Boeing: No Nerds, No Birds (B): Company Loyalty SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Boeing: No Nerds, No Birds (B): Company Loyalty
This series of six cases (labeled A through F) presents the various dilemmas that arose in the spring of 2001 when engineers at the Seattle-based Boeing Company, unhappy with management decisions, contemplated and undertook a strike, the first "white-collar" work stoppage in the history of American business.
Authors :: Pat Werhane, Michael Gorman, Jenny Mead, Mary L Cummings
Swot Analysis of "Boeing: No Nerds, No Birds (B): Company Loyalty" written by Pat Werhane, Michael Gorman, Jenny Mead, Mary L Cummings includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Boeing Nerds facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Boeing: No Nerds, No Birds (B): Company Loyalty case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Ethics, Labor and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Boeing: No Nerds, No Birds (B): Company Loyalty casestudy better are - – increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, technology disruption, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, geopolitical disruptions, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion,
increasing energy prices, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Boeing: No Nerds, No Birds (B): Company Loyalty
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Boeing: No Nerds, No Birds (B): Company Loyalty case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Boeing Nerds, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Boeing Nerds 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 Boeing: No Nerds, No Birds (B): Company Loyalty can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Boeing: No Nerds, No Birds (B): Company Loyalty case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Boeing Nerds
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 Boeing Nerds
Strengths Boeing: No Nerds, No Birds (B): Company Loyalty | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Boeing Nerds in Boeing: No Nerds, No Birds (B): Company Loyalty Harvard Business Review case study are -
Learning organization
- Boeing Nerds 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 Boeing Nerds is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Boeing: No Nerds, No Birds (B): Company Loyalty Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Boeing Nerds 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 Boeing Nerds in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Boeing Nerds 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Boeing Nerds 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 Boeing: No Nerds, No Birds (B): Company Loyalty HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Strong track record of project management
– Boeing Nerds 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 brand equity
– Boeing Nerds has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Boeing Nerds to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Innovation driven organization
– Boeing Nerds is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Boeing: No Nerds, No Birds (B): Company Loyalty Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– Boeing: No Nerds, No Birds (B): Company Loyalty firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Boeing Nerds to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Boeing Nerds to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Boeing Nerds 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 Boeing: No Nerds, No Birds (B): Company Loyalty - 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
– Boeing Nerds is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Boeing: No Nerds, No Birds (B): Company Loyalty are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Training and development
– Boeing Nerds has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Boeing: No Nerds, No Birds (B): Company Loyalty 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.
Analytics focus
– Boeing Nerds is putting a lot of focus on utilizing the power of analytics in business decision making. This has put it among the leading players in the industry. The technology infrastructure suggested by Pat Werhane, Michael Gorman, Jenny Mead, Mary L Cummings can also help it to harness the power of analytics for – marketing optimization, demand forecasting, customer relationship management, inventory management, information sharing across the value chain etc.
Weaknesses Boeing: No Nerds, No Birds (B): Company Loyalty | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Boeing: No Nerds, No Birds (B): Company Loyalty are -
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Boeing Nerds, firm in the HBR case study Boeing: No Nerds, No Birds (B): Company Loyalty needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Boeing Nerds 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 - Boeing: No Nerds, No Birds (B): Company Loyalty should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Boeing Nerds 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Boeing: No Nerds, No Birds (B): Company Loyalty, is just above the industry average. Boeing Nerds 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Boeing Nerds 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Boeing Nerds 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 to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Boeing: No Nerds, No Birds (B): Company Loyalty HBR case study mentions - Boeing Nerds 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 bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Pat Werhane, Michael Gorman, Jenny Mead, Mary L Cummings suggests that, Boeing Nerds is facing high bargaining power of the channel partners. So far it has not able to streamline the operations to reduce the bargaining power of the value chain partners in the industry.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Boeing Nerds 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Boeing Nerds is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Boeing: No Nerds, No Birds (B): Company Loyalty can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Boeing Nerds is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Boeing Nerds needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Boeing Nerds to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Opportunities Boeing: No Nerds, No Birds (B): Company Loyalty | 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 Boeing: No Nerds, No Birds (B): Company Loyalty are -
Leveraging digital technologies
– Boeing Nerds 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Boeing Nerds 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Boeing Nerds 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 Boeing Nerds 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Boeing Nerds can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Leadership & Managing People segment. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Boeing Nerds 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 Boeing: No Nerds, No Birds (B): Company Loyalty - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Boeing Nerds to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Boeing Nerds 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Boeing Nerds has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Boeing Nerds to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Boeing: No Nerds, No Birds (B): Company Loyalty case study. Boeing Nerds can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Boeing Nerds can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Boeing Nerds operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
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. Boeing Nerds can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Boeing Nerds 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, Boeing: No Nerds, No Birds (B): Company Loyalty, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Buying journey improvements
– Boeing Nerds can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Boeing: No Nerds, No Birds (B): Company Loyalty 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.
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. Boeing Nerds 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. Boeing Nerds 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.
Threats Boeing: No Nerds, No Birds (B): Company Loyalty External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Boeing: No Nerds, No Birds (B): Company Loyalty 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 Boeing Nerds business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, 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.
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.
Regulatory challenges
– Boeing Nerds 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.
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 Boeing Nerds in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Boeing Nerds has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Boeing Nerds 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Boeing Nerds 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. Boeing Nerds needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Boeing Nerds 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.
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 Boeing Nerds.
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. Boeing Nerds 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Boeing Nerds with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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. Boeing Nerds 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 Boeing: No Nerds, No Birds (B): Company Loyalty 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 Boeing: No Nerds, No Birds (B): Company Loyalty 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 Boeing: No Nerds, No Birds (B): Company Loyalty 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 Boeing: No Nerds, No Birds (B): Company Loyalty 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 Boeing: No Nerds, No Birds (B): Company Loyalty 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 Boeing Nerds needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
