Autopsy of a Data Breach: The Target Case SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Autopsy of a Data Breach: The Target Case
This case revisits the events in late 2013 that gave rise to what was at the time the largest breach of confidential data in history. Indeed, on December 19, 2013, Target announced that its computer network had been infiltrated by cybercriminals who stole 40 million debit and credit card numbers as well as the personal information of some 70 million additional customers. The case presents the cybercriminals' activities leading up to the breach, details of the commission of the theft, the measures that Target had put in place to deter such attacks, its ill-fated response during the attack and, finally, the impact of the breach on Target as well as on the retail industry as a whole.
Swot Analysis of "Autopsy of a Data Breach: The Target Case" written by Line Dube includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Breach Cybercriminals facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Autopsy of a Data Breach: The Target Case case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, IT, Security & privacy and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Autopsy of a Data Breach: The Target Case casestudy better are - – supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , geopolitical disruptions, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing energy prices, increasing transportation and logistics costs, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation,
there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing commodity prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Autopsy of a Data Breach: The Target Case
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Autopsy of a Data Breach: The Target Case case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Breach Cybercriminals, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Breach Cybercriminals 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 Autopsy of a Data Breach: The Target Case can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Autopsy of a Data Breach: The Target Case case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Breach Cybercriminals
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 Breach Cybercriminals
Strengths Autopsy of a Data Breach: The Target Case | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Breach Cybercriminals in Autopsy of a Data Breach: The Target Case Harvard Business Review case study are -
Learning organization
- Breach Cybercriminals 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 Breach Cybercriminals is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Autopsy of a Data Breach: The Target Case Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Strong track record of project management
– Breach Cybercriminals is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Breach Cybercriminals in the sector have low bargaining power. Autopsy of a Data Breach: The Target Case has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Breach Cybercriminals to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Breach Cybercriminals 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 Autopsy of a Data Breach: The Target Case 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– Autopsy of a Data Breach: The Target Case firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Breach Cybercriminals to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Breach Cybercriminals to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Diverse revenue streams
– Breach Cybercriminals is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Autopsy of a Data Breach: The Target Case case study a diverse revenue stream that has helped it to survive disruptions such as global pandemic in Covid-19, financial disruption of 2008, and supply chain disruption of 2021.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Breach Cybercriminals 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 Breach Cybercriminals 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
– Breach Cybercriminals has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Breach Cybercriminals 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
– Breach Cybercriminals 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 Autopsy of a Data Breach: The Target Case HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Breach Cybercriminals digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Breach Cybercriminals 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.
Organizational Resilience of Breach Cybercriminals
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Breach Cybercriminals does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Weaknesses Autopsy of a Data Breach: The Target Case | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Autopsy of a Data Breach: The Target Case are -
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Autopsy of a Data Breach: The Target Case, is just above the industry average. Breach Cybercriminals 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Autopsy of a Data Breach: The Target Case 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 Autopsy of a Data Breach: The Target Case can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Breach Cybercriminals is planning to shift buying processes online.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Breach Cybercriminals is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Breach Cybercriminals needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Breach Cybercriminals to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Breach Cybercriminals, firm in the HBR case study Autopsy of a Data Breach: The Target Case needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Autopsy of a Data Breach: The Target Case, 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Breach Cybercriminals 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Autopsy of a Data Breach: The Target Case HBR case study mentions - Breach Cybercriminals 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
– Breach Cybercriminals has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Breach Cybercriminals 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. Breach Cybercriminals 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Breach Cybercriminals products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Breach Cybercriminals needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Breach Cybercriminals is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Autopsy of a Data Breach: The Target Case can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Opportunities Autopsy of a Data Breach: The Target Case | 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 Autopsy of a Data Breach: The Target Case are -
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 Breach Cybercriminals 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Breach Cybercriminals 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.
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. Breach Cybercriminals can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Developing new processes and practices
– Breach Cybercriminals 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.
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. Breach Cybercriminals 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. Breach Cybercriminals 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Breach Cybercriminals can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Breach Cybercriminals operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Breach Cybercriminals is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Autopsy of a Data Breach: The Target Case 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Breach Cybercriminals 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.
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. Breach Cybercriminals can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Loyalty marketing
– Breach Cybercriminals 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Breach Cybercriminals 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.
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 Breach Cybercriminals in the consumer business. Now Breach Cybercriminals can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Breach Cybercriminals 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, Autopsy of a Data Breach: The Target Case, 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 Autopsy of a Data Breach: The Target Case External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Autopsy of a Data Breach: The Target Case are -
Increasing wage structure of Breach Cybercriminals
– 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 Breach Cybercriminals.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Breach Cybercriminals 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 Autopsy of a Data Breach: The Target Case .
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 Breach Cybercriminals business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Breach Cybercriminals 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
– Breach Cybercriminals has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Breach Cybercriminals 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.
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 Breach Cybercriminals in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Breach Cybercriminals 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Breach Cybercriminals 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.
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 Breach Cybercriminals.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Breach Cybercriminals 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Breach Cybercriminals 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.
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. Breach Cybercriminals 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.
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. Breach Cybercriminals 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 Autopsy of a Data Breach: The Target Case 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 Autopsy of a Data Breach: The Target Case 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 Autopsy of a Data Breach: The Target Case 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 Autopsy of a Data Breach: The Target Case 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 Autopsy of a Data Breach: The Target Case 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 Breach Cybercriminals needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
