THE TENDLEY CONTRACT - Confidential Instructions for the Schools SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
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Case Study Description of THE TENDLEY CONTRACT - Confidential Instructions for the Schools
Accompanied by product #PON479.Two-party contract negotiation between a computer consultant and a school district representative at an apparent impasse over different expectations over cost of services. A school district and a computer consultant are negotiating a potential contract for repair of the school district's failed computer network. Both parties are eager to work with each other: the consultant's qualifications appear perfect for the school district's needs, and the school district would help the consultant connect with additional governmental clients. After a fair amount of negotiation, however, the parties find themselves at an impasse: the consultant's bid (which the consultant feels is very low) is considerably higher than the school's budget for this project. The consultant and a school representative have agreed to meet one last time in an effort to salvage the deal. This simulation happens to involve a consulting contract, but the negotiation lessons are generic. The exercise can be used simply to illustrate the importance of the creative, option-generating aspect of negotiation. More importantly, it can also be used as the principal vehicle for presenting integrative theory more broadly. This is a role play case.
Swot Analysis of "THE TENDLEY CONTRACT - Confidential Instructions for the Schools" written by Program on Negotiation includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Consultant School facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in THE TENDLEY CONTRACT - Confidential Instructions for the Schools case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, IT, Negotiations, Pricing and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the THE TENDLEY CONTRACT - Confidential Instructions for the Schools casestudy better are - – competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, there is backlash against globalization, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, technology disruption, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google,
supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , wage bills are increasing, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of THE TENDLEY CONTRACT - Confidential Instructions for the Schools
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in THE TENDLEY CONTRACT - Confidential Instructions for the Schools case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Consultant School, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Consultant School 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 THE TENDLEY CONTRACT - Confidential Instructions for the Schools can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in THE TENDLEY CONTRACT - Confidential Instructions for the Schools case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Consultant School
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Strategy & Execution field.
4. Making a Strategy & Execution topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Consultant School
Strengths THE TENDLEY CONTRACT - Confidential Instructions for the Schools | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Consultant School in THE TENDLEY CONTRACT - Confidential Instructions for the Schools Harvard Business Review case study are -
Analytics focus
– Consultant School 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 Program on Negotiation 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.
Training and development
– Consultant School has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in THE TENDLEY CONTRACT - Confidential Instructions for the Schools 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the THE TENDLEY CONTRACT - Confidential Instructions for the Schools 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Consultant School is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in THE TENDLEY CONTRACT - Confidential Instructions for the Schools Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Consultant School in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Learning organization
- Consultant School 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 Consultant School is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in THE TENDLEY CONTRACT - Confidential Instructions for the Schools Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Consultant School 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 THE TENDLEY CONTRACT - Confidential Instructions for the Schools HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Strong track record of project management
– Consultant School is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Consultant School has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Consultant School 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Consultant School is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in THE TENDLEY CONTRACT - Confidential Instructions for the Schools 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Strategy & Execution industry
– THE TENDLEY CONTRACT - Confidential Instructions for the Schools firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Consultant School to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Consultant School to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
High brand equity
– Consultant School has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Consultant School to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Weaknesses THE TENDLEY CONTRACT - Confidential Instructions for the Schools | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of THE TENDLEY CONTRACT - Confidential Instructions for the Schools are -
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Consultant School is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Strategy & Execution segment. Consultant School needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Consultant School to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study THE TENDLEY CONTRACT - Confidential Instructions for the Schools 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 THE TENDLEY CONTRACT - Confidential Instructions for the Schools can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Consultant School is planning to shift buying processes online.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the THE TENDLEY CONTRACT - Confidential Instructions for the Schools 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 Consultant School has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
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 Consultant School supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - THE TENDLEY CONTRACT - Confidential Instructions for the Schools, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Consultant School vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study THE TENDLEY CONTRACT - Confidential Instructions for the Schools 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 Consultant School 's lucrative customers.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Consultant School 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study THE TENDLEY CONTRACT - Confidential Instructions for the Schools, is just above the industry average. Consultant School 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Consultant School 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Consultant School 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 - THE TENDLEY CONTRACT - Confidential Instructions for the Schools should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Lack of clear differentiation of Consultant School products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Consultant School needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Consultant School 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.
Opportunities THE TENDLEY CONTRACT - Confidential Instructions for the Schools | 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 THE TENDLEY CONTRACT - Confidential Instructions for the Schools are -
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Consultant School 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 Strategy & Execution segment.
Loyalty marketing
– Consultant School 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Consultant School to increase its market reach. Consultant School 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Consultant School 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Consultant School can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. THE TENDLEY CONTRACT - Confidential Instructions for the Schools 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.
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. Consultant School can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Consultant School can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Consultant School 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, THE TENDLEY CONTRACT - Confidential Instructions for the Schools, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Consultant School 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Consultant School 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 THE TENDLEY CONTRACT - Confidential Instructions for the Schools - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Consultant School to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Consultant School 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 Consultant School to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Consultant School in the consumer business. Now Consultant School can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Consultant School has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Consultant School to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the THE TENDLEY CONTRACT - Confidential Instructions for the Schools case study. Consultant School can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Threats THE TENDLEY CONTRACT - Confidential Instructions for the Schools External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study THE TENDLEY CONTRACT - Confidential Instructions for the Schools are -
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study THE TENDLEY CONTRACT - Confidential Instructions for the Schools, Consultant School may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Strategy & Execution .
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Consultant School with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Environmental challenges
– Consultant School 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. Consultant School can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry.
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. Consultant School needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Strategy & Execution industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Strategy & Execution field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Consultant School can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Consultant School demand
– There is a high probability of declining consumer confidence, given – high inflammation rate, rise of gig economy, lower job stability, increasing cost of living, higher interest rates, and aging demography. All the factors contribute to people saving higher rate of their income, resulting in lower consumer demand in the industry and other sectors.
Increasing wage structure of Consultant School
– 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 Consultant School.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Consultant School 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.
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. Consultant School 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Consultant School in the Strategy & Execution industry. The Strategy & Execution 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.
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 Consultant School.
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.
Regulatory challenges
– Consultant School 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 Strategy & Execution industry regulations.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of THE TENDLEY CONTRACT - Confidential Instructions for the Schools 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 THE TENDLEY CONTRACT - Confidential Instructions for the Schools 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 THE TENDLEY CONTRACT - Confidential Instructions for the Schools 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 THE TENDLEY CONTRACT - Confidential Instructions for the Schools 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 THE TENDLEY CONTRACT - Confidential Instructions for the Schools 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 Consultant School needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
