Lisa Benton (A), Spanish Version SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Organizational Development
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Lisa Benton (A), Spanish Version
Lisa Benton is in her fourth month as an assistant product manager at Houseworld, a leading consumer products company. She has been on the job since graduating from the Harvard Business School, and she has been frustrated from the start by a lack of responsibility, by her poor relationship with her boss and a colleague, and recently, by the negative performance review she received. Concerned about her future at Houseworld, Benton is considering calling her former boss from her summer job to inquire about a position. An updated version of an earlier case.
Swot Analysis of "Lisa Benton (A), Spanish Version" written by Linda A. Hill, Katherine S. Weber includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Benton Houseworld facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Lisa Benton (A), Spanish Version case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Conflict, Influence, Managing up, Organizational culture and Organizational Development.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Lisa Benton (A), Spanish Version casestudy better are - – digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%,
increasing household debt because of falling income levels, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Lisa Benton (A), Spanish Version
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Lisa Benton (A), Spanish Version case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Benton Houseworld, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Benton Houseworld 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 Lisa Benton (A), Spanish Version can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Lisa Benton (A), Spanish Version case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Benton Houseworld
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 Benton Houseworld
Strengths Lisa Benton (A), Spanish Version | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Benton Houseworld in Lisa Benton (A), Spanish Version Harvard Business Review case study are -
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Benton Houseworld in the sector have low bargaining power. Lisa Benton (A), Spanish Version has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Benton Houseworld to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
High brand equity
– Benton Houseworld has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Benton Houseworld to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Benton Houseworld 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Lisa Benton (A), Spanish Version 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.
Training and development
– Benton Houseworld has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Lisa Benton (A), Spanish Version 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Organizational Development industry
– Lisa Benton (A), Spanish Version firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Benton Houseworld to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Organizational Development industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Benton Houseworld to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Benton Houseworld 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Benton Houseworld has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Benton Houseworld 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
– Benton Houseworld is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Lisa Benton (A), Spanish Version 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Benton Houseworld is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Benton Houseworld 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 Lisa Benton (A), Spanish Version - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Benton Houseworld is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Lisa Benton (A), Spanish Version are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Weaknesses Lisa Benton (A), Spanish Version | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Lisa Benton (A), Spanish Version are -
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Lisa Benton (A), Spanish Version, is just above the industry average. Benton Houseworld 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Benton Houseworld 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. Benton Houseworld 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 cash cycle compare to competitors
Benton Houseworld 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Benton Houseworld products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Benton Houseworld needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Benton Houseworld has borrowed money from the capital market at higher rates. It needs to restructure the interest payment and costs so that it can compete better and improve profitability.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Benton Houseworld is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Organizational Development segment. Benton Houseworld needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Benton Houseworld to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Benton Houseworld 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 - Lisa Benton (A), Spanish Version should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Need for greater diversity
– Benton Houseworld 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Lisa Benton (A), Spanish Version 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 Benton Houseworld 's lucrative customers.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Benton Houseworld, firm in the HBR case study Lisa Benton (A), Spanish Version needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Lisa Benton (A), Spanish Version 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 Benton Houseworld has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Opportunities Lisa Benton (A), Spanish Version | 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 Lisa Benton (A), Spanish Version are -
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Benton Houseworld 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 Lisa Benton (A), Spanish Version - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Benton Houseworld 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 Benton Houseworld to increase its market reach. Benton Houseworld 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Benton Houseworld 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 Benton Houseworld to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Benton Houseworld has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Benton Houseworld to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Lisa Benton (A), Spanish Version case study. Benton Houseworld can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Manufacturing automation
– Benton Houseworld 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Benton Houseworld 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Benton Houseworld 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Benton Houseworld 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, Lisa Benton (A), Spanish Version, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Benton Houseworld 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.
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. Benton Houseworld can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
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. Benton Houseworld 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. Benton Houseworld 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Benton Houseworld is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Lisa Benton (A), Spanish Version 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Benton Houseworld can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Benton Houseworld operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Organizational Development sector.
Threats Lisa Benton (A), Spanish Version External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Lisa Benton (A), Spanish Version are -
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Benton Houseworld has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Organizational Development industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Benton Houseworld 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.
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 Benton Houseworld business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Organizational Development field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Benton Houseworld can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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. Benton Houseworld 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Benton Houseworld 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
– Benton Houseworld 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. Benton Houseworld can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Organizational Development industry.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Lisa Benton (A), Spanish Version, Benton Houseworld 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 .
Increasing wage structure of Benton Houseworld
– 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 Benton Houseworld.
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 Benton Houseworld.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Benton Houseworld 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.
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. Benton Houseworld needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Organizational Development industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Regulatory challenges
– Benton Houseworld needs to prepare for regulatory challenges as consumer protection groups and other pressure groups are vigorously advocating for more regulations on big business - to reduce inequality, to create a level playing field, to product data privacy and consumer privacy, to reduce the influence of big money on democratic institutions, etc. This can lead to significant changes in the Organizational Development industry regulations.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Benton Houseworld 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 Lisa Benton (A), Spanish Version .
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Lisa Benton (A), Spanish Version 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 Lisa Benton (A), Spanish Version 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 Lisa Benton (A), Spanish Version 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 Lisa Benton (A), Spanish Version 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 Lisa Benton (A), Spanish Version 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 Benton Houseworld needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.