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Hi, can you please help me work out the following questions base on the case study below:
1. How could I implement Scenario planning for a sustainable future in regards to this case study?
2. What are the Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and, Threats (SWOT Analysis) in this case study?
Could you please make detailed suggestions to the above.
Please remember that all these questions are to be answered in the context of Corporate Social Responsibility and ethics.
CASE STUDY:
Sydney Travel Group (STG) is a major player in the international travel marketing space. They have been growing steadily over the past decade through traditional brick and mortar stores with basic online marketing and joint venture strategies. The company turns over 10 billion US per year. They have also grown their baseline value (known as: Total Transaction Value or TTV) by acquiring companies on capabilities. Two years ago they saw an alarming trend. While their transactions went up, the overall sales in some key competitors went down. The CEO Danielle Harding, was at first not concerned because the TTV was up. The puzzle became a real concern when this year the TTV went down by 15% followed sharply by a decline in the share price. An emergency board meeting was called asking for solutions.
A decision was made that the company had to innovate at any cost. After the board meeting Danielle briefed your management consultancy team:
“We have had a good look at our business. We know that the industry is not going to turnaround anytime soon. So we have decided that we must innovate. We have highlighted our one of our key problems as corporate social responsibility. We are dedicating one million dollars over the next six months for proposals to innovate our business. We are looking to drive our TTV through four key areas: New Business Models and/or New Strategies, Better ways of working that are more efficient, improving how we communicate and our workplace culture and industry leadership in sustainability and CSR. Our research showed us that our core business is strong but sales are down. We have been very slow to move into the internet market. Our strategy of working stores is working well but not as well as we would like. Our employee barometer survey showed us that our people leave the organization all the time. Our employee turnover is high. The same survey revealed that many external people, potential customers, were also moving away from STG.
NOTE: we expect you to draw on theory to solve this problem
Expert Answer
Scenario planning can be considered as future proofing in some terms as your are planning for any or many scenarios that you are anticipating and preparing a plan that you will execute if that case arises. It considers STEEP-social, technical,economic, environmental and political trends which drives the business.
Scenario planning will include the following stages:
- Identify driving forces
- Identify critical uncertainities
- Develop plausible scenarios
- Discuss implications and paths
According to the company’s CEO, the focus of the company in the immediate short term would be invest in 4 key areas:
- New business models and or new startegies
- Better ways of working that are more efficient
- Improving communication, workplace culture and industry leadership in sustainability
- CSR activities
SWOT analysis is a study undertaken to understand the internal business environement in terms of strengths and weaknesses and in terms of external environment in terms of oppurtunities and threats.
The strengths of the company in the above case study includes expertise in capability acquisitions as well as joint venture strategies and strong core business values.
Weaknesses understood by the excerpt is the employee retention level is very low maybe due to low morale or better oppurtunities outside. Sales and customer retention is seen to be declining.
Oppurtunities for the growth of business could be to look into increasing presence on the internet market, increasing CSR activities to create awareness and brand value of the business, enhancing employee commitment through training and developmental activities as well as performance management strategies.
Threats include competitors who already have a well established internet presence, risks involved in implementing new business models or strategies which may not be accepted well, industrial fluctuations as well as political scenarios that affect tourism industry as a whole, Governemnet regulations, etc.
