The Chicago Blackhawks: Greatest Sports Business Turnaround Ever? SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
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Case Study Description of The Chicago Blackhawks: Greatest Sports Business Turnaround Ever?
This case explores the turnaround and corporate renewal of the Chicago Blackhawks professional hockey team, which transformed from one of the worst-run organizations in all of professional sports in 2007 to one that won the Stanley Cup (the National Hockey League championship trophy) in 2010. W. Rockwell "Rocky" Wirtz was faced with making critical decisions shortly after inheriting the team from his father, who was the individual most associated with the organization's decline. The team faced financial trouble and had narrowly avoided missing payroll; the previous customer relations strategy (which included refusing to televise home games or to conduct effective marketing) had resulted in significantly diminished brand value; and management and player personnel were devoid of effective leadership. At its nadir, the team was named "The Worst Franchise in Professional Sports" by ESPN in 2004. After assuming control, Rocky embarked on an ambitious corporate renewal strategy that included the following components: a?? Leadership: Install a new management team with clear goals and creative ideas about how to turn around the organization a?? Culture: Reward players for accomplishing their goals and establish a performance-based culture a?? Financial: Seek new corporate sponsorships and increase ticket prices once the team established a winning recordBrand and Marketing: Send a clear message that the team was intent upon winning the championship and design a customer-focused marketing strategy
Swot Analysis of "The Chicago Blackhawks: Greatest Sports Business Turnaround Ever?" written by James Shein, Scott Kannry includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Blackhawks Team facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in The Chicago Blackhawks: Greatest Sports Business Turnaround Ever? case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Competitive strategy, Leadership, Organizational culture, Public relations and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the The Chicago Blackhawks: Greatest Sports Business Turnaround Ever? casestudy better are - – digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing energy prices, technology disruption, increasing transportation and logistics costs,
central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, wage bills are increasing, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of The Chicago Blackhawks: Greatest Sports Business Turnaround Ever?
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in The Chicago Blackhawks: Greatest Sports Business Turnaround Ever? case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Blackhawks Team, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Blackhawks Team 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 The Chicago Blackhawks: Greatest Sports Business Turnaround Ever? can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in The Chicago Blackhawks: Greatest Sports Business Turnaround Ever? case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Blackhawks Team
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 Blackhawks Team
Strengths The Chicago Blackhawks: Greatest Sports Business Turnaround Ever? | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Blackhawks Team in The Chicago Blackhawks: Greatest Sports Business Turnaround Ever? Harvard Business Review case study are -
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Blackhawks Team 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Blackhawks Team 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Blackhawks Team has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive segment. Secondly the value chain collaborators of the firm in The Chicago Blackhawks: Greatest Sports Business Turnaround Ever? HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Blackhawks Team digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Blackhawks Team 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Blackhawks Team in the sector have low bargaining power. The Chicago Blackhawks: Greatest Sports Business Turnaround Ever? has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Blackhawks Team to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Organizational Resilience of Blackhawks Team
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Blackhawks Team does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Innovation driven organization
– Blackhawks Team is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in The Chicago Blackhawks: Greatest Sports Business Turnaround Ever? Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Strong track record of project management
– Blackhawks Team 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 recruit top talent
– Blackhawks Team is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the The Chicago Blackhawks: Greatest Sports Business Turnaround Ever? are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the The Chicago Blackhawks: Greatest Sports Business Turnaround Ever? 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Blackhawks Team in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Diverse revenue streams
– Blackhawks Team is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in The Chicago Blackhawks: Greatest Sports Business Turnaround Ever? 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.
Weaknesses The Chicago Blackhawks: Greatest Sports Business Turnaround Ever? | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of The Chicago Blackhawks: Greatest Sports Business Turnaround Ever? are -
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Blackhawks Team 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Blackhawks Team 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the The Chicago Blackhawks: Greatest Sports Business Turnaround Ever? 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 Blackhawks Team has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Lack of clear differentiation of Blackhawks Team products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Blackhawks Team needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study The Chicago Blackhawks: Greatest Sports Business Turnaround Ever?, in the dynamic environment Blackhawks Team has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Blackhawks Team has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Need for greater diversity
– Blackhawks Team 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As The Chicago Blackhawks: Greatest Sports Business Turnaround Ever? HBR case study mentions - Blackhawks Team takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the industry in last five years.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Blackhawks Team 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study The Chicago Blackhawks: Greatest Sports Business Turnaround Ever?, it seems that the employees of Blackhawks Team 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study The Chicago Blackhawks: Greatest Sports Business Turnaround Ever?, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Leadership & Managing People strategy. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, James Shein, Scott Kannry suggests that, Blackhawks Team 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 The Chicago Blackhawks: Greatest Sports Business Turnaround Ever? | 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 The Chicago Blackhawks: Greatest Sports Business Turnaround Ever? are -
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Blackhawks Team is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. The Chicago Blackhawks: Greatest Sports Business Turnaround Ever? 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Blackhawks Team 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 Blackhawks Team to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Blackhawks Team 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Blackhawks Team can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Blackhawks Team operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Loyalty marketing
– Blackhawks Team 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.
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. Blackhawks Team can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Blackhawks Team 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 Blackhawks Team has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Blackhawks Team to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the The Chicago Blackhawks: Greatest Sports Business Turnaround Ever? case study. Blackhawks Team can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Manufacturing automation
– Blackhawks Team 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Blackhawks Team 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
– Blackhawks Team 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Blackhawks Team 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.
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 Blackhawks Team in the consumer business. Now Blackhawks Team can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Threats The Chicago Blackhawks: Greatest Sports Business Turnaround Ever? External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study The Chicago Blackhawks: Greatest Sports Business Turnaround Ever? are -
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. Blackhawks Team can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Blackhawks Team 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.
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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study The Chicago Blackhawks: Greatest Sports Business Turnaround Ever?, Blackhawks Team 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 .
Consumer confidence and its impact on Blackhawks Team 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.
Increasing wage structure of Blackhawks Team
– 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 Blackhawks Team.
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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Blackhawks Team with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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 Blackhawks Team.
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 Blackhawks Team 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. Blackhawks Team 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.
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 Blackhawks Team business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Regulatory challenges
– Blackhawks Team 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of The Chicago Blackhawks: Greatest Sports Business Turnaround Ever? 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 The Chicago Blackhawks: Greatest Sports Business Turnaround Ever? 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 The Chicago Blackhawks: Greatest Sports Business Turnaround Ever? 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 The Chicago Blackhawks: Greatest Sports Business Turnaround Ever? 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 The Chicago Blackhawks: Greatest Sports Business Turnaround Ever? 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 Blackhawks Team needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
