Major Steckleson at the National Training Center (A) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Major Steckleson at the National Training Center (A)
Major Steckleson is facing his toughest challenge yet. As an experienced observer-controller at the U.S. Army's National Training Center, Steckleson is responsible for helping leaders of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Squadron learn from a deadly mistake in simulated combat by facilitating the unit's After Action Review (AAR). AARs are structured conversations about recent experience designed to help units learn from both mistakes and successes.
Authors :: Scott A. Snook, Jeremy Schneider, Robert Kaderavek
Swot Analysis of "Major Steckleson at the National Training Center (A)" written by Scott A. Snook, Jeremy Schneider, Robert Kaderavek includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Steckleson Aars facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Major Steckleson at the National Training Center (A) case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, IT, Knowledge management, Leadership, Leading teams, Organizational culture and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Major Steckleson at the National Training Center (A) casestudy better are - – increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing commodity prices, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy,
central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, technology disruption, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Major Steckleson at the National Training Center (A)
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Major Steckleson at the National Training Center (A) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Steckleson Aars, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Steckleson Aars 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 Major Steckleson at the National Training Center (A) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Major Steckleson at the National Training Center (A) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Steckleson Aars
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 Steckleson Aars
Strengths Major Steckleson at the National Training Center (A) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Steckleson Aars in Major Steckleson at the National Training Center (A) Harvard Business Review case study are -
Learning organization
- Steckleson Aars 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 Steckleson Aars is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Major Steckleson at the National Training Center (A) Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Organizational Resilience of Steckleson Aars
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Steckleson Aars does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Steckleson Aars in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Analytics focus
– Steckleson Aars 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 Scott A. Snook, Jeremy Schneider, Robert Kaderavek 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– Major Steckleson at the National Training Center (A) firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Steckleson Aars to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Steckleson Aars to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Steckleson Aars 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Steckleson Aars is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Major Steckleson at the National Training Center (A) are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Steckleson Aars in the sector have low bargaining power. Major Steckleson at the National Training Center (A) has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Steckleson Aars to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Major Steckleson at the National Training Center (A) 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Steckleson Aars 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 Major Steckleson at the National Training Center (A) - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Diverse revenue streams
– Steckleson Aars is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Major Steckleson at the National Training Center (A) 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.
Training and development
– Steckleson Aars has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Major Steckleson at the National Training Center (A) 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.
Weaknesses Major Steckleson at the National Training Center (A) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Major Steckleson at the National Training Center (A) are -
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Steckleson Aars is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Steckleson Aars needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Steckleson Aars to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Steckleson Aars is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Major Steckleson at the National Training Center (A) can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Steckleson Aars 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Major Steckleson at the National Training Center (A), in the dynamic environment Steckleson Aars has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Steckleson Aars 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 Major Steckleson at the National Training Center (A) 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 Steckleson Aars 's lucrative customers.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Steckleson Aars, firm in the HBR case study Major Steckleson at the National Training Center (A) needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Steckleson Aars 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Scott A. Snook, Jeremy Schneider, Robert Kaderavek suggests that, Steckleson Aars 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Steckleson Aars 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 - Major Steckleson at the National Training Center (A) should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Major Steckleson at the National Training Center (A), it seems that the employees of Steckleson Aars 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Major Steckleson at the National Training Center (A) 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 Major Steckleson at the National Training Center (A) can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Steckleson Aars is planning to shift buying processes online.
Opportunities Major Steckleson at the National Training Center (A) | 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 Major Steckleson at the National Training Center (A) are -
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Steckleson Aars 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
– Steckleson Aars 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Steckleson Aars has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Steckleson Aars to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Major Steckleson at the National Training Center (A) case study. Steckleson Aars can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Steckleson Aars 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Steckleson Aars 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Steckleson Aars to expand its talent hiring zone. According to McKinsey Global Institute, 20% of the high end workforce in fields such as finance, information technology, can continously work from remote local post Covid-19. This presents a really great opportunity for Steckleson Aars to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
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. Steckleson Aars 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 Steckleson Aars 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Steckleson Aars can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Steckleson Aars operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Buying journey improvements
– Steckleson Aars can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Major Steckleson at the National Training Center (A) 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Steckleson Aars is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Major Steckleson at the National Training Center (A) 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 Steckleson Aars 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.
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. Steckleson Aars can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Threats Major Steckleson at the National Training Center (A) External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Major Steckleson at the National Training Center (A) 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 Steckleson Aars business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Environmental challenges
– Steckleson Aars 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. Steckleson Aars can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
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.
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 Steckleson Aars.
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. Steckleson Aars can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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. Steckleson Aars 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Steckleson Aars 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Steckleson Aars 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.
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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Steckleson Aars 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Major Steckleson at the National Training Center (A), Steckleson Aars 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 .
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Steckleson Aars with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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. Steckleson Aars needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Major Steckleson at the National Training Center (A) 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 Major Steckleson at the National Training Center (A) 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 Major Steckleson at the National Training Center (A) 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 Major Steckleson at the National Training Center (A) 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 Major Steckleson at the National Training Center (A) 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 Steckleson Aars needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
