Broken Trust: Role of Professionals in the Enron Debacle SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Organizational Development
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Broken Trust: Role of Professionals in the Enron Debacle
Discusses the role of professionals in the Enron debacle. Argues that professionals failed to prevent or predict Enron's collapse because of the conflicts of interest they faced. Concludes with observations on management and regulation of conflicts of interest facing professionals.
Swot Analysis of "Broken Trust: Role of Professionals in the Enron Debacle" written by Ashish Nanda includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Professionals Debacle facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Broken Trust: Role of Professionals in the Enron Debacle case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Leadership, Managing people and Organizational Development.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Broken Trust: Role of Professionals in the Enron Debacle casestudy better are - – increasing transportation and logistics costs, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , wage bills are increasing, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, technology disruption,
central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Broken Trust: Role of Professionals in the Enron Debacle
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Broken Trust: Role of Professionals in the Enron Debacle case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Professionals Debacle, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Professionals Debacle 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 Broken Trust: Role of Professionals in the Enron Debacle can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Broken Trust: Role of Professionals in the Enron Debacle case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Professionals Debacle
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Organizational Development field.
4. Making a Organizational Development topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Professionals Debacle
Strengths Broken Trust: Role of Professionals in the Enron Debacle | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Professionals Debacle in Broken Trust: Role of Professionals in the Enron Debacle Harvard Business Review case study are -
Training and development
– Professionals Debacle has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Broken Trust: Role of Professionals in the Enron Debacle 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Professionals Debacle 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 switching costs
– The high switching costs that Professionals Debacle 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Professionals Debacle 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
– Professionals Debacle 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 Broken Trust: Role of Professionals in the Enron Debacle HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Analytics focus
– Professionals Debacle 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 Ashish Nanda 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Professionals Debacle has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Professionals Debacle 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Professionals Debacle in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Learning organization
- Professionals Debacle 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 Professionals Debacle is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Broken Trust: Role of Professionals in the Enron Debacle Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Professionals Debacle is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Broken Trust: Role of Professionals in the Enron Debacle are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
High brand equity
– Professionals Debacle has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Professionals Debacle to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Diverse revenue streams
– Professionals Debacle is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Broken Trust: Role of Professionals in the Enron Debacle 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.
Weaknesses Broken Trust: Role of Professionals in the Enron Debacle | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Broken Trust: Role of Professionals in the Enron Debacle are -
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Ashish Nanda suggests that, Professionals Debacle 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Professionals Debacle is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Organizational Development segment. Professionals Debacle needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Professionals Debacle to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Professionals Debacle 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Broken Trust: Role of Professionals in the Enron Debacle 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 Broken Trust: Role of Professionals in the Enron Debacle can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Professionals Debacle is planning to shift buying processes online.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Broken Trust: Role of Professionals in the Enron Debacle, is just above the industry average. Professionals Debacle 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 decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Professionals Debacle 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. Professionals Debacle 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Professionals Debacle 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 - Broken Trust: Role of Professionals in the Enron Debacle should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Broken Trust: Role of Professionals in the Enron Debacle 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 Professionals Debacle has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Broken Trust: Role of Professionals in the Enron Debacle, in the dynamic environment Professionals Debacle has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Professionals Debacle 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 Broken Trust: Role of Professionals in the Enron Debacle 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 Professionals Debacle 's lucrative customers.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Professionals Debacle 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.
Opportunities Broken Trust: Role of Professionals in the Enron Debacle | 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 Broken Trust: Role of Professionals in the Enron Debacle are -
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Professionals Debacle 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Professionals Debacle in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Organizational Development segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Professionals Debacle 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 Broken Trust: Role of Professionals in the Enron Debacle - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Professionals Debacle to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Professionals Debacle 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, Broken Trust: Role of Professionals in the Enron Debacle, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Professionals Debacle to increase its market reach. Professionals Debacle will be able to reach out to new customers. Secondly 5G will also provide technology framework to build new tools and products that can help more immersive consumer experience and faster consumer journey.
Loyalty marketing
– Professionals Debacle 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 Professionals Debacle has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Professionals Debacle to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Broken Trust: Role of Professionals in the Enron Debacle case study. Professionals Debacle 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, Professionals Debacle can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Professionals Debacle operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Organizational Development sector.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Professionals Debacle 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 Organizational Development segment.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Organizational Development industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Professionals Debacle can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Manufacturing automation
– Professionals Debacle can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Organizational Development 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Professionals Debacle can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Professionals Debacle 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 Professionals Debacle to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Threats Broken Trust: Role of Professionals in the Enron Debacle External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Broken Trust: Role of Professionals in the Enron Debacle are -
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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Professionals Debacle is facing in Organizational Development sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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 Professionals Debacle.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Professionals Debacle 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Professionals Debacle 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 Organizational Development industry regulations.
Environmental challenges
– Professionals Debacle 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. Professionals Debacle can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Organizational Development industry.
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 Professionals Debacle in the Organizational Development sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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 Professionals Debacle business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Professionals Debacle has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Organizational Development industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Professionals Debacle needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Organizational Development 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.
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. Professionals Debacle needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Organizational Development industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Professionals Debacle 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.
Increasing wage structure of Professionals Debacle
– 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 Professionals Debacle.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Broken Trust: Role of Professionals in the Enron Debacle, Professionals Debacle may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Organizational Development .
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Broken Trust: Role of Professionals in the Enron Debacle 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 Broken Trust: Role of Professionals in the Enron Debacle 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 Broken Trust: Role of Professionals in the Enron Debacle 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 Broken Trust: Role of Professionals in the Enron Debacle 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 Broken Trust: Role of Professionals in the Enron Debacle 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 Professionals Debacle needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
