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 - – talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing transportation and logistics costs, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, geopolitical disruptions, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings,
increasing energy prices, increasing commodity prices, 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 -
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.
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.
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.
Ability to lead change in Strategy & Execution field
– Controllership Sml 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 Controllership Sml in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Strategy & Execution industry
– Sustainable Marketing Leadership--Workshop II: Managing Performance and Marketing Controllership firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Controllership Sml to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Controllership Sml to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
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 -
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.
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.
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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Sustainable Marketing Leadership--Workshop II: Managing Performance and Marketing Controllership HBR case study mentions - Controllership Sml takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the industry in last five years.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Sustainable Marketing Leadership--Workshop II: Managing Performance and Marketing Controllership, it seems that the employees of Controllership Sml 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.
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.
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 -
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.
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.
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.
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.
Manufacturing automation
– Controllership Sml 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
– 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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. Controllership Sml 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.
Technology disruption because of hacks, piracy etc
– The colonial pipeline illustrated, how vulnerable modern organization are to international hackers, miscreants, and disruptors. The cyber security interruption, data leaks, etc can seriously jeopardize the future growth of the organization.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Controllership Sml is facing in Strategy & Execution sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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 .
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.
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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