How to Motivate the Fifth Generation? Balancing Engagement and Entitlement at Lee Kum Kee SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Global Business
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of How to Motivate the Fifth Generation? Balancing Engagement and Entitlement at Lee Kum Kee
In mid-2013, the Lee family, which owned the Hong Kong-based food and health product giant Lee Kum Kee (LKK), struggled with how best to increase involvement of the fifth generation (G5), the children of the company's current fourth-generation (G4) senior executives and governance leaders. Only two of the fourteen G5 members had joined the company, and few had expressed interest in further involvement, including in the multiple learning and development programs the business offered, such as a mentoring program. Many of the G5 cousins had expressed little interest in business careers in general, and none of them currently was serving as an LKK intern. G4 members observed that their children were busy with family obligations, hobbies, and emerging careers outside the business. G5's lack of interest in business and governance roles was part of a growing pattern of low family engagement in general, exhibited by the cancellation of recent family retreats (once an annual tradition) because of apathy and some underlying conflict. A history of splits among past generations of the Lee family regarding business leadership made the engagement issue even more meaningful and critical. Students will consider the challenge from the point of view of G4 family members David Lee, chairman of the family's Family Office, and his sister, Elizabeth Mok, who ran the Family Learning and Development Center. They and their three siblings saw engaging the next generation as a top priority, one related to key concepts including family-business continuity, generational engagement and empowerment, succession, emotional ownership, and intrinsic/extrinsic motivation.
Authors :: John L. Ward, Carol Adler Zsolnay, Sachin Waikar
Swot Analysis of "How to Motivate the Fifth Generation? Balancing Engagement and Entitlement at Lee Kum Kee" written by John L. Ward, Carol Adler Zsolnay, Sachin Waikar includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that G5 Family facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in How to Motivate the Fifth Generation? Balancing Engagement and Entitlement at Lee Kum Kee case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Motivating people, Organizational culture, Succession planning and Global Business.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the How to Motivate the Fifth Generation? Balancing Engagement and Entitlement at Lee Kum Kee casestudy better are - – challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, technology disruption, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing transportation and logistics costs, there is backlash against globalization,
customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, wage bills are increasing, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of How to Motivate the Fifth Generation? Balancing Engagement and Entitlement at Lee Kum Kee
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in How to Motivate the Fifth Generation? Balancing Engagement and Entitlement at Lee Kum Kee case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the G5 Family, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which G5 Family 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 How to Motivate the Fifth Generation? Balancing Engagement and Entitlement at Lee Kum Kee can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in How to Motivate the Fifth Generation? Balancing Engagement and Entitlement at Lee Kum Kee case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of G5 Family
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 G5 Family
Strengths How to Motivate the Fifth Generation? Balancing Engagement and Entitlement at Lee Kum Kee | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of G5 Family in How to Motivate the Fifth Generation? Balancing Engagement and Entitlement at Lee Kum Kee Harvard Business Review case study are -
Highly skilled collaborators
– G5 Family 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 How to Motivate the Fifth Generation? Balancing Engagement and Entitlement at Lee Kum Kee HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the G5 Family are driving operational speed, building greater agility, and keeping the organization nimble to compete with new competitors. It helps are organization to ideate new ideas, and execute them swiftly in the marketplace.
Organizational Resilience of G5 Family
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that G5 Family does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– G5 Family 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 How to Motivate the Fifth Generation? Balancing Engagement and Entitlement at Lee Kum Kee - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Learning organization
- G5 Family 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 G5 Family is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in How to Motivate the Fifth Generation? Balancing Engagement and Entitlement at Lee Kum Kee Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Global Business industry
– How to Motivate the Fifth Generation? Balancing Engagement and Entitlement at Lee Kum Kee firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled G5 Family to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Global Business industry. The sustainable margins have also helped G5 Family to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Training and development
– G5 Family has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in How to Motivate the Fifth Generation? Balancing Engagement and Entitlement at Lee Kum Kee 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.
Strong track record of project management
– G5 Family is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the How to Motivate the Fifth Generation? Balancing Engagement and Entitlement at Lee Kum Kee 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.
