Ledals Redistributor: Enacting Policies that Frustrate Salespeople and Customers SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Sales & Marketing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Ledals Redistributor: Enacting Policies that Frustrate Salespeople and Customers
Ledals, one of the premier redistribution firms in the United States, had determined that whenever backorders occurred, the additional trips being made by delivery trucks were killing margins. Therefore, management imposed a new policy, whereby backordered items would be held until the next customer order was received and prepared for shipping.This arrangement led to repercussions, with both customers and Ledals' salespeople frustrated with the new policy. Muted at first, but growing in volume, many members of the sales force were clearly disgruntled. What remained was figuring out how much damage was actually being done. Was it simply a predictable resistance to change that would resolve itself in the coming months? If it was a genuine problem, Ledals' management needed to consider what, if any, actions should be taken. Ledals also had to determine whether the problem was with the policy itself or its implementation. Regardless of the cause, management had to make a decision as soon as possible about how to move forward. William H. Murphy is affiliated with University of Saskatchewan.
Swot Analysis of "Ledals Redistributor: Enacting Policies that Frustrate Salespeople and Customers" written by William H. Murphy includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Ledals Salespeople facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Ledals Redistributor: Enacting Policies that Frustrate Salespeople and Customers case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Pricing and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Ledals Redistributor: Enacting Policies that Frustrate Salespeople and Customers casestudy better are - – challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, there is backlash against globalization, geopolitical disruptions, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, there is increasing trade war between United States & China,
increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing commodity prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Ledals Redistributor: Enacting Policies that Frustrate Salespeople and Customers
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Ledals Redistributor: Enacting Policies that Frustrate Salespeople and Customers case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Ledals Salespeople, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Ledals Salespeople 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 Ledals Redistributor: Enacting Policies that Frustrate Salespeople and Customers can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Ledals Redistributor: Enacting Policies that Frustrate Salespeople and Customers case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Ledals Salespeople
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 Ledals Salespeople
Strengths Ledals Redistributor: Enacting Policies that Frustrate Salespeople and Customers | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Ledals Salespeople in Ledals Redistributor: Enacting Policies that Frustrate Salespeople and Customers Harvard Business Review case study are -
Ability to recruit top talent
– Ledals Salespeople is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Ledals Redistributor: Enacting Policies that Frustrate Salespeople and Customers are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Innovation driven organization
– Ledals Salespeople is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Ledals Redistributor: Enacting Policies that Frustrate Salespeople and Customers 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 Ledals Salespeople
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Ledals Salespeople does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Ledals Salespeople 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Ledals Salespeople is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Ledals Redistributor: Enacting Policies that Frustrate Salespeople and Customers 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Ledals Salespeople 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 lead change in Sales & Marketing field
– Ledals Salespeople is one of the leading players in its industry. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in its segment but also across the whole industry. The ability to lead change has enabled Ledals Salespeople in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Sales & Marketing industry
– Ledals Redistributor: Enacting Policies that Frustrate Salespeople and Customers firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Ledals Salespeople to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Ledals Salespeople to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Analytics focus
– Ledals Salespeople 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 William H. Murphy 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Ledals Salespeople in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Digital Transformation in Sales & Marketing segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Ledals Salespeople digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Ledals Salespeople 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Ledals Salespeople 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 Ledals Redistributor: Enacting Policies that Frustrate Salespeople and Customers - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Weaknesses Ledals Redistributor: Enacting Policies that Frustrate Salespeople and Customers | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Ledals Redistributor: Enacting Policies that Frustrate Salespeople and Customers are -
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Ledals Salespeople has borrowed money from the capital market at higher rates. It needs to restructure the interest payment and costs so that it can compete better and improve profitability.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Ledals Salespeople is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Sales & Marketing segment. Ledals Salespeople needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Ledals Salespeople to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Ledals Redistributor: Enacting Policies that Frustrate Salespeople and Customers 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 Ledals Redistributor: Enacting Policies that Frustrate Salespeople and Customers can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Ledals Salespeople is planning to shift buying processes online.
Lack of clear differentiation of Ledals Salespeople products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Ledals Salespeople needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Ledals Salespeople 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Ledals Salespeople 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Ledals Redistributor: Enacting Policies that Frustrate Salespeople and Customers HBR case study mentions - Ledals Salespeople 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 bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, William H. Murphy suggests that, Ledals Salespeople 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Ledals Redistributor: Enacting Policies that Frustrate Salespeople and Customers, in the dynamic environment Ledals Salespeople has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Ledals Salespeople has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Ledals Redistributor: Enacting Policies that Frustrate Salespeople and Customers 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 Ledals Salespeople 's lucrative customers.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Ledals Redistributor: Enacting Policies that Frustrate Salespeople and Customers, 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.
Opportunities Ledals Redistributor: Enacting Policies that Frustrate Salespeople and Customers | 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 Ledals Redistributor: Enacting Policies that Frustrate Salespeople and Customers are -
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Ledals Salespeople in the consumer business. Now Ledals Salespeople can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Loyalty marketing
– Ledals Salespeople 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Ledals Salespeople 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, Ledals Redistributor: Enacting Policies that Frustrate Salespeople and Customers, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Ledals Salespeople 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 Ledals Salespeople to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Manufacturing automation
– Ledals Salespeople 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Ledals Salespeople can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Ledals Salespeople operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Sales & Marketing sector.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Ledals Salespeople 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 Ledals Redistributor: Enacting Policies that Frustrate Salespeople and Customers - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Ledals Salespeople to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Ledals Salespeople 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Ledals Salespeople 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Ledals Salespeople 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Ledals Salespeople 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Ledals Salespeople can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Ledals Redistributor: Enacting Policies that Frustrate Salespeople and Customers 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 Ledals Salespeople 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 Ledals Redistributor: Enacting Policies that Frustrate Salespeople and Customers External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Ledals Redistributor: Enacting Policies that Frustrate Salespeople and Customers 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. Ledals Salespeople needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Sales & Marketing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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. Ledals Salespeople can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Ledals Salespeople 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.
Increasing wage structure of Ledals Salespeople
– 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 Ledals Salespeople.
Regulatory challenges
– Ledals Salespeople 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Ledals Salespeople 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.
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 Ledals Salespeople.
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.
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 Ledals Salespeople 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 Ledals Redistributor: Enacting Policies that Frustrate Salespeople and Customers, Ledals Salespeople 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 dependence on third party suppliers
– Ledals Salespeople 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 Ledals Salespeople is facing in Sales & Marketing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Environmental challenges
– Ledals Salespeople 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. Ledals Salespeople can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Ledals Redistributor: Enacting Policies that Frustrate Salespeople and Customers 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 Ledals Redistributor: Enacting Policies that Frustrate Salespeople and Customers 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 Ledals Redistributor: Enacting Policies that Frustrate Salespeople and Customers 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 Ledals Redistributor: Enacting Policies that Frustrate Salespeople and Customers 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 Ledals Redistributor: Enacting Policies that Frustrate Salespeople and Customers 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 Ledals Salespeople needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.