Global Protection Corporation: Message from the Middle SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Organizational Development
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Global Protection Corporation: Message from the Middle
A middle manager at a large company is unable to get her engineering customers and corporate bosses to see eye to eye on a public relations decision, and now her corporate boss seems to have totally misinterpreted her intentions. Suitable for MBA or executive education classes, this field case is a composite of actual experiences and fabricated elements. The case addresses a scarcity of material on the unique dilemmas faced by middle managers.
Authors :: Lynn A. Isabella, Rachel Decker, Gerry Yemen
Swot Analysis of "Global Protection Corporation: Message from the Middle" written by Lynn A. Isabella, Rachel Decker, Gerry Yemen includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Middle Eye facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Global Protection Corporation: Message from the Middle case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Gender, Influence, Leadership, Organizational culture, Organizational structure and Organizational Development.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Global Protection Corporation: Message from the Middle casestudy better are - – digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, geopolitical disruptions, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing energy prices, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion,
banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, wage bills are increasing, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Global Protection Corporation: Message from the Middle
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Global Protection Corporation: Message from the Middle case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Middle Eye, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Middle Eye 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 Global Protection Corporation: Message from the Middle can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Global Protection Corporation: Message from the Middle case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Middle Eye
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 Middle Eye
Strengths Global Protection Corporation: Message from the Middle | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Middle Eye in Global Protection Corporation: Message from the Middle Harvard Business Review case study are -
Strong track record of project management
– Middle Eye is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Learning organization
- Middle Eye 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 Middle Eye is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Global Protection Corporation: Message from the Middle Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
High brand equity
– Middle Eye has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Middle Eye to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Analytics focus
– Middle Eye 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 Lynn A. Isabella, Rachel Decker, Gerry Yemen 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Middle Eye in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Middle Eye 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 Global Protection Corporation: Message from the Middle HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Training and development
– Middle Eye has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Global Protection Corporation: Message from the Middle 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Middle Eye in the sector have low bargaining power. Global Protection Corporation: Message from the Middle has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Middle Eye to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Middle Eye 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 Global Protection Corporation: Message from the Middle - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Organizational Development industry
– Global Protection Corporation: Message from the Middle firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Middle Eye to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Organizational Development industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Middle Eye to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Middle Eye 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Middle Eye is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Global Protection Corporation: Message from the Middle 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 Global Protection Corporation: Message from the Middle | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Global Protection Corporation: Message from the Middle are -
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Middle Eye 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. Middle Eye 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Middle Eye 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Middle Eye 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Global Protection Corporation: Message from the Middle, in the dynamic environment Middle Eye has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Middle Eye has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Middle Eye 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 - Global Protection Corporation: Message from the Middle should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Middle Eye 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Middle Eye has not been able to do capital spending to the tune of the competition. This has resulted into fewer innovations and company facing stiff competition from both existing competitors and new entrants who are disrupting the industry using digital technology.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Middle Eye 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Global Protection Corporation: Message from the Middle, it seems that the employees of Middle Eye 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Middle Eye products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Middle Eye needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Global Protection Corporation: Message from the Middle, 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.
Opportunities Global Protection Corporation: Message from the Middle | 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 Global Protection Corporation: Message from the Middle are -
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Middle Eye to increase its market reach. Middle Eye 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Middle Eye can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Global Protection Corporation: Message from the Middle 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Middle Eye 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Middle Eye 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Middle Eye can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Middle Eye operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Organizational Development sector.
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. Middle Eye can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Developing new processes and practices
– Middle Eye 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Middle Eye 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Middle Eye is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Global Protection Corporation: Message from the Middle 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Middle Eye 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Middle Eye 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.
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. Middle Eye 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. Middle Eye 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Middle Eye 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 Middle Eye to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Threats Global Protection Corporation: Message from the Middle External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Global Protection Corporation: Message from the Middle are -
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Middle Eye 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.
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.
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. Middle Eye 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.
Environmental challenges
– Middle Eye 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. Middle Eye can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Organizational Development industry.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Middle Eye with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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 Middle Eye in the Organizational Development sector and impact the bottomline 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 Global Protection Corporation: Message from the Middle, Middle Eye 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 .
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Middle Eye 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.
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 Middle Eye business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Regulatory challenges
– Middle Eye 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Middle Eye 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 Middle Eye
– 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 Middle Eye.
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 Middle Eye.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Global Protection Corporation: Message from the Middle 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 Global Protection Corporation: Message from the Middle 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 Global Protection Corporation: Message from the Middle 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 Global Protection Corporation: Message from the Middle 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 Global Protection Corporation: Message from the Middle 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 Middle Eye needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.