Function and Responsibilities of the Board of Directors in the Family Enterprise SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Strategy & Execution
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Function and Responsibilities of the Board of Directors in the Family Enterprise
A family enterprise needs sound governance mechanisms to achieve its goals and to succeed down the generations. These governance structures contain the plans, statements, policies, rules and agreements that allow the family enterprise to clarify its direction and identity. In this technical note, we will focus on one of the most important business governance structures in the family enterprise: the Board of Directors and its connection with the Executive Committee. The main functions of the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee, as well the challenges faced by these governance structures, are explained in the context of a family enterprise.
Swot Analysis of "Function and Responsibilities of the Board of Directors in the Family Enterprise" written by Lucia Ceja, Josep Tapies Lloret includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Enterprise Family facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Function and Responsibilities of the Board of Directors in the Family Enterprise case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Function and Responsibilities of the Board of Directors in the Family Enterprise casestudy better are - – challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, technology disruption, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, geopolitical disruptions, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, wage bills are increasing, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google,
increasing commodity prices, there is backlash against globalization, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Function and Responsibilities of the Board of Directors in the Family Enterprise
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Function and Responsibilities of the Board of Directors in the Family Enterprise case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Enterprise Family, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Enterprise Family 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 Function and Responsibilities of the Board of Directors in the Family Enterprise can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Function and Responsibilities of the Board of Directors in the Family Enterprise case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Enterprise Family
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 Enterprise Family
Strengths Function and Responsibilities of the Board of Directors in the Family Enterprise | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Enterprise Family in Function and Responsibilities of the Board of Directors in the Family Enterprise Harvard Business Review case study are -
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Enterprise Family 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Enterprise Family 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 Function and Responsibilities of the Board of Directors in the Family Enterprise HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Strong track record of project management
– Enterprise Family is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Organizational Resilience of Enterprise Family
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Enterprise Family does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Training and development
– Enterprise Family has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Function and Responsibilities of the Board of Directors in the Family Enterprise 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Enterprise Family in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Analytics focus
– Enterprise Family 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 Lucia Ceja, Josep Tapies Lloret 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Enterprise Family 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Enterprise Family has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Enterprise Family 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Enterprise Family is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Function and Responsibilities of the Board of Directors in the Family Enterprise Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Digital Transformation in Strategy & Execution segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Enterprise Family digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Enterprise Family 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.
Learning organization
- Enterprise Family 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 Enterprise Family is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Function and Responsibilities of the Board of Directors in the Family Enterprise Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Weaknesses Function and Responsibilities of the Board of Directors in the Family Enterprise | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Function and Responsibilities of the Board of Directors in the Family Enterprise are -
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Function and Responsibilities of the Board of Directors in the Family Enterprise HBR case study mentions - Enterprise Family 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Enterprise Family 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. Enterprise Family 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Function and Responsibilities of the Board of Directors in the Family Enterprise 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 Function and Responsibilities of the Board of Directors in the Family Enterprise can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Enterprise Family is planning to shift buying processes online.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Enterprise Family 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Enterprise Family has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Lack of clear differentiation of Enterprise Family products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Enterprise Family needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Enterprise Family 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Enterprise Family 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Enterprise Family is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Strategy & Execution segment. Enterprise Family needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Enterprise Family to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Need for greater diversity
– Enterprise Family 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Enterprise Family 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 - Function and Responsibilities of the Board of Directors in the Family Enterprise should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Opportunities Function and Responsibilities of the Board of Directors in the Family Enterprise | 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 Function and Responsibilities of the Board of Directors in the Family Enterprise are -
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Enterprise Family is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Function and Responsibilities of the Board of Directors in the Family Enterprise case study suggests that firm can utilize new technology to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Enterprise Family has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Enterprise Family to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Function and Responsibilities of the Board of Directors in the Family Enterprise case study. Enterprise Family can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Enterprise Family can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Enterprise Family operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Strategy & Execution sector.
Buying journey improvements
– Enterprise Family can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Function and Responsibilities of the Board of Directors in the Family Enterprise suggest that firm can provide automated chats to help consumers solve their own problems, provide online suggestions to get maximum out of the products and services, and help consumers to build a community where they can interact with each other to develop new features and uses.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Enterprise Family 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Enterprise Family 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 Enterprise Family to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Loyalty marketing
– Enterprise Family 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.
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. Enterprise Family can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
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 Enterprise Family 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Enterprise Family 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.
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 Enterprise Family in the consumer business. Now Enterprise Family 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 Enterprise Family 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Enterprise Family can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Threats Function and Responsibilities of the Board of Directors in the Family Enterprise External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Function and Responsibilities of the Board of Directors in the Family Enterprise are -
Consumer confidence and its impact on Enterprise Family 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.
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. Enterprise Family 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Enterprise Family with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Environmental challenges
– Enterprise Family 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. Enterprise Family can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry.
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 Enterprise Family business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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.
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 Enterprise Family.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Enterprise Family 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 Enterprise Family 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.
Increasing wage structure of Enterprise Family
– 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 Enterprise Family.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Enterprise Family has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Strategy & Execution industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Enterprise Family 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 Enterprise Family is facing in Strategy & Execution sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Function and Responsibilities of the Board of Directors in the Family Enterprise 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 Function and Responsibilities of the Board of Directors in the Family Enterprise 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 Function and Responsibilities of the Board of Directors in the Family Enterprise 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 Function and Responsibilities of the Board of Directors in the Family Enterprise 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 Function and Responsibilities of the Board of Directors in the Family Enterprise 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 Enterprise Family needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
