The Federal Reserve and Goldman Sachs: Mike Silva SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of The Federal Reserve and Goldman Sachs: Mike Silva
Mike Silva, the NY Fed's senior supervisory officer for Goldman Sachs, is having trouble with Carmen Segarra, a recently hired bank examiner who reports to Silva. The two disagree about whether Goldman Sachs has a viable overall conflict-of-interest policy; Silva says "yes," and Segarra says "no." Segarra's communication style-aggressive and frank-has irritated both Silva and others in their department, although an independent report had been critical of the NY Fed for being too cozy with the banking institutions it regulated. The tension between Silva and Segarra has reached a breaking point, and Silva must decide how to handle Segarra and whether to fire her. A teaching note accompanies this case and details how it is taught in Darden's ethics and leading organizations courses.
Swot Analysis of "The Federal Reserve and Goldman Sachs: Mike Silva" written by Morela Hernandez, Bidhan Parmar, Jenny Mead includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Silva Segarra facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in The Federal Reserve and Goldman Sachs: Mike Silva case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Conflict, Corporate governance, Ethics, Financial management, Human resource management, Leadership, Leading teams, Operations management, Performance measurement, Regulation and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the The Federal Reserve and Goldman Sachs: Mike Silva casestudy better are - – geopolitical disruptions, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, there is increasing trade war between United States & China,
increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, there is backlash against globalization, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of The Federal Reserve and Goldman Sachs: Mike Silva
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in The Federal Reserve and Goldman Sachs: Mike Silva case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Silva Segarra, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Silva Segarra 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 Federal Reserve and Goldman Sachs: Mike Silva can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in The Federal Reserve and Goldman Sachs: Mike Silva case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Silva Segarra
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 Silva Segarra
Strengths The Federal Reserve and Goldman Sachs: Mike Silva | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Silva Segarra in The Federal Reserve and Goldman Sachs: Mike Silva Harvard Business Review case study are -
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Silva Segarra 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 The Federal Reserve and Goldman Sachs: Mike Silva - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– The Federal Reserve and Goldman Sachs: Mike Silva firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Silva Segarra to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Silva Segarra to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Silva Segarra 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 Silva Segarra in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Silva Segarra 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.
Training and development
– Silva Segarra has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in The Federal Reserve and Goldman Sachs: Mike Silva 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
- Silva Segarra 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 Silva Segarra is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in The Federal Reserve and Goldman Sachs: Mike Silva Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Silva Segarra 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Silva Segarra has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Silva Segarra 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Silva Segarra is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
High brand equity
– Silva Segarra has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Silva Segarra to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Silva Segarra in the sector have low bargaining power. The Federal Reserve and Goldman Sachs: Mike Silva has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Silva Segarra to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Analytics focus
– Silva Segarra 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 Morela Hernandez, Bidhan Parmar, Jenny Mead 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.
Weaknesses The Federal Reserve and Goldman Sachs: Mike Silva | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of The Federal Reserve and Goldman Sachs: Mike Silva are -
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Silva Segarra 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Silva Segarra is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Silva Segarra needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Silva Segarra to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Lack of clear differentiation of Silva Segarra products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Silva Segarra needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As The Federal Reserve and Goldman Sachs: Mike Silva HBR case study mentions - Silva Segarra 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Silva Segarra 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study The Federal Reserve and Goldman Sachs: Mike Silva 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 Silva Segarra 's lucrative customers.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study The Federal Reserve and Goldman Sachs: Mike Silva, in the dynamic environment Silva Segarra has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Silva Segarra has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Silva Segarra 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Silva Segarra, firm in the HBR case study The Federal Reserve and Goldman Sachs: Mike Silva needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
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 Silva Segarra supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - The Federal Reserve and Goldman Sachs: Mike Silva, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Silva Segarra vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Silva Segarra 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 - The Federal Reserve and Goldman Sachs: Mike Silva should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Opportunities The Federal Reserve and Goldman Sachs: Mike Silva | 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 Federal Reserve and Goldman Sachs: Mike Silva are -
Buying journey improvements
– Silva Segarra can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. The Federal Reserve and Goldman Sachs: Mike Silva 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Silva Segarra 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, The Federal Reserve and Goldman Sachs: Mike Silva, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Silva Segarra 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 Silva Segarra to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
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 Silva Segarra 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Silva Segarra 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Silva Segarra to increase its market reach. Silva Segarra will be able to reach out to new customers. Secondly 5G will also provide technology framework to build new tools and products that can help more immersive consumer experience and faster consumer journey.
Manufacturing automation
– Silva Segarra 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Silva Segarra can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Silva Segarra operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Silva Segarra 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.
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. Silva Segarra can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Silva Segarra 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Silva Segarra 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Silva Segarra 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.
Threats The Federal Reserve and Goldman Sachs: Mike Silva External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study The Federal Reserve and Goldman Sachs: Mike Silva are -
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Silva Segarra 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Silva Segarra with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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 Federal Reserve and Goldman Sachs: Mike Silva, Silva Segarra 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 .
Increasing wage structure of Silva Segarra
– 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 Silva Segarra.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Silva Segarra 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Silva Segarra 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 The Federal Reserve and Goldman Sachs: Mike Silva .
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Silva Segarra 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.
Environmental challenges
– Silva Segarra needs to have a robust strategy against the disruptions arising from climate change and energy requirements. EU has identified it as key priority area and spending 30% of its 880 billion Euros European post Covid-19 recovery funds on green technology. Silva Segarra can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
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.
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 Silva Segarra.
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 Silva Segarra 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 Silva Segarra in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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. Silva Segarra can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of The Federal Reserve and Goldman Sachs: Mike Silva 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 Federal Reserve and Goldman Sachs: Mike Silva 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 Federal Reserve and Goldman Sachs: Mike Silva 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 Federal Reserve and Goldman Sachs: Mike Silva 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 Federal Reserve and Goldman Sachs: Mike Silva 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 Silva Segarra needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.