The Second Road of Thought: How Design Offers Strategy a New Toolkit SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
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Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of The Second Road of Thought: How Design Offers Strategy a New Toolkit
The western world bought the wrong thinking system from Aristotle, says the author, and this ranks as one of the worst investment decisions we ever made. The thinking system we invested in was Aristotle's 'analytics', which monopolizes what most people characterize as 'thinking.' As a result, our thinking processes remain dominated by the culture of the sciences, and traditional approaches to strategy sit squarely at the table of logic and Science. But Aristotle actually conceived of two thinking systems, not one: he also conceived an entirely different thinking pathway that combined invention, judgment and decision wrapped up in a social process of debate. He called this process 'rhetoric', which the author calls 'design thinking' -- the Second Road to truth. The critical difference between the two roads is best understood by the different domains they address: analytics is the road by which we diagnose what already exists; rhetoric is the road by which we design alternative futures.
Swot Analysis of "The Second Road of Thought: How Design Offers Strategy a New Toolkit" written by Tony Golsby-Smith includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Thinking Road facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in The Second Road of Thought: How Design Offers Strategy a New Toolkit case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Psychology, Strategic thinking and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the The Second Road of Thought: How Design Offers Strategy a New Toolkit casestudy better are - – increasing household debt because of falling income levels, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, there is backlash against globalization, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models,
wage bills are increasing, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of The Second Road of Thought: How Design Offers Strategy a New Toolkit
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in The Second Road of Thought: How Design Offers Strategy a New Toolkit case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Thinking Road, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Thinking Road 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 Second Road of Thought: How Design Offers Strategy a New Toolkit can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in The Second Road of Thought: How Design Offers Strategy a New Toolkit case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Thinking Road
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 Thinking Road
Strengths The Second Road of Thought: How Design Offers Strategy a New Toolkit | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Thinking Road in The Second Road of Thought: How Design Offers Strategy a New Toolkit Harvard Business Review case study are -
Learning organization
- Thinking Road 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 Thinking Road is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in The Second Road of Thought: How Design Offers Strategy a New Toolkit Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Ability to lead change in Strategy & Execution field
– Thinking Road 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 Thinking Road in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Innovation driven organization
– Thinking Road is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in The Second Road of Thought: How Design Offers Strategy a New Toolkit Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the The Second Road of Thought: How Design Offers Strategy a New Toolkit 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Thinking Road in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Thinking Road 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 The Second Road of Thought: How Design Offers Strategy a New Toolkit - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Thinking Road 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.
High brand equity
– Thinking Road has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Thinking Road to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Thinking Road has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Thinking Road 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.
Digital Transformation in Strategy & Execution segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Thinking Road digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Thinking Road 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Thinking Road is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the The Second Road of Thought: How Design Offers Strategy a New Toolkit 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
– Thinking Road is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Weaknesses The Second Road of Thought: How Design Offers Strategy a New Toolkit | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of The Second Road of Thought: How Design Offers Strategy a New Toolkit are -
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study The Second Road of Thought: How Design Offers Strategy a New Toolkit, 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study The Second Road of Thought: How Design Offers Strategy a New Toolkit, in the dynamic environment Thinking Road has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Thinking Road has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Thinking Road 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Thinking Road is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Strategy & Execution segment. Thinking Road needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Thinking Road to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Thinking Road is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study The Second Road of Thought: How Design Offers Strategy a New Toolkit can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Thinking Road 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study The Second Road of Thought: How Design Offers Strategy a New Toolkit 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 Second Road of Thought: How Design Offers Strategy a New Toolkit can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Thinking Road is planning to shift buying processes online.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Thinking Road 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study The Second Road of Thought: How Design Offers Strategy a New Toolkit, is just above the industry average. Thinking Road 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study The Second Road of Thought: How Design Offers Strategy a New Toolkit, it seems that the employees of Thinking Road 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.
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 Thinking Road supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - The Second Road of Thought: How Design Offers Strategy a New Toolkit, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Thinking Road vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Opportunities The Second Road of Thought: How Design Offers Strategy a New Toolkit | 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 Second Road of Thought: How Design Offers Strategy a New Toolkit are -
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. Thinking Road 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. Thinking Road 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Thinking Road is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. The Second Road of Thought: How Design Offers Strategy a New Toolkit 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.
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 Thinking Road in the consumer business. Now Thinking Road can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Manufacturing automation
– Thinking Road 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Thinking Road 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 Second Road of Thought: How Design Offers Strategy a New Toolkit - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Thinking Road to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Loyalty marketing
– Thinking Road 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.
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. Thinking Road can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Thinking Road 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 Second Road of Thought: How Design Offers Strategy a New Toolkit, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Thinking Road can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Thinking Road 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Thinking Road 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.
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 Thinking Road 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Thinking Road can still utilize the low interest rates to borrow money for capital investment. Secondly it can also use the increase of government spending in infrastructure projects to get new business.
Threats The Second Road of Thought: How Design Offers Strategy a New Toolkit External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study The Second Road of Thought: How Design Offers Strategy a New Toolkit 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 Thinking Road in the Strategy & Execution sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Thinking Road 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Thinking Road can face downward pressure on margins from increasing competition from international players. The international players have stable revenue in their home market and can use those resources to penetrate prominent markets illustrated in HBR case study The Second Road of Thought: How Design Offers Strategy a New Toolkit .
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.
Environmental challenges
– Thinking Road 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. Thinking Road can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Thinking Road with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
High level of anxiety and lack of motivation
– the Great Resignation in United States is the sign of broader dissatisfaction among the workforce in United States. Thinking Road needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Strategy & Execution industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Increasing wage structure of Thinking Road
– 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 Thinking Road.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Thinking Road is facing in Strategy & Execution sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Thinking Road 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Thinking Road 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.
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. Thinking Road 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.
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 Thinking Road.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of The Second Road of Thought: How Design Offers Strategy a New Toolkit 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 Second Road of Thought: How Design Offers Strategy a New Toolkit 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 Second Road of Thought: How Design Offers Strategy a New Toolkit 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 Second Road of Thought: How Design Offers Strategy a New Toolkit 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 Second Road of Thought: How Design Offers Strategy a New Toolkit 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 Thinking Road needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
