McKinsey & Company: Early Career Choices (B) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Organizational Development
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of McKinsey & Company: Early Career Choices (B)
This case profiles the early career choices faced by three McKinsey associates. The A case profiles the dilemma faced by each individual and sets up the class discussion. The B case outlines the choices made by the associates in real life and the consequences of such choices.
Swot Analysis of "McKinsey & Company: Early Career Choices (B)" written by Prithwiraj Choudhury, Carin-Isabel Knoop, Nathaniel Schwalb includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Choices Mckinsey facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in McKinsey & Company: Early Career Choices (B) case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Organizational Development.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the McKinsey & Company: Early Career Choices (B) casestudy better are - – geopolitical disruptions, wage bills are increasing, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic ,
competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of McKinsey & Company: Early Career Choices (B)
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in McKinsey & Company: Early Career Choices (B) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Choices Mckinsey, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Choices Mckinsey 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 McKinsey & Company: Early Career Choices (B) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in McKinsey & Company: Early Career Choices (B) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Choices Mckinsey
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Organizational Development field.
4. Making a Organizational Development topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Choices Mckinsey
Strengths McKinsey & Company: Early Career Choices (B) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Choices Mckinsey in McKinsey & Company: Early Career Choices (B) Harvard Business Review case study are -
High brand equity
– Choices Mckinsey has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Choices Mckinsey to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Training and development
– Choices Mckinsey has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in McKinsey & Company: Early Career Choices (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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Choices Mckinsey is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the McKinsey & Company: Early Career Choices (B) are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Diverse revenue streams
– Choices Mckinsey is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in McKinsey & Company: Early Career Choices (B) 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.
Learning organization
- Choices Mckinsey 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 Choices Mckinsey is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in McKinsey & Company: Early Career Choices (B) Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Organizational Development industry
– McKinsey & Company: Early Career Choices (B) firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Choices Mckinsey to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Organizational Development industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Choices Mckinsey to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Innovation driven organization
– Choices Mckinsey is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in McKinsey & Company: Early Career Choices (B) Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the McKinsey & Company: Early Career Choices (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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Choices Mckinsey has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Choices Mckinsey 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Choices Mckinsey 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 McKinsey & Company: Early Career Choices (B) HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Organizational Resilience of Choices Mckinsey
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Choices Mckinsey does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Ability to lead change in Organizational Development field
– Choices Mckinsey 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 Choices Mckinsey in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Weaknesses McKinsey & Company: Early Career Choices (B) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of McKinsey & Company: Early Career Choices (B) are -
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study McKinsey & Company: Early Career Choices (B), it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Organizational Development 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Choices Mckinsey 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Choices Mckinsey products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Choices Mckinsey needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Choices Mckinsey 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. Choices Mckinsey 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Choices Mckinsey 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study McKinsey & Company: Early Career Choices (B), is just above the industry average. Choices Mckinsey 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 operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study McKinsey & Company: Early Career Choices (B) 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 Choices Mckinsey 's lucrative customers.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As McKinsey & Company: Early Career Choices (B) HBR case study mentions - Choices Mckinsey 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Choices Mckinsey is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Organizational Development segment. Choices Mckinsey needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Choices Mckinsey to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study McKinsey & Company: Early Career Choices (B) 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 McKinsey & Company: Early Career Choices (B) can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Choices Mckinsey is planning to shift buying processes online.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study McKinsey & Company: Early Career Choices (B), it seems that the employees of Choices Mckinsey 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.
Opportunities McKinsey & Company: Early Career Choices (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 McKinsey & Company: Early Career Choices (B) are -
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Choices Mckinsey 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, McKinsey & Company: Early Career Choices (B), to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Choices Mckinsey to increase its market reach. Choices Mckinsey 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Choices Mckinsey 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.
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 Choices Mckinsey 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Choices Mckinsey 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.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Choices Mckinsey in the consumer business. Now Choices Mckinsey can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Organizational Development industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Choices Mckinsey 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. Choices Mckinsey 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Choices Mckinsey has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Choices Mckinsey to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the McKinsey & Company: Early Career Choices (B) case study. Choices Mckinsey 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
– Choices Mckinsey 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 McKinsey & Company: Early Career Choices (B) - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Choices Mckinsey 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 Choices Mckinsey can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Developing new processes and practices
– Choices Mckinsey can develop new processes and procedures in Organizational Development industry using technology such as automation using artificial intelligence, real time transportation and products tracking, 3D modeling for concept development and new products pilot testing etc.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Choices Mckinsey 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 Choices Mckinsey to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Choices Mckinsey can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Choices Mckinsey operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Organizational Development sector.
Threats McKinsey & Company: Early Career Choices (B) External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study McKinsey & Company: Early Career Choices (B) 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 Choices Mckinsey.
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. Choices Mckinsey 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Choices Mckinsey 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 McKinsey & Company: Early Career Choices (B) .
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Organizational Development field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Choices Mckinsey can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Technology disruption because of hacks, piracy etc
– The colonial pipeline illustrated, how vulnerable modern organization are to international hackers, miscreants, and disruptors. The cyber security interruption, data leaks, etc can seriously jeopardize the future growth of the organization.
New competition
– After the dotcom bust of 2001, financial crisis of 2008-09, the business formation in US economy had declined. But in 2020 alone, there are more than 1.5 million new business applications in United States. This can lead to greater competition for Choices Mckinsey in the Organizational Development sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Increasing wage structure of Choices Mckinsey
– 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 Choices Mckinsey.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Choices Mckinsey in the Organizational Development industry. The Organizational Development 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study McKinsey & Company: Early Career Choices (B), Choices Mckinsey may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Organizational Development .
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. Choices Mckinsey needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Organizational Development industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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 Choices Mckinsey business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Choices Mckinsey 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Choices Mckinsey needs to prepare for regulatory challenges as consumer protection groups and other pressure groups are vigorously advocating for more regulations on big business - to reduce inequality, to create a level playing field, to product data privacy and consumer privacy, to reduce the influence of big money on democratic institutions, etc. This can lead to significant changes in the Organizational Development industry regulations.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of McKinsey & Company: Early Career Choices (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 McKinsey & Company: Early Career Choices (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 McKinsey & Company: Early Career Choices (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 McKinsey & Company: Early Career Choices (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 McKinsey & Company: Early Career Choices (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 Choices Mckinsey needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
