Peer Feedback At Stress Engineering Services, Inc. (B): Process Design for the 21st Century SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Peer Feedback At Stress Engineering Services, Inc. (B): Process Design for the 21st Century
Donya Brewer, the Director of Human Resources at Stress Engineering Services , was asked to evaluate the firm's peer feedback system and update it to better align with the organization's needs as it continued to grow in the 21st century. Developed internally, the current system had undergone minor revisions over several decades, used cumbersome proprietary software and, increasingly, had not been meeting the needs of managerial and supervisory personnel to provide effective guidance for continuing professional development of employees in all lines of work. Brewer and her project team were tasked to increase the efficacy of the peer feedback system while preserving the system's role in fostering the collaborative culture at SES. Part B continues the analysis of the peer feedback program at Stress Engineering Services. Rich qualitative data, gathered through structured interviews, is presented. Students are asked to identify issues that must be addressed, and to make recommendations in numerous areas about what would constitute best practices in the new system. Part B also contains material on implementation issues in managing the change process. This case challenges students to redesign a peer feedback system facing major issues regarding employee engagement, the quality of the data, timeliness of feedback, outdated technology, methodological issues in instrument design, program execution, and contributions to employee development, among others.
Authors :: Joseph K Kavanaugh, Sanjay Mehta, Donya Brewer
Swot Analysis of "Peer Feedback At Stress Engineering Services, Inc. (B): Process Design for the 21st Century" written by Joseph K Kavanaugh, Sanjay Mehta, Donya Brewer includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Feedback Peer facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Peer Feedback At Stress Engineering Services, Inc. (B): Process Design for the 21st Century case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Assessing performance, Change management and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Peer Feedback At Stress Engineering Services, Inc. (B): Process Design for the 21st Century casestudy better are - – customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, technology disruption, increasing energy prices, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google,
central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Peer Feedback At Stress Engineering Services, Inc. (B): Process Design for the 21st Century
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Peer Feedback At Stress Engineering Services, Inc. (B): Process Design for the 21st Century case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Feedback Peer, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Feedback Peer 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 Peer Feedback At Stress Engineering Services, Inc. (B): Process Design for the 21st Century can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Peer Feedback At Stress Engineering Services, Inc. (B): Process Design for the 21st Century case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Feedback Peer
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 Feedback Peer
Strengths Peer Feedback At Stress Engineering Services, Inc. (B): Process Design for the 21st Century | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Feedback Peer in Peer Feedback At Stress Engineering Services, Inc. (B): Process Design for the 21st Century Harvard Business Review case study are -
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Feedback Peer 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
– Feedback Peer is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Peer Feedback At Stress Engineering Services, Inc. (B): Process Design for the 21st Century 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Feedback Peer 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.
Organizational Resilience of Feedback Peer
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Feedback Peer does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Feedback Peer has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Feedback Peer 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
- Feedback Peer 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 Feedback Peer is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Peer Feedback At Stress Engineering Services, Inc. (B): Process Design for the 21st Century Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Feedback Peer 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 Peer Feedback At Stress Engineering Services, Inc. (B): Process Design for the 21st Century HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Feedback Peer 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 Peer Feedback At Stress Engineering Services, Inc. (B): Process Design for the 21st Century - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Training and development
– Feedback Peer has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Peer Feedback At Stress Engineering Services, Inc. (B): Process Design for the 21st Century 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.
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Feedback Peer digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Feedback Peer has successfully integrated the four key components of digital transformation – digital integration in processes, digital integration in marketing and customer relationship management, digital integration into the value chain, and using technology to explore new products and market opportunities.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Feedback Peer in the sector have low bargaining power. Peer Feedback At Stress Engineering Services, Inc. (B): Process Design for the 21st Century has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Feedback Peer to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Analytics focus
– Feedback Peer 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 Joseph K Kavanaugh, Sanjay Mehta, Donya Brewer 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.
Weaknesses Peer Feedback At Stress Engineering Services, Inc. (B): Process Design for the 21st Century | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Peer Feedback At Stress Engineering Services, Inc. (B): Process Design for the 21st Century are -
Need for greater diversity
– Feedback Peer 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Joseph K Kavanaugh, Sanjay Mehta, Donya Brewer suggests that, Feedback Peer 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Feedback Peer 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. Feedback Peer 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Peer Feedback At Stress Engineering Services, Inc. (B): Process Design for the 21st Century, is just above the industry average. Feedback Peer 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Feedback Peer 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Feedback Peer is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Feedback Peer needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Feedback Peer to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Peer Feedback At Stress Engineering Services, Inc. (B): Process Design for the 21st Century 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 Feedback Peer has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Lack of clear differentiation of Feedback Peer products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Feedback Peer needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Feedback Peer 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 - Peer Feedback At Stress Engineering Services, Inc. (B): Process Design for the 21st Century 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 Peer Feedback At Stress Engineering Services, Inc. (B): Process Design for the 21st Century, 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Peer Feedback At Stress Engineering Services, Inc. (B): Process Design for the 21st Century 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 Feedback Peer 's lucrative customers.
Opportunities Peer Feedback At Stress Engineering Services, Inc. (B): Process Design for the 21st Century | 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 Peer Feedback At Stress Engineering Services, Inc. (B): Process Design for the 21st Century are -
Developing new processes and practices
– Feedback Peer 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.
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 Feedback Peer in the consumer business. Now Feedback Peer can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Feedback Peer 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 Feedback Peer to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Feedback Peer has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Feedback Peer to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Peer Feedback At Stress Engineering Services, Inc. (B): Process Design for the 21st Century case study. Feedback Peer can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Feedback Peer 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Feedback Peer 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Feedback Peer 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Feedback Peer 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Feedback Peer 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 Peer Feedback At Stress Engineering Services, Inc. (B): Process Design for the 21st Century - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Feedback Peer to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Feedback Peer can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Feedback Peer operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
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. Feedback Peer 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. Feedback Peer 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Feedback Peer can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Peer Feedback At Stress Engineering Services, Inc. (B): Process Design for the 21st Century 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Feedback Peer 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, Peer Feedback At Stress Engineering Services, Inc. (B): Process Design for the 21st Century, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Threats Peer Feedback At Stress Engineering Services, Inc. (B): Process Design for the 21st Century External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Peer Feedback At Stress Engineering Services, Inc. (B): Process Design for the 21st Century are -
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. Feedback Peer needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Feedback Peer with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Environmental challenges
– Feedback Peer 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. Feedback Peer can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Feedback Peer 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Feedback Peer 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Feedback Peer has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Feedback Peer 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Feedback Peer 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. Feedback Peer can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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 Feedback Peer business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Feedback Peer 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.
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.
Increasing wage structure of Feedback Peer
– 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 Feedback Peer.
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 Feedback Peer.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Peer Feedback At Stress Engineering Services, Inc. (B): Process Design for the 21st Century 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 Peer Feedback At Stress Engineering Services, Inc. (B): Process Design for the 21st Century 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 Peer Feedback At Stress Engineering Services, Inc. (B): Process Design for the 21st Century 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 Peer Feedback At Stress Engineering Services, Inc. (B): Process Design for the 21st Century 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 Peer Feedback At Stress Engineering Services, Inc. (B): Process Design for the 21st Century 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 Feedback Peer needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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