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Organizational Alignment Exercise SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution

Case Study Description of Organizational Alignment Exercise


Presents an overview of a method for diagnosing and developing an organization's capability to achieve its goals and implement its strategy, with exercises for application. A rewritten version of an earlier exercise.

Authors :: Michael Beer, John J. Gabarro

Topics :: Organizational Development

Tags :: Competitive strategy, Human resource management, Leadership, Organizational culture, Organizational structure, Strategic planning, SWOT Analysis, SWOT Matrix, TOWS, Weighted SWOT Analysis

Swot Analysis of "Organizational Alignment Exercise" written by Michael Beer, John J. Gabarro includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Exercise Diagnosing facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Organizational Alignment Exercise case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Competitive strategy, Human resource management, Leadership, Organizational culture, Organizational structure, Strategic planning and Organizational Development.


Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Organizational Alignment Exercise casestudy better are - – increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , wage bills are increasing, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing transportation and logistics costs, geopolitical disruptions, etc



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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Organizational Alignment Exercise


SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Organizational Alignment Exercise case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Exercise Diagnosing, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Exercise Diagnosing 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 Organizational Alignment Exercise can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Organizational Alignment Exercise case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Exercise Diagnosing
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 Exercise Diagnosing




Strengths Organizational Alignment Exercise | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Exercise Diagnosing in Organizational Alignment Exercise Harvard Business Review case study are -

Strong track record of project management

– Exercise Diagnosing is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.

Analytics focus

– Exercise Diagnosing 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 Michael Beer, John J. Gabarro 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.

Successful track record of launching new products

– Exercise Diagnosing has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Exercise Diagnosing 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.

Sustainable margins compare to other players in Organizational Development industry

– Organizational Alignment Exercise firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Exercise Diagnosing to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Organizational Development industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Exercise Diagnosing to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.

Ability to recruit top talent

– Exercise Diagnosing is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Organizational Alignment Exercise are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.

Diverse revenue streams

– Exercise Diagnosing is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Organizational Alignment Exercise 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.

Effective Research and Development (R&D)

– Exercise Diagnosing 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 Organizational Alignment Exercise - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.

High switching costs

– The high switching costs that Exercise Diagnosing 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.

Training and development

– Exercise Diagnosing has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Organizational Alignment Exercise 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.

Operational resilience

– The operational resilience strategy in the Organizational Alignment Exercise 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.

Organizational Resilience of Exercise Diagnosing

– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Exercise Diagnosing does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.

Cross disciplinary teams

– Horizontal connected teams at the Exercise Diagnosing 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.






Weaknesses Organizational Alignment Exercise | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of Organizational Alignment Exercise are -

Compensation and incentives

– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Organizational Alignment Exercise, is just above the industry average. Exercise Diagnosing 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.

Capital Spending Reduction

– Even during the low interest decade, Exercise Diagnosing 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.

Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy

– From the instances in the HBR case study Organizational Alignment Exercise, it seems that the employees of Exercise Diagnosing 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.

Need for greater diversity

– Exercise Diagnosing 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 cash cycle compare to competitors

Exercise Diagnosing 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.

Workers concerns about automation

– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Exercise Diagnosing needs to come up with a strategy to reduce the workers concern regarding automation. Without a clear strategy, it could lead to disruption and uncertainty within the organization.

High dependence on star products

– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Organizational Alignment Exercise 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 Exercise Diagnosing has relatively successful track record of launching new products.

High bargaining power of channel partners

– Because of the regulatory requirements, Michael Beer, John J. Gabarro suggests that, Exercise Diagnosing is facing high bargaining power of the channel partners. So far it has not able to streamline the operations to reduce the bargaining power of the value chain partners in the industry.

High operating costs

– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Organizational Alignment Exercise 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 Exercise Diagnosing 's lucrative customers.

Interest costs

– Compare to the competition, Exercise Diagnosing 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.

Slow to harness new channels of communication

– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Exercise Diagnosing is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Organizational Alignment Exercise can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.




Opportunities Organizational Alignment Exercise | 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 Organizational Alignment Exercise are -

Better consumer reach

– The expansion of the 5G network will help Exercise Diagnosing to increase its market reach. Exercise Diagnosing 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.

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 Exercise Diagnosing 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.

Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities

– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Exercise Diagnosing 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 Exercise Diagnosing to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.

Using analytics as competitive advantage

– Exercise Diagnosing 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 Organizational Alignment Exercise - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Exercise Diagnosing to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.

Low interest rates

– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Exercise Diagnosing 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.

Loyalty marketing

– Exercise Diagnosing 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.

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 Exercise Diagnosing in the consumer business. Now Exercise Diagnosing can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.

Lowering marketing communication costs

– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Exercise Diagnosing 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.

Leveraging digital technologies

– Exercise Diagnosing 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.

Learning at scale

– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Exercise Diagnosing 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.

Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains

– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Exercise Diagnosing 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, Organizational Alignment Exercise, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.

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. Exercise Diagnosing can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.

Creating value in data economy

– The success of analytics program of Exercise Diagnosing has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Exercise Diagnosing to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Organizational Alignment Exercise case study. Exercise Diagnosing can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.




Threats Organizational Alignment Exercise External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis


The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Organizational Alignment Exercise are -

Regulatory challenges

– Exercise Diagnosing 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.

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. Exercise Diagnosing can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.

High dependence on third party suppliers

– Exercise Diagnosing 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.

Consumer confidence and its impact on Exercise Diagnosing 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.

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.

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. Exercise Diagnosing needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Organizational Development industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.

Increasing wage structure of Exercise Diagnosing

– 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 Exercise Diagnosing.

Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins

– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Exercise Diagnosing 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 Organizational Alignment Exercise .

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 Exercise Diagnosing business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.

Learning curve for new practices

– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Organizational Alignment Exercise, Exercise Diagnosing 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 .

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. Exercise Diagnosing 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.

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 Exercise Diagnosing in the Organizational Development sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.

Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution

– Exercise Diagnosing has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Organizational Development industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Exercise Diagnosing 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.




Weighted SWOT Analysis of Organizational Alignment Exercise 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 Organizational Alignment Exercise 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 Organizational Alignment Exercise 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 Organizational Alignment Exercise 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 Organizational Alignment Exercise 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 Exercise Diagnosing needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.



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