Swot Analysis of "Progressive Corp.'s Divisionalization Decision (B)" written by Robert G. Eccles includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Divisionalization Handout facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Progressive Corp.'s Divisionalization Decision (B) case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Financial management, Organizational structure and Organizational Development.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Progressive Corp.'s Divisionalization Decision (B) casestudy better are - – there is backlash against globalization, technology disruption, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings,
increasing commodity prices, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Progressive Corp.'s Divisionalization Decision (B)
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Progressive Corp.'s Divisionalization Decision (B) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Divisionalization Handout, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Divisionalization Handout 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 Progressive Corp.'s Divisionalization Decision (B) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Progressive Corp.'s Divisionalization Decision (B) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Divisionalization Handout
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 Divisionalization Handout
Strengths Progressive Corp.'s Divisionalization Decision (B) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Divisionalization Handout in Progressive Corp.'s Divisionalization Decision (B) Harvard Business Review case study are -
Learning organization
- Divisionalization Handout 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 Divisionalization Handout is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Progressive Corp.'s Divisionalization Decision (B) Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Ability to lead change in Organizational Development field
– Divisionalization Handout is one of the leading players in its industry. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in its segment but also across the whole industry. The ability to lead change has enabled Divisionalization Handout in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Divisionalization Handout 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 Progressive Corp.'s Divisionalization Decision (B) - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Training and development
– Divisionalization Handout has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Progressive Corp.'s Divisionalization Decision (B) 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.
Digital Transformation in Organizational Development segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Divisionalization Handout digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Divisionalization Handout 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Divisionalization Handout 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Divisionalization Handout in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Organizational Development industry
– Progressive Corp.'s Divisionalization Decision (B) firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Divisionalization Handout to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Organizational Development industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Divisionalization Handout to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Progressive Corp.'s Divisionalization Decision (B) 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.
Organizational Resilience of Divisionalization Handout
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Divisionalization Handout does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Innovation driven organization
– Divisionalization Handout is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Progressive Corp.'s Divisionalization Decision (B) Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Divisionalization Handout in the sector have low bargaining power. Progressive Corp.'s Divisionalization Decision (B) has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Divisionalization Handout to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Weaknesses Progressive Corp.'s Divisionalization Decision (B) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Progressive Corp.'s Divisionalization Decision (B) are -
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Progressive Corp.'s Divisionalization Decision (B) 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 Divisionalization Handout 's lucrative customers.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Divisionalization Handout is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Progressive Corp.'s Divisionalization Decision (B) can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Divisionalization Handout 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 - Progressive Corp.'s Divisionalization Decision (B) should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Divisionalization Handout 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Progressive Corp.'s Divisionalization Decision (B) 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 Divisionalization Handout has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Divisionalization Handout 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Progressive Corp.'s Divisionalization Decision (B), in the dynamic environment Divisionalization Handout has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Divisionalization Handout has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Robert G. Eccles suggests that, Divisionalization Handout 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 Divisionalization Handout is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Organizational Development segment. Divisionalization Handout needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Divisionalization Handout to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Progressive Corp.'s Divisionalization Decision (B), it seems that the employees of Divisionalization Handout 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Divisionalization Handout 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.
Opportunities Progressive Corp.'s Divisionalization Decision (B) | 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 Progressive Corp.'s Divisionalization Decision (B) are -
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Divisionalization Handout 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 Divisionalization Handout to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Divisionalization Handout to increase its market reach. Divisionalization Handout 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
– Divisionalization Handout 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Divisionalization Handout 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, Progressive Corp.'s Divisionalization Decision (B), to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
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. Divisionalization Handout can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Divisionalization Handout 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Divisionalization Handout 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.
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. Divisionalization Handout 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. Divisionalization Handout 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Divisionalization Handout can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Progressive Corp.'s Divisionalization Decision (B) 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Divisionalization Handout can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Divisionalization Handout operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Organizational Development sector.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Divisionalization Handout has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Divisionalization Handout to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Progressive Corp.'s Divisionalization Decision (B) case study. Divisionalization Handout can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, 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 Divisionalization Handout 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Divisionalization Handout 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 Progressive Corp.'s Divisionalization Decision (B) - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Divisionalization Handout to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Threats Progressive Corp.'s Divisionalization Decision (B) External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Progressive Corp.'s Divisionalization Decision (B) are -
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Divisionalization Handout can face downward pressure on margins from increasing competition from international players. The international players have stable revenue in their home market and can use those resources to penetrate prominent markets illustrated in HBR case study Progressive Corp.'s Divisionalization Decision (B) .
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Divisionalization Handout is facing in Organizational Development sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Increasing wage structure of Divisionalization Handout
– 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 Divisionalization Handout.
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.
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 Divisionalization Handout in the Organizational Development sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Organizational Development field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Divisionalization Handout 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. Divisionalization Handout 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Divisionalization Handout 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
– Divisionalization Handout 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Progressive Corp.'s Divisionalization Decision (B), Divisionalization Handout 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 .
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Divisionalization Handout with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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 Divisionalization Handout.
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. Divisionalization Handout needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Organizational Development industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Progressive Corp.'s Divisionalization Decision (B) 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 Progressive Corp.'s Divisionalization Decision (B) 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 Progressive Corp.'s Divisionalization Decision (B) 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 Progressive Corp.'s Divisionalization Decision (B) 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 Progressive Corp.'s Divisionalization Decision (B) 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 Divisionalization Handout needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
