Swot Analysis of "Milwaukee (B7): Rocky Marcoux, Commissioner of City Development, City of Milwaukee" written by Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Matthew Bird includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Milwaukee B7 facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Milwaukee (B7): Rocky Marcoux, Commissioner of City Development, City of Milwaukee case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Growth strategy and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Milwaukee (B7): Rocky Marcoux, Commissioner of City Development, City of Milwaukee casestudy better are - – wage bills are increasing, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing energy prices, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing transportation and logistics costs, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy,
supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Milwaukee (B7): Rocky Marcoux, Commissioner of City Development, City of Milwaukee
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Milwaukee (B7): Rocky Marcoux, Commissioner of City Development, City of Milwaukee case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Milwaukee B7, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Milwaukee B7 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 Milwaukee (B7): Rocky Marcoux, Commissioner of City Development, City of Milwaukee can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Milwaukee (B7): Rocky Marcoux, Commissioner of City Development, City of Milwaukee case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Milwaukee B7
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 Milwaukee B7
Strengths Milwaukee (B7): Rocky Marcoux, Commissioner of City Development, City of Milwaukee | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Milwaukee B7 in Milwaukee (B7): Rocky Marcoux, Commissioner of City Development, City of Milwaukee Harvard Business Review case study are -
Learning organization
- Milwaukee B7 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 Milwaukee B7 is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Milwaukee (B7): Rocky Marcoux, Commissioner of City Development, City of Milwaukee Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Milwaukee B7 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 Milwaukee (B7): Rocky Marcoux, Commissioner of City Development, City of Milwaukee HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Milwaukee B7 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 Milwaukee (B7): Rocky Marcoux, Commissioner of City Development, City of Milwaukee - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Milwaukee B7 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Milwaukee B7 has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Milwaukee B7 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Milwaukee (B7): Rocky Marcoux, Commissioner of City Development, City of Milwaukee 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Milwaukee B7 are driving operational speed, building greater agility, and keeping the organization nimble to compete with new competitors. It helps are organization to ideate new ideas, and execute them swiftly in the marketplace.
Innovation driven organization
– Milwaukee B7 is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Milwaukee (B7): Rocky Marcoux, Commissioner of City Development, City of Milwaukee 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 Milwaukee B7
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Milwaukee B7 does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Training and development
– Milwaukee B7 has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Milwaukee (B7): Rocky Marcoux, Commissioner of City Development, City of Milwaukee 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.
Analytics focus
– Milwaukee B7 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 Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Matthew Bird 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Milwaukee B7 is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Milwaukee (B7): Rocky Marcoux, Commissioner of City Development, City of Milwaukee are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Weaknesses Milwaukee (B7): Rocky Marcoux, Commissioner of City Development, City of Milwaukee | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Milwaukee (B7): Rocky Marcoux, Commissioner of City Development, City of Milwaukee are -
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Milwaukee (B7): Rocky Marcoux, Commissioner of City Development, City of Milwaukee 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 Milwaukee (B7): Rocky Marcoux, Commissioner of City Development, City of Milwaukee can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Milwaukee B7 is planning to shift buying processes online.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Milwaukee B7 is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Milwaukee (B7): Rocky Marcoux, Commissioner of City Development, City of Milwaukee can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Milwaukee B7, firm in the HBR case study Milwaukee (B7): Rocky Marcoux, Commissioner of City Development, City of Milwaukee needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Milwaukee (B7): Rocky Marcoux, Commissioner of City Development, City of Milwaukee 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 Milwaukee B7 has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Milwaukee B7 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. Milwaukee B7 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Milwaukee (B7): Rocky Marcoux, Commissioner of City Development, City of Milwaukee, 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Milwaukee B7 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Milwaukee (B7): Rocky Marcoux, Commissioner of City Development, City of Milwaukee HBR case study mentions - Milwaukee B7 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 cash cycle compare to competitors
Milwaukee B7 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 Milwaukee B7 products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Milwaukee B7 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 Milwaukee B7 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.
Opportunities Milwaukee (B7): Rocky Marcoux, Commissioner of City Development, City of Milwaukee | 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 Milwaukee (B7): Rocky Marcoux, Commissioner of City Development, City of Milwaukee are -
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Milwaukee B7 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 Milwaukee (B7): Rocky Marcoux, Commissioner of City Development, City of Milwaukee - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Milwaukee B7 to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
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. Milwaukee B7 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, Milwaukee B7 can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Milwaukee B7 operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Sales & Marketing sector.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Milwaukee B7 is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Milwaukee (B7): Rocky Marcoux, Commissioner of City Development, City of Milwaukee 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 Milwaukee B7 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Milwaukee B7 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, Milwaukee (B7): Rocky Marcoux, Commissioner of City Development, City of Milwaukee, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Milwaukee B7 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Milwaukee B7 has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Milwaukee B7 to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Milwaukee (B7): Rocky Marcoux, Commissioner of City Development, City of Milwaukee case study. Milwaukee B7 can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Milwaukee B7 to increase its market reach. Milwaukee B7 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Milwaukee B7 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.
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. Milwaukee B7 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. Milwaukee B7 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Milwaukee B7 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.
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 Milwaukee B7 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.
Threats Milwaukee (B7): Rocky Marcoux, Commissioner of City Development, City of Milwaukee External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Milwaukee (B7): Rocky Marcoux, Commissioner of City Development, City of Milwaukee are -
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. Milwaukee B7 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Milwaukee B7 has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Sales & Marketing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Milwaukee B7 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Milwaukee B7 with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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.
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. Milwaukee B7 needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Sales & Marketing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Milwaukee B7 in the Sales & Marketing industry. The Sales & Marketing 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.
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. Milwaukee B7 can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Milwaukee B7 is facing in Sales & Marketing 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 Milwaukee B7 in the Sales & Marketing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Milwaukee B7 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 Milwaukee (B7): Rocky Marcoux, Commissioner of City Development, City of Milwaukee, Milwaukee B7 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
– Milwaukee B7 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.
Increasing wage structure of Milwaukee B7
– 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 Milwaukee B7.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Milwaukee (B7): Rocky Marcoux, Commissioner of City Development, City of Milwaukee 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 Milwaukee (B7): Rocky Marcoux, Commissioner of City Development, City of Milwaukee 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 Milwaukee (B7): Rocky Marcoux, Commissioner of City Development, City of Milwaukee 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 Milwaukee (B7): Rocky Marcoux, Commissioner of City Development, City of Milwaukee 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 Milwaukee (B7): Rocky Marcoux, Commissioner of City Development, City of Milwaukee 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 Milwaukee B7 needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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