Swot Analysis of "Andersen Consulting - EMEAI: Bill Barnard on Organizational Change" written by Ashish Nanda, Michael Y. Yoshino includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Andersen Barnard facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Andersen Consulting - EMEAI: Bill Barnard on Organizational Change case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Corporate governance, International business, Managing people, Organizational structure and Organizational Development.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Andersen Consulting - EMEAI: Bill Barnard on Organizational Change casestudy better are - – increasing transportation and logistics costs, technology disruption, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs,
central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing commodity prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Andersen Consulting - EMEAI: Bill Barnard on Organizational Change
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Andersen Consulting - EMEAI: Bill Barnard on Organizational Change case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Andersen Barnard, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Andersen Barnard 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 Andersen Consulting - EMEAI: Bill Barnard on Organizational Change can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Andersen Consulting - EMEAI: Bill Barnard on Organizational Change case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Andersen Barnard
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 Andersen Barnard
Strengths Andersen Consulting - EMEAI: Bill Barnard on Organizational Change | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Andersen Barnard in Andersen Consulting - EMEAI: Bill Barnard on Organizational Change Harvard Business Review case study are -
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Andersen Barnard 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 recruit top talent
– Andersen Barnard is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Andersen Consulting - EMEAI: Bill Barnard on Organizational Change are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Analytics focus
– Andersen Barnard 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 Ashish Nanda, Michael Y. Yoshino 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Andersen Barnard is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Innovation driven organization
– Andersen Barnard is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Andersen Consulting - EMEAI: Bill Barnard on Organizational Change Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Andersen Consulting - EMEAI: Bill Barnard on Organizational Change 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Andersen Barnard 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 Andersen Barnard in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Training and development
– Andersen Barnard has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Andersen Consulting - EMEAI: Bill Barnard on Organizational Change 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.
Learning organization
- Andersen Barnard 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 Andersen Barnard is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Andersen Consulting - EMEAI: Bill Barnard on Organizational Change Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Organizational Development industry
– Andersen Consulting - EMEAI: Bill Barnard on Organizational Change firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Andersen Barnard to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Organizational Development industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Andersen Barnard to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Digital Transformation in Organizational Development segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Andersen Barnard digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Andersen Barnard 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.
Weaknesses Andersen Consulting - EMEAI: Bill Barnard on Organizational Change | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Andersen Consulting - EMEAI: Bill Barnard on Organizational Change are -
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Andersen Barnard 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Andersen Consulting - EMEAI: Bill Barnard on Organizational Change 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 Andersen Consulting - EMEAI: Bill Barnard on Organizational Change can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Andersen Barnard is planning to shift buying processes online.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Andersen Consulting - EMEAI: Bill Barnard on Organizational Change 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 Andersen Barnard 's lucrative customers.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Andersen Barnard 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Andersen Consulting - EMEAI: Bill Barnard on Organizational Change, 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Andersen Barnard products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Andersen Barnard needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Andersen Consulting - EMEAI: Bill Barnard on Organizational Change, in the dynamic environment Andersen Barnard has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Andersen Barnard has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Need for greater diversity
– Andersen Barnard 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Andersen Consulting - EMEAI: Bill Barnard on Organizational Change, is just above the industry average. Andersen Barnard 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Andersen Barnard 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Andersen Consulting - EMEAI: Bill Barnard on Organizational Change, it seems that the employees of Andersen Barnard 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 Andersen Consulting - EMEAI: Bill Barnard on Organizational Change | 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 Andersen Consulting - EMEAI: Bill Barnard on Organizational Change are -
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. Andersen Barnard can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Loyalty marketing
– Andersen Barnard 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Andersen Barnard 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.
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 Andersen Barnard in the consumer business. Now Andersen Barnard can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Andersen Barnard 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 Andersen Consulting - EMEAI: Bill Barnard on Organizational Change - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Andersen Barnard to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Andersen Barnard has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Andersen Barnard to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Andersen Consulting - EMEAI: Bill Barnard on Organizational Change case study. Andersen Barnard can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
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. Andersen Barnard 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. Andersen Barnard 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.
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. Andersen Barnard can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Manufacturing automation
– Andersen Barnard 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Andersen Barnard can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Andersen Barnard 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Andersen Barnard 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.
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 Andersen Barnard to reconfigure its entire business model. For example it can used blockchain based technologies to reduce piracy of its products in the big markets such as China. Secondly it can use the popularity of e-commerce in various developing markets to build a Direct to Customer business model rather than the current Channel Heavy distribution network.
Threats Andersen Consulting - EMEAI: Bill Barnard on Organizational Change External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Andersen Consulting - EMEAI: Bill Barnard on Organizational Change are -
Environmental challenges
– Andersen Barnard 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. Andersen Barnard can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Organizational Development industry.
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.
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. Andersen Barnard can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Andersen Barnard 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.
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 Andersen Barnard business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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. Andersen Barnard 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.
Increasing wage structure of Andersen Barnard
– 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 Andersen Barnard.
Regulatory challenges
– Andersen Barnard 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Andersen Barnard 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Andersen Barnard 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.
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 Andersen Barnard.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Andersen Barnard 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 Andersen Barnard in the Organizational Development sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Andersen Consulting - EMEAI: Bill Barnard on Organizational Change 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 Andersen Consulting - EMEAI: Bill Barnard on Organizational Change 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 Andersen Consulting - EMEAI: Bill Barnard on Organizational Change 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 Andersen Consulting - EMEAI: Bill Barnard on Organizational Change 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 Andersen Consulting - EMEAI: Bill Barnard on Organizational Change 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 Andersen Barnard needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
