Gerson Lehrman Group brought together decision makers in search of hard-to-find answers with specialized experts in nearly every imaginable field. Over time, GLG developed software to help minimize potential conflicts of interest among and between experts and their employers on the one hand, and the decision makers and their employers on the other. GLG CEO Alexander Saint-Amand needed to assess both whether the compliance mechanisms in place were adequate for all parties, and if so, how or whether the company could exploit them as a source of competitive advantage.
Swot Analysis of "Gerson Lehrman Group" written by Robert G. Eccles, David Lane includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Gerson Glg facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Gerson Lehrman Group case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Competitive strategy, Technology and Technology & Operations.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Gerson Lehrman Group casestudy better are - – there is backlash against globalization, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing energy prices, geopolitical disruptions,
there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing commodity prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Gerson Lehrman Group
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Gerson Lehrman Group case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Gerson Glg, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Gerson Glg 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 Gerson Lehrman Group can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Gerson Lehrman Group case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Gerson Glg
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 Gerson Glg
Strengths Gerson Lehrman Group | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Gerson Glg in Gerson Lehrman Group Harvard Business Review case study are -
Innovation driven organization
– Gerson Glg is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Gerson Lehrman Group Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Learning organization
- Gerson Glg 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 Gerson Glg is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Gerson Lehrman Group Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Gerson Glg is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Gerson Lehrman Group are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Gerson Glg 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Gerson Lehrman Group 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Gerson Glg 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 Gerson Lehrman Group HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Gerson Glg has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Gerson Glg 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.
Training and development
– Gerson Glg has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Gerson Lehrman Group 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Gerson Glg 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Gerson Glg in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Gerson Glg in the sector have low bargaining power. Gerson Lehrman Group has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Gerson Glg to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
High brand equity
– Gerson Glg has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Gerson Glg to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Weaknesses Gerson Lehrman Group | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Gerson Lehrman Group are -
Lack of clear differentiation of Gerson Glg products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Gerson Glg needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Gerson Glg 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Gerson Lehrman Group, in the dynamic environment Gerson Glg has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Gerson Glg has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Gerson Glg 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. Gerson Glg 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Gerson Glg 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 harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Gerson Glg is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Gerson Lehrman Group can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Gerson Lehrman Group, is just above the industry average. Gerson Glg 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Gerson Glg 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Gerson Glg 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.
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 Gerson Glg supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Gerson Lehrman Group, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Gerson Glg vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Gerson Glg, firm in the HBR case study Gerson Lehrman Group needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Opportunities Gerson Lehrman Group | 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 Gerson Lehrman Group are -
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Gerson Glg has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Gerson Glg to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Gerson Lehrman Group case study. Gerson Glg can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Gerson Glg to increase its market reach. Gerson Glg 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Gerson Glg in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Technology & Operations segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
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 Gerson Glg in the consumer business. Now Gerson Glg can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Gerson Glg 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Gerson Glg is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Gerson Lehrman Group 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Gerson Glg 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 Gerson Glg to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Gerson Glg can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Gerson Glg operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Technology & Operations sector.
Loyalty marketing
– Gerson Glg 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Technology & Operations industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Gerson Glg 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. Gerson Glg 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Gerson Glg 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, Gerson Lehrman Group, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Technology & Operations industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Gerson Glg can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Gerson Glg 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.
Threats Gerson Lehrman Group External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Gerson Lehrman Group are -
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Gerson Glg with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Gerson Glg 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Gerson Lehrman Group, Gerson Glg 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 .
Increasing wage structure of Gerson Glg
– 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 Gerson Glg.
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. Gerson Glg needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Technology & Operations industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Gerson Glg 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.
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. Gerson Glg can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Regulatory challenges
– Gerson Glg 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 Technology & Operations industry regulations.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Gerson Glg 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Gerson Glg 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 Gerson Lehrman Group .
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Gerson Glg 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Gerson Lehrman Group 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 Gerson Lehrman Group 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 Gerson Lehrman Group 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 Gerson Lehrman Group 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 Gerson Lehrman Group 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 Gerson Glg needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.