Case Study Description of Office Design Partners (Thailand) Ltd.
The managing director and operations director of the Thailand manufacturing arm of a Taiwan-Thailand joint venture (JV) were experiencing severe difficulties. Transferred to Thailand from Taiwan three years ago, they shared management responsibilities with other Taiwanese expatriates, two North Americans, and a few Thai supervisors. The workforce was predominately local Thais. The performance of the company was not meeting the expectations of either of the JV partners, a problem especially acute for the managing director, whose father was chairman of the Taiwan partner's holding company. Problems included high turnover, changing roles with the recent departure of the American firm originally in a 3-way partnership, intercultural communications, and general confusion as to what to do. The purpose of the case is to develop a process for defining the problems and planning appropriate action in a complex international milieu.
Swot Analysis of "Office Design Partners (Thailand) Ltd." written by Joseph J. Distefano, Tom Gleave includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Thailand Taiwan facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Office Design Partners (Thailand) Ltd. case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Joint ventures, Leadership, Operations management and Global Business.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Office Design Partners (Thailand) Ltd. casestudy better are - – banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, there is backlash against globalization, wage bills are increasing, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%,
geopolitical disruptions, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Office Design Partners (Thailand) Ltd.
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Office Design Partners (Thailand) Ltd. case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Thailand Taiwan, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Thailand Taiwan 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 Office Design Partners (Thailand) Ltd. can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Office Design Partners (Thailand) Ltd. case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Thailand Taiwan
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Global Business field.
4. Making a Global Business topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Thailand Taiwan
Strengths Office Design Partners (Thailand) Ltd. | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Thailand Taiwan in Office Design Partners (Thailand) Ltd. Harvard Business Review case study are -
Training and development
– Thailand Taiwan has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Office Design Partners (Thailand) Ltd. 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Thailand Taiwan in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Diverse revenue streams
– Thailand Taiwan is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Office Design Partners (Thailand) Ltd. 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 switching costs
– The high switching costs that Thailand Taiwan 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.
Digital Transformation in Global Business segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Thailand Taiwan digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Thailand Taiwan 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.
Organizational Resilience of Thailand Taiwan
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Thailand Taiwan does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Thailand Taiwan in the sector have low bargaining power. Office Design Partners (Thailand) Ltd. has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Thailand Taiwan to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Analytics focus
– Thailand Taiwan is putting a lot of focus on utilizing the power of analytics in business decision making. This has put it among the leading players in the industry. The technology infrastructure suggested by Joseph J. Distefano, Tom Gleave 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.
Learning organization
- Thailand Taiwan 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 Thailand Taiwan is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Office Design Partners (Thailand) Ltd. Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Ability to lead change in Global Business field
– Thailand Taiwan 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 Thailand Taiwan in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
High brand equity
– Thailand Taiwan has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Thailand Taiwan to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Thailand Taiwan 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 Office Design Partners (Thailand) Ltd. - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Weaknesses Office Design Partners (Thailand) Ltd. | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Office Design Partners (Thailand) Ltd. are -
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 Thailand Taiwan supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Office Design Partners (Thailand) Ltd., it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Thailand Taiwan vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Office Design Partners (Thailand) Ltd., in the dynamic environment Thailand Taiwan has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Thailand Taiwan has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Office Design Partners (Thailand) Ltd. HBR case study mentions - Thailand Taiwan 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Thailand Taiwan has some of the most successful products in the industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. firm in the HBR case study - Office Design Partners (Thailand) Ltd. should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Office Design Partners (Thailand) Ltd. 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 Thailand Taiwan 's lucrative customers.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Thailand Taiwan 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Thailand Taiwan, firm in the HBR case study Office Design Partners (Thailand) Ltd. needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Thailand Taiwan 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Joseph J. Distefano, Tom Gleave suggests that, Thailand Taiwan 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Office Design Partners (Thailand) Ltd. 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 Office Design Partners (Thailand) Ltd. can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Thailand Taiwan is planning to shift buying processes online.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Thailand Taiwan 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.
Opportunities Office Design Partners (Thailand) Ltd. | 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 Office Design Partners (Thailand) Ltd. are -
Loyalty marketing
– Thailand Taiwan 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Thailand Taiwan can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Global Business 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Thailand Taiwan has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Thailand Taiwan to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Office Design Partners (Thailand) Ltd. case study. Thailand Taiwan can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Thailand Taiwan is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Office Design Partners (Thailand) Ltd. 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Thailand Taiwan 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Thailand Taiwan 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Global Business industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Thailand Taiwan can take advantage of these changes in consumer behavior to build a far more efficient business model. For example consumer regular ordering of products can reduce both last mile delivery costs and market penetration costs. Thailand Taiwan can further use this consumer data to build better customer loyalty, provide better products and service collection, and improve the value proposition in inflationary times.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Thailand Taiwan 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 Global Business segment.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Thailand Taiwan can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Global Business industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Thailand Taiwan can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Thailand Taiwan 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 Thailand Taiwan to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Buying journey improvements
– Thailand Taiwan can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Office Design Partners (Thailand) Ltd. 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Thailand Taiwan in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Global Business segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Threats Office Design Partners (Thailand) Ltd. External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Office Design Partners (Thailand) Ltd. are -
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Global Business field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Thailand Taiwan can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Thailand Taiwan has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Global Business industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Thailand Taiwan needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Global Business 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.
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. Thailand Taiwan 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.
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 Thailand Taiwan in the Global Business sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Increasing wage structure of Thailand Taiwan
– 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 Thailand Taiwan.
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 Thailand Taiwan business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Thailand Taiwan 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Thailand Taiwan 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 Office Design Partners (Thailand) Ltd. .
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Thailand Taiwan in the Global Business industry. The Global Business 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Thailand Taiwan is facing in Global Business sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Thailand Taiwan 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Thailand Taiwan 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 Office Design Partners (Thailand) Ltd. 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 Office Design Partners (Thailand) Ltd. 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 Office Design Partners (Thailand) Ltd. 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 Office Design Partners (Thailand) Ltd. 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 Office Design Partners (Thailand) Ltd. 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 Thailand Taiwan needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.