Case Study Description of Sanford C. Bernstein: Growing Pains
To remain competitive, Sallie Krawcheck and Lisa Shalett, Sanford C. Bernstein's director of research and associate director of research, respectively, were examining the need to expand the research department's size, not only domestically but also internationally. Were they too late? Could they maintain their strong culture and hiring process--viewed by top management as a main source of competitive advantage--and also increase their research and sales efforts exponentially? How could they move quickly when traditionally it took them years to find the right person for any given role?
Swot Analysis of "Sanford C. Bernstein: Growing Pains" written by Boris Groysberg, Anahita Hashemi includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Sanford Research facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Sanford C. Bernstein: Growing Pains case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Growth strategy, Leadership, Organizational culture, Talent management and Organizational Development.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Sanford C. Bernstein: Growing Pains casestudy better are - – wage bills are increasing, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , there is backlash against globalization, increasing transportation and logistics costs, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models,
banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing commodity prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Sanford C. Bernstein: Growing Pains
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Sanford C. Bernstein: Growing Pains case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Sanford Research, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Sanford Research 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 Sanford C. Bernstein: Growing Pains can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Sanford C. Bernstein: Growing Pains case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Sanford Research
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 Sanford Research
Strengths Sanford C. Bernstein: Growing Pains | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Sanford Research in Sanford C. Bernstein: Growing Pains Harvard Business Review case study are -
Learning organization
- Sanford Research 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 Sanford Research is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Sanford C. Bernstein: Growing Pains Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Sanford Research 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Sanford Research 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Sanford Research is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Sanford C. Bernstein: Growing Pains 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Sanford Research in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
High brand equity
– Sanford Research has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Sanford Research to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Innovation driven organization
– Sanford Research is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Sanford C. Bernstein: Growing Pains Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Training and development
– Sanford Research has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Sanford C. Bernstein: Growing Pains 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Sanford Research 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 Sanford C. Bernstein: Growing Pains - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Sanford Research in the sector have low bargaining power. Sanford C. Bernstein: Growing Pains has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Sanford Research to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Analytics focus
– Sanford Research 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 Boris Groysberg, Anahita Hashemi 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.
Ability to lead change in Organizational Development field
– Sanford Research 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 Sanford Research in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Weaknesses Sanford C. Bernstein: Growing Pains | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Sanford C. Bernstein: Growing Pains are -
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Sanford C. Bernstein: Growing Pains, 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Boris Groysberg, Anahita Hashemi suggests that, Sanford Research is facing high bargaining power of the channel partners. So far it has not able to streamline the operations to reduce the bargaining power of the value chain partners in the industry.
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 Sanford Research supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Sanford C. Bernstein: Growing Pains, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Sanford Research vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Sanford Research 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Sanford C. Bernstein: Growing Pains 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 Sanford Research 's lucrative customers.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Sanford Research, firm in the HBR case study Sanford C. Bernstein: Growing Pains needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Sanford Research 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Sanford Research 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 - Sanford C. Bernstein: Growing Pains should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Sanford C. Bernstein: Growing Pains, is just above the industry average. Sanford Research 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Sanford Research 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Sanford Research 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.
Opportunities Sanford C. Bernstein: Growing Pains | 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 Sanford C. Bernstein: Growing Pains are -
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Sanford Research 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 Sanford C. Bernstein: Growing Pains - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Sanford Research to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Sanford Research to increase its market reach. Sanford Research 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Sanford Research 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Sanford Research has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Sanford Research to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Sanford C. Bernstein: Growing Pains case study. Sanford Research can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Sanford Research 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Sanford Research 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Sanford Research 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Sanford Research can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Sanford Research can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Sanford Research operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Organizational Development sector.
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. Sanford Research 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. Sanford Research can further use this consumer data to build better customer loyalty, provide better products and service collection, and improve the value proposition in inflationary times.
Buying journey improvements
– Sanford Research can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Sanford C. Bernstein: Growing Pains 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Sanford Research is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Sanford C. Bernstein: Growing Pains 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 Sanford Research 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.
Threats Sanford C. Bernstein: Growing Pains External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Sanford C. Bernstein: Growing Pains are -
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 Sanford Research business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Sanford Research 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Sanford Research is facing in Organizational Development sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Sanford C. Bernstein: Growing Pains, Sanford Research 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 .
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 Sanford Research in the Organizational Development sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Organizational Development field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Sanford Research can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Sanford Research has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Organizational Development industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Sanford Research 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Sanford Research 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Sanford Research with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Sanford Research 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 Sanford C. Bernstein: Growing Pains .
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. Sanford Research needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Organizational Development industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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.
Regulatory challenges
– Sanford Research 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Sanford C. Bernstein: Growing Pains 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 Sanford C. Bernstein: Growing Pains 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 Sanford C. Bernstein: Growing Pains 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 Sanford C. Bernstein: Growing Pains 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 Sanford C. Bernstein: Growing Pains 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 Sanford Research needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
