When and Who to Tell: The Long Goodbye SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Organizational Development
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of When and Who to Tell: The Long Goodbye
In October 2015, a low-level staff accountant was suddenly ecstatic about his career prospects. The Chartered Professional Accountant recruitment process had been gruelling, but the end result made it all the more satisfying. After nearly two years of networking and getting to know firms while they closely evaluated him-and which concluded with seemingly endless interviews-the staff accountant had finally received job offers from his top choices. However, thrilled as he was with the result, he now faced a whole new challenge: what approach would he take to deliver the news to his current employer, where he planned to remain employed with for the next 11 months? Should he tell his employer immediately and risk termination and/or a tense work environment? Or should he keep it a secret as long as possible? Peter Tingling is affiliated with Simon Fraser University.
Swot Analysis of "When and Who to Tell: The Long Goodbye" written by Peter Tingling, Jonathan Tingling includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Accountant Employer facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in When and Who to Tell: The Long Goodbye case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Hiring and Organizational Development.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the When and Who to Tell: The Long Goodbye casestudy better are - – increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, geopolitical disruptions, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%,
increasing energy prices, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of When and Who to Tell: The Long Goodbye
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in When and Who to Tell: The Long Goodbye case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Accountant Employer, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Accountant Employer 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 When and Who to Tell: The Long Goodbye can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in When and Who to Tell: The Long Goodbye case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Accountant Employer
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 Accountant Employer
Strengths When and Who to Tell: The Long Goodbye | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Accountant Employer in When and Who to Tell: The Long Goodbye Harvard Business Review case study are -
Analytics focus
– Accountant Employer 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 Peter Tingling, Jonathan Tingling 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Accountant Employer is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in When and Who to Tell: The Long Goodbye Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Accountant Employer 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
– Accountant Employer 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 Accountant Employer 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)
– Accountant Employer 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 When and Who to Tell: The Long Goodbye - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Diverse revenue streams
– Accountant Employer is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in When and Who to Tell: The Long Goodbye 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.
Training and development
– Accountant Employer has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in When and Who to Tell: The Long Goodbye 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 Accountant Employer digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Accountant Employer 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.
Learning organization
- Accountant Employer 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 Accountant Employer is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in When and Who to Tell: The Long Goodbye Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Accountant Employer in the sector have low bargaining power. When and Who to Tell: The Long Goodbye has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Accountant Employer to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Accountant Employer 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 When and Who to Tell: The Long Goodbye HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Accountant Employer 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.
Weaknesses When and Who to Tell: The Long Goodbye | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of When and Who to Tell: The Long Goodbye are -
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study When and Who to Tell: The Long Goodbye, in the dynamic environment Accountant Employer has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Accountant Employer has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study When and Who to Tell: The Long Goodbye 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 Accountant Employer 's lucrative customers.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Accountant Employer 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Accountant Employer 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. Accountant Employer 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Accountant Employer 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study When and Who to Tell: The Long Goodbye, 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Accountant Employer is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Organizational Development segment. Accountant Employer needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Accountant Employer to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study When and Who to Tell: The Long Goodbye 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 When and Who to Tell: The Long Goodbye can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Accountant Employer is planning to shift buying processes online.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Accountant Employer 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As When and Who to Tell: The Long Goodbye HBR case study mentions - Accountant Employer 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Accountant Employer, firm in the HBR case study When and Who to Tell: The Long Goodbye needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Opportunities When and Who to Tell: The Long Goodbye | 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 When and Who to Tell: The Long Goodbye are -
Leveraging digital technologies
– Accountant Employer 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Accountant Employer 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 Accountant Employer to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Accountant Employer 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.
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. Accountant Employer can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Accountant Employer has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Accountant Employer to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the When and Who to Tell: The Long Goodbye case study. Accountant Employer can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Accountant Employer is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. When and Who to Tell: The Long Goodbye 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.
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 Accountant Employer 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Accountant Employer 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Accountant Employer can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Accountant Employer to increase its market reach. Accountant Employer 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Accountant Employer 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Accountant Employer 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Accountant Employer 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 When and Who to Tell: The Long Goodbye - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Accountant Employer to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Threats When and Who to Tell: The Long Goodbye External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study When and Who to Tell: The Long Goodbye are -
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Accountant Employer 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.
Environmental challenges
– Accountant Employer 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. Accountant Employer can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Organizational Development industry.
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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study When and Who to Tell: The Long Goodbye, Accountant Employer 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 .
Consumer confidence and its impact on Accountant Employer 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.
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 Accountant Employer business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Accountant Employer 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Accountant Employer 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.
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 Accountant Employer in the Organizational Development sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Accountant Employer has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Organizational Development industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Accountant Employer needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Organizational Development sector. According to Mckinsey study top managers believe that the adoption of technology in operations, communications is 20-25 times faster than what they planned in the beginning of 2019.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Accountant Employer with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Accountant Employer 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.
Increasing wage structure of Accountant Employer
– 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 Accountant Employer.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of When and Who to Tell: The Long Goodbye 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 When and Who to Tell: The Long Goodbye 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 When and Who to Tell: The Long Goodbye 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 When and Who to Tell: The Long Goodbye 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 When and Who to Tell: The Long Goodbye 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 Accountant Employer needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.