AXA Way: The Pursuit of Excellence Through Quality of Service SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Global Business
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of AXA Way: The Pursuit of Excellence Through Quality of Service
By 2005, AXA had become one of the world's largest and most successful insurance companies, but Claude Brunet, Member of the Management Board, in charge of Transversal Operations, Communication, Marketing and Human Resources, believed that to achieve its ambitions the company was going to have to become much more customer focused. AXA Way, a culture change program that included many elements of Six Sigma philosophy and methodology, was the spearhead of this change. The case describes the AXA Way program, the challenges of its implementation, and how AXA overcame those challenges. Learning objectives: Understand how to manage the culture change necessary to improve customer service using Six Sigma. Six Sigma is sometimes seen as a technical change, as just a methodology, but change in attitude and mindset--in culture--are required for Six Sigma to succeed. Understand how Six Sigma can be successfully adopted in a service industry.
Authors :: John Weeks, Jean-Pierre Baillot, Suzanne Weeks
Swot Analysis of "AXA Way: The Pursuit of Excellence Through Quality of Service" written by John Weeks, Jean-Pierre Baillot, Suzanne Weeks includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Axa Sigma facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in AXA Way: The Pursuit of Excellence Through Quality of Service case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Customer service, Operations management and Global Business.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the AXA Way: The Pursuit of Excellence Through Quality of Service casestudy better are - – competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , there is backlash against globalization, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy,
increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of AXA Way: The Pursuit of Excellence Through Quality of Service
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in AXA Way: The Pursuit of Excellence Through Quality of Service case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Axa Sigma, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Axa Sigma 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 AXA Way: The Pursuit of Excellence Through Quality of Service can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in AXA Way: The Pursuit of Excellence Through Quality of Service case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Axa Sigma
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 Axa Sigma
Strengths AXA Way: The Pursuit of Excellence Through Quality of Service | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Axa Sigma in AXA Way: The Pursuit of Excellence Through Quality of Service Harvard Business Review case study are -
High brand equity
– Axa Sigma has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Axa Sigma to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Axa Sigma 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 AXA Way: The Pursuit of Excellence Through Quality of Service HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Axa Sigma in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Strong track record of project management
– Axa Sigma is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Innovation driven organization
– Axa Sigma is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in AXA Way: The Pursuit of Excellence Through Quality of Service Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Axa Sigma is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the AXA Way: The Pursuit of Excellence Through Quality of Service are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Training and development
– Axa Sigma has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in AXA Way: The Pursuit of Excellence Through Quality of Service 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.
Ability to lead change in Global Business field
– Axa Sigma 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 Axa Sigma in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Learning organization
- Axa Sigma 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 Axa Sigma is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in AXA Way: The Pursuit of Excellence Through Quality of Service Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Axa Sigma 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 AXA Way: The Pursuit of Excellence Through Quality of Service - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Axa Sigma 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Axa Sigma 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 AXA Way: The Pursuit of Excellence Through Quality of Service | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of AXA Way: The Pursuit of Excellence Through Quality of Service are -
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Axa Sigma is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Global Business segment. Axa Sigma needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Axa Sigma to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Axa Sigma 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 cash cycle compare to competitors
Axa Sigma 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study AXA Way: The Pursuit of Excellence Through Quality of Service, in the dynamic environment Axa Sigma has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Axa Sigma has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Need for greater diversity
– Axa Sigma 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Axa Sigma 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 - AXA Way: The Pursuit of Excellence Through Quality of Service should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the AXA Way: The Pursuit of Excellence Through Quality of Service 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 Axa Sigma has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As AXA Way: The Pursuit of Excellence Through Quality of Service HBR case study mentions - Axa Sigma 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Axa Sigma 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. Axa Sigma 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study AXA Way: The Pursuit of Excellence Through Quality of Service, it seems that the employees of Axa Sigma 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, John Weeks, Jean-Pierre Baillot, Suzanne Weeks suggests that, Axa Sigma 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 AXA Way: The Pursuit of Excellence Through Quality of Service | 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 AXA Way: The Pursuit of Excellence Through Quality of Service are -
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Axa Sigma 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 AXA Way: The Pursuit of Excellence Through Quality of Service - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Axa Sigma to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Loyalty marketing
– Axa Sigma 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
– Axa Sigma 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 Axa Sigma has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Axa Sigma to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the AXA Way: The Pursuit of Excellence Through Quality of Service case study. Axa Sigma can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Axa Sigma can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Axa Sigma operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Global Business sector.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Axa Sigma 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Axa Sigma 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, AXA Way: The Pursuit of Excellence Through Quality of Service, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Axa Sigma 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 Axa Sigma to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Axa Sigma can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Buying journey improvements
– Axa Sigma can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. AXA Way: The Pursuit of Excellence Through Quality of Service 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.
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. Axa Sigma 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. Axa Sigma 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 Axa Sigma 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Axa Sigma 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 AXA Way: The Pursuit of Excellence Through Quality of Service External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study AXA Way: The Pursuit of Excellence Through Quality of Service are -
Consumer confidence and its impact on Axa Sigma demand
– There is a high probability of declining consumer confidence, given – high inflammation rate, rise of gig economy, lower job stability, increasing cost of living, higher interest rates, and aging demography. All the factors contribute to people saving higher rate of their income, resulting in lower consumer demand in the industry and other sectors.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study AXA Way: The Pursuit of Excellence Through Quality of Service, Axa Sigma may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Global Business .
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 Axa Sigma business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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. Axa Sigma needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Global Business industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Axa Sigma 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Axa Sigma is facing in Global Business sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Environmental challenges
– Axa Sigma 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. Axa Sigma can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Global Business industry.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Axa Sigma has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Global Business industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Axa Sigma 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Axa Sigma 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.
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 Axa Sigma in the Global Business sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Axa Sigma 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 AXA Way: The Pursuit of Excellence Through Quality of Service .
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.
Increasing wage structure of Axa Sigma
– 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 Axa Sigma.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of AXA Way: The Pursuit of Excellence Through Quality of Service 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 AXA Way: The Pursuit of Excellence Through Quality of Service 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 AXA Way: The Pursuit of Excellence Through Quality of Service 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 AXA Way: The Pursuit of Excellence Through Quality of Service 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 AXA Way: The Pursuit of Excellence Through Quality of Service 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 Axa Sigma needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
