Case Study Description of ECM Group: Improving Global Marketing Productivity
Associated Foods is considering a proposed program barter deal submitted by media consultancy ECM, along with other proposals to improve marketing expenditure productivity. This case allows calculation of the quantitative as well as the qualitative issues.
Swot Analysis of "ECM Group: Improving Global Marketing Productivity" written by David J. Arnold includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Ecm Productivity facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in ECM Group: Improving Global Marketing Productivity case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Globalization, Marketing and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the ECM Group: Improving Global Marketing Productivity casestudy better are - – geopolitical disruptions, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs,
central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing energy prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of ECM Group: Improving Global Marketing Productivity
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in ECM Group: Improving Global Marketing Productivity case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Ecm Productivity, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Ecm Productivity 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 ECM Group: Improving Global Marketing Productivity can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in ECM Group: Improving Global Marketing Productivity case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Ecm Productivity
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 Ecm Productivity
Strengths ECM Group: Improving Global Marketing Productivity | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Ecm Productivity in ECM Group: Improving Global Marketing Productivity Harvard Business Review case study are -
Ability to lead change in Sales & Marketing field
– Ecm Productivity 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 Ecm Productivity in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Digital Transformation in Sales & Marketing segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Ecm Productivity digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Ecm Productivity 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)
– Ecm Productivity 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 ECM Group: Improving Global Marketing Productivity - 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 Ecm Productivity 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Ecm Productivity is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in ECM Group: Improving Global Marketing Productivity 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.
Training and development
– Ecm Productivity has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in ECM Group: Improving Global Marketing Productivity 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Ecm Productivity has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Ecm Productivity 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Ecm Productivity is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
High brand equity
– Ecm Productivity has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Ecm Productivity to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Ecm Productivity in the sector have low bargaining power. ECM Group: Improving Global Marketing Productivity has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Ecm Productivity to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Organizational Resilience of Ecm Productivity
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Ecm Productivity does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Innovation driven organization
– Ecm Productivity is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in ECM Group: Improving Global Marketing Productivity Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Weaknesses ECM Group: Improving Global Marketing Productivity | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of ECM Group: Improving Global Marketing Productivity are -
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study ECM Group: Improving Global Marketing Productivity, is just above the industry average. Ecm Productivity needs to redesign the compensation structure and incentives to increase the revenue per employees. Some of the steps that it can take are – hiring more specialists on project basis, etc.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Ecm Productivity 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. Ecm Productivity 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the ECM Group: Improving Global Marketing Productivity 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 Ecm Productivity has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Ecm Productivity 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Ecm Productivity 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Ecm Productivity products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Ecm Productivity needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study ECM Group: Improving Global Marketing Productivity, in the dynamic environment Ecm Productivity has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Ecm Productivity 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 ECM Group: Improving Global Marketing Productivity 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 Ecm Productivity 's lucrative customers.
Need for greater diversity
– Ecm Productivity has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study ECM Group: Improving Global Marketing Productivity 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 ECM Group: Improving Global Marketing Productivity can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Ecm Productivity is planning to shift buying processes online.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Ecm Productivity 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 - ECM Group: Improving Global Marketing Productivity should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Opportunities ECM Group: Improving Global Marketing Productivity | 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 ECM Group: Improving Global Marketing Productivity are -
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Ecm Productivity has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Ecm Productivity to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the ECM Group: Improving Global Marketing Productivity case study. Ecm Productivity can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Loyalty marketing
– Ecm Productivity 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.
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. Ecm Productivity 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. Ecm Productivity 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Ecm Productivity to increase its market reach. Ecm Productivity 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Ecm Productivity 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 ECM Group: Improving Global Marketing Productivity - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Ecm Productivity 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 Ecm Productivity 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Ecm Productivity 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Ecm Productivity 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 Ecm Productivity to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Manufacturing automation
– Ecm Productivity 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. Ecm Productivity can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Buying journey improvements
– Ecm Productivity can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. ECM Group: Improving Global Marketing Productivity 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Ecm Productivity is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. ECM Group: Improving Global Marketing Productivity 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Ecm Productivity 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, ECM Group: Improving Global Marketing Productivity, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Threats ECM Group: Improving Global Marketing Productivity External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study ECM Group: Improving Global Marketing Productivity are -
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. Ecm Productivity can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Increasing wage structure of Ecm Productivity
– 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 Ecm Productivity.
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 Ecm Productivity in the Sales & Marketing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Ecm Productivity 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.
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.
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 Ecm Productivity business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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 Ecm Productivity.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Ecm Productivity 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Ecm Productivity with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Ecm Productivity 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Ecm Productivity 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.
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. Ecm Productivity needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Sales & Marketing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of ECM Group: Improving Global Marketing Productivity 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 ECM Group: Improving Global Marketing Productivity 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 ECM Group: Improving Global Marketing Productivity 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 ECM Group: Improving Global Marketing Productivity 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 ECM Group: Improving Global Marketing Productivity 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 Ecm Productivity needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
