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Facing a Crisis: Lars Kruse Thomsen Starts His New Job (A) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

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.

Authors :: Joe Distefano, Colleen Lief

Topics :: Organizational Development

Tags :: Cross-cultural management, Leadership, Marketing, Organizational culture, Reorganization, Sales, Strategy execution, SWOT Analysis, SWOT Matrix, TOWS, Weighted SWOT Analysis

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 - – increasing transportation and logistics costs, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing energy prices, increasing commodity prices, technology disruption, etc



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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 -

Digital Transformation in Organizational Development segment

- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Thomsen Kruse digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Thomsen Kruse 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.

Ability to recruit top talent

– Thomsen Kruse is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Facing a Crisis: Lars Kruse Thomsen Starts His New Job (A) are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.

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.

Effective Research and Development (R&D)

– Thomsen Kruse 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 Facing a Crisis: Lars Kruse Thomsen Starts His New Job (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.

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.

Learning organization

- Thomsen Kruse 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 Thomsen Kruse is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Facing a Crisis: Lars Kruse Thomsen Starts His New Job (A) Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.

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.

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.

Innovation driven organization

– Thomsen Kruse is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Facing a Crisis: Lars Kruse Thomsen Starts His New Job (A) Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.

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.

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.

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.






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 -

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 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.

Capital Spending Reduction

– Even during the low interest decade, Thomsen Kruse 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.

Interest costs

– Compare to the competition, Thomsen Kruse 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.

Increasing silos among functional specialists

– The organizational structure of Thomsen Kruse is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Organizational Development segment. Thomsen Kruse needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Thomsen Kruse to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.

Slow to strategic competitive environment developments

– As Facing a Crisis: Lars Kruse Thomsen Starts His New Job (A) HBR case study mentions - Thomsen Kruse 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.

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 Thomsen Kruse supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Facing a Crisis: Lars Kruse Thomsen Starts His New Job (A), it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Thomsen Kruse vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.

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.

Aligning sales with marketing

– It come across in the case study Facing a Crisis: Lars Kruse Thomsen Starts His New Job (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 Facing a Crisis: Lars Kruse Thomsen Starts His New Job (A) can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Thomsen Kruse is planning to shift buying processes online.

Products dominated business model

– Even though Thomsen Kruse 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 - Facing a Crisis: Lars Kruse Thomsen Starts His New Job (A) should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.

High dependence on star products

– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Facing a Crisis: Lars Kruse Thomsen Starts His New Job (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 Thomsen Kruse has relatively successful track record of launching new products.




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 -

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.

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.

Better consumer reach

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

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.

Learning at scale

– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Thomsen Kruse 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.

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.

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 Thomsen Kruse 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 Thomsen Kruse 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.

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.

Creating value in data economy

– The success of analytics program of Thomsen Kruse has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Thomsen Kruse to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Facing a Crisis: Lars Kruse Thomsen Starts His New Job (A) case study. Thomsen Kruse can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.

Building a culture of innovation

– managers at Thomsen Kruse can make experimentation a productive activity and build a culture of innovation using approaches such as – mining transaction data, A/B testing of websites and selling platforms, engaging potential customers over various needs, and building on small ideas in the Organizational Development segment.

Using analytics as competitive advantage

– Thomsen Kruse 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 Facing a Crisis: Lars Kruse Thomsen Starts His New Job (A) - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Thomsen Kruse to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.

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.




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 -

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.

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.

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 Thomsen Kruse.

Increasing wage structure of Thomsen Kruse

– 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 Thomsen Kruse.

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.

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.

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.

Environmental challenges

– Thomsen Kruse needs to have a robust strategy against the disruptions arising from climate change and energy requirements. EU has identified it as key priority area and spending 30% of its 880 billion Euros European post Covid-19 recovery funds on green technology. Thomsen Kruse can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Organizational Development industry.

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.

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.

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 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.

Shortening product life cycle

– it is one of the major threat that Thomsen Kruse is facing in Organizational Development sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.




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.



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