BET: The Edge on Talent SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of BET: The Edge on Talent
This case explores the significance of people management in creating a competitive advantage for organizations. Robert L. Johnson's desire not to work for someone else led him to become founder and chief executive officer of Black Entertainment Television (BET), the first African-American-owned cable network in 1980. Under Johnson's leadership, BET became publicly owned in 1991, returned to the private sector seven years later, and in 2001 was sold to Viacom at a $3 billion valuation. Amid success, Johnson never lost sight of one of his original goals: to provide people of color the opportunity to be successful business leaders. Debra Lee joined Johnson in 1986 as the firm continued to accomplish the vision. Not only was BET black-owned but most of the executives, entertainment talent, and employees were African American and the firm's products were targeted to the African-American community. When BET was sold, questions were raised about changes that might occur after a dominantly white-controlled media company took over this predominantly African-American firm. They faced a challenge: What would happen if and when Johnson left BET? How could Johnson and Lee continue to pursue the original vision and goals for BET and sustain the culture, leadership style, and human resources approach to managing people once it became a division of Viacom? Was change inevitable? If so, what should they change, and more importantly, how were they going to get their employees on board? Although BET had made it to the top, would opportunities for people of color be put aside? A teaching note is available to registered faculty, along with a video supplement to enhance student learning.
Authors :: Erika H. James, Martin N. Davidson, Gerry Yemen
Swot Analysis of "BET: The Edge on Talent" written by Erika H. James, Martin N. Davidson, Gerry Yemen includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Bet Johnson facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in BET: The Edge on Talent case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Leadership, Organizational culture and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the BET: The Edge on Talent casestudy better are - – customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing commodity prices, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation,
increasing energy prices, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of BET: The Edge on Talent
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in BET: The Edge on Talent case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Bet Johnson, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Bet Johnson 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 BET: The Edge on Talent can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in BET: The Edge on Talent case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Bet Johnson
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 Bet Johnson
Strengths BET: The Edge on Talent | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Bet Johnson in BET: The Edge on Talent Harvard Business Review case study are -
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Bet Johnson in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Bet Johnson digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Bet Johnson 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Bet Johnson 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 BET: The Edge on Talent HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Analytics focus
– Bet Johnson 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 Erika H. James, Martin N. Davidson, Gerry Yemen 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.
Training and development
– Bet Johnson has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in BET: The Edge on Talent 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.
Learning organization
- Bet Johnson 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 Bet Johnson is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in BET: The Edge on Talent Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Strong track record of project management
– Bet Johnson 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
– Bet Johnson 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 Bet Johnson in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Bet Johnson has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Bet Johnson 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Bet Johnson 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 brand equity
– Bet Johnson has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Bet Johnson to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the BET: The Edge on Talent 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.
Weaknesses BET: The Edge on Talent | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of BET: The Edge on Talent are -
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Bet Johnson is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Bet Johnson needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Bet Johnson to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Erika H. James, Martin N. Davidson, Gerry Yemen suggests that, Bet Johnson 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Bet Johnson 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. Bet Johnson 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Bet Johnson 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the BET: The Edge on Talent 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 Bet Johnson has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Bet Johnson has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study BET: The Edge on Talent, it seems that the employees of Bet Johnson 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Bet Johnson, firm in the HBR case study BET: The Edge on Talent needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Bet Johnson 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study BET: The Edge on Talent 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 BET: The Edge on Talent can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Bet Johnson is planning to shift buying processes online.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study BET: The Edge on Talent, is just above the industry average. Bet Johnson 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.
Opportunities BET: The Edge on Talent | 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 BET: The Edge on Talent are -
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Bet Johnson 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 Bet Johnson to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Bet Johnson can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Bet Johnson operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Bet Johnson 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Bet Johnson 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.
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. Bet Johnson can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Loyalty marketing
– Bet Johnson 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Bet Johnson is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. BET: The Edge on Talent 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.
Reconfiguring business model
– The expansion of digital payment system, the bringing down of international transactions costs using Bitcoin and other blockchain based currencies, etc can help Bet Johnson to reconfigure its entire business model. For example it can used blockchain based technologies to reduce piracy of its products in the big markets such as China. Secondly it can use the popularity of e-commerce in various developing markets to build a Direct to Customer business model rather than the current Channel Heavy distribution network.
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. Bet Johnson can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Buying journey improvements
– Bet Johnson can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. BET: The Edge on Talent 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
– Bet Johnson 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Bet Johnson 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Bet Johnson 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, BET: The Edge on Talent, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Threats BET: The Edge on Talent External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study BET: The Edge on Talent are -
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Bet Johnson 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.
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 Bet Johnson.
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.
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 Bet Johnson in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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.
Regulatory challenges
– Bet Johnson 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Bet Johnson has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Bet Johnson 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study BET: The Edge on Talent, Bet Johnson 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 .
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Bet Johnson 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.
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. Bet Johnson 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Bet Johnson is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Bet Johnson with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
High level of anxiety and lack of motivation
– the Great Resignation in United States is the sign of broader dissatisfaction among the workforce in United States. Bet Johnson needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of BET: The Edge on Talent 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 BET: The Edge on Talent 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 BET: The Edge on Talent 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 BET: The Edge on Talent 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 BET: The Edge on Talent 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 Bet Johnson needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
