Case Study Description of V-Cola: Confidential Instructions for Cly Entman
This is information for one of the six roles to be used in the V-Cola negotiation exercise. Please see V-Cola General Instructions (912043) and Teaching note (912042) for full information.
Swot Analysis of "V-Cola: Confidential Instructions for Cly Entman" written by Ian I. Larkin includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Cola Cly facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in V-Cola: Confidential Instructions for Cly Entman case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Knowledge management, Marketing, Negotiations, Risk management and Communication.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the V-Cola: Confidential Instructions for Cly Entman casestudy better are - – digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, technology disruption, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models,
increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of V-Cola: Confidential Instructions for Cly Entman
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in V-Cola: Confidential Instructions for Cly Entman case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Cola Cly, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Cola Cly 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 V-Cola: Confidential Instructions for Cly Entman can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in V-Cola: Confidential Instructions for Cly Entman case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Cola Cly
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Communication field.
4. Making a Communication topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Cola Cly
Strengths V-Cola: Confidential Instructions for Cly Entman | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Cola Cly in V-Cola: Confidential Instructions for Cly Entman Harvard Business Review case study are -
Analytics focus
– Cola Cly 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 Ian I. Larkin 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Cola Cly is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in V-Cola: Confidential Instructions for Cly Entman 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 lead change in Communication field
– Cola Cly 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 Cola Cly in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Innovation driven organization
– Cola Cly is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in V-Cola: Confidential Instructions for Cly Entman Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Organizational Resilience of Cola Cly
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Cola Cly does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
High brand equity
– Cola Cly has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Cola Cly to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Cola Cly 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 V-Cola: Confidential Instructions for Cly Entman HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Digital Transformation in Communication segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Cola Cly digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Cola Cly 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Cola Cly in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Cola Cly 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 V-Cola: Confidential Instructions for Cly Entman - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Learning organization
- Cola Cly 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 Cola Cly is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in V-Cola: Confidential Instructions for Cly Entman Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Strong track record of project management
– Cola Cly is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Weaknesses V-Cola: Confidential Instructions for Cly Entman | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of V-Cola: Confidential Instructions for Cly Entman are -
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study V-Cola: Confidential Instructions for Cly Entman, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Communication 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Cola Cly, firm in the HBR case study V-Cola: Confidential Instructions for Cly Entman needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the V-Cola: Confidential Instructions for Cly Entman 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 Cola Cly has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study V-Cola: Confidential Instructions for Cly Entman 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 Cola Cly 's lucrative customers.
Lack of clear differentiation of Cola Cly products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Cola Cly needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Need for greater diversity
– Cola Cly 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 V-Cola: Confidential Instructions for Cly Entman HBR case study mentions - Cola Cly 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study V-Cola: Confidential Instructions for Cly Entman, in the dynamic environment Cola Cly has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Cola Cly has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Cola Cly 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study V-Cola: Confidential Instructions for Cly Entman, is just above the industry average. Cola Cly 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, Cola Cly is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study V-Cola: Confidential Instructions for Cly Entman can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Opportunities V-Cola: Confidential Instructions for Cly Entman | 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 V-Cola: Confidential Instructions for Cly Entman are -
Leveraging digital technologies
– Cola Cly 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Cola Cly 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Communication industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Cola Cly 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, Cola Cly can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Cola Cly operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Communication sector.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Cola Cly in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Communication segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Cola Cly 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, V-Cola: Confidential Instructions for Cly Entman, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Cola Cly can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Cola Cly 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 Cola Cly to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Cola Cly 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Cola Cly can develop new processes and procedures in Communication 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Communication industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Cola Cly 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. Cola Cly 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Cola Cly has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Cola Cly to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the V-Cola: Confidential Instructions for Cly Entman case study. Cola Cly can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Cola Cly 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 V-Cola: Confidential Instructions for Cly Entman - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Cola Cly to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Threats V-Cola: Confidential Instructions for Cly Entman External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study V-Cola: Confidential Instructions for Cly Entman 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 Cola Cly.
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.
Regulatory challenges
– Cola Cly 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 Communication industry regulations.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Cola Cly has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Communication industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Cola Cly needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Communication 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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Communication field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Cola Cly 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 Cola Cly with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Cola Cly 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Cola Cly 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Cola Cly in the Communication industry. The Communication 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.
Increasing wage structure of Cola Cly
– 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 Cola Cly.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Cola Cly 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 international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Cola Cly 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 V-Cola: Confidential Instructions for Cly Entman .
Weighted SWOT Analysis of V-Cola: Confidential Instructions for Cly Entman 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 V-Cola: Confidential Instructions for Cly Entman 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 V-Cola: Confidential Instructions for Cly Entman 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 V-Cola: Confidential Instructions for Cly Entman 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 V-Cola: Confidential Instructions for Cly Entman 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 Cola Cly needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
