REPUTATION: A BRIDGE TO THE ADVERTISING FUTURE SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of REPUTATION: A BRIDGE TO THE ADVERTISING FUTURE
Seven years earlier, in early 2001, Alexander had started REPUTATION with his two partners, Carsten and Mikkel. Prior to launching the company, the three founders had worked together as a team at a Danish mid-sized advertising agency called BergsA?e. Their work had primarily involved international medical companies. Thanks to Carsten and Mikkel's award-winning creative minds, their customers were in for the long term. BergsA?e's healthcare department had quickly grown to 12 employees. But as the employee count mounted, so did the frustration of the three friends. They had found a uniquely successful formula, but personal satisfaction had been running low. They wanted more out of their jobs: better processes, better results for their clients, and better rewards for themselves. Somehow, they believed they knew exactly how to accomplish just that. What was needed was the ability to offer a one-stop, full-solution agency which would take care of every building block of a corporate reputation, centered on the concept of Corporate Identity. The three had been playing around with the idea of going independent in that new niche market for some time. After a couple of months of research and analysis, they were convinced they could make a robust case for that new concept, REPUTATION. Running an advertising agency in Denmark proved a challenge; balancing the leadership of creative souls and the pragmatism of account directors was a permanent juggling act, all that in a market that was small and treacherously competitive. Learning objectives: Managing and growing a service business, entrepreneurship in a creative services industry, service positioning, segmentation.
Swot Analysis of "REPUTATION: A BRIDGE TO THE ADVERTISING FUTURE" written by Benoit Leleux, Barbara Scheel Agersnap includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Bergsa Carsten facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in REPUTATION: A BRIDGE TO THE ADVERTISING FUTURE case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Public relations, Supply chain and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the REPUTATION: A BRIDGE TO THE ADVERTISING FUTURE casestudy better are - – technology disruption, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing energy prices, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing transportation and logistics costs, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation,
there is increasing trade war between United States & China, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of REPUTATION: A BRIDGE TO THE ADVERTISING FUTURE
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in REPUTATION: A BRIDGE TO THE ADVERTISING FUTURE case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Bergsa Carsten, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Bergsa Carsten 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 REPUTATION: A BRIDGE TO THE ADVERTISING FUTURE can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in REPUTATION: A BRIDGE TO THE ADVERTISING FUTURE case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Bergsa Carsten
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 Bergsa Carsten
Strengths REPUTATION: A BRIDGE TO THE ADVERTISING FUTURE | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Bergsa Carsten in REPUTATION: A BRIDGE TO THE ADVERTISING FUTURE Harvard Business Review case study are -
Training and development
– Bergsa Carsten has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in REPUTATION: A BRIDGE TO THE ADVERTISING FUTURE 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
- Bergsa Carsten 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 Bergsa Carsten is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in REPUTATION: A BRIDGE TO THE ADVERTISING FUTURE Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Bergsa Carsten has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Bergsa Carsten 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Bergsa Carsten 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Bergsa Carsten 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 Bergsa Carsten 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Bergsa Carsten is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in REPUTATION: A BRIDGE TO THE ADVERTISING FUTURE 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the REPUTATION: A BRIDGE TO THE ADVERTISING FUTURE 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.
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Bergsa Carsten digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Bergsa Carsten 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Bergsa Carsten in the sector have low bargaining power. REPUTATION: A BRIDGE TO THE ADVERTISING FUTURE has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Bergsa Carsten to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Bergsa Carsten 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 REPUTATION: A BRIDGE TO THE ADVERTISING FUTURE HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Strong track record of project management
– Bergsa Carsten is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Weaknesses REPUTATION: A BRIDGE TO THE ADVERTISING FUTURE | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of REPUTATION: A BRIDGE TO THE ADVERTISING FUTURE are -
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Bergsa Carsten 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. Bergsa Carsten 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Bergsa Carsten, firm in the HBR case study REPUTATION: A BRIDGE TO THE ADVERTISING FUTURE needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Need for greater diversity
– Bergsa Carsten 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Bergsa Carsten 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study REPUTATION: A BRIDGE TO THE ADVERTISING FUTURE, it seems that the employees of Bergsa Carsten 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 REPUTATION: A BRIDGE TO THE ADVERTISING FUTURE, 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 star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the REPUTATION: A BRIDGE TO THE ADVERTISING FUTURE HBR case study still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Bergsa Carsten has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study REPUTATION: A BRIDGE TO THE ADVERTISING FUTURE, is just above the industry average. Bergsa Carsten 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As REPUTATION: A BRIDGE TO THE ADVERTISING FUTURE HBR case study mentions - Bergsa Carsten 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study REPUTATION: A BRIDGE TO THE ADVERTISING FUTURE 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 Bergsa Carsten 's lucrative customers.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Bergsa Carsten 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.
Opportunities REPUTATION: A BRIDGE TO THE ADVERTISING FUTURE | 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 REPUTATION: A BRIDGE TO THE ADVERTISING FUTURE are -
Leveraging digital technologies
– Bergsa Carsten 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Bergsa Carsten can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Loyalty marketing
– Bergsa Carsten 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Bergsa Carsten 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 REPUTATION: A BRIDGE TO THE ADVERTISING FUTURE - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Bergsa Carsten to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
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. Bergsa Carsten can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Bergsa Carsten can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Bergsa Carsten operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Buying journey improvements
– Bergsa Carsten can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. REPUTATION: A BRIDGE TO THE ADVERTISING FUTURE 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.
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. Bergsa Carsten can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Bergsa Carsten 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Bergsa Carsten 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Bergsa Carsten 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, REPUTATION: A BRIDGE TO THE ADVERTISING FUTURE, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
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 Bergsa Carsten 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.
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 Bergsa Carsten in the consumer business. Now Bergsa Carsten can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Threats REPUTATION: A BRIDGE TO THE ADVERTISING FUTURE External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study REPUTATION: A BRIDGE TO THE ADVERTISING FUTURE are -
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 Bergsa Carsten business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Regulatory challenges
– Bergsa Carsten 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Bergsa Carsten is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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
– Bergsa Carsten 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, Bergsa Carsten 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 REPUTATION: A BRIDGE TO THE ADVERTISING FUTURE .
Environmental challenges
– Bergsa Carsten 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. Bergsa Carsten can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
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. Bergsa Carsten can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Bergsa Carsten 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.
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. Bergsa Carsten needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study REPUTATION: A BRIDGE TO THE ADVERTISING FUTURE, Bergsa Carsten 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 .
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.
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. Bergsa Carsten 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of REPUTATION: A BRIDGE TO THE ADVERTISING FUTURE 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 REPUTATION: A BRIDGE TO THE ADVERTISING FUTURE 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 REPUTATION: A BRIDGE TO THE ADVERTISING FUTURE 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 REPUTATION: A BRIDGE TO THE ADVERTISING FUTURE 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 REPUTATION: A BRIDGE TO THE ADVERTISING FUTURE 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 Bergsa Carsten needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
