Graves Industries, Inc. (B): Lohnes Marine Hardware Division, Spanish Version SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Finance & Accounting
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Graves Industries, Inc. (B): Lohnes Marine Hardware Division, Spanish Version
Describes events occurring over a four-year period in one division of Graves Industries. The division goes through a business cycle and uses several methods of managing earnings to meet its budget targets. The purpose of the case is to allow the exploration of the causes of the unethical (or fraudulent) behaviors and ways in which they could have been prevented, or at least detected more effectively.
Swot Analysis of "Graves Industries, Inc. (B): Lohnes Marine Hardware Division, Spanish Version" written by Kenneth A. Merchant, Joseph P. Mulloy includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Graves Division facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Graves Industries, Inc. (B): Lohnes Marine Hardware Division, Spanish Version case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Business law, Corporate governance, Ethics and Finance & Accounting.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Graves Industries, Inc. (B): Lohnes Marine Hardware Division, Spanish Version casestudy better are - – challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing commodity prices, increasing transportation and logistics costs, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, there is backlash against globalization,
competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing energy prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Graves Industries, Inc. (B): Lohnes Marine Hardware Division, Spanish Version
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Graves Industries, Inc. (B): Lohnes Marine Hardware Division, Spanish Version case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Graves Division, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Graves Division 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 Graves Industries, Inc. (B): Lohnes Marine Hardware Division, Spanish Version can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Graves Industries, Inc. (B): Lohnes Marine Hardware Division, Spanish Version case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Graves Division
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Finance & Accounting field.
4. Making a Finance & Accounting topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Graves Division
Strengths Graves Industries, Inc. (B): Lohnes Marine Hardware Division, Spanish Version | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Graves Division in Graves Industries, Inc. (B): Lohnes Marine Hardware Division, Spanish Version Harvard Business Review case study are -
Strong track record of project management
– Graves Division is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Learning organization
- Graves Division 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 Graves Division is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Graves Industries, Inc. (B): Lohnes Marine Hardware Division, Spanish Version Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Finance & Accounting industry
– Graves Industries, Inc. (B): Lohnes Marine Hardware Division, Spanish Version firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Graves Division to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Finance & Accounting industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Graves Division to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Graves Division in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Graves Division is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Graves Industries, Inc. (B): Lohnes Marine Hardware Division, Spanish Version are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Training and development
– Graves Division has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Graves Industries, Inc. (B): Lohnes Marine Hardware Division, Spanish Version 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 Finance & Accounting segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Graves Division digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Graves Division 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
– Graves Division is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Graves Industries, Inc. (B): Lohnes Marine Hardware Division, Spanish Version Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Organizational Resilience of Graves Division
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Graves Division does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Graves Division 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 Graves Industries, Inc. (B): Lohnes Marine Hardware Division, Spanish Version - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Diverse revenue streams
– Graves Division is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Graves Industries, Inc. (B): Lohnes Marine Hardware Division, Spanish Version 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.
High brand equity
– Graves Division has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Graves Division to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Weaknesses Graves Industries, Inc. (B): Lohnes Marine Hardware Division, Spanish Version | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Graves Industries, Inc. (B): Lohnes Marine Hardware Division, Spanish Version are -
Need for greater diversity
– Graves Division has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Graves Industries, Inc. (B): Lohnes Marine Hardware Division, Spanish Version HBR case study mentions - Graves Division 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Graves Division 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Graves Division is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Finance & Accounting segment. Graves Division needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Graves Division to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Graves Division 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. Graves Division 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Graves Division products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Graves Division needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Graves Division 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Graves Division 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Graves Industries, Inc. (B): Lohnes Marine Hardware Division, Spanish Version 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 Graves Division has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Graves Division, firm in the HBR case study Graves Industries, Inc. (B): Lohnes Marine Hardware Division, Spanish Version needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Graves Industries, Inc. (B): Lohnes Marine Hardware Division, Spanish Version 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 Graves Division 's lucrative customers.
Opportunities Graves Industries, Inc. (B): Lohnes Marine Hardware Division, Spanish Version | 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 Graves Industries, Inc. (B): Lohnes Marine Hardware Division, Spanish Version are -
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Graves Division 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, Graves Industries, Inc. (B): Lohnes Marine Hardware Division, Spanish Version, 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 Graves Division has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Graves Division to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Graves Industries, Inc. (B): Lohnes Marine Hardware Division, Spanish Version case study. Graves Division can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Loyalty marketing
– Graves Division 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Graves Division 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Graves Division is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Graves Industries, Inc. (B): Lohnes Marine Hardware Division, Spanish Version 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Graves Division 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 Graves Division to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Graves Division 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
– Graves Division can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Graves Industries, Inc. (B): Lohnes Marine Hardware Division, Spanish Version 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Graves Division can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Graves Division operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Finance & Accounting sector.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Graves Division 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 Graves Industries, Inc. (B): Lohnes Marine Hardware Division, Spanish Version - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Graves Division to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Graves Division 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 Finance & Accounting segment.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Graves Division 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Finance & Accounting industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Graves Division can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Threats Graves Industries, Inc. (B): Lohnes Marine Hardware Division, Spanish Version External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Graves Industries, Inc. (B): Lohnes Marine Hardware Division, Spanish Version are -
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 Graves Division in the Finance & Accounting sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Increasing wage structure of Graves Division
– 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 Graves Division.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Graves Division 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.
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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Graves Division is facing in Finance & Accounting sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Finance & Accounting field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Graves Division can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Regulatory challenges
– Graves Division 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 Finance & Accounting industry regulations.
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. Graves Division 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Graves Division has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Finance & Accounting industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Graves Division needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Finance & Accounting 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 Graves Division 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 Graves Industries, Inc. (B): Lohnes Marine Hardware Division, Spanish Version, Graves Division may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Finance & Accounting .
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Graves Division in the Finance & Accounting industry. The Finance & Accounting 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.
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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Graves Industries, Inc. (B): Lohnes Marine Hardware Division, Spanish Version 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 Graves Industries, Inc. (B): Lohnes Marine Hardware Division, Spanish Version 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 Graves Industries, Inc. (B): Lohnes Marine Hardware Division, Spanish Version 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 Graves Industries, Inc. (B): Lohnes Marine Hardware Division, Spanish Version 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 Graves Industries, Inc. (B): Lohnes Marine Hardware Division, Spanish Version 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 Graves Division needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
