The Friend or Foe Fallacy: Why Your Best Customers May Not Need Your Friendship SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Organizational Development
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of The Friend or Foe Fallacy: Why Your Best Customers May Not Need Your Friendship
Organizational transactions are handled along a continuum of the firm's customer relationships, ranging from relational and friendly to more adversarial and us-versus-them in demeanor. For top customers, the approach is almost always close and relational. In this article, we question this view and suggest that there is benefit from conditioning the firm's relationship development efforts on an understanding of the true value to be gained from partnering and increased closeness. We provide a framework with which managers can diagnose their current portfolio of relationships with key customers or suppliers and offer suggestions for action. We provide an empirical illustration of the typical distribution of responses among five regions of the framework and discuss its implications.
Swot Analysis of "The Friend or Foe Fallacy: Why Your Best Customers May Not Need Your Friendship" written by Frederic Dalsace, Sandy Jap includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Relational Demeanor facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in The Friend or Foe Fallacy: Why Your Best Customers May Not Need Your Friendship case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Growth strategy, Joint ventures and Organizational Development.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the The Friend or Foe Fallacy: Why Your Best Customers May Not Need Your Friendship casestudy better are - – technology disruption, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy,
geopolitical disruptions, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of The Friend or Foe Fallacy: Why Your Best Customers May Not Need Your Friendship
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in The Friend or Foe Fallacy: Why Your Best Customers May Not Need Your Friendship case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Relational Demeanor, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Relational Demeanor operates in.
According to Harvard Business Review, 75% of the managers use SWOT analysis for various purposes such as – evaluating current scenario, strategic planning, new venture feasibility, personal growth goals, new market entry, Go To market strategies, portfolio management and strategic trade-off assessment, organizational restructuring, etc.
SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix
SWOT analysis of The Friend or Foe Fallacy: Why Your Best Customers May Not Need Your Friendship can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in The Friend or Foe Fallacy: Why Your Best Customers May Not Need Your Friendship case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Relational Demeanor
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Organizational Development field.
4. Making a Organizational Development topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Relational Demeanor
Strengths The Friend or Foe Fallacy: Why Your Best Customers May Not Need Your Friendship | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Relational Demeanor in The Friend or Foe Fallacy: Why Your Best Customers May Not Need Your Friendship Harvard Business Review case study are -
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Relational Demeanor has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in, as mentioned in case study The Friend or Foe Fallacy: Why Your Best Customers May Not Need Your Friendship - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Relational Demeanor is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the The Friend or Foe Fallacy: Why Your Best Customers May Not Need Your Friendship are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the The Friend or Foe Fallacy: Why Your Best Customers May Not Need Your Friendship 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Relational Demeanor in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Learning organization
- Relational Demeanor 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 Relational Demeanor is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in The Friend or Foe Fallacy: Why Your Best Customers May Not Need Your Friendship Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Relational Demeanor 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
– Relational Demeanor has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Relational Demeanor to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Diverse revenue streams
– Relational Demeanor is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in The Friend or Foe Fallacy: Why Your Best Customers May Not Need Your Friendship 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Relational Demeanor is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Relational Demeanor 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Relational Demeanor in the sector have low bargaining power. The Friend or Foe Fallacy: Why Your Best Customers May Not Need Your Friendship has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Relational Demeanor to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Relational Demeanor has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Relational Demeanor 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.
Weaknesses The Friend or Foe Fallacy: Why Your Best Customers May Not Need Your Friendship | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of The Friend or Foe Fallacy: Why Your Best Customers May Not Need Your Friendship are -
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Frederic Dalsace, Sandy Jap suggests that, Relational Demeanor 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study The Friend or Foe Fallacy: Why Your Best Customers May Not Need Your Friendship that the firm needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department in the case The Friend or Foe Fallacy: Why Your Best Customers May Not Need Your Friendship can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Relational Demeanor is planning to shift buying processes online.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study The Friend or Foe Fallacy: Why Your Best Customers May Not Need Your Friendship, it seems that the employees of Relational Demeanor 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 dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the The Friend or Foe Fallacy: Why Your Best Customers May Not Need Your Friendship 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 Relational Demeanor has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Relational Demeanor 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Relational Demeanor 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As The Friend or Foe Fallacy: Why Your Best Customers May Not Need Your Friendship HBR case study mentions - Relational Demeanor 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 to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Relational Demeanor is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study The Friend or Foe Fallacy: Why Your Best Customers May Not Need Your Friendship can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Relational Demeanor has some of the most successful products in the industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. firm in the HBR case study - The Friend or Foe Fallacy: Why Your Best Customers May Not Need Your Friendship should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Relational Demeanor 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. Relational Demeanor 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.
