Tailoring Your Strategy to Fit the Culture SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Sales & Marketing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Tailoring Your Strategy to Fit the Culture
Many widely accepted management theories related to mission statements, branding and advertising are Western inventions that do not translate when companies go global. What plays well at home may not go down so well in foreign environments. The author recommends that a company conduct a full review of its entire global marketing strategy - from its mission and vision, to its portfolio, positioning and product usage, to its communications and advertising campaigns. Throughout the discussion, she challenges managers to let go of their preconceived ideas and insistence on consistency and standardization, which they may think is being cost-effective, but in reality will never succeed in scratching consumers where they itch. To be truly effective, global marketing strategies must articulate not the culture-bound values of one particular company, but the values of the stakeholders in all of the countries where the company operates. If not, stakeholders elsewhere may have difficulties identifying with the company.
Swot Analysis of "Tailoring Your Strategy to Fit the Culture" written by Marieke de Mooij includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Itch Scratching facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Tailoring Your Strategy to Fit the Culture case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Communication, Cross-cultural management, Strategy and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Tailoring Your Strategy to Fit the Culture casestudy better are - – increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, there is backlash against globalization, increasing energy prices, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing transportation and logistics costs,
supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , wage bills are increasing, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Tailoring Your Strategy to Fit the Culture
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Tailoring Your Strategy to Fit the Culture case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Itch Scratching, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Itch Scratching 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 Tailoring Your Strategy to Fit the Culture can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Tailoring Your Strategy to Fit the Culture case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Itch Scratching
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 Itch Scratching
Strengths Tailoring Your Strategy to Fit the Culture | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Itch Scratching in Tailoring Your Strategy to Fit the Culture Harvard Business Review case study are -
Innovation driven organization
– Itch Scratching is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Tailoring Your Strategy to Fit the Culture Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Diverse revenue streams
– Itch Scratching is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Tailoring Your Strategy to Fit the Culture 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Itch Scratching in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
High brand equity
– Itch Scratching has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Itch Scratching to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Itch Scratching 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.
Ability to lead change in Sales & Marketing field
– Itch Scratching 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 Itch Scratching in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Learning organization
- Itch Scratching 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 Itch Scratching is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Tailoring Your Strategy to Fit the Culture Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Digital Transformation in Sales & Marketing segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Itch Scratching digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Itch Scratching 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.
Analytics focus
– Itch Scratching 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 Marieke de Mooij 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Itch Scratching is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Tailoring Your Strategy to Fit the Culture 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Itch Scratching in the sector have low bargaining power. Tailoring Your Strategy to Fit the Culture has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Itch Scratching to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Weaknesses Tailoring Your Strategy to Fit the Culture | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Tailoring Your Strategy to Fit the Culture are -
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 Itch Scratching supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Tailoring Your Strategy to Fit the Culture, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Itch Scratching vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Marieke de Mooij suggests that, Itch Scratching 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Itch Scratching products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Itch Scratching needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Itch Scratching is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Tailoring Your Strategy to Fit the Culture can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Tailoring Your Strategy to Fit the Culture 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 Tailoring Your Strategy to Fit the Culture can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Itch Scratching is planning to shift buying processes online.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Tailoring Your Strategy to Fit the Culture, in the dynamic environment Itch Scratching has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Itch Scratching has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Itch Scratching 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 - Tailoring Your Strategy to Fit the Culture should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Tailoring Your Strategy to Fit the Culture HBR case study mentions - Itch Scratching 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Itch Scratching 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 operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Tailoring Your Strategy to Fit the Culture 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 Itch Scratching 's lucrative customers.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Itch Scratching has not been able to do capital spending to the tune of the competition. This has resulted into fewer innovations and company facing stiff competition from both existing competitors and new entrants who are disrupting the industry using digital technology.
Opportunities Tailoring Your Strategy to Fit the Culture | 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 Tailoring Your Strategy to Fit the Culture are -
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Itch Scratching 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, Tailoring Your Strategy to Fit the Culture, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Buying journey improvements
– Itch Scratching can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Tailoring Your Strategy to Fit the Culture 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Sales & Marketing industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Itch Scratching can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Itch Scratching 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Itch Scratching has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Itch Scratching to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Tailoring Your Strategy to Fit the Culture case study. Itch Scratching can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Itch Scratching is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Tailoring Your Strategy to Fit the Culture 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Itch Scratching 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Itch Scratching can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Itch Scratching can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Itch Scratching operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Sales & Marketing sector.
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. Itch Scratching 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. Itch Scratching 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
– Itch Scratching 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.
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. Itch Scratching can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Itch Scratching 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.
Threats Tailoring Your Strategy to Fit the Culture External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Tailoring Your Strategy to Fit the Culture are -
Increasing wage structure of Itch Scratching
– 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 Itch Scratching.
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 Itch Scratching.
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 Itch Scratching business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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. Itch Scratching 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Itch Scratching 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.
Environmental challenges
– Itch Scratching 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. Itch Scratching can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.
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.
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. Itch Scratching needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Sales & Marketing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Itch Scratching has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Sales & Marketing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Itch Scratching 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.
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 Itch Scratching in the Sales & Marketing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Itch Scratching 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Tailoring Your Strategy to Fit the Culture, Itch Scratching 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
– Itch Scratching 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Tailoring Your Strategy to Fit the Culture 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 Tailoring Your Strategy to Fit the Culture 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 Tailoring Your Strategy to Fit the Culture 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 Tailoring Your Strategy to Fit the Culture 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 Tailoring Your Strategy to Fit the Culture 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 Itch Scratching needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
