Keddeg Company (C): Succession to the Next Generation of Small Business SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Organizational Development
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Keddeg Company (C): Succession to the Next Generation of Small Business
A married couple who have a successful industrial B2B business evaluate whether or not to sell the business to two of their offspring, who are both entrepreneurial MBA graduates. Complicating factors include the fact that the sale price and structure need to finance the couple's retirement and give fair inheritance treatment to the remaining siblings. In addition, the father has had some health issues and the business is doing well, so there is a lot of forward momentum to sell to the next generation.
Swot Analysis of "Keddeg Company (C): Succession to the Next Generation of Small Business" written by John L. Ward, Carol Adler Zsolnay includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Keddeg Offspring facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Keddeg Company (C): Succession to the Next Generation of Small Business case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Corporate communications, Entrepreneurship, Succession planning and Organizational Development.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Keddeg Company (C): Succession to the Next Generation of Small Business casestudy better are - – cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, wage bills are increasing, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing commodity prices, there is backlash against globalization, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, there is increasing trade war between United States & China,
increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing energy prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Keddeg Company (C): Succession to the Next Generation of Small Business
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Keddeg Company (C): Succession to the Next Generation of Small Business case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Keddeg Offspring, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Keddeg Offspring 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 Keddeg Company (C): Succession to the Next Generation of Small Business can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Keddeg Company (C): Succession to the Next Generation of Small Business case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Keddeg Offspring
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 Keddeg Offspring
Strengths Keddeg Company (C): Succession to the Next Generation of Small Business | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Keddeg Offspring in Keddeg Company (C): Succession to the Next Generation of Small Business Harvard Business Review case study are -
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Keddeg Offspring in the sector have low bargaining power. Keddeg Company (C): Succession to the Next Generation of Small Business has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Keddeg Offspring to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Keddeg Offspring has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Keddeg Offspring 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Keddeg Offspring is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Keddeg Company (C): Succession to the Next Generation of Small Business are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Keddeg Offspring 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 Keddeg Company (C): Succession to the Next Generation of Small Business - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Organizational Development industry
– Keddeg Company (C): Succession to the Next Generation of Small Business firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Keddeg Offspring to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Organizational Development industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Keddeg Offspring to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Digital Transformation in Organizational Development segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Keddeg Offspring digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Keddeg Offspring 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Keddeg Offspring is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Keddeg Company (C): Succession to the Next Generation of Small Business case study a diverse revenue stream that has helped it to survive disruptions such as global pandemic in Covid-19, financial disruption of 2008, and supply chain disruption of 2021.
Strong track record of project management
– Keddeg Offspring is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Ability to lead change in Organizational Development field
– Keddeg Offspring is one of the leading players in its industry. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in its segment but also across the whole industry. The ability to lead change has enabled Keddeg Offspring in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Keddeg Offspring 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Keddeg Offspring is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Keddeg Company (C): Succession to the Next Generation of Small Business Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Keddeg Offspring 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 Keddeg Company (C): Succession to the Next Generation of Small Business | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Keddeg Company (C): Succession to the Next Generation of Small Business are -
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Keddeg Offspring 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. Keddeg Offspring 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Keddeg Offspring products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Keddeg Offspring needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, John L. Ward, Carol Adler Zsolnay suggests that, Keddeg Offspring 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Keddeg Company (C): Succession to the Next Generation of Small Business, in the dynamic environment Keddeg Offspring has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Keddeg Offspring has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Need for greater diversity
– Keddeg Offspring 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Keddeg Company (C): Succession to the Next Generation of Small Business 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 Keddeg Company (C): Succession to the Next Generation of Small Business can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Keddeg Offspring is planning to shift buying processes online.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Keddeg Offspring is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Organizational Development segment. Keddeg Offspring needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Keddeg Offspring to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Keddeg Offspring 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.
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 Keddeg Offspring supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Keddeg Company (C): Succession to the Next Generation of Small Business, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Keddeg Offspring vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Keddeg Offspring 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Keddeg Company (C): Succession to the Next Generation of Small Business HBR case study mentions - Keddeg Offspring 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 Keddeg Company (C): Succession to the Next Generation of Small Business | 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 Keddeg Company (C): Succession to the Next Generation of Small Business are -
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. Keddeg Offspring can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Keddeg Offspring 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 Keddeg Offspring to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
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. Keddeg Offspring can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Keddeg Offspring 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.
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 Keddeg Offspring 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Keddeg Offspring 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Keddeg Offspring 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.
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. Keddeg Offspring 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. Keddeg Offspring can further use this consumer data to build better customer loyalty, provide better products and service collection, and improve the value proposition in inflationary times.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Keddeg Offspring is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Keddeg Company (C): Succession to the Next Generation of Small Business 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Keddeg Offspring 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Keddeg Offspring 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, Keddeg Company (C): Succession to the Next Generation of Small Business, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Keddeg Offspring can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Keddeg Offspring operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Organizational Development sector.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Keddeg Offspring has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Keddeg Offspring to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Keddeg Company (C): Succession to the Next Generation of Small Business case study. Keddeg Offspring can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Threats Keddeg Company (C): Succession to the Next Generation of Small Business External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Keddeg Company (C): Succession to the Next Generation of Small Business are -
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Keddeg Offspring 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.
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 Keddeg Offspring 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 Keddeg Offspring with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Increasing wage structure of Keddeg Offspring
– 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 Keddeg Offspring.
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 Keddeg Offspring in the Organizational Development sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Regulatory challenges
– Keddeg Offspring 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.
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.
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. Keddeg Offspring 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 Keddeg Offspring.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Keddeg Company (C): Succession to the Next Generation of Small Business, Keddeg Offspring 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 .
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Keddeg Offspring is facing in Organizational Development sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Keddeg Offspring 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Keddeg Offspring 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 Keddeg Company (C): Succession to the Next Generation of Small Business .
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Keddeg Company (C): Succession to the Next Generation of Small Business 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 Keddeg Company (C): Succession to the Next Generation of Small Business 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 Keddeg Company (C): Succession to the Next Generation of Small Business 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 Keddeg Company (C): Succession to the Next Generation of Small Business 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 Keddeg Company (C): Succession to the Next Generation of Small Business 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 Keddeg Offspring needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
