Rupert Murdoch and News Corp: The Phone Hacking Scandal SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Rupert Murdoch and News Corp: The Phone Hacking Scandal
Over fifty years, Rupert Murdoch built one of the most successful media conglomerates in the world. Though there had been criticism of his conduct in the past, it was only in the new millennium that allegations of phone hacking and bribery brought the threat of massive legal action against both Murdoch and his companies.
Swot Analysis of "Rupert Murdoch and News Corp: The Phone Hacking Scandal" written by Robert Crawford, N. Craig Smith includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Murdoch Hacking facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Rupert Murdoch and News Corp: The Phone Hacking Scandal case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Leadership, Social responsibility and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Rupert Murdoch and News Corp: The Phone Hacking Scandal casestudy better are - – increasing energy prices, wage bills are increasing, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing commodity prices,
competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, technology disruption, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Rupert Murdoch and News Corp: The Phone Hacking Scandal
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Rupert Murdoch and News Corp: The Phone Hacking Scandal case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Murdoch Hacking, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Murdoch Hacking 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 Rupert Murdoch and News Corp: The Phone Hacking Scandal can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Rupert Murdoch and News Corp: The Phone Hacking Scandal case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Murdoch Hacking
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 Murdoch Hacking
Strengths Rupert Murdoch and News Corp: The Phone Hacking Scandal | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Murdoch Hacking in Rupert Murdoch and News Corp: The Phone Hacking Scandal Harvard Business Review case study are -
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Murdoch Hacking digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Murdoch Hacking 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Murdoch Hacking is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Murdoch Hacking 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Rupert Murdoch and News Corp: The Phone Hacking Scandal 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Murdoch Hacking 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Murdoch Hacking is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Rupert Murdoch and News Corp: The Phone Hacking Scandal Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Diverse revenue streams
– Murdoch Hacking is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Rupert Murdoch and News Corp: The Phone Hacking Scandal 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 Murdoch Hacking in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Murdoch Hacking has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Murdoch Hacking 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.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Murdoch Hacking 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 Murdoch Hacking in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Murdoch Hacking 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 Rupert Murdoch and News Corp: The Phone Hacking Scandal - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Murdoch Hacking is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Rupert Murdoch and News Corp: The Phone Hacking Scandal are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Weaknesses Rupert Murdoch and News Corp: The Phone Hacking Scandal | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Rupert Murdoch and News Corp: The Phone Hacking Scandal are -
Lack of clear differentiation of Murdoch Hacking products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Murdoch Hacking needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Rupert Murdoch and News Corp: The Phone Hacking Scandal, is just above the industry average. Murdoch Hacking 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Rupert Murdoch and News Corp: The Phone Hacking Scandal, in the dynamic environment Murdoch Hacking has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Murdoch Hacking has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Rupert Murdoch and News Corp: The Phone Hacking Scandal 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 Murdoch Hacking 's lucrative customers.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Rupert Murdoch and News Corp: The Phone Hacking Scandal HBR case study mentions - Murdoch Hacking 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Murdoch Hacking is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Murdoch Hacking needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Murdoch Hacking to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Need for greater diversity
– Murdoch Hacking 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Murdoch Hacking 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 - Rupert Murdoch and News Corp: The Phone Hacking Scandal should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Murdoch Hacking 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Murdoch Hacking, firm in the HBR case study Rupert Murdoch and News Corp: The Phone Hacking Scandal needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Rupert Murdoch and News Corp: The Phone Hacking Scandal, 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.
Opportunities Rupert Murdoch and News Corp: The Phone Hacking Scandal | 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 Rupert Murdoch and News Corp: The Phone Hacking Scandal are -
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Murdoch Hacking 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Murdoch Hacking to increase its market reach. Murdoch Hacking 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.
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. Murdoch Hacking can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Murdoch Hacking can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
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 Murdoch Hacking in the consumer business. Now Murdoch Hacking can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
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 Murdoch Hacking 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Murdoch Hacking 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, Rupert Murdoch and News Corp: The Phone Hacking Scandal, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Murdoch Hacking has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Murdoch Hacking to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Rupert Murdoch and News Corp: The Phone Hacking Scandal case study. Murdoch Hacking can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Loyalty marketing
– Murdoch Hacking 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Murdoch Hacking 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Murdoch Hacking can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Rupert Murdoch and News Corp: The Phone Hacking Scandal 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Murdoch Hacking 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Murdoch Hacking can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Murdoch Hacking operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Threats Rupert Murdoch and News Corp: The Phone Hacking Scandal External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Rupert Murdoch and News Corp: The Phone Hacking Scandal are -
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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Murdoch Hacking is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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. Murdoch Hacking can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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 Murdoch Hacking.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Murdoch Hacking 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Murdoch Hacking 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Murdoch Hacking 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.
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. Murdoch Hacking needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Murdoch Hacking 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 wage structure of Murdoch Hacking
– 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 Murdoch Hacking.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Murdoch Hacking 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
– Murdoch Hacking has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Murdoch Hacking 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Rupert Murdoch and News Corp: The Phone Hacking Scandal 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 Rupert Murdoch and News Corp: The Phone Hacking Scandal 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 Rupert Murdoch and News Corp: The Phone Hacking Scandal 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 Rupert Murdoch and News Corp: The Phone Hacking Scandal 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 Rupert Murdoch and News Corp: The Phone Hacking Scandal 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 Murdoch Hacking needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.