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 Relational Demeanor supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - The Friend or Foe Fallacy: Why Your Best Customers May Not Need Your Friendship, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Relational Demeanor vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Opportunities The Friend or Foe Fallacy: Why Your Best Customers May Not Need Your Friendship | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities highlighted in the Harvard Business Review case study The Friend or Foe Fallacy: Why Your Best Customers May Not Need Your Friendship are -
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Relational Demeanor can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Relational Demeanor has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Relational Demeanor to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the The Friend or Foe Fallacy: Why Your Best Customers May Not Need Your Friendship case study. Relational Demeanor can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, 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. Relational Demeanor can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Relational Demeanor 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, The Friend or Foe Fallacy: Why Your Best Customers May Not Need Your Friendship, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Buying journey improvements
– Relational Demeanor can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. The Friend or Foe Fallacy: Why Your Best Customers May Not Need Your Friendship 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Relational Demeanor 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.
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 Relational Demeanor 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Relational Demeanor can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Organizational Development 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Relational Demeanor has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in the sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled, as illustrated in the Harvard case study The Friend or Foe Fallacy: Why Your Best Customers May Not Need Your Friendship - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Relational Demeanor to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Relational Demeanor 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
– Relational Demeanor can develop new processes and procedures in Organizational Development 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Organizational Development industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Relational Demeanor 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. Relational Demeanor 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Relational Demeanor to increase its market reach. Relational Demeanor will be able to reach out to new customers. Secondly 5G will also provide technology framework to build new tools and products that can help more immersive consumer experience and faster consumer journey.
Threats The Friend or Foe Fallacy: Why Your Best Customers May Not Need Your Friendship External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study The Friend or Foe Fallacy: Why Your Best Customers May Not Need Your Friendship are -
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 Relational Demeanor.
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.
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 Relational Demeanor in the Organizational Development sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Relational Demeanor 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.
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.
Regulatory challenges
– Relational Demeanor 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 Organizational Development industry regulations.
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 Relational Demeanor business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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. Relational Demeanor 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Relational Demeanor is facing in Organizational Development sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Relational Demeanor with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Environmental challenges
– Relational Demeanor 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. Relational Demeanor can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Organizational Development industry.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study The Friend or Foe Fallacy: Why Your Best Customers May Not Need Your Friendship, Relational Demeanor may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Organizational Development .
Consumer confidence and its impact on Relational Demeanor 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of The Friend or Foe Fallacy: Why Your Best Customers May Not Need Your Friendship Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers in the HBR case study The Friend or Foe Fallacy: Why Your Best Customers May Not Need Your Friendship needs to zero down on the relative importance of each factor mentioned in the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants.
We can provide the relative importance to each factor by assigning relative weights. Weighted SWOT analysis process is a three stage process –
First stage for doing weighted SWOT analysis of the case study The Friend or Foe Fallacy: Why Your Best Customers May Not Need Your Friendship is to rank the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. This will help you to assess the most important strengths and weaknesses of the firm and which one of the strengths and weaknesses mentioned in the initial lists are marginal and can be left out.
Second stage for conducting weighted SWOT analysis of the Harvard case study The Friend or Foe Fallacy: Why Your Best Customers May Not Need Your Friendship is to give probabilities to the external strategic factors thus better understanding the opportunities and threats arising out of macro environment changes and developments.
Third stage of constructing weighted SWOT analysis of The Friend or Foe Fallacy: Why Your Best Customers May Not Need Your Friendship 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 Relational Demeanor needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
