Swot Analysis of "Johansen's: The New Scorecard System-Northwest Regional Manager (Handout 8)" written by Luann J. Lynch, Jennifer Forman, Graham Gillam includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Handout 8 facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Johansen's: The New Scorecard System-Northwest Regional Manager (Handout 8) case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Assessing performance, Balanced scorecard and Finance & Accounting.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Johansen's: The New Scorecard System-Northwest Regional Manager (Handout 8) casestudy better are - – competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, technology disruption, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings,
increasing commodity prices, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Johansen's: The New Scorecard System-Northwest Regional Manager (Handout 8)
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Johansen's: The New Scorecard System-Northwest Regional Manager (Handout 8) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Handout 8, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Handout 8 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 Johansen's: The New Scorecard System-Northwest Regional Manager (Handout 8) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Johansen's: The New Scorecard System-Northwest Regional Manager (Handout 8) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Handout 8
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 Handout 8
Strengths Johansen's: The New Scorecard System-Northwest Regional Manager (Handout 8) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Handout 8 in Johansen's: The New Scorecard System-Northwest Regional Manager (Handout 8) Harvard Business Review case study are -
Ability to recruit top talent
– Handout 8 is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Johansen's: The New Scorecard System-Northwest Regional Manager (Handout 8) are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Handout 8 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 Johansen's: The New Scorecard System-Northwest Regional Manager (Handout 8) HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Training and development
– Handout 8 has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Johansen's: The New Scorecard System-Northwest Regional Manager (Handout 8) 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Handout 8 in the sector have low bargaining power. Johansen's: The New Scorecard System-Northwest Regional Manager (Handout 8) has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Handout 8 to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Analytics focus
– Handout 8 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 Luann J. Lynch, Jennifer Forman, Graham Gillam 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.
High brand equity
– Handout 8 has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Handout 8 to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Handout 8 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Handout 8 has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Handout 8 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.
Ability to lead change in Finance & Accounting field
– Handout 8 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 Handout 8 in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Handout 8 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 Johansen's: The New Scorecard System-Northwest Regional Manager (Handout 8) - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Handout 8 in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Finance & Accounting industry
– Johansen's: The New Scorecard System-Northwest Regional Manager (Handout 8) firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Handout 8 to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Finance & Accounting industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Handout 8 to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Weaknesses Johansen's: The New Scorecard System-Northwest Regional Manager (Handout 8) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Johansen's: The New Scorecard System-Northwest Regional Manager (Handout 8) are -
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Handout 8 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. Handout 8 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Handout 8, firm in the HBR case study Johansen's: The New Scorecard System-Northwest Regional Manager (Handout 8) needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
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 Handout 8 supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Johansen's: The New Scorecard System-Northwest Regional Manager (Handout 8), it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Handout 8 vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Handout 8 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Johansen's: The New Scorecard System-Northwest Regional Manager (Handout 8) 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 Johansen's: The New Scorecard System-Northwest Regional Manager (Handout 8) can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Handout 8 is planning to shift buying processes online.
Need for greater diversity
– Handout 8 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 cash cycle compare to competitors
Handout 8 has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Handout 8 is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Finance & Accounting segment. Handout 8 needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Handout 8 to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Luann J. Lynch, Jennifer Forman, Graham Gillam suggests that, Handout 8 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Johansen's: The New Scorecard System-Northwest Regional Manager (Handout 8), in the dynamic environment Handout 8 has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Handout 8 has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Johansen's: The New Scorecard System-Northwest Regional Manager (Handout 8), it seems that the employees of Handout 8 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 Johansen's: The New Scorecard System-Northwest Regional Manager (Handout 8) | 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 Johansen's: The New Scorecard System-Northwest Regional Manager (Handout 8) are -
Loyalty marketing
– Handout 8 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Handout 8 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 Handout 8 to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Handout 8 in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Finance & Accounting segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Buying journey improvements
– Handout 8 can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Johansen's: The New Scorecard System-Northwest Regional Manager (Handout 8) 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.
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. Handout 8 can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Handout 8 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Handout 8 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
– Handout 8 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 Johansen's: The New Scorecard System-Northwest Regional Manager (Handout 8) - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Handout 8 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, Handout 8 can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Handout 8 operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Finance & Accounting sector.
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 Handout 8 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Handout 8 can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Identify volunteer opportunities
– Covid-19 has impacted working population in two ways – it has led to people soul searching about their professional choices, resulting in mass resignation. Secondly it has encouraged people to do things that they are passionate about. This has opened opportunities for businesses to build volunteer oriented socially driven projects. Handout 8 can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Handout 8 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.
Threats Johansen's: The New Scorecard System-Northwest Regional Manager (Handout 8) External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Johansen's: The New Scorecard System-Northwest Regional Manager (Handout 8) 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 Handout 8 in the Finance & Accounting sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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.
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. Handout 8 can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Capital market disruption
– During the Covid-19, Dow Jones has touched record high. The valuations of a number of companies are way beyond their existing business model potential. This can lead to capital market correction which can put a number of suppliers, collaborators, value chain partners in great financial difficulty. It will directly impact the business of Handout 8.
Regulatory challenges
– Handout 8 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. Handout 8 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Handout 8 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Handout 8 with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Handout 8 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Handout 8 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 Johansen's: The New Scorecard System-Northwest Regional Manager (Handout 8) .
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Handout 8 has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Finance & Accounting industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Handout 8 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.
Environmental challenges
– Handout 8 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. Handout 8 can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Finance & Accounting industry.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Johansen's: The New Scorecard System-Northwest Regional Manager (Handout 8), Handout 8 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 .
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Johansen's: The New Scorecard System-Northwest Regional Manager (Handout 8) 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 Johansen's: The New Scorecard System-Northwest Regional Manager (Handout 8) 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 Johansen's: The New Scorecard System-Northwest Regional Manager (Handout 8) 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 Johansen's: The New Scorecard System-Northwest Regional Manager (Handout 8) 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 Johansen's: The New Scorecard System-Northwest Regional Manager (Handout 8) 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 Handout 8 needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
