Ethics and Integrity in Business: Navigating Ethical Risks and Transgressions in the Workplace (B) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Ethics and Integrity in Business: Navigating Ethical Risks and Transgressions in the Workplace (B)
Supplement to case W97A17. In this set of six cases, students are placed into the role of the fictional Andrea Johnson, a recent graduate who has just begun her career at a mid-sized organization in the consumer electronics industry. While in the role of Andrea, university students and early-stage professionals follow Andrea's career development and are exposed to a variety of ethical challenges she encounters along the way. Each hypothetical scenario is based on real-world events and will illustrate the types of situations that students may encounter in the course of their career. The cases may be taught sequentially or as standalone scenarios. Case A is delivered in the inspection copy and purchased copy, and Cases B - F are delivered alongside the teaching note. A slide deck accompanies the comprehensive teaching note that provides an in-depth analysis of each scenario with tips on promoting student engagement to create an active and dynamic learning environment. The intent of the case series is to enable students to develop fundamental tools for how to recognize, address, and successfully overcome compromising situations.
Swot Analysis of "Ethics and Integrity in Business: Navigating Ethical Risks and Transgressions in the Workplace (B)" written by George F. Halow, Brian Talbot includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Andrea Career facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Ethics and Integrity in Business: Navigating Ethical Risks and Transgressions in the Workplace (B) case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Ethics and Integrity in Business: Navigating Ethical Risks and Transgressions in the Workplace (B) casestudy better are - – increasing household debt because of falling income levels, geopolitical disruptions, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing commodity prices, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing transportation and logistics costs,
challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, wage bills are increasing, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Ethics and Integrity in Business: Navigating Ethical Risks and Transgressions in the Workplace (B)
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Ethics and Integrity in Business: Navigating Ethical Risks and Transgressions in the Workplace (B) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Andrea Career, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Andrea Career 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 Ethics and Integrity in Business: Navigating Ethical Risks and Transgressions in the Workplace (B) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Ethics and Integrity in Business: Navigating Ethical Risks and Transgressions in the Workplace (B) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Andrea Career
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Leadership & Managing People field.
4. Making a Leadership & Managing People topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Andrea Career
Strengths Ethics and Integrity in Business: Navigating Ethical Risks and Transgressions in the Workplace (B) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Andrea Career in Ethics and Integrity in Business: Navigating Ethical Risks and Transgressions in the Workplace (B) Harvard Business Review case study are -
Training and development
– Andrea Career has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Ethics and Integrity in Business: Navigating Ethical Risks and Transgressions in the Workplace (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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Andrea Career has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Andrea Career 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.
Learning organization
- Andrea Career 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 Andrea Career is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Ethics and Integrity in Business: Navigating Ethical Risks and Transgressions in the Workplace (B) Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
High brand equity
– Andrea Career has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Andrea Career to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Andrea Career 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 Ethics and Integrity in Business: Navigating Ethical Risks and Transgressions in the Workplace (B) HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Andrea Career is one of the leading players in its industry. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in its segment but also across the whole industry. The ability to lead change has enabled Andrea Career in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Analytics focus
– Andrea Career 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 George F. Halow, Brian Talbot 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Ethics and Integrity in Business: Navigating Ethical Risks and Transgressions in the Workplace (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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Andrea Career in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Andrea Career 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 Ethics and Integrity in Business: Navigating Ethical Risks and Transgressions in the Workplace (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.
Innovation driven organization
– Andrea Career is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Ethics and Integrity in Business: Navigating Ethical Risks and Transgressions in the Workplace (B) Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Strong track record of project management
– Andrea Career is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Weaknesses Ethics and Integrity in Business: Navigating Ethical Risks and Transgressions in the Workplace (B) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Ethics and Integrity in Business: Navigating Ethical Risks and Transgressions in the Workplace (B) are -
Products dominated business model
– Even though Andrea Career 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 - Ethics and Integrity in Business: Navigating Ethical Risks and Transgressions in the Workplace (B) should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Andrea Career 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Ethics and Integrity in Business: Navigating Ethical Risks and Transgressions in the Workplace (B) HBR case study mentions - Andrea Career 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Andrea Career 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Andrea Career, firm in the HBR case study Ethics and Integrity in Business: Navigating Ethical Risks and Transgressions in the Workplace (B) needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Ethics and Integrity in Business: Navigating Ethical Risks and Transgressions in the Workplace (B), it seems that the employees of Andrea Career 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Ethics and Integrity in Business: Navigating Ethical Risks and Transgressions in the Workplace (B), in the dynamic environment Andrea Career has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Andrea Career has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Lack of clear differentiation of Andrea Career products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Andrea Career needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, George F. Halow, Brian Talbot suggests that, Andrea Career 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Andrea Career 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Andrea Career 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 Ethics and Integrity in Business: Navigating Ethical Risks and Transgressions in the Workplace (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 Ethics and Integrity in Business: Navigating Ethical Risks and Transgressions in the Workplace (B) are -
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Andrea Career to increase its market reach. Andrea Career 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
– Andrea Career can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Ethics and Integrity in Business: Navigating Ethical Risks and Transgressions in the Workplace (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
– Andrea Career 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 Ethics and Integrity in Business: Navigating Ethical Risks and Transgressions in the Workplace (B) - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Andrea Career to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Leadership & Managing People industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Andrea Career can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Andrea Career can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Andrea Career operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Andrea Career in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Leadership & Managing People segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Andrea Career 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 Leadership & Managing People segment.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Andrea Career is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Ethics and Integrity in Business: Navigating Ethical Risks and Transgressions in the Workplace (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.
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 Andrea Career 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.
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. Andrea Career can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Andrea Career can still utilize the low interest rates to borrow money for capital investment. Secondly it can also use the increase of government spending in infrastructure projects to get new business.
Loyalty marketing
– Andrea Career 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Andrea Career can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Threats Ethics and Integrity in Business: Navigating Ethical Risks and Transgressions in the Workplace (B) External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Ethics and Integrity in Business: Navigating Ethical Risks and Transgressions in the Workplace (B) are -
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Andrea Career in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The Leadership & Managing People 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Andrea Career has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Andrea Career needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Leadership & Managing People 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.
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.
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. Andrea Career 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 Andrea Career is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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. Andrea Career needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Andrea Career 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 Ethics and Integrity in Business: Navigating Ethical Risks and Transgressions in the Workplace (B) .
Regulatory challenges
– Andrea Career 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 Leadership & Managing People industry regulations.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Ethics and Integrity in Business: Navigating Ethical Risks and Transgressions in the Workplace (B), Andrea Career may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Leadership & Managing People .
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Andrea Career with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Andrea Career 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.
Increasing wage structure of Andrea Career
– 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 Andrea Career.
Environmental challenges
– Andrea Career 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. Andrea Career can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Ethics and Integrity in Business: Navigating Ethical Risks and Transgressions in the Workplace (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 Ethics and Integrity in Business: Navigating Ethical Risks and Transgressions in the Workplace (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 Ethics and Integrity in Business: Navigating Ethical Risks and Transgressions in the Workplace (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 Ethics and Integrity in Business: Navigating Ethical Risks and Transgressions in the Workplace (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 Ethics and Integrity in Business: Navigating Ethical Risks and Transgressions in the Workplace (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 Andrea Career needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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