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Following Lance Armstrong: Excellence Corrupted SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution

Case Study Description of Following Lance Armstrong: Excellence Corrupted


After years of vigorous denials, on January 14, 2013 Lance Armstrong admitted in a television interview with Oprah Winfrey that he "doped" in each of his record seven consecutive Tour de France victories, confirming the findings a few months earlier by the US Anti-Doping Agency that he had orchestrated "a massive team doping scheme, more extensive than any previously revealed in professional sports history." Until that moment with Oprah, Armstrong had consistently and strenuously denied using performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs), blood transfusions, or other artificial enhancers to compete in the grueling, three-week race throughout France. He verbally thrashed, bullied and threatened legal action against riders, journalists, race officials, and anyone else who had suggested he had cheated. This case explores Armstrong's leadership of a corrupt culture, the extensive nature of the cheating scandal among elite athletes, the decisions taken by other riders to both support Armstrong and his scheme and ultimately to admit to cheating, and the costs borne by those associated with Armstrong. It allows for discussion of the responsibilities that leaders have to followers, and that followers have to themselves and to others.

Authors :: Clayton Rose, Noah Fisher

Topics :: Organizational Development

Tags :: Ethics, Leadership, SWOT Analysis, SWOT Matrix, TOWS, Weighted SWOT Analysis

Swot Analysis of "Following Lance Armstrong: Excellence Corrupted" written by Clayton Rose, Noah Fisher includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Armstrong Doping facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Following Lance Armstrong: Excellence Corrupted case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Ethics, Leadership and Organizational Development.


Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Following Lance Armstrong: Excellence Corrupted casestudy better are - – increasing transportation and logistics costs, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, there is backlash against globalization, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, wage bills are increasing, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing energy prices, etc



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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Following Lance Armstrong: Excellence Corrupted


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




Strengths Following Lance Armstrong: Excellence Corrupted | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Armstrong Doping in Following Lance Armstrong: Excellence Corrupted Harvard Business Review case study are -

High switching costs

– The high switching costs that Armstrong Doping 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.

Effective Research and Development (R&D)

– Armstrong Doping 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 Following Lance Armstrong: Excellence Corrupted - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.

Training and development

– Armstrong Doping has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Following Lance Armstrong: Excellence Corrupted 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

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

Successful track record of launching new products

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

Strong track record of project management

– Armstrong Doping 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 recruit top talent

– Armstrong Doping is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Following Lance Armstrong: Excellence Corrupted are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.

Highly skilled collaborators

– Armstrong Doping 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 Following Lance Armstrong: Excellence Corrupted HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.

Low bargaining power of suppliers

– Suppliers of Armstrong Doping in the sector have low bargaining power. Following Lance Armstrong: Excellence Corrupted has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Armstrong Doping to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.

Cross disciplinary teams

– Horizontal connected teams at the Armstrong Doping 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.

Innovation driven organization

– Armstrong Doping is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Following Lance Armstrong: Excellence Corrupted 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 Armstrong Doping

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






Weaknesses Following Lance Armstrong: Excellence Corrupted | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of Following Lance Armstrong: Excellence Corrupted are -

Slow to harness new channels of communication

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

Slow to strategic competitive environment developments

– As Following Lance Armstrong: Excellence Corrupted HBR case study mentions - Armstrong Doping 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 operating costs

– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Following Lance Armstrong: Excellence Corrupted 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 Armstrong Doping 's lucrative customers.

Workers concerns about automation

– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Armstrong Doping 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.

Capital Spending Reduction

– Even during the low interest decade, Armstrong Doping has not been able to do capital spending to the tune of the competition. This has resulted into fewer innovations and company facing stiff competition from both existing competitors and new entrants who are disrupting the industry using digital technology.

Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy

– From the instances in the HBR case study Following Lance Armstrong: Excellence Corrupted, it seems that the employees of Armstrong Doping 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.

High cash cycle compare to competitors

Armstrong Doping 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 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 Armstrong Doping supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Following Lance Armstrong: Excellence Corrupted, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Armstrong Doping vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.

Aligning sales with marketing

– It come across in the case study Following Lance Armstrong: Excellence Corrupted 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 Following Lance Armstrong: Excellence Corrupted can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Armstrong Doping is planning to shift buying processes online.

High dependence on star products

– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Following Lance Armstrong: Excellence Corrupted 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 Armstrong Doping has relatively successful track record of launching new products.

Ability to respond to the competition

– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Following Lance Armstrong: Excellence Corrupted, in the dynamic environment Armstrong Doping has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Armstrong Doping has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.




Opportunities Following Lance Armstrong: Excellence Corrupted | 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 Following Lance Armstrong: Excellence Corrupted are -

Low interest rates

– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Armstrong Doping 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.

Learning at scale

– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Armstrong Doping 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.

Developing new processes and practices

– Armstrong Doping 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.

Loyalty marketing

– Armstrong Doping 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.

Building a culture of innovation

– managers at Armstrong Doping 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.

Reforming the budgeting process

- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Armstrong Doping can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.

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

Redefining models of collaboration and team work

– As explained in the weaknesses section, Armstrong Doping is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Following Lance Armstrong: Excellence Corrupted 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.

Using analytics as competitive advantage

– Armstrong Doping 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 Following Lance Armstrong: Excellence Corrupted - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Armstrong Doping to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.

Better consumer reach

– The expansion of the 5G network will help Armstrong Doping to increase its market reach. Armstrong Doping will be able to reach out to new customers. Secondly 5G will also provide technology framework to build new tools and products that can help more immersive consumer experience and faster consumer journey.

Reconfiguring business model

– The expansion of digital payment system, the bringing down of international transactions costs using Bitcoin and other blockchain based currencies, etc can help Armstrong Doping 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 Armstrong Doping 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

– Armstrong Doping 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.




Threats Following Lance Armstrong: Excellence Corrupted External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis


The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Following Lance Armstrong: Excellence Corrupted are -

High dependence on third party suppliers

– Armstrong Doping 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.

Shortening product life cycle

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

Environmental challenges

– Armstrong Doping 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. Armstrong Doping can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Organizational Development industry.

Stagnating economy with rate increase

– Armstrong Doping 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.

Learning curve for new practices

– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Following Lance Armstrong: Excellence Corrupted, Armstrong Doping 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 .

Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins

– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Armstrong Doping 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 Following Lance Armstrong: Excellence Corrupted .

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 Armstrong Doping business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.

Consumer confidence and its impact on Armstrong Doping demand

– There is a high probability of declining consumer confidence, given – high inflammation rate, rise of gig economy, lower job stability, increasing cost of living, higher interest rates, and aging demography. All the factors contribute to people saving higher rate of their income, resulting in lower consumer demand in the industry and other sectors.

Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution

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

Barriers of entry lowering

– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Armstrong Doping with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.

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

Trade war between China and United States

– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Armstrong Doping 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.

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.




Weighted SWOT Analysis of Following Lance Armstrong: Excellence Corrupted 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 Following Lance Armstrong: Excellence Corrupted 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 Following Lance Armstrong: Excellence Corrupted 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 Following Lance Armstrong: Excellence Corrupted 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 Following Lance Armstrong: Excellence Corrupted 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 Armstrong Doping needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.



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