Case Study Description of Marketing at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz
Describes the history and unique operating principles of the most successful corporate law firm in the country. Closes with a lengthy quotation by Martin Lipton, who is one of the firm's founding partners and who is described in an American Lawyer article as the "Elvis Presley of the M&A field." Lipton reflects on certain activities that the firm carries out aimed at building its reputation. Whether or not these activities constitute marketing is left an open question.
Swot Analysis of "Marketing at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz" written by Jay W. Lorsch, Samantha K. Graff includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Lipton Elvis facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Marketing at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Marketing, Organizational culture, Organizational structure, Public relations and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Marketing at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz casestudy better are - – digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing energy prices, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, technology disruption, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, geopolitical disruptions,
there is backlash against globalization, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Marketing at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Marketing at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Lipton Elvis, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Lipton Elvis 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 Marketing at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Marketing at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Lipton Elvis
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Sales & Marketing field.
4. Making a Sales & Marketing topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Lipton Elvis
Strengths Marketing at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Lipton Elvis in Marketing at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz Harvard Business Review case study are -
Organizational Resilience of Lipton Elvis
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Lipton Elvis does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Digital Transformation in Sales & Marketing segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Lipton Elvis digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Lipton Elvis 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 Lipton Elvis 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Lipton Elvis in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Lipton Elvis is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Marketing at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz 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
– Lipton Elvis 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 Marketing at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Analytics focus
– Lipton Elvis 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 Jay W. Lorsch, Samantha K. Graff 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Sales & Marketing industry
– Marketing at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Lipton Elvis to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Lipton Elvis to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Lipton Elvis 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 Marketing at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Lipton Elvis in the sector have low bargaining power. Marketing at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Lipton Elvis to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Training and development
– Lipton Elvis has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Marketing at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Lipton Elvis has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Lipton Elvis 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.
Weaknesses Marketing at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Marketing at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz are -
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Marketing at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz HBR case study mentions - Lipton Elvis 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Marketing at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Sales & Marketing 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Jay W. Lorsch, Samantha K. Graff suggests that, Lipton Elvis 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Lipton Elvis 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Lipton Elvis 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Lipton Elvis 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, Lipton Elvis 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. Lipton Elvis 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Lipton Elvis 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.
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 Lipton Elvis supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Marketing at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Lipton Elvis vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Lipton Elvis, firm in the HBR case study Marketing at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Marketing at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, in the dynamic environment Lipton Elvis has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Lipton Elvis has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Opportunities Marketing at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz | 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 Marketing at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz are -
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Lipton Elvis 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Lipton Elvis in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Sales & Marketing segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
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 Lipton Elvis in the consumer business. Now Lipton Elvis can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Developing new processes and practices
– Lipton Elvis can develop new processes and procedures in Sales & Marketing 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
– Lipton Elvis 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Lipton Elvis to increase its market reach. Lipton Elvis 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Sales & Marketing industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Lipton Elvis can take advantage of these changes in consumer behavior to build a far more efficient business model. For example consumer regular ordering of products can reduce both last mile delivery costs and market penetration costs. Lipton Elvis can further use this consumer data to build better customer loyalty, provide better products and service collection, and improve the value proposition in inflationary times.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Lipton Elvis 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 Lipton Elvis to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Lipton Elvis is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Marketing at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Lipton Elvis 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 Sales & Marketing segment.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Lipton Elvis can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Lipton Elvis has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Lipton Elvis to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Marketing at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz case study. Lipton Elvis can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Lipton Elvis 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 Marketing at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Lipton Elvis to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Threats Marketing at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Marketing at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz are -
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Lipton Elvis is facing in Sales & Marketing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Lipton Elvis with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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 Lipton Elvis business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Regulatory challenges
– Lipton Elvis 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 Sales & Marketing industry regulations.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Lipton Elvis 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.
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.
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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Lipton Elvis has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Sales & Marketing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Lipton Elvis needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Sales & Marketing 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.
Environmental challenges
– Lipton Elvis 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. Lipton Elvis can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.
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. Lipton Elvis 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Lipton Elvis 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 Marketing at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, Lipton Elvis may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Sales & Marketing .
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. Lipton Elvis needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Sales & Marketing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Marketing at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz 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 Marketing at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz 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 Marketing at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz 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 Marketing at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz 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 Marketing at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz 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 Lipton Elvis needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.