Batten Down the Anchors: Responding to Another Negotiator's First Offer SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Strategy & Execution
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Batten Down the Anchors: Responding to Another Negotiator's First Offer
Drawing from a wealth of negotiation research, my previous installment of Negotiating Life advised negotiators to make the first offer if they can. But sometimes they can't. Sometimes, despite a negotiator's best efforts, the other side moves first. In this article, I provide a framework for responding to another negotiator's first offer, suggesting that the appropriate response varies markedly depending on the quality of the offer. This makes for a more comprehensive strategy for making and managing early offers in a negotiation.
Swot Analysis of "Batten Down the Anchors: Responding to Another Negotiator's First Offer" written by Brian Gunia includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Negotiator's Offer facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Batten Down the Anchors: Responding to Another Negotiator's First Offer case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Strategy and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Batten Down the Anchors: Responding to Another Negotiator's First Offer casestudy better are - – technology disruption, increasing transportation and logistics costs, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, geopolitical disruptions,
cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Batten Down the Anchors: Responding to Another Negotiator's First Offer
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Batten Down the Anchors: Responding to Another Negotiator's First Offer case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Negotiator's Offer, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Negotiator's Offer 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 Batten Down the Anchors: Responding to Another Negotiator's First Offer can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Batten Down the Anchors: Responding to Another Negotiator's First Offer case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Negotiator's Offer
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Strategy & Execution field.
4. Making a Strategy & Execution topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Negotiator's Offer
Strengths Batten Down the Anchors: Responding to Another Negotiator's First Offer | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Negotiator's Offer in Batten Down the Anchors: Responding to Another Negotiator's First Offer Harvard Business Review case study are -
High brand equity
– Negotiator's Offer has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Negotiator's Offer to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Strategy & Execution industry
– Batten Down the Anchors: Responding to Another Negotiator's First Offer firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Negotiator's Offer to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Negotiator's Offer to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Diverse revenue streams
– Negotiator's Offer is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Batten Down the Anchors: Responding to Another Negotiator's First Offer 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Negotiator's Offer 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 Batten Down the Anchors: Responding to Another Negotiator's First Offer HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Digital Transformation in Strategy & Execution segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Negotiator's Offer digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Negotiator's Offer 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Negotiator's Offer is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Batten Down the Anchors: Responding to Another Negotiator's First Offer Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Negotiator's Offer in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Negotiator's Offer is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Batten Down the Anchors: Responding to Another Negotiator's First Offer are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Negotiator's Offer 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 Batten Down the Anchors: Responding to Another Negotiator's First Offer - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Analytics focus
– Negotiator's Offer 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 Brian Gunia 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Negotiator's Offer in the sector have low bargaining power. Batten Down the Anchors: Responding to Another Negotiator's First Offer has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Negotiator's Offer to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Training and development
– Negotiator's Offer has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Batten Down the Anchors: Responding to Another Negotiator's First Offer 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.
Weaknesses Batten Down the Anchors: Responding to Another Negotiator's First Offer | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Batten Down the Anchors: Responding to Another Negotiator's First Offer are -
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Brian Gunia suggests that, Negotiator's Offer 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Batten Down the Anchors: Responding to Another Negotiator's First Offer, it seems that the employees of Negotiator's Offer 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Negotiator's Offer 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.
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 Negotiator's Offer supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Batten Down the Anchors: Responding to Another Negotiator's First Offer, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Negotiator's Offer vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Negotiator's Offer 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Batten Down the Anchors: Responding to Another Negotiator's First Offer, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Strategy & Execution 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Batten Down the Anchors: Responding to Another Negotiator's First Offer 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 Batten Down the Anchors: Responding to Another Negotiator's First Offer can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Negotiator's Offer is planning to shift buying processes online.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Negotiator's Offer is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Batten Down the Anchors: Responding to Another Negotiator's First Offer can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Negotiator's Offer 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 Negotiator's Offer, firm in the HBR case study Batten Down the Anchors: Responding to Another Negotiator's First Offer needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Lack of clear differentiation of Negotiator's Offer products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Negotiator's Offer needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Opportunities Batten Down the Anchors: Responding to Another Negotiator's First Offer | 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 Batten Down the Anchors: Responding to Another Negotiator's First Offer are -
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Negotiator's Offer 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 Batten Down the Anchors: Responding to Another Negotiator's First Offer - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Negotiator's Offer 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 Negotiator's Offer 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
– Negotiator's Offer can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Strategy & Execution 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Negotiator's Offer in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Strategy & Execution segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Negotiator's Offer 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Negotiator's Offer to increase its market reach. Negotiator's Offer 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Negotiator's Offer is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Batten Down the Anchors: Responding to Another Negotiator's First Offer case study suggests that firm can utilize new technology to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Negotiator's Offer has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Negotiator's Offer to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Batten Down the Anchors: Responding to Another Negotiator's First Offer case study. Negotiator's Offer 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. Negotiator's Offer can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Negotiator's Offer 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Strategy & Execution industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Negotiator's Offer 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. Negotiator's Offer 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Negotiator's Offer can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Negotiator's Offer operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Strategy & Execution sector.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Negotiator's Offer 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 Negotiator's Offer to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Threats Batten Down the Anchors: Responding to Another Negotiator's First Offer External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Batten Down the Anchors: Responding to Another Negotiator's First Offer 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 Negotiator's Offer.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Negotiator's Offer 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.
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 Negotiator's Offer business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Strategy & Execution field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Negotiator's Offer 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
– Negotiator's Offer 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 Strategy & Execution industry regulations.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Negotiator's Offer has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Strategy & Execution industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Negotiator's Offer needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Strategy & Execution sector. According to Mckinsey study top managers believe that the adoption of technology in operations, communications is 20-25 times faster than what they planned in the beginning of 2019.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Negotiator's Offer is facing in Strategy & Execution sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, 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. Negotiator's Offer 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Negotiator's Offer with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Environmental challenges
– Negotiator's Offer 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. Negotiator's Offer can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Strategy & Execution 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 Batten Down the Anchors: Responding to Another Negotiator's First Offer, Negotiator's Offer may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Strategy & Execution .
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Negotiator's Offer 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 Batten Down the Anchors: Responding to Another Negotiator's First Offer .
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 Negotiator's Offer in the Strategy & Execution sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Batten Down the Anchors: Responding to Another Negotiator's First Offer 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 Batten Down the Anchors: Responding to Another Negotiator's First Offer 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 Batten Down the Anchors: Responding to Another Negotiator's First Offer 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 Batten Down the Anchors: Responding to Another Negotiator's First Offer 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 Batten Down the Anchors: Responding to Another Negotiator's First Offer 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 Negotiator's Offer needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
