Guidant Corp.: Shaping Culture Through Systems SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Finance & Accounting
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Guidant Corp.: Shaping Culture Through Systems
Guidant is a successful IPO start-up selling pacemakers and defibrillators. The case describes how managers install systems to balance innovation and control. Three parts of a shareholder value strategy are described. Controls include incentive systems, beliefs systems, and risk management systems.
Swot Analysis of "Guidant Corp.: Shaping Culture Through Systems" written by Robert L. Simons, Antonio Davila includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Guidant Systems facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Guidant Corp.: Shaping Culture Through Systems case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Growth strategy, Innovation, Motivating people, Risk management, Strategic planning, Strategy execution and Finance & Accounting.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Guidant Corp.: Shaping Culture Through Systems casestudy better are - – customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing commodity prices, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies,
technology disruption, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Guidant Corp.: Shaping Culture Through Systems
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Guidant Corp.: Shaping Culture Through Systems case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Guidant Systems, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Guidant Systems 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 Guidant Corp.: Shaping Culture Through Systems can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Guidant Corp.: Shaping Culture Through Systems case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Guidant Systems
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 Guidant Systems
Strengths Guidant Corp.: Shaping Culture Through Systems | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Guidant Systems in Guidant Corp.: Shaping Culture Through Systems Harvard Business Review case study are -
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Guidant Systems in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Training and development
– Guidant Systems has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Guidant Corp.: Shaping Culture Through Systems 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Guidant Corp.: Shaping Culture Through Systems Harvard Business Review case study comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the industry, building diversified operations across different geographies so that disruption in one part of the world doesn’t impact the overall performance of the firm, and integrating the various business operations and processes through its digital transformation drive.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Guidant Systems in the sector have low bargaining power. Guidant Corp.: Shaping Culture Through Systems has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Guidant Systems to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Ability to lead change in Finance & Accounting field
– Guidant Systems 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 Guidant Systems in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
High brand equity
– Guidant Systems has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Guidant Systems to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Guidant Systems 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.
Organizational Resilience of Guidant Systems
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Guidant Systems does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Learning organization
- Guidant Systems 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 Guidant Systems is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Guidant Corp.: Shaping Culture Through Systems Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Guidant Systems is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Guidant Corp.: Shaping Culture Through Systems are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Digital Transformation in Finance & Accounting segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Guidant Systems digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Guidant Systems 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Finance & Accounting industry
– Guidant Corp.: Shaping Culture Through Systems firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Guidant Systems to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Finance & Accounting industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Guidant Systems to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Weaknesses Guidant Corp.: Shaping Culture Through Systems | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Guidant Corp.: Shaping Culture Through Systems are -
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Guidant Systems 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 operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Guidant Corp.: Shaping Culture Through Systems 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 Guidant Systems 's lucrative customers.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Guidant Corp.: Shaping Culture Through Systems, in the dynamic environment Guidant Systems has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Guidant Systems 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 Guidant Corp.: Shaping Culture Through Systems, it seems that the employees of Guidant Systems 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Guidant Systems has not been able to do capital spending to the tune of the competition. This has resulted into fewer innovations and company facing stiff competition from both existing competitors and new entrants who are disrupting the industry using digital technology.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Guidant Systems needs to come up with a strategy to reduce the workers concern regarding automation. Without a clear strategy, it could lead to disruption and uncertainty within the organization.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Guidant Corp.: Shaping Culture Through Systems, is just above the industry average. Guidant Systems 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Guidant Systems is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Finance & Accounting segment. Guidant Systems needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Guidant Systems to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Lack of clear differentiation of Guidant Systems products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Guidant Systems needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Guidant Corp.: Shaping Culture Through Systems HBR case study mentions - Guidant Systems 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Robert L. Simons, Antonio Davila suggests that, Guidant Systems 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.
Opportunities Guidant Corp.: Shaping Culture Through Systems | 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 Guidant Corp.: Shaping Culture Through Systems are -
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Guidant Systems 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 Guidant Corp.: Shaping Culture Through Systems - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Guidant Systems 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 Guidant Systems 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Guidant Systems 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.
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. Guidant Systems can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Guidant Systems 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Guidant Systems 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, Guidant Corp.: Shaping Culture Through Systems, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Guidant Systems can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Guidant Systems operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Finance & Accounting sector.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Guidant Systems can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Guidant Systems is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Guidant Corp.: Shaping Culture Through Systems 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Guidant Systems can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Guidant Corp.: Shaping Culture Through Systems 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Guidant Systems 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 Guidant Systems to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Guidant Systems 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Guidant Systems can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Finance & Accounting segment. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.
Threats Guidant Corp.: Shaping Culture Through Systems External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Guidant Corp.: Shaping Culture Through Systems are -
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. Guidant Systems 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Guidant Systems 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.
Environmental challenges
– Guidant Systems 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. Guidant Systems can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Finance & Accounting industry.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Guidant Systems 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Guidant Systems 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Guidant Systems 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 wage structure of Guidant Systems
– 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 Guidant Systems.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Guidant Systems is facing in Finance & Accounting sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Guidant Systems 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 Guidant Corp.: Shaping Culture Through Systems .
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Guidant Corp.: Shaping Culture Through Systems, Guidant Systems 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 .
Regulatory challenges
– Guidant Systems 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.
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. Guidant Systems needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Finance & Accounting industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Guidant Systems has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Finance & Accounting industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Guidant Systems 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Guidant Corp.: Shaping Culture Through Systems 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 Guidant Corp.: Shaping Culture Through Systems 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 Guidant Corp.: Shaping Culture Through Systems 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 Guidant Corp.: Shaping Culture Through Systems 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 Guidant Corp.: Shaping Culture Through Systems 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 Guidant Systems needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
