Landau Media provides media monitoring on a subscription basis to measure the impact of corporate communication. CEO and Founder Lothar Landau wonders whether his creation is prepared for the future. On the firm's 15th anniversary, Landau asks himself: Had he built the right organizational architecture? Had he been able to create the most effective organizational culture? What did the future of the media monitoring industry look like? What kind of company would lead the industry into this future? Was his company structured to do so? The case can be used for strategic analysis and the development of organizational cultures and behavior. It is suitable for MBA students as well as executives in courses on strategy, strategy implementation, entrepreneurship, innovation, leadership, and family business. The material works well to introduce principles for leading by design and for entrepreneurship and strategy development.
Swot Analysis of "Landau Media" written by Christoph Burger, James G. Clawson includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Landau Media facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Landau Media case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Leadership, Transparency and Organizational Development.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Landau Media casestudy better are - – increasing energy prices, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, wage bills are increasing, technology disruption, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, geopolitical disruptions,
increasing commodity prices, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, etc
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Landau Media case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Landau Media, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Landau Media 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 Landau Media can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Landau Media case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Landau Media
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 Landau Media
Strengths Landau Media | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Landau Media in Landau Media Harvard Business Review case study are -
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Organizational Development industry
– Landau Media firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Landau Media to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Organizational Development industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Landau Media to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Landau Media has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Landau Media 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Landau Media 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 Landau Media 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 Landau Media 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.
Ability to lead change in Organizational Development field
– Landau Media 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 Landau Media in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Landau Media in the sector have low bargaining power. Landau Media has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Landau Media to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Landau Media 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 Landau Media - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Digital Transformation in Organizational Development segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Landau Media digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Landau Media 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Landau Media in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
High brand equity
– Landau Media has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Landau Media to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Organizational Resilience of Landau Media
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Landau Media does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Training and development
– Landau Media has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Landau Media 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.
Weaknesses Landau Media | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Landau Media are -
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Landau Media, firm in the HBR case study Landau Media needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Landau Media 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 Landau Media has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Landau Media HBR case study mentions - Landau Media 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 Landau Media, is just above the industry average. Landau Media 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Landau Media, 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Landau Media 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 - Landau Media 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, Landau Media 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 existing supply chain
– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of Landau Media supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Landau Media, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Landau Media vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Landau Media 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 Landau Media can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Landau Media is planning to shift buying processes online.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Landau Media 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Landau Media is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Organizational Development segment. Landau Media needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Landau Media to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Opportunities Landau Media | 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 Landau Media are -
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. Landau Media can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Buying journey improvements
– Landau Media can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Landau Media 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Landau Media 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Landau Media 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 Landau Media - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Landau Media to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Landau Media 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Landau Media 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 Landau Media 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Landau Media has focused on building a highly responsive customer relationship management platform. This platform is built on in-house data and driven by analytics and artificial intelligence. The customer analytics can help the organization to fine tune its loyalty marketing efforts, increase the wallet share of the organization, reduce wastage on mainstream advertising spending, build better pricing strategies using personalization, etc.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Landau Media has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Landau Media to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Landau Media case study. Landau Media can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Landau Media can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Landau Media operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Organizational Development sector.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Landau Media to increase its market reach. Landau Media 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.
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. Landau Media can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Landau Media 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.
Threats Landau Media External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Landau Media are -
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Landau Media with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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.
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 Landau Media in the Organizational Development sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Backlash against dominant players
– US Congress and other legislative arms of the government are getting tough on big business especially technology companies. The digital arm of Landau Media business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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. Landau Media can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Increasing wage structure of Landau Media
– 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 Landau Media.
Regulatory challenges
– Landau Media 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Landau Media 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 Landau Media .
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. Landau Media needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Organizational Development industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Landau Media, Landau Media 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 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Landau Media 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 Landau Media.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Landau Media 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 Landau Media 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 Landau Media 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 Landau Media 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 Landau Media 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 Landau Media needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.