Trojan Technologies, Inc.: Organizational Structuring for Growth and Customer Service SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Organizational Development
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Trojan Technologies, Inc.: Organizational Structuring for Growth and Customer Service
A group of Trojan Technologies, Inc. employees grappled with the issue of how to structure the business to interact effectively with its customers and manage the company's dramatic growth. The London, Ontario manufacturer of ultraviolet water disinfecting systems believed that strong customer service was key to its recent and projected growth and had come to the realization that changes would have to be made to continue to achieve both simultaneously. The group hoped to develop a structure to address these issues. The executive vice president was to lead the development and implementation of the new structure. The transition to the new structure was to coincide with the new fiscal year.
Swot Analysis of "Trojan Technologies, Inc.: Organizational Structuring for Growth and Customer Service" written by John H. Eggers, Greg Upton includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Trojan Structure facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Trojan Technologies, Inc.: Organizational Structuring for Growth and Customer Service case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Customers, Developing employees, Organizational structure and Organizational Development.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Trojan Technologies, Inc.: Organizational Structuring for Growth and Customer Service casestudy better are - – central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, geopolitical disruptions, there is backlash against globalization, wage bills are increasing, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs,
competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Trojan Technologies, Inc.: Organizational Structuring for Growth and Customer Service
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Trojan Technologies, Inc.: Organizational Structuring for Growth and Customer Service case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Trojan Structure, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Trojan Structure 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 Trojan Technologies, Inc.: Organizational Structuring for Growth and Customer Service can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Trojan Technologies, Inc.: Organizational Structuring for Growth and Customer Service case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Trojan Structure
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 Trojan Structure
Strengths Trojan Technologies, Inc.: Organizational Structuring for Growth and Customer Service | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Trojan Structure in Trojan Technologies, Inc.: Organizational Structuring for Growth and Customer Service Harvard Business Review case study are -
Diverse revenue streams
– Trojan Structure is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Trojan Technologies, Inc.: Organizational Structuring for Growth and Customer Service 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Trojan Structure 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Trojan Structure in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Learning organization
- Trojan Structure 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 Trojan Structure is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Trojan Technologies, Inc.: Organizational Structuring for Growth and Customer Service Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Organizational Development industry
– Trojan Technologies, Inc.: Organizational Structuring for Growth and Customer Service firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Trojan Structure to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Organizational Development industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Trojan Structure to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Strong track record of project management
– Trojan Structure is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Digital Transformation in Organizational Development segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Trojan Structure digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Trojan Structure 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Trojan Structure 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 Trojan Technologies, Inc.: Organizational Structuring for Growth and Customer Service - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Trojan Structure in the sector have low bargaining power. Trojan Technologies, Inc.: Organizational Structuring for Growth and Customer Service has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Trojan Structure to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Trojan Technologies, Inc.: Organizational Structuring for Growth and Customer Service 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Trojan Structure is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Trojan Technologies, Inc.: Organizational Structuring for Growth and Customer Service 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
– Trojan Structure has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Trojan Structure to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Weaknesses Trojan Technologies, Inc.: Organizational Structuring for Growth and Customer Service | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Trojan Technologies, Inc.: Organizational Structuring for Growth and Customer Service are -
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Trojan Technologies, Inc.: Organizational Structuring for Growth and Customer Service, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Organizational Development 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Trojan Technologies, Inc.: Organizational Structuring for Growth and Customer Service 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 Trojan Technologies, Inc.: Organizational Structuring for Growth and Customer Service can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Trojan Structure is planning to shift buying processes online.
Need for greater diversity
– Trojan Structure 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 Trojan Technologies, Inc.: Organizational Structuring for Growth and Customer Service HBR case study mentions - Trojan Structure 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Trojan Technologies, Inc.: Organizational Structuring for Growth and Customer Service, is just above the industry average. Trojan Structure 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, Trojan Structure 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. Trojan Structure 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Trojan Structure 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Trojan Technologies, Inc.: Organizational Structuring for Growth and Customer Service, it seems that the employees of Trojan Structure 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Trojan Technologies, Inc.: Organizational Structuring for Growth and Customer Service 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 Trojan Structure has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Trojan Structure, firm in the HBR case study Trojan Technologies, Inc.: Organizational Structuring for Growth and Customer Service needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, John H. Eggers, Greg Upton suggests that, Trojan Structure 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.
Opportunities Trojan Technologies, Inc.: Organizational Structuring for Growth and Customer Service | 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 Trojan Technologies, Inc.: Organizational Structuring for Growth and Customer Service are -
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Trojan Structure 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Trojan Structure can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Trojan Structure operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Organizational Development sector.
Developing new processes and practices
– Trojan Structure can develop new processes and procedures in Organizational Development 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Trojan Structure can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
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 Trojan Structure in the consumer business. Now Trojan Structure can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Trojan Structure 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Organizational Development industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Trojan Structure 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. Trojan Structure 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Trojan Structure 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 Trojan Technologies, Inc.: Organizational Structuring for Growth and Customer Service - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Trojan Structure to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Trojan Structure 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 Trojan Structure to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
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. Trojan Structure can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
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. Trojan Structure can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Loyalty marketing
– Trojan Structure 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.
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 Trojan Structure 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.
Threats Trojan Technologies, Inc.: Organizational Structuring for Growth and Customer Service External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Trojan Technologies, Inc.: Organizational Structuring for Growth and Customer Service are -
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Trojan Structure is facing in Organizational Development sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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 Trojan Structure in the Organizational Development sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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
– Trojan Structure 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.
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 Trojan Structure.
Regulatory challenges
– Trojan Structure 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
– Trojan Structure 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. Trojan Structure can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Organizational Development industry.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Trojan Structure in the Organizational Development industry. The Organizational Development 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.
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. Trojan Structure 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.
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 Trojan Structure business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Trojan Technologies, Inc.: Organizational Structuring for Growth and Customer Service, Trojan Structure 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 .
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Trojan Structure has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Organizational Development industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Trojan Structure 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Trojan Technologies, Inc.: Organizational Structuring for Growth and Customer Service 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 Trojan Technologies, Inc.: Organizational Structuring for Growth and Customer Service 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 Trojan Technologies, Inc.: Organizational Structuring for Growth and Customer Service 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 Trojan Technologies, Inc.: Organizational Structuring for Growth and Customer Service 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 Trojan Technologies, Inc.: Organizational Structuring for Growth and Customer Service 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 Trojan Structure needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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