Case Study Description of Express Trucking: Executive Team Dynamics (Role Play) (A): Vice-President, Legal Affairs (Alex)
Two executives at Express Trucking-the vice-president of legal affairs, and the vice-president of sales-were preparing for an executive team meeting. The two vice-presidents were disputing the terms of a customer contract to be signed the following day. According to the vice-president of legal affairs, the contract needed to be revised to include a standard clause regarding Express Trucking's liability, whereas the vice-president of sales feared losing the contract if any changes were made. The company's chief executive officer asked the two executives to resolve this dispute before the upcoming executive team meeting. How would the two executives resolve their differences? The case involves the students in a role play to develop their competence to address typical conflicts between executive team members, by reproducing the complex environment in which executives operate. Students will be assigned the role of the vice-president of legal affairs (9B18M014); the vice-president of sales (9B18M015); or the observer (9B18M016). The authors Louis Hebert and Jean Poitras is affiliated with HEC Montreal.
Authors :: Jacques Neatby, Louis Hebert, Jean Poitras
Swot Analysis of "Express Trucking: Executive Team Dynamics (Role Play) (A): Vice-President, Legal Affairs (Alex)" written by Jacques Neatby, Louis Hebert, Jean Poitras includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Vice Affairs facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Express Trucking: Executive Team Dynamics (Role Play) (A): Vice-President, Legal Affairs (Alex) case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Decision making, Leadership, Leading teams and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Express Trucking: Executive Team Dynamics (Role Play) (A): Vice-President, Legal Affairs (Alex) casestudy better are - – talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing commodity prices, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, there is backlash against globalization,
increasing household debt because of falling income levels, geopolitical disruptions, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Express Trucking: Executive Team Dynamics (Role Play) (A): Vice-President, Legal Affairs (Alex)
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Express Trucking: Executive Team Dynamics (Role Play) (A): Vice-President, Legal Affairs (Alex) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Vice Affairs, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Vice Affairs 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 Express Trucking: Executive Team Dynamics (Role Play) (A): Vice-President, Legal Affairs (Alex) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Express Trucking: Executive Team Dynamics (Role Play) (A): Vice-President, Legal Affairs (Alex) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Vice Affairs
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 Vice Affairs
Strengths Express Trucking: Executive Team Dynamics (Role Play) (A): Vice-President, Legal Affairs (Alex) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Vice Affairs in Express Trucking: Executive Team Dynamics (Role Play) (A): Vice-President, Legal Affairs (Alex) Harvard Business Review case study are -
High brand equity
– Vice Affairs has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Vice Affairs to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Vice Affairs 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Vice Affairs 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 Express Trucking: Executive Team Dynamics (Role Play) (A): Vice-President, Legal Affairs (Alex) - 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
– Vice Affairs 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 Jacques Neatby, Louis Hebert, Jean Poitras 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Vice Affairs is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Express Trucking: Executive Team Dynamics (Role Play) (A): Vice-President, Legal Affairs (Alex) are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– Express Trucking: Executive Team Dynamics (Role Play) (A): Vice-President, Legal Affairs (Alex) firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Vice Affairs to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Vice Affairs to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Express Trucking: Executive Team Dynamics (Role Play) (A): Vice-President, Legal Affairs (Alex) 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Vice Affairs is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Express Trucking: Executive Team Dynamics (Role Play) (A): Vice-President, Legal Affairs (Alex) 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.
Organizational Resilience of Vice Affairs
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Vice Affairs does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Vice Affairs 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 Vice Affairs in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Strong track record of project management
– Vice Affairs is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Vice Affairs in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Weaknesses Express Trucking: Executive Team Dynamics (Role Play) (A): Vice-President, Legal Affairs (Alex) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Express Trucking: Executive Team Dynamics (Role Play) (A): Vice-President, Legal Affairs (Alex) are -
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Vice Affairs is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Vice Affairs needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Vice Affairs to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Vice Affairs 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Express Trucking: Executive Team Dynamics (Role Play) (A): Vice-President, Legal Affairs (Alex) 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 Vice Affairs has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Vice Affairs, firm in the HBR case study Express Trucking: Executive Team Dynamics (Role Play) (A): Vice-President, Legal Affairs (Alex) needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Vice Affairs 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 - Express Trucking: Executive Team Dynamics (Role Play) (A): Vice-President, Legal Affairs (Alex) should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Express Trucking: Executive Team Dynamics (Role Play) (A): Vice-President, Legal Affairs (Alex), it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Leadership & Managing People 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Vice Affairs 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Vice Affairs 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. Vice Affairs 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Vice Affairs 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Express Trucking: Executive Team Dynamics (Role Play) (A): Vice-President, Legal Affairs (Alex), it seems that the employees of Vice Affairs 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Vice Affairs products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Vice Affairs needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Opportunities Express Trucking: Executive Team Dynamics (Role Play) (A): Vice-President, Legal Affairs (Alex) | 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 Express Trucking: Executive Team Dynamics (Role Play) (A): Vice-President, Legal Affairs (Alex) are -
Loyalty marketing
– Vice Affairs 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Vice Affairs 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 Express Trucking: Executive Team Dynamics (Role Play) (A): Vice-President, Legal Affairs (Alex) - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Vice Affairs to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Vice Affairs can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Manufacturing automation
– Vice Affairs can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Leadership & Managing People 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Vice Affairs is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Express Trucking: Executive Team Dynamics (Role Play) (A): Vice-President, Legal Affairs (Alex) 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Vice Affairs can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Vice Affairs operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Vice Affairs 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Vice Affairs 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Leadership & Managing People industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Vice Affairs 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. Vice Affairs 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.
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. Vice Affairs 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, Vice Affairs 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, Express Trucking: Executive Team Dynamics (Role Play) (A): Vice-President, Legal Affairs (Alex), to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Vice Affairs 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Vice Affairs 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.
Threats Express Trucking: Executive Team Dynamics (Role Play) (A): Vice-President, Legal Affairs (Alex) External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Express Trucking: Executive Team Dynamics (Role Play) (A): Vice-President, Legal Affairs (Alex) are -
Environmental challenges
– Vice Affairs 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. Vice Affairs can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
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.
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. Vice Affairs needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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. Vice Affairs 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Vice Affairs 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Vice Affairs 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Vice Affairs 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Vice Affairs 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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Leadership & Managing People field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Vice Affairs 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
– Vice Affairs 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.
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 Vice Affairs business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Vice Affairs with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Increasing wage structure of Vice Affairs
– 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 Vice Affairs.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Express Trucking: Executive Team Dynamics (Role Play) (A): Vice-President, Legal Affairs (Alex) 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 Express Trucking: Executive Team Dynamics (Role Play) (A): Vice-President, Legal Affairs (Alex) 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 Express Trucking: Executive Team Dynamics (Role Play) (A): Vice-President, Legal Affairs (Alex) 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 Express Trucking: Executive Team Dynamics (Role Play) (A): Vice-President, Legal Affairs (Alex) 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 Express Trucking: Executive Team Dynamics (Role Play) (A): Vice-President, Legal Affairs (Alex) 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 Vice Affairs needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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