lebowitz
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Spaceship Lebowitz does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Learning organization
- Spaceship Lebowitz 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 Spaceship Lebowitz is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Big Spaceship: The Evolving Agency Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
High brand equity
– Spaceship Lebowitz has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Spaceship Lebowitz to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Big Spaceship: The Evolving Agency 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Spaceship Lebowitz in the sector have low bargaining power. Big Spaceship: The Evolving Agency has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Spaceship Lebowitz to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Spaceship Lebowitz has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Spaceship Lebowitz 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 recruit top talent
– Spaceship Lebowitz is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Big Spaceship: The Evolving Agency are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Spaceship Lebowitz 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
– Spaceship Lebowitz 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 Spaceship Lebowitz in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Weaknesses Big Spaceship: The Evolving Agency | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Big Spaceship: The Evolving Agency are -
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Big Spaceship: The Evolving Agency, is just above the industry average. Spaceship Lebowitz needs to redesign the compensation structure and incentives to increase the revenue per employees. Some of the steps that it can take are – hiring more specialists on project basis, etc.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Spaceship Lebowitz is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Big Spaceship: The Evolving Agency can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Big Spaceship: The Evolving Agency, in the dynamic environment Spaceship Lebowitz has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Spaceship Lebowitz 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 Big Spaceship: The Evolving Agency, it seems that the employees of Spaceship Lebowitz 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Spaceship Lebowitz 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Big Spaceship: The Evolving Agency 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 Big Spaceship: The Evolving Agency can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Spaceship Lebowitz is planning to shift buying processes online.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Big Spaceship: The Evolving Agency, 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Spaceship Lebowitz 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 - Big Spaceship: The Evolving Agency should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Big Spaceship: The Evolving Agency 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 Spaceship Lebowitz has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Spaceship Lebowitz 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. Spaceship Lebowitz 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Spaceship Lebowitz 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 Big Spaceship: The Evolving Agency | 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 Big Spaceship: The Evolving Agency are -
Buying journey improvements
– Spaceship Lebowitz can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Big Spaceship: The Evolving Agency 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Spaceship Lebowitz 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Spaceship Lebowitz to increase its market reach. Spaceship Lebowitz 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Spaceship Lebowitz 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Spaceship Lebowitz 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Spaceship Lebowitz can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Spaceship Lebowitz 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.
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. Spaceship Lebowitz can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Leadership & Managing People industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Spaceship Lebowitz can take advantage of these changes in consumer behavior to build a far more efficient business model. For example consumer regular ordering of products can reduce both last mile delivery costs and market penetration costs. Spaceship Lebowitz can further use this consumer data to build better customer loyalty, provide better products and service collection, and improve the value proposition in inflationary times.
Loyalty marketing
– Spaceship Lebowitz 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Spaceship Lebowitz 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 Spaceship Lebowitz to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Spaceship Lebowitz 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 Big Spaceship: The Evolving Agency - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Spaceship Lebowitz to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Spaceship Lebowitz 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.
Threats Big Spaceship: The Evolving Agency External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Big Spaceship: The Evolving Agency are -
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 Spaceship Lebowitz 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 Spaceship Lebowitz in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Big Spaceship: The Evolving Agency, Spaceship Lebowitz 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 .
Environmental challenges
– Spaceship Lebowitz 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. Spaceship Lebowitz can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Spaceship Lebowitz has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Spaceship Lebowitz 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Spaceship Lebowitz 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.
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. Spaceship Lebowitz 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.
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 Spaceship Lebowitz.
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. Spaceship Lebowitz can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Spaceship Lebowitz 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 Big Spaceship: The Evolving Agency .
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Spaceship Lebowitz with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Spaceship Lebowitz is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Spaceship Lebowitz 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Big Spaceship: The Evolving Agency 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 Big Spaceship: The Evolving Agency 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 Big Spaceship: The Evolving Agency 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 Big Spaceship: The Evolving Agency 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 Big Spaceship: The Evolving Agency 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 Spaceship Lebowitz needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.