Swot Analysis of "Giddings & Lewis: In Search of the Cutting Edge (C)" written by Robert G. Eccles, Nitin Nohria, Norman Klein includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Giddings Lewis facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Giddings & Lewis: In Search of the Cutting Edge (C) case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Mergers & acquisitions and Organizational Development.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Giddings & Lewis: In Search of the Cutting Edge (C) casestudy better are - – challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, there is backlash against globalization, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing energy prices, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing transportation and logistics costs,
wage bills are increasing, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Giddings & Lewis: In Search of the Cutting Edge (C)
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Giddings & Lewis: In Search of the Cutting Edge (C) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Giddings Lewis, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Giddings Lewis 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 Giddings & Lewis: In Search of the Cutting Edge (C) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Giddings & Lewis: In Search of the Cutting Edge (C) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Giddings Lewis
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 Giddings Lewis
Strengths Giddings & Lewis: In Search of the Cutting Edge (C) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Giddings Lewis in Giddings & Lewis: In Search of the Cutting Edge (C) Harvard Business Review case study are -
Ability to recruit top talent
– Giddings Lewis is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Giddings & Lewis: In Search of the Cutting Edge (C) are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Ability to lead change in Organizational Development field
– Giddings Lewis 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 Giddings Lewis in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Giddings Lewis 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 Giddings & Lewis: In Search of the Cutting Edge (C) HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Giddings Lewis has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Giddings Lewis 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Giddings Lewis is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Giddings & Lewis: In Search of the Cutting Edge (C) 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 Giddings Lewis in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Giddings Lewis 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Giddings Lewis is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Giddings & Lewis: In Search of the Cutting Edge (C) Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Organizational Development industry
– Giddings & Lewis: In Search of the Cutting Edge (C) firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Giddings Lewis to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Organizational Development industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Giddings Lewis to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Giddings Lewis in the sector have low bargaining power. Giddings & Lewis: In Search of the Cutting Edge (C) has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Giddings Lewis to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Organizational Resilience of Giddings Lewis
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Giddings Lewis does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Giddings Lewis 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 Giddings & Lewis: In Search of the Cutting Edge (C) - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Weaknesses Giddings & Lewis: In Search of the Cutting Edge (C) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Giddings & Lewis: In Search of the Cutting Edge (C) are -
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Giddings & Lewis: In Search of the Cutting Edge (C) 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 Giddings & Lewis: In Search of the Cutting Edge (C) can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Giddings Lewis is planning to shift buying processes online.
Lack of clear differentiation of Giddings Lewis products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Giddings Lewis needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Giddings Lewis 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Giddings Lewis 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Giddings & Lewis: In Search of the Cutting Edge (C), is just above the industry average. Giddings Lewis 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Giddings & Lewis: In Search of the Cutting Edge (C) 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 Giddings Lewis 's lucrative customers.
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 Giddings Lewis supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Giddings & Lewis: In Search of the Cutting Edge (C), it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Giddings Lewis vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Robert G. Eccles, Nitin Nohria, Norman Klein suggests that, Giddings Lewis 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Giddings Lewis 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. Giddings Lewis 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Giddings & Lewis: In Search of the Cutting Edge (C) 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 Giddings Lewis has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Giddings & Lewis: In Search of the Cutting Edge (C), it seems that the employees of Giddings Lewis 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 Giddings & Lewis: In Search of the Cutting Edge (C) | 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 Giddings & Lewis: In Search of the Cutting Edge (C) 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. Giddings Lewis can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
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. Giddings Lewis 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. Giddings Lewis 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Giddings Lewis 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 Giddings & Lewis: In Search of the Cutting Edge (C) - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Giddings Lewis to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Giddings Lewis 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Giddings Lewis is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Giddings & Lewis: In Search of the Cutting Edge (C) 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Giddings Lewis 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.
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 Giddings Lewis 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Giddings Lewis 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Giddings Lewis 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Giddings Lewis can build a diversified supply chain model across various countries in - South East Asia, India, and other parts of the world. This reconfiguration of global supply chain can help, as suggested in case study, Giddings & Lewis: In Search of the Cutting Edge (C), to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Giddings Lewis to increase its market reach. Giddings Lewis 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Giddings Lewis can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Giddings Lewis operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Organizational Development sector.
Loyalty marketing
– Giddings Lewis 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.
Threats Giddings & Lewis: In Search of the Cutting Edge (C) External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Giddings & Lewis: In Search of the Cutting Edge (C) are -
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Giddings Lewis can face lack of demand in the market place because of Fed actions to reduce inflation. This can lead to sluggish growth in the economy, lower demands, lower investments, higher borrowing costs, and consolidation in the field.
Backlash against dominant players
– US Congress and other legislative arms of the government are getting tough on big business especially technology companies. The digital arm of Giddings Lewis 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 Giddings Lewis 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.
Environmental challenges
– Giddings Lewis 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. Giddings Lewis can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Organizational Development industry.
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 Giddings Lewis in the Organizational Development sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Giddings Lewis with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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. Giddings Lewis 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Giddings Lewis has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Organizational Development industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Giddings Lewis 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Giddings Lewis 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 Giddings & Lewis: In Search of the Cutting Edge (C) .
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.
Regulatory challenges
– Giddings Lewis 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.
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 Giddings Lewis.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Giddings Lewis 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Giddings & Lewis: In Search of the Cutting Edge (C) 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 Giddings & Lewis: In Search of the Cutting Edge (C) 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 Giddings & Lewis: In Search of the Cutting Edge (C) 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 Giddings & Lewis: In Search of the Cutting Edge (C) 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 Giddings & Lewis: In Search of the Cutting Edge (C) 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 Giddings Lewis needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.