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Gordon Cain and the Sterling Group (B) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution

Case Study Description of Gordon Cain and the Sterling Group (B)


Supplements the (A) case.

Authors :: Michael C. Jensen, Brian Barry

Topics :: Finance & Accounting

Tags :: Financial markets, Mergers & acquisitions, SWOT Analysis, SWOT Matrix, TOWS, Weighted SWOT Analysis

Swot Analysis of "Gordon Cain and the Sterling Group (B)" written by Michael C. Jensen, Brian Barry includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Cain Sterling facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Gordon Cain and the Sterling Group (B) case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Financial markets, Mergers & acquisitions and Finance & Accounting.


Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Gordon Cain and the Sterling Group (B) casestudy better are - – increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing commodity prices, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing energy prices, wage bills are increasing, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, etc



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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Gordon Cain and the Sterling Group (B)


SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Gordon Cain and the Sterling Group (B) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Cain Sterling, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Cain Sterling 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 Gordon Cain and the Sterling Group (B) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Gordon Cain and the Sterling Group (B) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Cain Sterling
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Finance & Accounting field.
4. Making a Finance & Accounting topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Cain Sterling




Strengths Gordon Cain and the Sterling Group (B) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Cain Sterling in Gordon Cain and the Sterling Group (B) Harvard Business Review case study are -

Operational resilience

– The operational resilience strategy in the Gordon Cain and the Sterling Group (B) Harvard Business Review case study comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the industry, building diversified operations across different geographies so that disruption in one part of the world doesn’t impact the overall performance of the firm, and integrating the various business operations and processes through its digital transformation drive.

Organizational Resilience of Cain Sterling

– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Cain Sterling does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.

Learning organization

- Cain Sterling 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 Cain Sterling is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Gordon Cain and the Sterling Group (B) Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.

Cross disciplinary teams

– Horizontal connected teams at the Cain Sterling are driving operational speed, building greater agility, and keeping the organization nimble to compete with new competitors. It helps are organization to ideate new ideas, and execute them swiftly in the marketplace.

Ability to recruit top talent

– Cain Sterling is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Gordon Cain and the Sterling Group (B) are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.

Training and development

– Cain Sterling has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Gordon Cain and the Sterling Group (B) 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 Cain Sterling in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.

Analytics focus

– Cain Sterling 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 Michael C. Jensen, Brian Barry 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.

Innovation driven organization

– Cain Sterling is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Gordon Cain and the Sterling Group (B) Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.

Successful track record of launching new products

– Cain Sterling has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Cain Sterling 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.

Effective Research and Development (R&D)

– Cain Sterling 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 Gordon Cain and the Sterling Group (B) - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.

Digital Transformation in Finance & Accounting segment

- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Cain Sterling digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Cain Sterling 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.






Weaknesses Gordon Cain and the Sterling Group (B) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of Gordon Cain and the Sterling Group (B) are -

Increasing silos among functional specialists

– The organizational structure of Cain Sterling is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Finance & Accounting segment. Cain Sterling needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Cain Sterling to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.

High dependence on star products

– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Gordon Cain and the Sterling Group (B) 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 Cain Sterling has relatively successful track record of launching new products.

No frontier risks strategy

– After analyzing the HBR case study Gordon Cain and the Sterling Group (B), it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Finance & Accounting 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.

High bargaining power of channel partners

– Because of the regulatory requirements, Michael C. Jensen, Brian Barry suggests that, Cain Sterling 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.

Skills based hiring

– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Cain Sterling 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.

Low market penetration in new markets

– Outside its home market of Cain Sterling, firm in the HBR case study Gordon Cain and the Sterling Group (B) needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.

High operating costs

– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Gordon Cain and the Sterling Group (B) 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 Cain Sterling 's lucrative customers.

Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy

– From the instances in the HBR case study Gordon Cain and the Sterling Group (B), it seems that the employees of Cain Sterling don’t have comprehensive understanding of the firm’s strategy. This is reflected in number of promotional campaigns over the last few years that had mixed messaging and competing priorities. Some of the strategic activities and services promoted in the promotional campaigns were not consistent with the organization’s strategy.

High cash cycle compare to competitors

Cain Sterling 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.

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 Cain Sterling supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Gordon Cain and the Sterling Group (B), it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Cain Sterling vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.

Need for greater diversity

– Cain Sterling 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.




Opportunities Gordon Cain and the Sterling Group (B) | 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 Gordon Cain and the Sterling Group (B) are -

Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains

– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Cain Sterling 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, Gordon Cain and the Sterling Group (B), to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.

Creating value in data economy

– The success of analytics program of Cain Sterling has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Cain Sterling to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Gordon Cain and the Sterling Group (B) case study. Cain Sterling can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.

Learning at scale

– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Cain Sterling 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.

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 Cain Sterling in the consumer business. Now Cain Sterling can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.

Better consumer reach

– The expansion of the 5G network will help Cain Sterling to increase its market reach. Cain Sterling 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.

Buying journey improvements

– Cain Sterling can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Gordon Cain and the Sterling Group (B) 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.

Using analytics as competitive advantage

– Cain Sterling 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 Gordon Cain and the Sterling Group (B) - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Cain Sterling to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.

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 Cain Sterling 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.

Loyalty marketing

– Cain Sterling 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.

Redefining models of collaboration and team work

– As explained in the weaknesses section, Cain Sterling is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Gordon Cain and the Sterling Group (B) 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 Cain Sterling 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 Cain Sterling to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.

Building a culture of innovation

– managers at Cain Sterling can make experimentation a productive activity and build a culture of innovation using approaches such as – mining transaction data, A/B testing of websites and selling platforms, engaging potential customers over various needs, and building on small ideas in the Finance & Accounting segment.

Developing new processes and practices

– Cain Sterling can develop new processes and procedures in Finance & Accounting 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.




Threats Gordon Cain and the Sterling Group (B) External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis


The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Gordon Cain and the Sterling Group (B) are -

Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution

– Cain Sterling has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Finance & Accounting industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Cain Sterling needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Finance & Accounting 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.

Barriers of entry lowering

– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Cain Sterling with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.

Easy access to finance

– Easy access to finance in Finance & Accounting field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Cain Sterling can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.

Trade war between China and United States

– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Cain Sterling in the Finance & Accounting industry. The Finance & Accounting 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.

Learning curve for new practices

– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Gordon Cain and the Sterling Group (B), Cain Sterling may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Finance & Accounting .

Aging population

– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.

New competition

– After the dotcom bust of 2001, financial crisis of 2008-09, the business formation in US economy had declined. But in 2020 alone, there are more than 1.5 million new business applications in United States. This can lead to greater competition for Cain Sterling in the Finance & Accounting sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.

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. Cain Sterling needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Finance & Accounting industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.

Stagnating economy with rate increase

– Cain Sterling 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.

High dependence on third party suppliers

– Cain Sterling 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.

Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins

– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Cain Sterling 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 Gordon Cain and the Sterling Group (B) .

Increasing wage structure of Cain Sterling

– 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 Cain Sterling.

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. Cain Sterling 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.




Weighted SWOT Analysis of Gordon Cain and the Sterling Group (B) 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 Gordon Cain and the Sterling Group (B) 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 Gordon Cain and the Sterling Group (B) 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 Gordon Cain and the Sterling Group (B) 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 Gordon Cain and the Sterling Group (B) 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 Cain Sterling needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.



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