Gary Loveman: Paths to Power (2009) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Organizational Development
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Gary Loveman: Paths to Power (2009)
Gary Loveman, a former assistant professor at Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration, became Chief Operating Officer of Harrah's Entertainment in 1998. He was an outsider in a very insular business who had no significant administrative or managerial experience. In this video, Loveman discusses how he was profoundly unqualified for the position and what he did to overcome the challenges that he and the company faced. He talks about focusing on activities that would drive performance in the near term and on critical relationships that had to be successful. Loveman also explores why people follow a leader and what he was able to achieve at Harrah's.
Swot Analysis of "Gary Loveman: Paths to Power (2009)" written by Jeffrey Pfeffer includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Loveman Harrah's facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Gary Loveman: Paths to Power (2009) case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Influence, Leadership, Managing people and Organizational Development.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Gary Loveman: Paths to Power (2009) casestudy better are - – challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, there is increasing trade war between United States & China,
increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Gary Loveman: Paths to Power (2009)
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Gary Loveman: Paths to Power (2009) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Loveman Harrah's, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Loveman Harrah's 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 Gary Loveman: Paths to Power (2009) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Gary Loveman: Paths to Power (2009) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Loveman Harrah's
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 Loveman Harrah's
Strengths Gary Loveman: Paths to Power (2009) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Loveman Harrah's in Gary Loveman: Paths to Power (2009) Harvard Business Review case study are -
Organizational Resilience of Loveman Harrah's
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Loveman Harrah's does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Loveman Harrah's is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Gary Loveman: Paths to Power (2009) are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Loveman Harrah's has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Loveman Harrah's 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Loveman Harrah's is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Gary Loveman: Paths to Power (2009) 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.
High brand equity
– Loveman Harrah's has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Loveman Harrah's to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Organizational Development industry
– Gary Loveman: Paths to Power (2009) firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Loveman Harrah's to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Organizational Development industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Loveman Harrah's to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Loveman Harrah's in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Gary Loveman: Paths to Power (2009) 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Loveman Harrah's is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Digital Transformation in Organizational Development segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Loveman Harrah's digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Loveman Harrah's 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Loveman Harrah's 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Loveman Harrah's in the sector have low bargaining power. Gary Loveman: Paths to Power (2009) has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Loveman Harrah's to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Weaknesses Gary Loveman: Paths to Power (2009) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Gary Loveman: Paths to Power (2009) are -
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Loveman Harrah's 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Loveman Harrah's products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Loveman Harrah's needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Gary Loveman: Paths to Power (2009) 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 Gary Loveman: Paths to Power (2009) can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Loveman Harrah's is planning to shift buying processes online.
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 Loveman Harrah's supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Gary Loveman: Paths to Power (2009), it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Loveman Harrah's vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Loveman Harrah's 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. Loveman Harrah's 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Loveman Harrah's, firm in the HBR case study Gary Loveman: Paths to Power (2009) needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Loveman Harrah's is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Gary Loveman: Paths to Power (2009) can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Loveman Harrah's is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Organizational Development segment. Loveman Harrah's needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Loveman Harrah's to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Need for greater diversity
– Loveman Harrah's 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Loveman Harrah's 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Gary Loveman: Paths to Power (2009), 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 Gary Loveman: Paths to Power (2009) | 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 Gary Loveman: Paths to Power (2009) are -
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Loveman Harrah's 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 Loveman Harrah's to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Manufacturing automation
– Loveman Harrah's can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Organizational Development segment. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Loveman Harrah's 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Loveman Harrah's is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Gary Loveman: Paths to Power (2009) 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Loveman Harrah's 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, Gary Loveman: Paths to Power (2009), to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Loveman Harrah's has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Loveman Harrah's to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Gary Loveman: Paths to Power (2009) case study. Loveman Harrah's can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Loyalty marketing
– Loveman Harrah's 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Loveman Harrah's 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.
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. Loveman Harrah's can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Loveman Harrah's can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Loveman Harrah's 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. Loveman Harrah's can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Buying journey improvements
– Loveman Harrah's can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Gary Loveman: Paths to Power (2009) suggest that firm can provide automated chats to help consumers solve their own problems, provide online suggestions to get maximum out of the products and services, and help consumers to build a community where they can interact with each other to develop new features and uses.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Loveman Harrah's 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.
Threats Gary Loveman: Paths to Power (2009) External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Gary Loveman: Paths to Power (2009) are -
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. Loveman Harrah's needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Organizational Development industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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 Loveman Harrah's business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Gary Loveman: Paths to Power (2009), Loveman Harrah's 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 Loveman Harrah's is facing in Organizational Development sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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 Loveman Harrah's in the Organizational Development sector and impact the bottomline 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. Loveman Harrah's 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
– Loveman Harrah's 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Loveman Harrah's 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Loveman Harrah's 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.
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 Loveman Harrah's.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Loveman Harrah's 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.
Aging population
– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Loveman Harrah's with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Gary Loveman: Paths to Power (2009) 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 Gary Loveman: Paths to Power (2009) 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 Gary Loveman: Paths to Power (2009) 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 Gary Loveman: Paths to Power (2009) 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 Gary Loveman: Paths to Power (2009) 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 Loveman Harrah's needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.