Gaelic Athletic Association and the Irish Rugby Football Union: Competing Business Models SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Gaelic Athletic Association and the Irish Rugby Football Union: Competing Business Models
The Gaelic Athletic Association and Irish Rugby Football Union are two sporting organizations that have innovated through their business models to grow their sports, create world-class sport facilities and improve their ability to win European competitions. Yet they reside in one of the smallest countries in Europe - Ireland. While the Gaelic Athletic Association is a volunteer organization whose amateur status (in which players and coaches are unpaid) imposes significant limitations on its revenue-generating abilities, the professional Irish Rugby Football Union has earned substantial income through the success of provincial and national Irish rugby teams. Both organizations compete for scarce financial, physical and human resources and are now faced with a rapidly changing environment following the deepest recession in the history of the Irish Republic and emigration of talent abroad. This case challenges students to analyze the business models of the Gaelic Athletic Association and Irish Rugby Football Union and explore how the models can be innovated to ensure survival of these cultural assets for the next generation. Peter McNamara, Olga Ryazanova, Fionn Collins, and David Aherne are affiliated with University College Dublin.
Authors :: Peter McNamara, Olga Ryazanova, Fionn Collins, David Aherne
Swot Analysis of "Gaelic Athletic Association and the Irish Rugby Football Union: Competing Business Models" written by Peter McNamara, Olga Ryazanova, Fionn Collins, David Aherne includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Irish Rugby facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Gaelic Athletic Association and the Irish Rugby Football Union: Competing Business Models case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Strategy and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Gaelic Athletic Association and the Irish Rugby Football Union: Competing Business Models casestudy better are - – challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, geopolitical disruptions, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , wage bills are increasing, increasing energy prices,
there is increasing trade war between United States & China, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Gaelic Athletic Association and the Irish Rugby Football Union: Competing Business Models
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Gaelic Athletic Association and the Irish Rugby Football Union: Competing Business Models case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Irish Rugby, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Irish Rugby 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 Gaelic Athletic Association and the Irish Rugby Football Union: Competing Business Models can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Gaelic Athletic Association and the Irish Rugby Football Union: Competing Business Models case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Irish Rugby
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 Irish Rugby
Strengths Gaelic Athletic Association and the Irish Rugby Football Union: Competing Business Models | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Irish Rugby in Gaelic Athletic Association and the Irish Rugby Football Union: Competing Business Models Harvard Business Review case study are -
Innovation driven organization
– Irish Rugby is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Gaelic Athletic Association and the Irish Rugby Football Union: Competing Business Models Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Training and development
– Irish Rugby has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Gaelic Athletic Association and the Irish Rugby Football Union: Competing Business Models 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Irish Rugby in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
High brand equity
– Irish Rugby has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Irish Rugby to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Irish Rugby is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Gaelic Athletic Association and the Irish Rugby Football Union: Competing Business Models are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Learning organization
- Irish Rugby 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 Irish Rugby is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Gaelic Athletic Association and the Irish Rugby Football Union: Competing Business Models Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Irish Rugby 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 Gaelic Athletic Association and the Irish Rugby Football Union: Competing Business Models - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Analytics focus
– Irish Rugby 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 Peter McNamara, Olga Ryazanova, Fionn Collins, David Aherne 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Irish Rugby 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
– Irish Rugby is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Irish Rugby 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 Irish Rugby in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Organizational Resilience of Irish Rugby
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Irish Rugby does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Weaknesses Gaelic Athletic Association and the Irish Rugby Football Union: Competing Business Models | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Gaelic Athletic Association and the Irish Rugby Football Union: Competing Business Models are -
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Gaelic Athletic Association and the Irish Rugby Football Union: Competing Business Models, it seems that the employees of Irish Rugby 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.
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 Irish Rugby supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Gaelic Athletic Association and the Irish Rugby Football Union: Competing Business Models, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Irish Rugby vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Irish Rugby 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, Irish Rugby 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. Irish Rugby 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Irish Rugby 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Irish Rugby is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Irish Rugby needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Irish Rugby to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Gaelic Athletic Association and the Irish Rugby Football Union: Competing Business Models, in the dynamic environment Irish Rugby has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Irish Rugby has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Irish Rugby, firm in the HBR case study Gaelic Athletic Association and the Irish Rugby Football Union: Competing Business Models needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Gaelic Athletic Association and the Irish Rugby Football Union: Competing Business Models 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 Irish Rugby 's lucrative customers.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Irish Rugby 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 - Gaelic Athletic Association and the Irish Rugby Football Union: Competing Business Models should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Peter McNamara, Olga Ryazanova, Fionn Collins, David Aherne suggests that, Irish Rugby is facing high bargaining power of the channel partners. So far it has not able to streamline the operations to reduce the bargaining power of the value chain partners in the industry.
Opportunities Gaelic Athletic Association and the Irish Rugby Football Union: Competing Business Models | 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 Gaelic Athletic Association and the Irish Rugby Football Union: Competing Business Models are -
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Irish Rugby 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 Gaelic Athletic Association and the Irish Rugby Football Union: Competing Business Models - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Irish Rugby to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Manufacturing automation
– Irish Rugby can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Leadership & Managing People segment. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Irish Rugby 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, Gaelic Athletic Association and the Irish Rugby Football Union: Competing Business Models, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Irish Rugby 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Irish Rugby 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Irish Rugby has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Irish Rugby to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Gaelic Athletic Association and the Irish Rugby Football Union: Competing Business Models case study. Irish Rugby can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Developing new processes and practices
– Irish Rugby 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Irish Rugby is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Gaelic Athletic Association and the Irish Rugby Football Union: Competing Business Models 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.
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. Irish Rugby can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Irish Rugby can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Irish Rugby operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Loyalty marketing
– Irish Rugby 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Irish Rugby can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Gaelic Athletic Association and the Irish Rugby Football Union: Competing Business Models 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Irish Rugby can leverage digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate the production process, customer analytics to get better insights into consumer behavior, realtime digital dashboards to get better sales tracking, logistics and transportation, product tracking, etc.
Threats Gaelic Athletic Association and the Irish Rugby Football Union: Competing Business Models External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Gaelic Athletic Association and the Irish Rugby Football Union: Competing Business Models 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 Irish Rugby 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 Irish Rugby in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Irish Rugby 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 Gaelic Athletic Association and the Irish Rugby Football Union: Competing Business Models .
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Irish Rugby 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Irish Rugby 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Irish Rugby has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Irish Rugby 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 Irish Rugby 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Gaelic Athletic Association and the Irish Rugby Football Union: Competing Business Models, Irish Rugby 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 .
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 Irish Rugby.
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. Irish Rugby will face different problems in different parts of Europe. For example it will face inflationary pressures in UK, France, and Germany, balance sheet expansion and demand challenges in Southern European countries, and geopolitical instability in the Eastern Europe.
Aging population
– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.
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. Irish Rugby 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 Irish Rugby with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Gaelic Athletic Association and the Irish Rugby Football Union: Competing Business Models 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 Gaelic Athletic Association and the Irish Rugby Football Union: Competing Business Models 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 Gaelic Athletic Association and the Irish Rugby Football Union: Competing Business Models 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 Gaelic Athletic Association and the Irish Rugby Football Union: Competing Business Models 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 Gaelic Athletic Association and the Irish Rugby Football Union: Competing Business Models 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 Irish Rugby needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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