CIBC: Fostering an Inclusive Culture, Leading with Gender SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Organizational Development
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of CIBC: Fostering an Inclusive Culture, Leading with Gender
In June 2013, the senior vice-president of talent management of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC), recognized an organizational need at the bank. He realized that, to build a strong workforce, CIBC needed to move from simply filling diversity targets through recruitment to a focus on the development and advancement of a leadership talent pool. Towards that goal, he appointed the vice-president of executive talent management to lead a new diversity and inclusion department. CIBC had an even representation of women at an aggregate level, but the company wanted to improve the level of representation at the executive level. The vice-president of executive talent management conducted an internal and external analysis of gender diversity and inclusion in the financial sector. She then wondered how to continue the momentum by leveraging CIBC's strong track record as a company committed to diversity, hoping to evolve the strategic focus on gender. She also wanted to determine which key leaders to engage and how best to secure their sponsorship.
Swot Analysis of "CIBC: Fostering an Inclusive Culture, Leading with Gender" written by Alison Konrad, Lindsay Birbrager includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Cibc Diversity facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in CIBC: Fostering an Inclusive Culture, Leading with Gender case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Gender, Human resource management and Organizational Development.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the CIBC: Fostering an Inclusive Culture, Leading with Gender casestudy better are - – there is increasing trade war between United States & China, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , geopolitical disruptions, increasing transportation and logistics costs, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models,
central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, wage bills are increasing, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of CIBC: Fostering an Inclusive Culture, Leading with Gender
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in CIBC: Fostering an Inclusive Culture, Leading with Gender case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Cibc Diversity, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Cibc Diversity 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 CIBC: Fostering an Inclusive Culture, Leading with Gender can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in CIBC: Fostering an Inclusive Culture, Leading with Gender case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Cibc Diversity
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 Cibc Diversity
Strengths CIBC: Fostering an Inclusive Culture, Leading with Gender | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Cibc Diversity in CIBC: Fostering an Inclusive Culture, Leading with Gender Harvard Business Review case study are -
Successful track record of launching new products
– Cibc Diversity has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Cibc Diversity 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.
Organizational Resilience of Cibc Diversity
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Cibc Diversity does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Organizational Development industry
– CIBC: Fostering an Inclusive Culture, Leading with Gender firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Cibc Diversity to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Organizational Development industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Cibc Diversity to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
High brand equity
– Cibc Diversity has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Cibc Diversity to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Cibc Diversity 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Cibc Diversity is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the CIBC: Fostering an Inclusive Culture, Leading with Gender 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
– Cibc Diversity has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in CIBC: Fostering an Inclusive Culture, Leading with Gender 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Cibc Diversity in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Cibc Diversity 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 CIBC: Fostering an Inclusive Culture, Leading with Gender HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Cibc Diversity 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Cibc Diversity in the sector have low bargaining power. CIBC: Fostering an Inclusive Culture, Leading with Gender has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Cibc Diversity to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Weaknesses CIBC: Fostering an Inclusive Culture, Leading with Gender | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of CIBC: Fostering an Inclusive Culture, Leading with Gender are -
Products dominated business model
– Even though Cibc Diversity 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 - CIBC: Fostering an Inclusive Culture, Leading with Gender 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 CIBC: Fostering an Inclusive Culture, Leading with Gender, is just above the industry average. Cibc Diversity 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 cash cycle compare to competitors
Cibc Diversity 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Cibc Diversity, firm in the HBR case study CIBC: Fostering an Inclusive Culture, Leading with Gender needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Cibc Diversity is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study CIBC: Fostering an Inclusive Culture, Leading with Gender can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Cibc Diversity 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
– Cibc Diversity 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 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 Cibc Diversity supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - CIBC: Fostering an Inclusive Culture, Leading with Gender, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Cibc Diversity vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study CIBC: Fostering an Inclusive Culture, Leading with Gender, 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Cibc Diversity 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study CIBC: Fostering an Inclusive Culture, Leading with Gender 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 CIBC: Fostering an Inclusive Culture, Leading with Gender can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Cibc Diversity is planning to shift buying processes online.
Opportunities CIBC: Fostering an Inclusive Culture, Leading with Gender | 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 CIBC: Fostering an Inclusive Culture, Leading with Gender are -
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Cibc Diversity in the consumer business. Now Cibc Diversity can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Manufacturing automation
– Cibc Diversity 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Cibc Diversity 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
– Cibc Diversity 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Cibc Diversity to increase its market reach. Cibc Diversity 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.
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. Cibc Diversity can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Cibc Diversity 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, CIBC: Fostering an Inclusive Culture, Leading with Gender, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Cibc Diversity is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. CIBC: Fostering an Inclusive Culture, Leading with Gender 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Cibc Diversity 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Cibc Diversity 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 CIBC: Fostering an Inclusive Culture, Leading with Gender - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Cibc Diversity to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Cibc Diversity 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Cibc Diversity 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 Cibc Diversity 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.
Threats CIBC: Fostering an Inclusive Culture, Leading with Gender External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study CIBC: Fostering an Inclusive Culture, Leading with Gender are -
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
– Cibc Diversity 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.
Environmental challenges
– Cibc Diversity 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. Cibc Diversity can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Organizational Development industry.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Cibc Diversity 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 CIBC: Fostering an Inclusive Culture, Leading with Gender .
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. Cibc Diversity 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.
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 Cibc Diversity business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Cibc Diversity with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Cibc Diversity has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Organizational Development industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Cibc Diversity 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study CIBC: Fostering an Inclusive Culture, Leading with Gender, Cibc Diversity 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 .
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. Cibc Diversity can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Cibc Diversity 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.
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 Cibc Diversity.
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 Cibc Diversity in the Organizational Development sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of CIBC: Fostering an Inclusive Culture, Leading with Gender 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 CIBC: Fostering an Inclusive Culture, Leading with Gender 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 CIBC: Fostering an Inclusive Culture, Leading with Gender 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 CIBC: Fostering an Inclusive Culture, Leading with Gender 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 CIBC: Fostering an Inclusive Culture, Leading with Gender 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 Cibc Diversity needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.