Case Study Description of Wildfire Entertainment: Organizational Structure Archetypes
Organizational design can be complex, involving many different levers. But at its roots are a few fundamental formal structures or forms: functional, matrix, and divisional. This case tracks the early history of a (fictitious) start-up company in the software/mobile entertainment industry that rapidly expands and needs to consider the pros and cons of these various archetypes of formal structure.
Swot Analysis of "Wildfire Entertainment: Organizational Structure Archetypes" written by D. Charles Galunic, Warren Tierney includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Archetypes Formal facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Wildfire Entertainment: Organizational Structure Archetypes case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Corporate governance, Growth strategy, Leadership, Organizational structure, Strategy execution, Technology and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Wildfire Entertainment: Organizational Structure Archetypes casestudy better are - – competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, wage bills are increasing, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, technology disruption, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings,
talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Wildfire Entertainment: Organizational Structure Archetypes
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Wildfire Entertainment: Organizational Structure Archetypes case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Archetypes Formal, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Archetypes Formal 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 Wildfire Entertainment: Organizational Structure Archetypes can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Wildfire Entertainment: Organizational Structure Archetypes case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Archetypes Formal
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 Archetypes Formal
Strengths Wildfire Entertainment: Organizational Structure Archetypes | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Archetypes Formal in Wildfire Entertainment: Organizational Structure Archetypes Harvard Business Review case study are -
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Archetypes Formal in the sector have low bargaining power. Wildfire Entertainment: Organizational Structure Archetypes has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Archetypes Formal to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Strong track record of project management
– Archetypes Formal 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 switching costs
– The high switching costs that Archetypes Formal 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Archetypes Formal is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Wildfire Entertainment: Organizational Structure Archetypes 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Archetypes Formal in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Archetypes Formal 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Archetypes Formal is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Wildfire Entertainment: Organizational Structure Archetypes are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Innovation driven organization
– Archetypes Formal is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Wildfire Entertainment: Organizational Structure Archetypes Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Archetypes Formal has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Archetypes Formal 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Archetypes Formal 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 Wildfire Entertainment: Organizational Structure Archetypes HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Learning organization
- Archetypes Formal 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 Archetypes Formal is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Wildfire Entertainment: Organizational Structure Archetypes Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Organizational Resilience of Archetypes Formal
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Archetypes Formal does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Weaknesses Wildfire Entertainment: Organizational Structure Archetypes | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Wildfire Entertainment: Organizational Structure Archetypes are -
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Archetypes Formal 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 Archetypes Formal, firm in the HBR case study Wildfire Entertainment: Organizational Structure Archetypes needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Wildfire Entertainment: Organizational Structure Archetypes, in the dynamic environment Archetypes Formal has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Archetypes Formal has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Archetypes Formal 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. Archetypes Formal 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Wildfire Entertainment: Organizational Structure Archetypes HBR case study mentions - Archetypes Formal 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Archetypes Formal 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Wildfire Entertainment: Organizational Structure Archetypes, it seems that the employees of Archetypes Formal 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 Wildfire Entertainment: Organizational Structure Archetypes, 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 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 Archetypes Formal supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Wildfire Entertainment: Organizational Structure Archetypes, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Archetypes Formal vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Archetypes Formal 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Archetypes Formal is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Archetypes Formal needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Archetypes Formal to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Opportunities Wildfire Entertainment: Organizational Structure Archetypes | 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 Wildfire Entertainment: Organizational Structure Archetypes are -
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. Archetypes Formal can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
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 Archetypes Formal in the consumer business. Now Archetypes Formal can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Archetypes Formal 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
– Archetypes Formal 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Archetypes Formal 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Archetypes Formal 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 Wildfire Entertainment: Organizational Structure Archetypes - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Archetypes Formal to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Leadership & Managing People industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Archetypes Formal 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. Archetypes Formal 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Archetypes Formal 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Archetypes Formal 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Archetypes Formal 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.
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. Archetypes Formal 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
– Archetypes Formal can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Wildfire Entertainment: Organizational Structure Archetypes 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Archetypes Formal 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 Archetypes Formal to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Threats Wildfire Entertainment: Organizational Structure Archetypes External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Wildfire Entertainment: Organizational Structure Archetypes are -
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 Archetypes Formal in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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. Archetypes Formal needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Archetypes Formal 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Archetypes Formal 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 Wildfire Entertainment: Organizational Structure Archetypes .
Regulatory challenges
– Archetypes Formal 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Archetypes Formal with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Archetypes Formal has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Archetypes Formal 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Archetypes Formal is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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 Archetypes Formal business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Wildfire Entertainment: Organizational Structure Archetypes, Archetypes Formal 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 .
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. Archetypes Formal can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Increasing wage structure of Archetypes Formal
– 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 Archetypes Formal.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Archetypes Formal 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Wildfire Entertainment: Organizational Structure Archetypes 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 Wildfire Entertainment: Organizational Structure Archetypes 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 Wildfire Entertainment: Organizational Structure Archetypes 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 Wildfire Entertainment: Organizational Structure Archetypes 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 Wildfire Entertainment: Organizational Structure Archetypes 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 Archetypes Formal needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.