Connecting Up Strategy: Are Sensor Strategy Directors a Missing Link? SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Strategy & Execution
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Connecting Up Strategy: Are Sensor Strategy Directors a Missing Link?
With companies being exhorted to become more strategically agile and internally connected, this article examines the role of the Senior Strategy Director, the executive tasked specifically with internal strategy. In particular, it explores what they do, what specific capabilities they deploy to enable effective contribution to the company, and in what ways they facilitate the connectedness of strategy. An analysis of multiple interviews over time with Senior Strategy Directors of large companies shows the vital and challenging role these executives play in both shaping, connecting up, and executing strategy. This article identifies the particular capabilities necessary for Senior Strategy Directors to perform their role and shows how it all depends upon their skillful deployment. These findings have significant implications for understanding unfolding micro-processes of strategy in large organizations, for assumptions about the skills and capabilities necessary to be an effective Senior Strategy Director, and for business schools in terms of the content and style of strategy courses they provide.
Authors :: Duncan Angwin, Sotirios Paroutis, Sarah Mitson
Swot Analysis of "Connecting Up Strategy: Are Sensor Strategy Directors a Missing Link?" written by Duncan Angwin, Sotirios Paroutis, Sarah Mitson includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Strategy Senior facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Connecting Up Strategy: Are Sensor Strategy Directors a Missing Link? case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Informal leadership and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Connecting Up Strategy: Are Sensor Strategy Directors a Missing Link? casestudy better are - – increasing energy prices, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, technology disruption, wage bills are increasing, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies,
there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Connecting Up Strategy: Are Sensor Strategy Directors a Missing Link?
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Connecting Up Strategy: Are Sensor Strategy Directors a Missing Link? case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Strategy Senior, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Strategy Senior 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 Connecting Up Strategy: Are Sensor Strategy Directors a Missing Link? can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Connecting Up Strategy: Are Sensor Strategy Directors a Missing Link? case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Strategy Senior
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 Strategy Senior
Strengths Connecting Up Strategy: Are Sensor Strategy Directors a Missing Link? | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Strategy Senior in Connecting Up Strategy: Are Sensor Strategy Directors a Missing Link? Harvard Business Review case study are -
Digital Transformation in Strategy & Execution segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Strategy Senior digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Strategy Senior 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Strategy Senior has built up over years in its products and services combo offer has resulted in high retention of customers, lower marketing costs, and greater ability of the firm to focus on its customers.
Learning organization
- Strategy Senior 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 Strategy Senior is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Connecting Up Strategy: Are Sensor Strategy Directors a Missing Link? Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Strategy Senior 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Strategy Senior 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 Connecting Up Strategy: Are Sensor Strategy Directors a Missing Link? HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Strategy Senior in the sector have low bargaining power. Connecting Up Strategy: Are Sensor Strategy Directors a Missing Link? has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Strategy Senior to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Connecting Up Strategy: Are Sensor Strategy Directors a Missing Link? 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Strategy Senior 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 Connecting Up Strategy: Are Sensor Strategy Directors a Missing Link? - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Training and development
– Strategy Senior has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Connecting Up Strategy: Are Sensor Strategy Directors a Missing Link? 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Strategy Senior is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Connecting Up Strategy: Are Sensor Strategy Directors a Missing Link? are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Analytics focus
– Strategy Senior 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 Duncan Angwin, Sotirios Paroutis, Sarah Mitson 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Strategy Senior 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 Connecting Up Strategy: Are Sensor Strategy Directors a Missing Link? | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Connecting Up Strategy: Are Sensor Strategy Directors a Missing Link? are -
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Duncan Angwin, Sotirios Paroutis, Sarah Mitson suggests that, Strategy Senior 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Strategy Senior products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Strategy Senior needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Strategy Senior is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Connecting Up Strategy: Are Sensor Strategy Directors a Missing Link? can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Strategy Senior 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Strategy Senior 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. Strategy Senior even though has strong showing on digital transformation primary two stages, it has struggled to capitalize the power of digital transformation in marketing efforts and new venture efforts.
High dependence on 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 Strategy Senior supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Connecting Up Strategy: Are Sensor Strategy Directors a Missing Link?, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Strategy Senior vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Strategy Senior 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Connecting Up Strategy: Are Sensor Strategy Directors a Missing Link?, 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Connecting Up Strategy: Are Sensor Strategy Directors a Missing Link? 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 Strategy Senior 's lucrative customers.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Strategy Senior has created an environment where the organization is dominated by functional specialists rather than management generalist. This has resulted into product oriented approach rather than marketing oriented approach or consumers oriented approach.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Connecting Up Strategy: Are Sensor Strategy Directors a Missing Link?, it seems that the employees of Strategy Senior 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.
Opportunities Connecting Up Strategy: Are Sensor Strategy Directors a Missing Link? | 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 Connecting Up Strategy: Are Sensor Strategy Directors a Missing Link? are -
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Strategy Senior to increase its market reach. Strategy Senior 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Strategy Senior 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 Strategy Senior to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Strategy & Execution industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Strategy Senior can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Strategy Senior 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Strategy Senior can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Connecting Up Strategy: Are Sensor Strategy Directors a Missing Link? 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Strategy Senior 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Strategy Senior 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Strategy Senior can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
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 Strategy Senior in the consumer business. Now Strategy Senior can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Loyalty marketing
– Strategy Senior 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Strategy Senior 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Strategy Senior can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Strategy Senior operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Strategy & Execution sector.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Strategy Senior is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Connecting Up Strategy: Are Sensor Strategy Directors a Missing Link? 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.
Threats Connecting Up Strategy: Are Sensor Strategy Directors a Missing Link? External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Connecting Up Strategy: Are Sensor Strategy Directors a Missing Link? are -
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Strategy Senior is facing in Strategy & Execution sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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. Strategy Senior needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Strategy & Execution industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Strategy Senior 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 Connecting Up Strategy: Are Sensor Strategy Directors a Missing Link? .
Environmental challenges
– Strategy Senior 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. Strategy Senior can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Strategy Senior has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Strategy & Execution industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Strategy Senior 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Strategy Senior 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Strategy Senior 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Strategy Senior 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.
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.
Increasing wage structure of Strategy Senior
– 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 Strategy Senior.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Strategy Senior with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Strategy Senior 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Strategy Senior 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 Connecting Up Strategy: Are Sensor Strategy Directors a Missing Link? 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 Connecting Up Strategy: Are Sensor Strategy Directors a Missing Link? 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 Connecting Up Strategy: Are Sensor Strategy Directors a Missing Link? 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 Connecting Up Strategy: Are Sensor Strategy Directors a Missing Link? 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 Connecting Up Strategy: Are Sensor Strategy Directors a Missing Link? 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 Strategy Senior needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.