Sanford C. Bernstein CEO Robert van Brugge, Video SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Organizational Development
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Sanford C. Bernstein CEO Robert van Brugge, Video
Sanford C. Bernstein CEO (and former Global Director of Research) Robert van Brugge answers questions about organizational culture, change management, and collaboration, in this video supplement to the HBS case series "Global Expansion at Sanford C. Bernstein." Sanford C. Bernstein is a premier sell-side research firm.
Swot Analysis of "Sanford C. Bernstein CEO Robert van Brugge, Video" written by Linda A. Hill, Allison J. Wigen includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Bernstein Sanford facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Sanford C. Bernstein CEO Robert van Brugge, Video case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Organizational culture and Organizational Development.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Sanford C. Bernstein CEO Robert van Brugge, Video casestudy better are - – increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, there is backlash against globalization, technology disruption, increasing energy prices, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, wage bills are increasing,
customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Sanford C. Bernstein CEO Robert van Brugge, Video
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Sanford C. Bernstein CEO Robert van Brugge, Video case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Bernstein Sanford, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Bernstein Sanford 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 CEO Robert van Brugge, Video can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Sanford C. Bernstein CEO Robert van Brugge, Video case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Bernstein Sanford
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 Bernstein Sanford
Strengths Sanford C. Bernstein CEO Robert van Brugge, Video | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Bernstein Sanford in Sanford C. Bernstein CEO Robert van Brugge, Video Harvard Business Review case study are -
Diverse revenue streams
– Bernstein Sanford is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Sanford C. Bernstein CEO Robert van Brugge, Video 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
– Bernstein Sanford 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 CEO Robert van Brugge, Video 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.
Analytics focus
– Bernstein Sanford 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 Linda A. Hill, Allison J. Wigen 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Organizational Development industry
– Sanford C. Bernstein CEO Robert van Brugge, Video firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Bernstein Sanford to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Organizational Development industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Bernstein Sanford to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Bernstein Sanford 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.
Digital Transformation in Organizational Development segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Bernstein Sanford digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Bernstein Sanford 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Bernstein Sanford 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 CEO Robert van Brugge, Video - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Organizational Resilience of Bernstein Sanford
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Bernstein Sanford does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Bernstein Sanford has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Bernstein Sanford 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Bernstein Sanford 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 Sanford C. Bernstein CEO Robert van Brugge, Video 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 Bernstein Sanford 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.
High brand equity
– Bernstein Sanford has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Bernstein Sanford to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Weaknesses Sanford C. Bernstein CEO Robert van Brugge, Video | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Sanford C. Bernstein CEO Robert van Brugge, Video are -
Products dominated business model
– Even though Bernstein Sanford 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 CEO Robert van Brugge, Video should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Bernstein Sanford is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Organizational Development segment. Bernstein Sanford needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Bernstein Sanford to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Sanford C. Bernstein CEO Robert van Brugge, Video 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 Sanford C. Bernstein CEO Robert van Brugge, Video can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Bernstein Sanford is planning to shift buying processes online.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Bernstein Sanford 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. Bernstein Sanford 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Sanford C. Bernstein CEO Robert van Brugge, Video, it seems that the employees of Bernstein Sanford 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Sanford C. Bernstein CEO Robert van Brugge, Video, in the dynamic environment Bernstein Sanford has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Bernstein Sanford has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Bernstein Sanford 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Bernstein Sanford 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 dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Sanford C. Bernstein CEO Robert van Brugge, Video 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 Bernstein Sanford has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Bernstein Sanford, firm in the HBR case study Sanford C. Bernstein CEO Robert van Brugge, Video needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Sanford C. Bernstein CEO Robert van Brugge, Video HBR case study mentions - Bernstein Sanford 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.
Opportunities Sanford C. Bernstein CEO Robert van Brugge, Video | 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 CEO Robert van Brugge, Video are -
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. Bernstein Sanford 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. Bernstein Sanford 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
– Bernstein Sanford 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 CEO Robert van Brugge, Video - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Bernstein Sanford to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Loyalty marketing
– Bernstein Sanford 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 Bernstein Sanford can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Bernstein Sanford 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 Bernstein Sanford to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Bernstein Sanford 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, Sanford C. Bernstein CEO Robert van Brugge, Video, 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 Bernstein Sanford 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.
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. Bernstein Sanford can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Bernstein Sanford 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Bernstein Sanford can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Bernstein Sanford operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Organizational Development sector.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Bernstein Sanford 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Bernstein Sanford is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Sanford C. Bernstein CEO Robert van Brugge, Video 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Bernstein Sanford 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.
Threats Sanford C. Bernstein CEO Robert van Brugge, Video 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 CEO Robert van Brugge, Video are -
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.
Increasing wage structure of Bernstein Sanford
– 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 Bernstein Sanford.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Bernstein Sanford 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
– Bernstein Sanford 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.
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 Bernstein Sanford business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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 Bernstein Sanford.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Bernstein Sanford is facing in Organizational Development sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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 Bernstein Sanford 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. Bernstein Sanford can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Environmental challenges
– Bernstein Sanford 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. Bernstein Sanford can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Organizational Development industry.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Bernstein Sanford 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.
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 CEO Robert van Brugge, Video, Bernstein Sanford 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 .
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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Sanford C. Bernstein CEO Robert van Brugge, Video 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 CEO Robert van Brugge, Video 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 CEO Robert van Brugge, Video 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 CEO Robert van Brugge, Video 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 CEO Robert van Brugge, Video 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 Bernstein Sanford needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.