Case Study Description of Creating the Customer-Centric Team: Coordinating Sales & Marketing
Focuses on the coordination of marketing and sales--two functions that seem alike but are, in practice, difficult to integrate. Briefly explains the challenges to coordination and provides some solutions.
Swot Analysis of "Creating the Customer-Centric Team: Coordinating Sales & Marketing" written by Benson P. Shapiro includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Coordination Coordinating facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Creating the Customer-Centric Team: Coordinating Sales & Marketing case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Organizational structure, Sales and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Creating the Customer-Centric Team: Coordinating Sales & Marketing casestudy better are - – talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, technology disruption, increasing energy prices, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, there is backlash against globalization, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies,
increasing transportation and logistics costs, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Creating the Customer-Centric Team: Coordinating Sales & Marketing
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Creating the Customer-Centric Team: Coordinating Sales & Marketing case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Coordination Coordinating, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Coordination Coordinating 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 Creating the Customer-Centric Team: Coordinating Sales & Marketing can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Creating the Customer-Centric Team: Coordinating Sales & Marketing case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Coordination Coordinating
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 Coordination Coordinating
Strengths Creating the Customer-Centric Team: Coordinating Sales & Marketing | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Coordination Coordinating in Creating the Customer-Centric Team: Coordinating Sales & Marketing Harvard Business Review case study are -
Training and development
– Coordination Coordinating has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Creating the Customer-Centric Team: Coordinating Sales & Marketing 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Coordination Coordinating is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Creating the Customer-Centric Team: Coordinating Sales & Marketing are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Coordination Coordinating 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.
High brand equity
– Coordination Coordinating has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Coordination Coordinating to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Diverse revenue streams
– Coordination Coordinating is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Creating the Customer-Centric Team: Coordinating Sales & Marketing 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
– Coordination Coordinating 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 Creating the Customer-Centric Team: Coordinating Sales & Marketing 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.
Ability to lead change in Sales & Marketing field
– Coordination Coordinating 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 Coordination Coordinating in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Coordination Coordinating in the sector have low bargaining power. Creating the Customer-Centric Team: Coordinating Sales & Marketing has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Coordination Coordinating to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Digital Transformation in Sales & Marketing segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Coordination Coordinating digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Coordination Coordinating 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.
Learning organization
- Coordination Coordinating 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 Coordination Coordinating is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Creating the Customer-Centric Team: Coordinating Sales & Marketing Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Coordination Coordinating 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.
Weaknesses Creating the Customer-Centric Team: Coordinating Sales & Marketing | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Creating the Customer-Centric Team: Coordinating Sales & Marketing are -
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Coordination Coordinating 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Creating the Customer-Centric Team: Coordinating Sales & Marketing, in the dynamic environment Coordination Coordinating has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Coordination Coordinating has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Coordination Coordinating is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Sales & Marketing segment. Coordination Coordinating needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Coordination Coordinating to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Creating the Customer-Centric Team: Coordinating Sales & Marketing HBR case study mentions - Coordination Coordinating 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Coordination Coordinating 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Coordination Coordinating products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Coordination Coordinating needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Coordination Coordinating 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Creating the Customer-Centric Team: Coordinating Sales & Marketing 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 Creating the Customer-Centric Team: Coordinating Sales & Marketing can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Coordination Coordinating is planning to shift buying processes online.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Creating the Customer-Centric Team: Coordinating Sales & Marketing, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Sales & Marketing strategy. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Benson P. Shapiro suggests that, Coordination Coordinating 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Coordination Coordinating 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. Coordination Coordinating 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.
Opportunities Creating the Customer-Centric Team: Coordinating Sales & Marketing | 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 Creating the Customer-Centric Team: Coordinating Sales & Marketing are -
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Coordination Coordinating has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Coordination Coordinating to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Creating the Customer-Centric Team: Coordinating Sales & Marketing case study. Coordination Coordinating can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Coordination Coordinating 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 Creating the Customer-Centric Team: Coordinating Sales & Marketing - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Coordination Coordinating to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Coordination Coordinating 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Coordination Coordinating 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Coordination Coordinating to increase its market reach. Coordination Coordinating 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Coordination Coordinating 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Coordination Coordinating 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Coordination Coordinating 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.
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. Coordination Coordinating can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Coordination Coordinating can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
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 Coordination Coordinating 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Coordination Coordinating can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Coordination Coordinating operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Sales & Marketing sector.
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. Coordination Coordinating can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Threats Creating the Customer-Centric Team: Coordinating Sales & Marketing External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Creating the Customer-Centric Team: Coordinating Sales & Marketing are -
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.
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. Coordination Coordinating can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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 Coordination Coordinating in the Sales & Marketing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Coordination Coordinating 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.
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 dependence on third party suppliers
– Coordination Coordinating 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Coordination Coordinating 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Coordination Coordinating is facing in Sales & Marketing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Coordination Coordinating with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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. Coordination Coordinating needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Sales & Marketing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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 Coordination Coordinating.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Creating the Customer-Centric Team: Coordinating Sales & Marketing, Coordination Coordinating 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 .
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. Coordination Coordinating 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Creating the Customer-Centric Team: Coordinating Sales & Marketing 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 Creating the Customer-Centric Team: Coordinating Sales & Marketing 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 Creating the Customer-Centric Team: Coordinating Sales & Marketing 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 Creating the Customer-Centric Team: Coordinating Sales & Marketing 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 Creating the Customer-Centric Team: Coordinating Sales & Marketing 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 Coordination Coordinating needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.