Case Study Description of Sustainable Marketing Leadership--Workshop II: Managing Performance and Marketing Controllership
This case presents the second of two workshop descriptions and templates for the Sustainable Marketing Leadership (SML) executive program. It enables a top management team to approach the last two steps in the four-step SML process: managing performance and marketing controllership.
Swot Analysis of "Sustainable Marketing Leadership--Workshop II: Managing Performance and Marketing Controllership" written by Benson P. Shapiro includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Controllership Sml facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Sustainable Marketing Leadership--Workshop II: Managing Performance and Marketing Controllership case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Developing employees, Marketing, Strategy execution and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Sustainable Marketing Leadership--Workshop II: Managing Performance and Marketing Controllership casestudy better are - – increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing energy prices, technology disruption, increasing commodity prices, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies,
talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Sustainable Marketing Leadership--Workshop II: Managing Performance and Marketing Controllership
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Sustainable Marketing Leadership--Workshop II: Managing Performance and Marketing Controllership case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Controllership Sml, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Controllership Sml 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 Sustainable Marketing Leadership--Workshop II: Managing Performance and Marketing Controllership can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Sustainable Marketing Leadership--Workshop II: Managing Performance and Marketing Controllership case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Controllership Sml
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 Controllership Sml
Strengths Sustainable Marketing Leadership--Workshop II: Managing Performance and Marketing Controllership | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Controllership Sml in Sustainable Marketing Leadership--Workshop II: Managing Performance and Marketing Controllership Harvard Business Review case study are -
Highly skilled collaborators
– Controllership Sml 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 Sustainable Marketing Leadership--Workshop II: Managing Performance and Marketing Controllership HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Innovation driven organization
– Controllership Sml is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Sustainable Marketing Leadership--Workshop II: Managing Performance and Marketing Controllership Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
High brand equity
– Controllership Sml has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Controllership Sml to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Controllership Sml in the sector have low bargaining power. Sustainable Marketing Leadership--Workshop II: Managing Performance and Marketing Controllership has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Controllership Sml to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Controllership Sml 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Controllership Sml in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Learning organization
- Controllership Sml 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 Controllership Sml is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Sustainable Marketing Leadership--Workshop II: Managing Performance and Marketing Controllership Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Sustainable Marketing Leadership--Workshop II: Managing Performance and Marketing Controllership 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 Controllership Sml 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.
Digital Transformation in Strategy & Execution segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Controllership Sml digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Controllership Sml 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Controllership Sml is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Sustainable Marketing Leadership--Workshop II: Managing Performance and Marketing Controllership 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Controllership Sml 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 Sustainable Marketing Leadership--Workshop II: Managing Performance and Marketing Controllership - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Weaknesses Sustainable Marketing Leadership--Workshop II: Managing Performance and Marketing Controllership | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Sustainable Marketing Leadership--Workshop II: Managing Performance and Marketing Controllership are -
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Controllership Sml is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Sustainable Marketing Leadership--Workshop II: Managing Performance and Marketing Controllership can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Sustainable Marketing Leadership--Workshop II: Managing Performance and Marketing Controllership, in the dynamic environment Controllership Sml has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Controllership Sml has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Controllership Sml has borrowed money from the capital market at higher rates. It needs to restructure the interest payment and costs so that it can compete better and improve profitability.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Controllership Sml has some of the most successful products in the industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. firm in the HBR case study - Sustainable Marketing Leadership--Workshop II: Managing Performance and Marketing Controllership should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Sustainable Marketing Leadership--Workshop II: Managing Performance and Marketing Controllership 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 Controllership Sml 's lucrative customers.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Controllership Sml, firm in the HBR case study Sustainable Marketing Leadership--Workshop II: Managing Performance and Marketing Controllership needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Need for greater diversity
– Controllership Sml 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Sustainable Marketing Leadership--Workshop II: Managing Performance and Marketing Controllership, 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Controllership Sml 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Controllership Sml 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. Controllership Sml 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Controllership Sml 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.
Opportunities Sustainable Marketing Leadership--Workshop II: Managing Performance and Marketing Controllership | 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 Sustainable Marketing Leadership--Workshop II: Managing Performance and Marketing Controllership are -
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Controllership Sml 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Controllership Sml 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.
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 Controllership Sml in the consumer business. Now Controllership Sml can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Controllership Sml 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 Sustainable Marketing Leadership--Workshop II: Managing Performance and Marketing Controllership - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Controllership Sml to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Controllership Sml has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Controllership Sml to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Sustainable Marketing Leadership--Workshop II: Managing Performance and Marketing Controllership case study. Controllership Sml can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Controllership Sml 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Controllership Sml can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Controllership Sml operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Strategy & Execution sector.
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. Controllership Sml can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Controllership Sml 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, Sustainable Marketing Leadership--Workshop II: Managing Performance and Marketing Controllership, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Controllership Sml 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 Controllership Sml to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
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. Controllership Sml 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. Controllership Sml 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Controllership Sml 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Controllership Sml 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.
Threats Sustainable Marketing Leadership--Workshop II: Managing Performance and Marketing Controllership External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Sustainable Marketing Leadership--Workshop II: Managing Performance and Marketing Controllership are -
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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Controllership Sml has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Strategy & Execution industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Controllership Sml 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 Controllership Sml 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Controllership Sml with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Increasing wage structure of Controllership Sml
– 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 Controllership Sml.
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. Controllership Sml can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Sustainable Marketing Leadership--Workshop II: Managing Performance and Marketing Controllership, Controllership Sml 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 .
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Controllership Sml 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Controllership Sml 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.
Environmental challenges
– Controllership Sml 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. Controllership Sml can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Controllership Sml 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.
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 Controllership Sml business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Sustainable Marketing Leadership--Workshop II: Managing Performance and Marketing Controllership 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 Sustainable Marketing Leadership--Workshop II: Managing Performance and Marketing Controllership 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 Sustainable Marketing Leadership--Workshop II: Managing Performance and Marketing Controllership 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 Sustainable Marketing Leadership--Workshop II: Managing Performance and Marketing Controllership 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 Sustainable Marketing Leadership--Workshop II: Managing Performance and Marketing Controllership 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 Controllership Sml needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
Feel free to connect with us if you need business research.
You can download Excel Template of Case Study Solution & Analysis of Sustainable Marketing Leadership--Workshop II: Managing Performance and Marketing Controllership