Swot Analysis of "Mercer Management Consulting's "Grow to Be Great" (B): Going Ahead with the Book" written by Dorothy Leonard, Carin-Isabel Knoop includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Mercer Consulting's facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Mercer Management Consulting's "Grow to Be Great" (B): Going Ahead with the Book case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Organizational culture, Product development and Technology & Operations.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Mercer Management Consulting's "Grow to Be Great" (B): Going Ahead with the Book casestudy better are - – supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , technology disruption, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing transportation and logistics costs, geopolitical disruptions, wage bills are increasing, increasing energy prices,
customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Mercer Management Consulting's "Grow to Be Great" (B): Going Ahead with the Book
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Mercer Management Consulting's "Grow to Be Great" (B): Going Ahead with the Book case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Mercer Consulting's, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Mercer Consulting's 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 Mercer Management Consulting's "Grow to Be Great" (B): Going Ahead with the Book can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Mercer Management Consulting's "Grow to Be Great" (B): Going Ahead with the Book case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Mercer Consulting's
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Technology & Operations field.
4. Making a Technology & Operations topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Mercer Consulting's
Strengths Mercer Management Consulting's "Grow to Be Great" (B): Going Ahead with the Book | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Mercer Consulting's in Mercer Management Consulting's "Grow to Be Great" (B): Going Ahead with the Book Harvard Business Review case study are -
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Mercer Consulting's in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Mercer Consulting's 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 Mercer Management Consulting's "Grow to Be Great" (B): Going Ahead with the Book HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Technology & Operations industry
– Mercer Management Consulting's "Grow to Be Great" (B): Going Ahead with the Book firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Mercer Consulting's to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Technology & Operations industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Mercer Consulting's to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Diverse revenue streams
– Mercer Consulting's is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Mercer Management Consulting's "Grow to Be Great" (B): Going Ahead with the Book case study a diverse revenue stream that has helped it to survive disruptions such as global pandemic in Covid-19, financial disruption of 2008, and supply chain disruption of 2021.
Analytics focus
– Mercer Consulting's 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 Dorothy Leonard, Carin-Isabel Knoop 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)
– Mercer Consulting's 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 Mercer Management Consulting's "Grow to Be Great" (B): Going Ahead with the Book - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Innovation driven organization
– Mercer Consulting's is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Mercer Management Consulting's "Grow to Be Great" (B): Going Ahead with the Book Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Mercer Consulting's in the sector have low bargaining power. Mercer Management Consulting's "Grow to Be Great" (B): Going Ahead with the Book has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Mercer Consulting's to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Training and development
– Mercer Consulting's has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Mercer Management Consulting's "Grow to Be Great" (B): Going Ahead with the Book 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Mercer Consulting's 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.
High brand equity
– Mercer Consulting's has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Mercer Consulting's to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Ability to lead change in Technology & Operations field
– Mercer Consulting's 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 Mercer Consulting's in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Weaknesses Mercer Management Consulting's "Grow to Be Great" (B): Going Ahead with the Book | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Mercer Management Consulting's "Grow to Be Great" (B): Going Ahead with the Book are -
Products dominated business model
– Even though Mercer Consulting's 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 - Mercer Management Consulting's "Grow to Be Great" (B): Going Ahead with the Book should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Mercer Management Consulting's "Grow to Be Great" (B): Going Ahead with the Book, is just above the industry average. Mercer Consulting's needs to redesign the compensation structure and incentives to increase the revenue per employees. Some of the steps that it can take are – hiring more specialists on project basis, etc.
Lack of clear differentiation of Mercer Consulting's products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Mercer Consulting's needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High dependence on existing supply chain
– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of Mercer Consulting's supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Mercer Management Consulting's "Grow to Be Great" (B): Going Ahead with the Book, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Mercer Consulting's vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Mercer Consulting's 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Mercer Consulting's 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Mercer Management Consulting's "Grow to Be Great" (B): Going Ahead with the Book 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 Mercer Management Consulting's "Grow to Be Great" (B): Going Ahead with the Book can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Mercer Consulting's is planning to shift buying processes online.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Mercer Consulting's 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Dorothy Leonard, Carin-Isabel Knoop suggests that, Mercer Consulting's 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Mercer Management Consulting's "Grow to Be Great" (B): Going Ahead with the Book 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 Mercer Consulting's has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Mercer Management Consulting's "Grow to Be Great" (B): Going Ahead with the Book 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 Mercer Consulting's 's lucrative customers.
Opportunities Mercer Management Consulting's "Grow to Be Great" (B): Going Ahead with the Book | 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 Mercer Management Consulting's "Grow to Be Great" (B): Going Ahead with the Book are -
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Mercer Consulting's to increase its market reach. Mercer Consulting's 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Mercer Consulting's can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Mercer Consulting's operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Technology & Operations sector.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Mercer Consulting's 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 Mercer Management Consulting's "Grow to Be Great" (B): Going Ahead with the Book - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Mercer Consulting's to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Loyalty marketing
– Mercer Consulting's 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
– Mercer Consulting's can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Technology & Operations 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Mercer Consulting's has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Mercer Consulting's to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Mercer Management Consulting's "Grow to Be Great" (B): Going Ahead with the Book case study. Mercer Consulting's can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Buying journey improvements
– Mercer Consulting's can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Mercer Management Consulting's "Grow to Be Great" (B): Going Ahead with the Book 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Mercer Consulting's can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Mercer Consulting's 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 Mercer Consulting's to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Mercer Consulting's 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Mercer Consulting's 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Mercer Consulting's can develop new processes and procedures in Technology & Operations 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Mercer Consulting's 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.
Threats Mercer Management Consulting's "Grow to Be Great" (B): Going Ahead with the Book External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Mercer Management Consulting's "Grow to Be Great" (B): Going Ahead with the Book are -
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. Mercer Consulting's 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.
Environmental challenges
– Mercer Consulting's 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. Mercer Consulting's can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Technology & Operations industry.
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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Mercer Consulting's is facing in Technology & Operations sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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 Mercer Consulting's in the Technology & Operations sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Mercer Consulting's 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 Mercer Consulting's in the Technology & Operations industry. The Technology & Operations 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 Technology & Operations field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Mercer Consulting's can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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 Mercer Consulting's 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 Mercer Management Consulting's "Grow to Be Great" (B): Going Ahead with the Book, Mercer Consulting's may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Technology & Operations .
Consumer confidence and its impact on Mercer Consulting's 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Mercer Consulting's has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Technology & Operations industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Mercer Consulting's needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Technology & Operations 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.
Increasing wage structure of Mercer Consulting's
– 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 Mercer Consulting's.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Mercer Management Consulting's "Grow to Be Great" (B): Going Ahead with the Book 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 Mercer Management Consulting's "Grow to Be Great" (B): Going Ahead with the Book 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 Mercer Management Consulting's "Grow to Be Great" (B): Going Ahead with the Book 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 Mercer Management Consulting's "Grow to Be Great" (B): Going Ahead with the Book 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 Mercer Management Consulting's "Grow to Be Great" (B): Going Ahead with the Book 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 Mercer Consulting's needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.