Case Study Description of ZS Associates: Sales Force Sizing
This is a Darden case study.This case describes a consulting firm that is assisting a pharmaceutical company as it faces a strategic question regarding how to determine the size of its sales force. An Excel file containing two of the case exhibits is included and is available by contacting sales@dardenbusinesspublishing.com. A related Technical Note entitled "A Note on Sizing the Sales Force" (UVA-M-0746) is available that describes several approaches one could employ to size a sales force; it addresses the advantages of each approach as well as the weaknesses.
Authors :: Robert E. Spekman, Sameer Kumar, Arya Kalla
Swot Analysis of "ZS Associates: Sales Force Sizing" written by Robert E. Spekman, Sameer Kumar, Arya Kalla includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Force Sizing facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in ZS Associates: Sales Force Sizing case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Marketing, Sales and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the ZS Associates: Sales Force Sizing casestudy better are - – increasing commodity prices, geopolitical disruptions, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing energy prices,
customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of ZS Associates: Sales Force Sizing
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in ZS Associates: Sales Force Sizing case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Force Sizing, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Force Sizing 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 ZS Associates: Sales Force Sizing can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in ZS Associates: Sales Force Sizing case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Force Sizing
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 Force Sizing
Strengths ZS Associates: Sales Force Sizing | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Force Sizing in ZS Associates: Sales Force Sizing Harvard Business Review case study are -
Analytics focus
– Force Sizing 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 Robert E. Spekman, Sameer Kumar, Arya Kalla 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Force Sizing has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Force Sizing 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.
High brand equity
– Force Sizing has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Force Sizing to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Force Sizing 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 ZS Associates: Sales Force Sizing HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Force Sizing 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.
Learning organization
- Force Sizing 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 Force Sizing is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in ZS Associates: Sales Force Sizing Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Digital Transformation in Sales & Marketing segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Force Sizing digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Force Sizing 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Force Sizing is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Diverse revenue streams
– Force Sizing is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in ZS Associates: Sales Force Sizing 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Force Sizing is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in ZS Associates: Sales Force Sizing Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Force Sizing is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the ZS Associates: Sales Force Sizing are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Sales & Marketing industry
– ZS Associates: Sales Force Sizing firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Force Sizing to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Force Sizing to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Weaknesses ZS Associates: Sales Force Sizing | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of ZS Associates: Sales Force Sizing are -
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study ZS Associates: Sales Force Sizing, it seems that the employees of Force Sizing 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 dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the ZS Associates: Sales Force Sizing 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 Force Sizing has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study ZS Associates: Sales Force Sizing, is just above the industry average. Force Sizing needs to redesign the compensation structure and incentives to increase the revenue per employees. Some of the steps that it can take are – hiring more specialists on project basis, etc.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Force Sizing 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 to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Force Sizing is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study ZS Associates: Sales Force Sizing 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 Force Sizing is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Sales & Marketing segment. Force Sizing needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Force Sizing to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Lack of clear differentiation of Force Sizing products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Force Sizing needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Force Sizing 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 operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study ZS Associates: Sales Force Sizing 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 Force Sizing 's lucrative customers.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Force Sizing 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 - ZS Associates: Sales Force Sizing should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Force Sizing, firm in the HBR case study ZS Associates: Sales Force Sizing needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Opportunities ZS Associates: Sales Force Sizing | 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 ZS Associates: Sales Force Sizing are -
Developing new processes and practices
– Force Sizing 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.
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. Force Sizing can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
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 Force Sizing 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Force Sizing 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Force Sizing 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Force Sizing 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Force Sizing 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Force Sizing can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. ZS Associates: Sales Force Sizing 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Force Sizing has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Force Sizing to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the ZS Associates: Sales Force Sizing case study. Force Sizing can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Force Sizing 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 Force Sizing to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Manufacturing automation
– Force Sizing can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Sales & Marketing 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Force Sizing is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. ZS Associates: Sales Force Sizing 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Force Sizing 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.
Threats ZS Associates: Sales Force Sizing External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study ZS Associates: Sales Force Sizing are -
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 Force Sizing.
Environmental challenges
– Force Sizing 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. Force Sizing can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Force Sizing has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Sales & Marketing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Force Sizing 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Force Sizing 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.
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 Force Sizing in the Sales & Marketing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Force Sizing 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 Force Sizing business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Sales & Marketing field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Force Sizing can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Increasing wage structure of Force Sizing
– 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 Force Sizing.
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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study ZS Associates: Sales Force Sizing, Force Sizing 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 .
Regulatory challenges
– Force Sizing 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Force Sizing 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 ZS Associates: Sales Force Sizing .
Weighted SWOT Analysis of ZS Associates: Sales Force Sizing 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 ZS Associates: Sales Force Sizing 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 ZS Associates: Sales Force Sizing 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 ZS Associates: Sales Force Sizing 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 ZS Associates: Sales Force Sizing 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 Force Sizing needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