Ability to lead change in Global Business field
– G5 Family 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 G5 Family in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of G5 Family in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that G5 Family 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.
Weaknesses How to Motivate the Fifth Generation? Balancing Engagement and Entitlement at Lee Kum Kee | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of How to Motivate the Fifth Generation? Balancing Engagement and Entitlement at Lee Kum Kee are -
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of G5 Family, firm in the HBR case study How to Motivate the Fifth Generation? Balancing Engagement and Entitlement at Lee Kum Kee needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at G5 Family 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study How to Motivate the Fifth Generation? Balancing Engagement and Entitlement at Lee Kum Kee, is just above the industry average. G5 Family 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, G5 Family is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study How to Motivate the Fifth Generation? Balancing Engagement and Entitlement at Lee Kum Kee can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, John L. Ward, Carol Adler Zsolnay, Sachin Waikar suggests that, G5 Family is facing high bargaining power of the channel partners. So far it has not able to streamline the operations to reduce the bargaining power of the value chain partners in the industry.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the How to Motivate the Fifth Generation? Balancing Engagement and Entitlement at Lee Kum Kee 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 G5 Family has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Need for greater diversity
– G5 Family 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study How to Motivate the Fifth Generation? Balancing Engagement and Entitlement at Lee Kum Kee, it seems that the employees of G5 Family 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though G5 Family 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 - How to Motivate the Fifth Generation? Balancing Engagement and Entitlement at Lee Kum Kee should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
G5 Family 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study How to Motivate the Fifth Generation? Balancing Engagement and Entitlement at Lee Kum Kee, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Global Business strategy. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.
Opportunities How to Motivate the Fifth Generation? Balancing Engagement and Entitlement at Lee Kum Kee | 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 How to Motivate the Fifth Generation? Balancing Engagement and Entitlement at Lee Kum Kee are -
Developing new processes and practices
– G5 Family can develop new processes and procedures in Global Business industry using technology such as automation using artificial intelligence, real time transportation and products tracking, 3D modeling for concept development and new products pilot testing etc.
Buying journey improvements
– G5 Family can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. How to Motivate the Fifth Generation? Balancing Engagement and Entitlement at Lee Kum Kee 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, G5 Family is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. How to Motivate the Fifth Generation? Balancing Engagement and Entitlement at Lee Kum Kee 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.
Manufacturing automation
– G5 Family 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– G5 Family 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.
Loyalty marketing
– G5 Family 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.
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. G5 Family can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects G5 Family 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. G5 Family can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for G5 Family in the consumer business. Now G5 Family can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for G5 Family 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help G5 Family to increase its market reach. G5 Family will be able to reach out to new customers. Secondly 5G will also provide technology framework to build new tools and products that can help more immersive consumer experience and faster consumer journey.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, G5 Family can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that G5 Family operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Global Business sector.
Threats How to Motivate the Fifth Generation? Balancing Engagement and Entitlement at Lee Kum Kee External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study How to Motivate the Fifth Generation? Balancing Engagement and Entitlement at Lee Kum Kee 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. G5 Family can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for G5 Family 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.
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 G5 Family business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Increasing wage structure of G5 Family
– 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 G5 Family.
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. G5 Family needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Global Business industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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. G5 Family 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 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.
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 G5 Family is facing in Global Business sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Environmental challenges
– G5 Family 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. G5 Family can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Global Business industry.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, G5 Family 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 How to Motivate the Fifth Generation? Balancing Engagement and Entitlement at Lee Kum Kee .
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents G5 Family with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– G5 Family has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Global Business industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, G5 Family 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of How to Motivate the Fifth Generation? Balancing Engagement and Entitlement at Lee Kum Kee 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 How to Motivate the Fifth Generation? Balancing Engagement and Entitlement at Lee Kum Kee 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 How to Motivate the Fifth Generation? Balancing Engagement and Entitlement at Lee Kum Kee 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 How to Motivate the Fifth Generation? Balancing Engagement and Entitlement at Lee Kum Kee 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 How to Motivate the Fifth Generation? Balancing Engagement and Entitlement at Lee Kum Kee 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 G5 Family needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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