Roller Coaster Ride: The Resignation of a Star SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Organizational Development
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Roller Coaster Ride: The Resignation of a Star
Presents a detailed account of power dynamics that unfold in the firm when one of its best and brightest threatens to leave. Focuses on the dynamics of attracting, retaining, compensating, negotiating, and leveraging a star performer in a professional services firm. A manager and a star performer fight to improve their relative bargaining power. Specifically traces the detailed events from the resignation threat to the research director's struggle over deciding whether to counteroffer, to promote a junior, or to hire from outside the firm. Teaching Purpose: To discuss issues ranging from managing talent to resignation dynamics, power and influence, compensation, negotiation strategies, and managing a professional services firm.
Authors :: Boris Groysberg, Steve Balog, Jennifer Haimson
Swot Analysis of "Roller Coaster Ride: The Resignation of a Star" written by Boris Groysberg, Steve Balog, Jennifer Haimson includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Resignation Star facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Roller Coaster Ride: The Resignation of a Star case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Employee retention, Human resource management, Influence, Negotiations, Organizational culture and Organizational Development.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Roller Coaster Ride: The Resignation of a Star casestudy better are - – wage bills are increasing, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, there is backlash against globalization, 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,
increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing commodity prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Roller Coaster Ride: The Resignation of a Star
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Roller Coaster Ride: The Resignation of a Star case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Resignation Star, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Resignation Star 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 Roller Coaster Ride: The Resignation of a Star can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Roller Coaster Ride: The Resignation of a Star case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Resignation Star
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 Resignation Star
Strengths Roller Coaster Ride: The Resignation of a Star | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Resignation Star in Roller Coaster Ride: The Resignation of a Star Harvard Business Review case study are -
Ability to recruit top talent
– Resignation Star is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Roller Coaster Ride: The Resignation of a Star 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 switching costs
– The high switching costs that Resignation Star 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Organizational Development industry
– Roller Coaster Ride: The Resignation of a Star firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Resignation Star to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Organizational Development industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Resignation Star to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Resignation Star 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 Roller Coaster Ride: The Resignation of a Star - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Resignation Star 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 Roller Coaster Ride: The Resignation of a Star HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Resignation Star 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Resignation Star is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Roller Coaster Ride: The Resignation of a Star 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Resignation Star in the sector have low bargaining power. Roller Coaster Ride: The Resignation of a Star has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Resignation Star to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Resignation Star has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Resignation Star 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.
High brand equity
– Resignation Star has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Resignation Star to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Digital Transformation in Organizational Development segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Resignation Star digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Resignation Star 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Resignation Star is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Weaknesses Roller Coaster Ride: The Resignation of a Star | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Roller Coaster Ride: The Resignation of a Star are -
Products dominated business model
– Even though Resignation Star 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 - Roller Coaster Ride: The Resignation of a Star should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Roller Coaster Ride: The Resignation of a Star HBR case study mentions - Resignation Star 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 operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Roller Coaster Ride: The Resignation of a Star 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 Resignation Star 's lucrative customers.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Boris Groysberg, Steve Balog, Jennifer Haimson suggests that, Resignation Star 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Roller Coaster Ride: The Resignation of a Star, is just above the industry average. Resignation Star 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Resignation Star 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Roller Coaster Ride: The Resignation of a Star 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 Roller Coaster Ride: The Resignation of a Star can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Resignation Star is planning to shift buying processes online.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Resignation Star 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Resignation Star needs to come up with a strategy to reduce the workers concern regarding automation. Without a clear strategy, it could lead to disruption and uncertainty within the organization.
Lack of clear differentiation of Resignation Star products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Resignation Star needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Roller Coaster Ride: The Resignation of a Star, it seems that the employees of Resignation Star 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.
Opportunities Roller Coaster Ride: The Resignation of a Star | 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 Roller Coaster Ride: The Resignation of a Star are -
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Resignation Star 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 Resignation Star to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
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. Resignation Star 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. Resignation Star 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Resignation Star 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Resignation Star can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Resignation Star operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Organizational Development sector.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Resignation Star is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Roller Coaster Ride: The Resignation of a Star 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Resignation Star has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Resignation Star to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Roller Coaster Ride: The Resignation of a Star case study. Resignation Star can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Developing new processes and practices
– Resignation Star 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.
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. Resignation Star can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Resignation Star to increase its market reach. Resignation Star 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Resignation Star 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.
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 Resignation Star in the consumer business. Now Resignation Star can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Resignation Star 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Resignation Star can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Roller Coaster Ride: The Resignation of a Star 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.
Threats Roller Coaster Ride: The Resignation of a Star External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Roller Coaster Ride: The Resignation of a Star are -
Consumer confidence and its impact on Resignation Star 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Resignation Star is facing in Organizational Development sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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. Resignation Star needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Organizational Development industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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 Resignation Star.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Resignation Star 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Resignation Star can face lack of demand in the market place because of Fed actions to reduce inflation. This can lead to sluggish growth in the economy, lower demands, lower investments, higher borrowing costs, and consolidation in the field.
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 Resignation Star in the Organizational Development sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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.
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.
Regulatory challenges
– Resignation Star 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.
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. Resignation Star 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 Resignation Star business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Resignation Star 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Roller Coaster Ride: The Resignation of a Star 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 Roller Coaster Ride: The Resignation of a Star 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 Roller Coaster Ride: The Resignation of a Star 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 Roller Coaster Ride: The Resignation of a Star 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 Roller Coaster Ride: The Resignation of a Star 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 Resignation Star needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
