Note on Organizational Structure and Design SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Organizational Development
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Note on Organizational Structure and Design
This technical note provides descriptions of the basic forms of organizational structure and the conditions under which each organizational design choice might be made.
Swot Analysis of "Note on Organizational Structure and Design" written by Ann C. Frost, Lyn Purdy includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Organizational Descriptions facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Note on Organizational Structure and Design case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Organizational Development.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Note on Organizational Structure and Design casestudy better are - – digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing energy prices, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, technology disruption, increasing transportation and logistics costs, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies,
supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing commodity prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Note on Organizational Structure and Design
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Note on Organizational Structure and Design case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Organizational Descriptions, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Organizational Descriptions 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 Note on Organizational Structure and Design can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Note on Organizational Structure and Design case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Organizational Descriptions
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 Organizational Descriptions
Strengths Note on Organizational Structure and Design | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Organizational Descriptions in Note on Organizational Structure and Design Harvard Business Review case study are -
Highly skilled collaborators
– Organizational Descriptions 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 Note on Organizational Structure and Design HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Organizational Development industry
– Note on Organizational Structure and Design firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Organizational Descriptions to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Organizational Development industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Organizational Descriptions to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Learning organization
- Organizational Descriptions 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 Organizational Descriptions is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Note on Organizational Structure and Design Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
High brand equity
– Organizational Descriptions has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Organizational Descriptions to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Organizational Descriptions in the sector have low bargaining power. Note on Organizational Structure and Design has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Organizational Descriptions to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Digital Transformation in Organizational Development segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Organizational Descriptions digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Organizational Descriptions 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Organizational Descriptions is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Note on Organizational Structure and Design Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Strong track record of project management
– Organizational Descriptions is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Organizational Descriptions has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Organizational Descriptions 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Organizational Descriptions 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Organizational Descriptions 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.
Ability to lead change in Organizational Development field
– Organizational Descriptions 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 Organizational Descriptions in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Weaknesses Note on Organizational Structure and Design | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Note on Organizational Structure and Design are -
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Note on Organizational Structure and Design 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 Note on Organizational Structure and Design can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Organizational Descriptions is planning to shift buying processes online.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Note on Organizational Structure and Design 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 Organizational Descriptions 's lucrative customers.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Note on Organizational Structure and Design, 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Organizational Descriptions products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Organizational Descriptions needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Organizational Descriptions is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Note on Organizational Structure and Design 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 bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Ann C. Frost, Lyn Purdy suggests that, Organizational Descriptions 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.
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 Organizational Descriptions supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Note on Organizational Structure and Design, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Organizational Descriptions vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Organizational Descriptions 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Organizational Descriptions 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Organizational Descriptions 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Organizational Descriptions, firm in the HBR case study Note on Organizational Structure and Design needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Opportunities Note on Organizational Structure and Design | 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 Note on Organizational Structure and Design are -
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Organizational Descriptions 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 Organizational Development segment.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Organizational Descriptions 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 Note on Organizational Structure and Design - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Organizational Descriptions to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Organizational Descriptions is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Note on Organizational Structure and Design 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Organizational Descriptions in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Organizational Development segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Organizational Descriptions to increase its market reach. Organizational Descriptions 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Organizational Descriptions 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Organizational Descriptions 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Organizational Descriptions can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Buying journey improvements
– Organizational Descriptions can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Note on Organizational Structure and Design 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.
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 Organizational Descriptions 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Organizational Descriptions 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 Organizational Descriptions to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
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 Organizational Descriptions in the consumer business. Now Organizational Descriptions can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Organizational Descriptions can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Organizational Descriptions operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Organizational Development sector.
Threats Note on Organizational Structure and Design External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Note on Organizational Structure and Design are -
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Organizational Descriptions 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Organizational Descriptions 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 Note on Organizational Structure and Design .
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Note on Organizational Structure and Design, Organizational Descriptions 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 .
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 Organizational Descriptions.
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 Organizational Descriptions business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
High level of anxiety and lack of motivation
– the Great Resignation in United States is the sign of broader dissatisfaction among the workforce in United States. Organizational Descriptions needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Organizational Development 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 Organizational Descriptions with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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. Organizational Descriptions can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Organizational Descriptions is facing in Organizational Development sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Organizational Descriptions 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.
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. Organizational Descriptions 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 wage structure of Organizational Descriptions
– 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 Organizational Descriptions.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Organizational Descriptions 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Note on Organizational Structure and Design 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 Note on Organizational Structure and Design 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 Note on Organizational Structure and Design 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 Note on Organizational Structure and Design 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 Note on Organizational Structure and Design 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 Organizational Descriptions needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
