Case Study Description of Express Trucking: Executive Team Dynamics (Role Play) (B): Vice-President, Sales (Dominic)
Supplement to case W18067. 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) (B): Vice-President, Sales (Dominic)" 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 President facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Express Trucking: Executive Team Dynamics (Role Play) (B): Vice-President, Sales (Dominic) 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) (B): Vice-President, Sales (Dominic) casestudy better are - – central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing energy prices, increasing commodity prices, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing household debt because of falling income levels,
supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Express Trucking: Executive Team Dynamics (Role Play) (B): Vice-President, Sales (Dominic)
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) (B): Vice-President, Sales (Dominic) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Vice President, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Vice President 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) (B): Vice-President, Sales (Dominic) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Express Trucking: Executive Team Dynamics (Role Play) (B): Vice-President, Sales (Dominic) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Vice President
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 President
Strengths Express Trucking: Executive Team Dynamics (Role Play) (B): Vice-President, Sales (Dominic) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Vice President in Express Trucking: Executive Team Dynamics (Role Play) (B): Vice-President, Sales (Dominic) Harvard Business Review case study are -
Analytics focus
– Vice President 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.
Organizational Resilience of Vice President
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Vice President does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Vice President 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Vice President is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Express Trucking: Executive Team Dynamics (Role Play) (B): Vice-President, Sales (Dominic) 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Vice President has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Vice President 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Vice President is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Express Trucking: Executive Team Dynamics (Role Play) (B): Vice-President, Sales (Dominic) Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
High brand equity
– Vice President has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Vice President to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Vice President 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 Express Trucking: Executive Team Dynamics (Role Play) (B): Vice-President, Sales (Dominic) HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Vice President in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Express Trucking: Executive Team Dynamics (Role Play) (B): Vice-President, Sales (Dominic) 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Vice President 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) (B): Vice-President, Sales (Dominic) - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Learning organization
- Vice President 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 Vice President is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Express Trucking: Executive Team Dynamics (Role Play) (B): Vice-President, Sales (Dominic) Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Weaknesses Express Trucking: Executive Team Dynamics (Role Play) (B): Vice-President, Sales (Dominic) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Express Trucking: Executive Team Dynamics (Role Play) (B): Vice-President, Sales (Dominic) are -
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Express Trucking: Executive Team Dynamics (Role Play) (B): Vice-President, Sales (Dominic), is just above the industry average. Vice President needs to redesign the compensation structure and incentives to increase the revenue per employees. Some of the steps that it can take are – hiring more specialists on project basis, etc.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Vice President 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Express Trucking: Executive Team Dynamics (Role Play) (B): Vice-President, Sales (Dominic), it seems that the employees of Vice President 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 Express Trucking: Executive Team Dynamics (Role Play) (B): Vice-President, Sales (Dominic) 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 President has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Lack of clear differentiation of Vice President products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Vice President needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Express Trucking: Executive Team Dynamics (Role Play) (B): Vice-President, Sales (Dominic) has high operating costs in the. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Vice President 's lucrative customers.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Vice President is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Express Trucking: Executive Team Dynamics (Role Play) (B): Vice-President, Sales (Dominic) can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
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 Vice President supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Express Trucking: Executive Team Dynamics (Role Play) (B): Vice-President, Sales (Dominic), it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Vice President vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Vice President 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Express Trucking: Executive Team Dynamics (Role Play) (B): Vice-President, Sales (Dominic) HBR case study mentions - Vice President 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Jacques Neatby, Louis Hebert, Jean Poitras suggests that, Vice President 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.
Opportunities Express Trucking: Executive Team Dynamics (Role Play) (B): Vice-President, Sales (Dominic) | 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) (B): Vice-President, Sales (Dominic) are -
Loyalty marketing
– Vice President 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.
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 President 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 President 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Vice President 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Vice President 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Vice President 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) (B): Vice-President, Sales (Dominic), to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Vice President has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Vice President to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Express Trucking: Executive Team Dynamics (Role Play) (B): Vice-President, Sales (Dominic) case study. Vice President can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Vice President 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) (B): Vice-President, Sales (Dominic) - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Vice President to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Vice President 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 Vice President to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Vice President 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Vice President is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Express Trucking: Executive Team Dynamics (Role Play) (B): Vice-President, Sales (Dominic) 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Vice President 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Vice President to increase its market reach. Vice President 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Vice President can develop new processes and procedures in Leadership & Managing People industry using technology such as automation using artificial intelligence, real time transportation and products tracking, 3D modeling for concept development and new products pilot testing etc.
Threats Express Trucking: Executive Team Dynamics (Role Play) (B): Vice-President, Sales (Dominic) 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) (B): Vice-President, Sales (Dominic) are -
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Vice President is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Vice President 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Express Trucking: Executive Team Dynamics (Role Play) (B): Vice-President, Sales (Dominic), Vice President 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 .
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Vice President 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.
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 President can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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 Vice President.
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 President 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.
Environmental challenges
– Vice President 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 President can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Vice President 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.
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 President needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Vice President has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Vice President 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Vice President 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 Express Trucking: Executive Team Dynamics (Role Play) (B): Vice-President, Sales (Dominic) .
Increasing wage structure of Vice President
– 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 President.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Express Trucking: Executive Team Dynamics (Role Play) (B): Vice-President, Sales (Dominic) 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) (B): Vice-President, Sales (Dominic) 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) (B): Vice-President, Sales (Dominic) 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) (B): Vice-President, Sales (Dominic) 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) (B): Vice-President, Sales (Dominic) 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 President needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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You can download Excel Template of Case Study Solution & Analysis of Express Trucking: Executive Team Dynamics (Role Play) (B): Vice-President, Sales (Dominic)
