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, wage bills are increasing, geopolitical disruptions, there is backlash against globalization, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, technology disruption, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google,
supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, 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 -
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.
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.
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.
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.
Analytics focus
– Controllership Sml 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 Benson P. Shapiro 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.
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.
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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Controllership Sml has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Controllership Sml 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Controllership Sml 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
– 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.
Organizational Resilience of Controllership Sml
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Controllership Sml does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
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.
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 -
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Benson P. Shapiro suggests that, Controllership Sml 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.
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.
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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Controllership Sml 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.
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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Sustainable Marketing Leadership--Workshop II: Managing Performance and Marketing Controllership 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 Controllership Sml has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
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.
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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Controllership Sml products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Controllership Sml needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Sustainable Marketing Leadership--Workshop II: Managing Performance and Marketing Controllership 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 Sustainable Marketing Leadership--Workshop II: Managing Performance and Marketing Controllership can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Controllership Sml is planning to shift buying processes online.
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 -
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.
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.
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 Controllership Sml 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Controllership Sml to increase its market reach. Controllership Sml 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Controllership Sml can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Developing new processes and practices
– Controllership Sml can develop new processes and procedures in Strategy & Execution industry using technology such as automation using artificial intelligence, real time transportation and products tracking, 3D modeling for concept development and new products pilot testing etc.
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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Controllership Sml 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 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 -
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.
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.
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.
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 .
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.
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.
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.
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 Controllership Sml in the Strategy & Execution sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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.
Regulatory challenges
– Controllership Sml 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.
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 Controllership Sml.
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.
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.
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