Ruling the Modern Corporation: The Debate over Limited Liability in Massachusetts SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
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Case Study Description of Ruling the Modern Corporation: The Debate over Limited Liability in Massachusetts
In 1830, Governor Levi Lincoln, Jr. urged the Massachusetts state legislature to introduce a limited liability regime for manufacturing corporations similar to that adopted in neighboring states. At least since 1809, shareholders in the state's manufacturing corporations had faced unlimited liability, which held shareholders personally liable for corporate debts. While unlimited liability was meant to ensure financial prudence, Lincoln and others worried that this policy was doing more harm than good and driving capital from the state. With the governor pushing for action, it was up to the state legislature to decide how to proceed.
Swot Analysis of "Ruling the Modern Corporation: The Debate over Limited Liability in Massachusetts" written by David A. Moss, Eugene Kintgen includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Liability Unlimited facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Ruling the Modern Corporation: The Debate over Limited Liability in Massachusetts case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Business law, Economic development, Ethics and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Ruling the Modern Corporation: The Debate over Limited Liability in Massachusetts casestudy better are - – challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, geopolitical disruptions, increasing transportation and logistics costs, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation,
increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Ruling the Modern Corporation: The Debate over Limited Liability in Massachusetts
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Ruling the Modern Corporation: The Debate over Limited Liability in Massachusetts case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Liability Unlimited, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Liability Unlimited 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 Ruling the Modern Corporation: The Debate over Limited Liability in Massachusetts can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Ruling the Modern Corporation: The Debate over Limited Liability in Massachusetts case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Liability Unlimited
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 Liability Unlimited
Strengths Ruling the Modern Corporation: The Debate over Limited Liability in Massachusetts | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Liability Unlimited in Ruling the Modern Corporation: The Debate over Limited Liability in Massachusetts Harvard Business Review case study are -
Ability to recruit top talent
– Liability Unlimited is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Ruling the Modern Corporation: The Debate over Limited Liability in Massachusetts are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Organizational Resilience of Liability Unlimited
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Liability Unlimited does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Ruling the Modern Corporation: The Debate over Limited Liability in Massachusetts Harvard Business Review case study comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the industry, building diversified operations across different geographies so that disruption in one part of the world doesn’t impact the overall performance of the firm, and integrating the various business operations and processes through its digital transformation drive.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Liability Unlimited 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Liability Unlimited in the sector have low bargaining power. Ruling the Modern Corporation: The Debate over Limited Liability in Massachusetts has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Liability Unlimited to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Diverse revenue streams
– Liability Unlimited is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Ruling the Modern Corporation: The Debate over Limited Liability in Massachusetts 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.
Ability to lead change in Strategy & Execution field
– Liability Unlimited 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 Liability Unlimited in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Liability Unlimited 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 Ruling the Modern Corporation: The Debate over Limited Liability in Massachusetts - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Strong track record of project management
– Liability Unlimited is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Analytics focus
– Liability Unlimited 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 David A. Moss, Eugene Kintgen 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Liability Unlimited 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 Ruling the Modern Corporation: The Debate over Limited Liability in Massachusetts HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Strategy & Execution industry
– Ruling the Modern Corporation: The Debate over Limited Liability in Massachusetts firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Liability Unlimited to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Liability Unlimited to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Weaknesses Ruling the Modern Corporation: The Debate over Limited Liability in Massachusetts | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Ruling the Modern Corporation: The Debate over Limited Liability in Massachusetts are -
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Liability Unlimited 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Liability Unlimited 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Ruling the Modern Corporation: The Debate over Limited Liability in Massachusetts HBR case study mentions - Liability Unlimited 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Ruling the Modern Corporation: The Debate over Limited Liability in Massachusetts, it seems that the employees of Liability Unlimited don’t have comprehensive understanding of the firm’s strategy. This is reflected in number of promotional campaigns over the last few years that had mixed messaging and competing priorities. Some of the strategic activities and services promoted in the promotional campaigns were not consistent with the organization’s strategy.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Liability Unlimited 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.
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 Liability Unlimited supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Ruling the Modern Corporation: The Debate over Limited Liability in Massachusetts, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Liability Unlimited vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Lack of clear differentiation of Liability Unlimited products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Liability Unlimited needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Liability Unlimited, firm in the HBR case study Ruling the Modern Corporation: The Debate over Limited Liability in Massachusetts needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Ruling the Modern Corporation: The Debate over Limited Liability in Massachusetts, in the dynamic environment Liability Unlimited has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Liability Unlimited has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Ruling the Modern Corporation: The Debate over Limited Liability in Massachusetts, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Strategy & Execution 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Liability Unlimited 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. Liability Unlimited 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 Ruling the Modern Corporation: The Debate over Limited Liability in Massachusetts | 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 Ruling the Modern Corporation: The Debate over Limited Liability in Massachusetts are -
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Liability Unlimited 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 Ruling the Modern Corporation: The Debate over Limited Liability in Massachusetts - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Liability Unlimited to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Liability Unlimited to increase its market reach. Liability Unlimited 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Liability Unlimited 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Liability Unlimited 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 Liability Unlimited to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Buying journey improvements
– Liability Unlimited can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Ruling the Modern Corporation: The Debate over Limited Liability in Massachusetts 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Liability Unlimited in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Strategy & Execution segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Developing new processes and practices
– Liability Unlimited can develop new processes and procedures in Strategy & Execution 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Liability Unlimited can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Liability Unlimited operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Strategy & Execution sector.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Liability Unlimited 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Liability Unlimited is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Ruling the Modern Corporation: The Debate over Limited Liability in Massachusetts 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
– Liability Unlimited 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.
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 Liability Unlimited 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Liability Unlimited 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, Ruling the Modern Corporation: The Debate over Limited Liability in Massachusetts, 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 Ruling the Modern Corporation: The Debate over Limited Liability in Massachusetts External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Ruling the Modern Corporation: The Debate over Limited Liability in Massachusetts are -
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. Liability Unlimited can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Regulatory challenges
– Liability Unlimited 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Liability Unlimited 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.
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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Liability Unlimited 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.
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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Liability Unlimited is facing in Strategy & Execution sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Liability Unlimited has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Strategy & Execution industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Liability Unlimited needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Strategy & Execution 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Liability Unlimited 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 Ruling the Modern Corporation: The Debate over Limited Liability in Massachusetts, Liability Unlimited 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 .
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 Liability Unlimited 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. Liability Unlimited 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Liability Unlimited with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Ruling the Modern Corporation: The Debate over Limited Liability in Massachusetts 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 Ruling the Modern Corporation: The Debate over Limited Liability in Massachusetts 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 Ruling the Modern Corporation: The Debate over Limited Liability in Massachusetts 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 Ruling the Modern Corporation: The Debate over Limited Liability in Massachusetts 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 Ruling the Modern Corporation: The Debate over Limited Liability in Massachusetts 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 Liability Unlimited needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.