General Dynamics: Compensation and Strategy (A) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Organizational Development
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of General Dynamics: Compensation and Strategy (A)
William Anders became CEO of defense giant General Dynamics in 1991 as the Cold War was ending and as the industry became saddled with excess capacity. Observing that the company was underserving shareholders and required a massive change in its culture, Anders brought in a new management team and introduced a new compensation system that better aligned the interests of managers and shareholders. Particularly controversial was the Gain/Sharing system, which paid large cash bonuses for each $10 increase in the stock price. The plan was widely criticized for rewarding top executives for manipulating stock prices through public announcements of layoffs and divestitures. Still, by the end of 1991, the stock price had climbed 113%, representing a $1.2 billion increase in shareholder wealth during the year. Teching Purpose: This case can serve several purposes. First, it provides an introduction to executive compensation. Second, it highlights the importance of linking incentives and corporate strategy in the context of a declining industry. Finally, the case can motivate discussions of downsizing and unemployment and the merits of rewarding top executives for cutting excess capacity.
Swot Analysis of "General Dynamics: Compensation and Strategy (A)" written by Kevin J. Murphy, Jay Dial includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Anders Rewarding facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in General Dynamics: Compensation and Strategy (A) case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Competitive strategy, Motivating people and Organizational Development.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the General Dynamics: Compensation and Strategy (A) casestudy better are - – competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing commodity prices, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , geopolitical disruptions, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%,
talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing energy prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of General Dynamics: Compensation and Strategy (A)
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in General Dynamics: Compensation and Strategy (A) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Anders Rewarding, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Anders Rewarding 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 General Dynamics: Compensation and Strategy (A) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in General Dynamics: Compensation and Strategy (A) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Anders Rewarding
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 Anders Rewarding
Strengths General Dynamics: Compensation and Strategy (A) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Anders Rewarding in General Dynamics: Compensation and Strategy (A) Harvard Business Review case study are -
Innovation driven organization
– Anders Rewarding is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in General Dynamics: Compensation and Strategy (A) Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Organizational Resilience of Anders Rewarding
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Anders Rewarding does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Anders Rewarding 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 General Dynamics: Compensation and Strategy (A) HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Analytics focus
– Anders Rewarding 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 Kevin J. Murphy, Jay Dial 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.
Training and development
– Anders Rewarding has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in General Dynamics: Compensation and Strategy (A) 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
– General Dynamics: Compensation and Strategy (A) firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Anders Rewarding to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Organizational Development industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Anders Rewarding to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Diverse revenue streams
– Anders Rewarding is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in General Dynamics: Compensation and Strategy (A) 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Anders Rewarding has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Anders Rewarding 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Anders Rewarding 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 General Dynamics: Compensation and Strategy (A) - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Anders Rewarding in the sector have low bargaining power. General Dynamics: Compensation and Strategy (A) has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Anders Rewarding to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Anders Rewarding 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.
Learning organization
- Anders Rewarding is a learning organization. It has inculcated three key characters of learning organization in its processes and operations – exploration, creativity, and expansiveness. The work place at Anders Rewarding is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in General Dynamics: Compensation and Strategy (A) Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Weaknesses General Dynamics: Compensation and Strategy (A) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of General Dynamics: Compensation and Strategy (A) are -
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 Anders Rewarding supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - General Dynamics: Compensation and Strategy (A), it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Anders Rewarding vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Anders Rewarding 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Kevin J. Murphy, Jay Dial suggests that, Anders Rewarding 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 dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the General Dynamics: Compensation and Strategy (A) 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 Anders Rewarding has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Anders Rewarding 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Anders Rewarding is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Organizational Development segment. Anders Rewarding needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Anders Rewarding to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study General Dynamics: Compensation and Strategy (A) 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 General Dynamics: Compensation and Strategy (A) can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Anders Rewarding is planning to shift buying processes online.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study General Dynamics: Compensation and Strategy (A), in the dynamic environment Anders Rewarding has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Anders Rewarding has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study General Dynamics: Compensation and Strategy (A), it seems that the employees of Anders Rewarding 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As General Dynamics: Compensation and Strategy (A) HBR case study mentions - Anders Rewarding 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Anders Rewarding 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 - General Dynamics: Compensation and Strategy (A) should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Opportunities General Dynamics: Compensation and Strategy (A) | 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 General Dynamics: Compensation and Strategy (A) are -
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Organizational Development industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Anders Rewarding can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Anders Rewarding 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Anders Rewarding 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Anders Rewarding 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. Anders Rewarding can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Anders Rewarding 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Anders Rewarding 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 Anders Rewarding to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Anders Rewarding to increase its market reach. Anders Rewarding 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Anders Rewarding can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Developing new processes and practices
– Anders Rewarding 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Anders Rewarding 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Anders Rewarding has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Anders Rewarding to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the General Dynamics: Compensation and Strategy (A) case study. Anders Rewarding can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Loyalty marketing
– Anders Rewarding has focused on building a highly responsive customer relationship management platform. This platform is built on in-house data and driven by analytics and artificial intelligence. The customer analytics can help the organization to fine tune its loyalty marketing efforts, increase the wallet share of the organization, reduce wastage on mainstream advertising spending, build better pricing strategies using personalization, etc.
Threats General Dynamics: Compensation and Strategy (A) External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study General Dynamics: Compensation and Strategy (A) are -
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 Anders Rewarding in the Organizational Development sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Anders Rewarding 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.
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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Anders Rewarding with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Anders Rewarding 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Anders Rewarding 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Anders Rewarding 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 General Dynamics: Compensation and Strategy (A) .
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Anders Rewarding in the Organizational Development industry. The Organizational Development industry is already at various protected from local competition in China, with the rise of trade war the protection levels may go up. This presents a clear threat of current business model in Chinese market.
Increasing wage structure of Anders Rewarding
– 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 Anders Rewarding.
Regulatory challenges
– Anders Rewarding 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study General Dynamics: Compensation and Strategy (A), Anders Rewarding 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. Anders Rewarding can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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 Anders Rewarding.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of General Dynamics: Compensation and Strategy (A) 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 General Dynamics: Compensation and Strategy (A) 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 General Dynamics: Compensation and Strategy (A) 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 General Dynamics: Compensation and Strategy (A) 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 General Dynamics: Compensation and Strategy (A) 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 Anders Rewarding needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.