Facing a Crisis: Lars Kruse Thomsen Starts His New Job (A) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Organizational Development
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Facing a Crisis: Lars Kruse Thomsen Starts His New Job (A)
Sets the stage for a change management scenario. Issues include subsidiary/headquarters relationships, multicultural groups, dynamic industry conditions, and culture and personality as driving forces in a corporate turnaround. Having grown as much as possible in its Scandinavian home markets, House of Prince aims to make its Prince cigarette brand as dominant a competitor in the emerging Baltic markets as it is in Denmark. The company sends Lars Kruse Thomsen to Warsaw as the newly appointed director of sales and marketing at House of Prince's Polish operation. What he finds upon his arrival--organizational inertia, a leadership vacuum, and unreliable sales and performance data--shocks him. Thomsen realizes that to reverse the company's precipitous decline, he must fix what is at the root of its malaise. Under his direction, the sales and marketing department will lead the way.
Swot Analysis of "Facing a Crisis: Lars Kruse Thomsen Starts His New Job (A)" written by Joe Distefano, Colleen Lief includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Thomsen Kruse facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Facing a Crisis: Lars Kruse Thomsen Starts His New Job (A) case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Cross-cultural management, Leadership, Marketing, Organizational culture, Reorganization, Sales, Strategy execution and Organizational Development.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Facing a Crisis: Lars Kruse Thomsen Starts His New Job (A) casestudy better are - – challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, there is backlash against globalization, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, technology disruption, wage bills are increasing, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy,
supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Facing a Crisis: Lars Kruse Thomsen Starts His New Job (A)
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Facing a Crisis: Lars Kruse Thomsen Starts His New Job (A) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Thomsen Kruse, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Thomsen Kruse 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 Facing a Crisis: Lars Kruse Thomsen Starts His New Job (A) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Facing a Crisis: Lars Kruse Thomsen Starts His New Job (A) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Thomsen Kruse
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 Thomsen Kruse
Strengths Facing a Crisis: Lars Kruse Thomsen Starts His New Job (A) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Thomsen Kruse in Facing a Crisis: Lars Kruse Thomsen Starts His New Job (A) Harvard Business Review case study are -
Ability to lead change in Organizational Development field
– Thomsen Kruse 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 Thomsen Kruse in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
High brand equity
– Thomsen Kruse has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Thomsen Kruse to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Training and development
– Thomsen Kruse has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Facing a Crisis: Lars Kruse Thomsen Starts His New Job (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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Thomsen Kruse 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Facing a Crisis: Lars Kruse Thomsen Starts His New Job (A) 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.
Analytics focus
– Thomsen Kruse 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 Joe Distefano, Colleen Lief 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.
Organizational Resilience of Thomsen Kruse
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Thomsen Kruse does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Thomsen Kruse in the sector have low bargaining power. Facing a Crisis: Lars Kruse Thomsen Starts His New Job (A) has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Thomsen Kruse to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Strong track record of project management
– Thomsen Kruse is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Organizational Development industry
– Facing a Crisis: Lars Kruse Thomsen Starts His New Job (A) firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Thomsen Kruse to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Organizational Development industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Thomsen Kruse to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Thomsen Kruse has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Thomsen Kruse has effective processes in place that helps in exploring new product needs, doing quick pilot testing, and then launching the products quickly using its extensive distribution network.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Thomsen Kruse 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 Facing a Crisis: Lars Kruse Thomsen Starts His New Job (A) HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Weaknesses Facing a Crisis: Lars Kruse Thomsen Starts His New Job (A) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Facing a Crisis: Lars Kruse Thomsen Starts His New Job (A) are -
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Facing a Crisis: Lars Kruse Thomsen Starts His New Job (A), in the dynamic environment Thomsen Kruse has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Thomsen Kruse has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Thomsen Kruse 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Thomsen Kruse 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. Thomsen Kruse 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Facing a Crisis: Lars Kruse Thomsen Starts His New Job (A) 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 Thomsen Kruse 's lucrative customers.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Thomsen Kruse, firm in the HBR case study Facing a Crisis: Lars Kruse Thomsen Starts His New Job (A) needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Thomsen Kruse 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Thomsen Kruse products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Thomsen Kruse needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Need for greater diversity
– Thomsen Kruse 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
Thomsen Kruse 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, Joe Distefano, Colleen Lief suggests that, Thomsen Kruse 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Facing a Crisis: Lars Kruse Thomsen Starts His New Job (A), 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.
Opportunities Facing a Crisis: Lars Kruse Thomsen Starts His New Job (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 Facing a Crisis: Lars Kruse Thomsen Starts His New Job (A) are -
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Thomsen Kruse 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
– Thomsen Kruse 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.
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. Thomsen Kruse 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 Thomsen Kruse 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 Thomsen Kruse to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Thomsen Kruse can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Thomsen Kruse operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Organizational Development sector.
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. Thomsen Kruse can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Thomsen Kruse is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Facing a Crisis: Lars Kruse Thomsen Starts His New Job (A) 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Thomsen Kruse 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Thomsen Kruse 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Thomsen Kruse 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
– Thomsen Kruse 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Thomsen Kruse 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, Facing a Crisis: Lars Kruse Thomsen Starts His New Job (A), to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
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 Thomsen Kruse in the consumer business. Now Thomsen Kruse can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Threats Facing a Crisis: Lars Kruse Thomsen Starts His New Job (A) External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Facing a Crisis: Lars Kruse Thomsen Starts His New Job (A) are -
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Thomsen Kruse 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.
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. Thomsen Kruse needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Organizational Development industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Thomsen Kruse 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.
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. Thomsen Kruse 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Thomsen Kruse 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 Facing a Crisis: Lars Kruse Thomsen Starts His New Job (A) .
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 Thomsen Kruse business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Thomsen Kruse 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.
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.
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. Thomsen Kruse can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Regulatory challenges
– Thomsen Kruse 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Thomsen Kruse has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Organizational Development industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Thomsen Kruse 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.
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 Thomsen Kruse in the Organizational Development sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Thomsen Kruse 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Facing a Crisis: Lars Kruse Thomsen Starts His New Job (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 Facing a Crisis: Lars Kruse Thomsen Starts His New Job (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 Facing a Crisis: Lars Kruse Thomsen Starts His New Job (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 Facing a Crisis: Lars Kruse Thomsen Starts His New Job (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 Facing a Crisis: Lars Kruse Thomsen Starts His New Job (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 Thomsen Kruse needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
