Case Study Description of Beyond Strategic Thinking: Strategy as Experienced
Leaders often focus on gaining employees' intellectual acceptance of a new strategy and view this as an early milestone in successful implementation. The problem is, this approach isn't working very well: study after study demonstrates that the 'knowing-doing gap' is alive and well, and that many carefully-constructed strategies continue to be ignored or dismissed by the employees whose behavior must change in order to make them work. The author argues that feeling strategy must accompany knowing it. She explains what it means to 'feel' strategy -- to experience it in an emotional as well as a cognitive way, and describes the four key components of fostering strategy as experienced in your organization.
Swot Analysis of "Beyond Strategic Thinking: Strategy as Experienced" written by Jeanne M. Liedtka includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Knowing Strategy facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Beyond Strategic Thinking: Strategy as Experienced case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Leadership, Mergers & acquisitions, Organizational culture, Psychology, Strategic thinking and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Beyond Strategic Thinking: Strategy as Experienced casestudy better are - – banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, there is backlash against globalization, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing commodity prices,
there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing transportation and logistics costs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Beyond Strategic Thinking: Strategy as Experienced
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Beyond Strategic Thinking: Strategy as Experienced case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Knowing Strategy, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Knowing Strategy 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 Beyond Strategic Thinking: Strategy as Experienced can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Beyond Strategic Thinking: Strategy as Experienced case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Knowing Strategy
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 Knowing Strategy
Strengths Beyond Strategic Thinking: Strategy as Experienced | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Knowing Strategy in Beyond Strategic Thinking: Strategy as Experienced Harvard Business Review case study are -
Successful track record of launching new products
– Knowing Strategy has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Knowing Strategy 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Knowing Strategy 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 Beyond Strategic Thinking: Strategy as Experienced 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
– Beyond Strategic Thinking: Strategy as Experienced firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Knowing Strategy to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Knowing Strategy to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Knowing Strategy in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Learning organization
- Knowing Strategy 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 Knowing Strategy is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Beyond Strategic Thinking: Strategy as Experienced Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Knowing Strategy 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 Beyond Strategic Thinking: Strategy as Experienced - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Analytics focus
– Knowing Strategy 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 Jeanne M. Liedtka 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
– Knowing Strategy has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Beyond Strategic Thinking: Strategy as Experienced 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 Beyond Strategic Thinking: Strategy as Experienced 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 recruit top talent
– Knowing Strategy is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Beyond Strategic Thinking: Strategy as Experienced are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Strong track record of project management
– Knowing Strategy is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Innovation driven organization
– Knowing Strategy is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Beyond Strategic Thinking: Strategy as Experienced Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Weaknesses Beyond Strategic Thinking: Strategy as Experienced | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Beyond Strategic Thinking: Strategy as Experienced are -
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Knowing Strategy 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. Knowing Strategy 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Knowing Strategy is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Beyond Strategic Thinking: Strategy as Experienced can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Beyond Strategic Thinking: Strategy as Experienced 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 Knowing Strategy has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Knowing Strategy 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Beyond Strategic Thinking: Strategy as Experienced, is just above the industry average. Knowing Strategy 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.
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 Knowing Strategy supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Beyond Strategic Thinking: Strategy as Experienced, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Knowing Strategy vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Beyond Strategic Thinking: Strategy as Experienced 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 Beyond Strategic Thinking: Strategy as Experienced can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Knowing Strategy is planning to shift buying processes online.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Beyond Strategic Thinking: Strategy as Experienced HBR case study mentions - Knowing Strategy 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Knowing Strategy 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Beyond Strategic Thinking: Strategy as Experienced 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 Knowing Strategy 's lucrative customers.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Jeanne M. Liedtka suggests that, Knowing Strategy 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.
Opportunities Beyond Strategic Thinking: Strategy as Experienced | 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 Beyond Strategic Thinking: Strategy as Experienced are -
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Knowing Strategy is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Beyond Strategic Thinking: Strategy as Experienced 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Knowing Strategy 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 Beyond Strategic Thinking: Strategy as Experienced - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Knowing Strategy to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Knowing Strategy 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Knowing Strategy 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Knowing Strategy to increase its market reach. Knowing Strategy 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.
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. Knowing Strategy can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Strategy & Execution industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Knowing Strategy 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. Knowing Strategy 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Knowing Strategy 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, Beyond Strategic Thinking: Strategy as Experienced, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Loyalty marketing
– Knowing Strategy 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Knowing Strategy 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 Knowing Strategy 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 Knowing Strategy in the consumer business. Now Knowing Strategy can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Knowing Strategy can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Manufacturing automation
– Knowing Strategy can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Strategy & Execution 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.
Threats Beyond Strategic Thinking: Strategy as Experienced External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Beyond Strategic Thinking: Strategy as Experienced are -
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 Knowing Strategy in the Strategy & Execution sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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. Knowing Strategy 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Knowing Strategy 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Knowing Strategy has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Strategy & Execution industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Knowing Strategy 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.
Increasing wage structure of Knowing Strategy
– 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 Knowing Strategy.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Knowing Strategy 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Knowing Strategy 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Knowing Strategy 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.
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 Knowing Strategy.
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. Knowing Strategy needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Strategy & Execution industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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 Knowing Strategy business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Beyond Strategic Thinking: Strategy as Experienced 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 Beyond Strategic Thinking: Strategy as Experienced 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 Beyond Strategic Thinking: Strategy as Experienced 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 Beyond Strategic Thinking: Strategy as Experienced 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 Beyond Strategic Thinking: Strategy as Experienced 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 Knowing Strategy needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
