The Anticipatory Leader: How to See Sooner and Scan Wider SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Strategy & Execution
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of The Anticipatory Leader: How to See Sooner and Scan Wider
Entrepreneurs like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Steve Jobs have exceled at demonstrating a highly valuable skill: spotting unmet market needs and figuring out how to serve them profitably. In short, they excel at anticipation. The authors describe three techniques for 'tuning in' to customer signals in order to better anticipate how tastes and needs are changing. They also describe the perils of 'tunnel vision' and provide three techniques for avoiding it.
Swot Analysis of "The Anticipatory Leader: How to See Sooner and Scan Wider" written by Paul J.H. Schoemaker, Steven Krupp includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Exceled Describe facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in The Anticipatory Leader: How to See Sooner and Scan Wider case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Leadership, Strategic thinking and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the The Anticipatory Leader: How to See Sooner and Scan Wider casestudy better are - – increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, there is backlash against globalization, geopolitical disruptions, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy,
banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, wage bills are increasing, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of The Anticipatory Leader: How to See Sooner and Scan Wider
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in The Anticipatory Leader: How to See Sooner and Scan Wider case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Exceled Describe, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Exceled Describe operates in.
According to Harvard Business Review, 75% of the managers use SWOT analysis for various purposes such as – evaluating current scenario, strategic planning, new venture feasibility, personal growth goals, new market entry, Go To market strategies, portfolio management and strategic trade-off assessment, organizational restructuring, etc.
SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix
SWOT analysis of The Anticipatory Leader: How to See Sooner and Scan Wider can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in The Anticipatory Leader: How to See Sooner and Scan Wider case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Exceled Describe
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 Exceled Describe
Strengths The Anticipatory Leader: How to See Sooner and Scan Wider | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Exceled Describe in The Anticipatory Leader: How to See Sooner and Scan Wider Harvard Business Review case study are -
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Exceled Describe in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Analytics focus
– Exceled Describe 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 Paul J.H. Schoemaker, Steven Krupp 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.
Training and development
– Exceled Describe has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in The Anticipatory Leader: How to See Sooner and Scan Wider 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Exceled Describe in the sector have low bargaining power. The Anticipatory Leader: How to See Sooner and Scan Wider has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Exceled Describe to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Exceled Describe 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.
Learning organization
- Exceled Describe 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 Exceled Describe is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in The Anticipatory Leader: How to See Sooner and Scan Wider Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Digital Transformation in Strategy & Execution segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Exceled Describe digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Exceled Describe 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 brand equity
– Exceled Describe has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Exceled Describe to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Exceled Describe is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the The Anticipatory Leader: How to See Sooner and Scan Wider are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Organizational Resilience of Exceled Describe
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Exceled Describe does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Exceled Describe has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in, as mentioned in case study The Anticipatory Leader: How to See Sooner and Scan Wider - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Exceled Describe 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.
Weaknesses The Anticipatory Leader: How to See Sooner and Scan Wider | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of The Anticipatory Leader: How to See Sooner and Scan Wider are -
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study The Anticipatory Leader: How to See Sooner and Scan Wider 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 Exceled Describe 's lucrative customers.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the The Anticipatory Leader: How to See Sooner and Scan Wider 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 Exceled Describe has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study The Anticipatory Leader: How to See Sooner and Scan Wider, 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Exceled Describe is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Strategy & Execution segment. Exceled Describe needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Exceled Describe to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Need for greater diversity
– Exceled Describe 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As The Anticipatory Leader: How to See Sooner and Scan Wider HBR case study mentions - Exceled Describe 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Exceled Describe 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 - The Anticipatory Leader: How to See Sooner and Scan Wider should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Exceled Describe 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Exceled Describe 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study The Anticipatory Leader: How to See Sooner and Scan Wider that the firm needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department in the case The Anticipatory Leader: How to See Sooner and Scan Wider can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Exceled Describe is planning to shift buying processes online.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Paul J.H. Schoemaker, Steven Krupp suggests that, Exceled Describe 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.
Opportunities The Anticipatory Leader: How to See Sooner and Scan Wider | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities highlighted in the Harvard Business Review case study The Anticipatory Leader: How to See Sooner and Scan Wider are -
Identify volunteer opportunities
– Covid-19 has impacted working population in two ways – it has led to people soul searching about their professional choices, resulting in mass resignation. Secondly it has encouraged people to do things that they are passionate about. This has opened opportunities for businesses to build volunteer oriented socially driven projects. Exceled Describe can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Exceled Describe can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Exceled Describe operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Strategy & Execution sector.
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. Exceled Describe 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. Exceled Describe 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
– Exceled Describe 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Exceled Describe 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.
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. Exceled Describe can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Exceled Describe 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 Exceled Describe 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 Exceled Describe to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Exceled Describe to conduct training and development for its employees across the world. This will result in not only reducing the cost of training but also help employees in different part of the world to integrate with the headquarter work culture, ethos, and standards.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Exceled Describe 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 Exceled Describe 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Exceled Describe has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in the sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled, as illustrated in the Harvard case study The Anticipatory Leader: How to See Sooner and Scan Wider - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Exceled Describe to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Exceled Describe to increase its market reach. Exceled Describe 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.
Threats The Anticipatory Leader: How to See Sooner and Scan Wider External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study The Anticipatory Leader: How to See Sooner and Scan Wider are -
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Exceled Describe can face downward pressure on margins from increasing competition from international players. The international players have stable revenue in their home market and can use those resources to penetrate prominent markets illustrated in HBR case study The Anticipatory Leader: How to See Sooner and Scan Wider .
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Exceled Describe 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Exceled Describe is facing in Strategy & Execution sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Environmental challenges
– Exceled Describe 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. Exceled Describe can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry.
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 Exceled Describe.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Exceled Describe 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 Exceled Describe 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.
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. Exceled Describe can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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. Exceled Describe needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Strategy & Execution industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study The Anticipatory Leader: How to See Sooner and Scan Wider, Exceled Describe 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 .
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
– Exceled Describe has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Strategy & Execution industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Exceled Describe 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.
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 Exceled Describe business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of The Anticipatory Leader: How to See Sooner and Scan Wider Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers in the HBR case study The Anticipatory Leader: How to See Sooner and Scan Wider needs to zero down on the relative importance of each factor mentioned in the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants.
We can provide the relative importance to each factor by assigning relative weights. Weighted SWOT analysis process is a three stage process –
First stage for doing weighted SWOT analysis of the case study The Anticipatory Leader: How to See Sooner and Scan Wider is to rank the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. This will help you to assess the most important strengths and weaknesses of the firm and which one of the strengths and weaknesses mentioned in the initial lists are marginal and can be left out.
Second stage for conducting weighted SWOT analysis of the Harvard case study The Anticipatory Leader: How to See Sooner and Scan Wider is to give probabilities to the external strategic factors thus better understanding the opportunities and threats arising out of macro environment changes and developments.
Third stage of constructing weighted SWOT analysis of The Anticipatory Leader: How to See Sooner and Scan Wider 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 Exceled Describe needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.