Felipe Calderon: Leading with Light and Power (C) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Felipe Calderon: Leading with Light and Power (C)
This sequence of cases explores how leaders get their team focused on framing, analyzing, and ultimately acting upon complex decisions. The A case provides an inside look as President of Mexico, Felipe Calderon, works with his cabinet ministers to decide how to turnaround a corrupt, highly unionized, and poorly managed state-owned company which distributes electrical energy to Mexico City and the surrounding environs. While previous administrations over several decades were aware of the problem, none wanted to risk the political or economic consequences of prolonged strikes and power outages in one of the world's most populous cities. Yet, it is now clear that the company's poor financial performance and corruption are causing significant harm to Mexico. A central theme is the president's role in making sure his team has done its homework and is fully prepared to make the appropriate decision. The B case, to be handed out during class, provides the actual decision criteria used. The C case, to be handed out at the end of class, describes what the team ultimately decided and how they executed it.
Swot Analysis of "Felipe Calderon: Leading with Light and Power (C)" written by J. Bruce Harreld, David Lane includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Calderon Felipe facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Felipe Calderon: Leading with Light and Power (C) case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Economics, Entrepreneurship, Government, Leadership, Social responsibility, Strategy execution and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Felipe Calderon: Leading with Light and Power (C) casestudy better are - – customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , wage bills are increasing, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, technology disruption,
increasing energy prices, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Felipe Calderon: Leading with Light and Power (C)
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Felipe Calderon: Leading with Light and Power (C) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Calderon Felipe, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Calderon Felipe 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 Felipe Calderon: Leading with Light and Power (C) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Felipe Calderon: Leading with Light and Power (C) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Calderon Felipe
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field.
4. Making a Innovation & Entrepreneurship topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Calderon Felipe
Strengths Felipe Calderon: Leading with Light and Power (C) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Calderon Felipe in Felipe Calderon: Leading with Light and Power (C) Harvard Business Review case study are -
Digital Transformation in Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Calderon Felipe digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Calderon Felipe 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Calderon Felipe 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 Felipe Calderon: Leading with Light and Power (C) - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Strong track record of project management
– Calderon Felipe is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Calderon Felipe 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.
Learning organization
- Calderon Felipe 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 Calderon Felipe is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Felipe Calderon: Leading with Light and Power (C) Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Calderon Felipe is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Felipe Calderon: Leading with Light and Power (C) are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Calderon Felipe in the sector have low bargaining power. Felipe Calderon: Leading with Light and Power (C) has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Calderon Felipe to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Diverse revenue streams
– Calderon Felipe is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Felipe Calderon: Leading with Light and Power (C) 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Calderon Felipe 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 Felipe Calderon: Leading with Light and Power (C) HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
High brand equity
– Calderon Felipe has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Calderon Felipe to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry
– Felipe Calderon: Leading with Light and Power (C) firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Calderon Felipe to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Calderon Felipe to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Calderon Felipe has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Calderon Felipe has effective processes in place that helps in exploring new product needs, doing quick pilot testing, and then launching the products quickly using its extensive distribution network.
Weaknesses Felipe Calderon: Leading with Light and Power (C) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Felipe Calderon: Leading with Light and Power (C) are -
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Calderon Felipe 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.
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 Calderon Felipe supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Felipe Calderon: Leading with Light and Power (C), it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Calderon Felipe vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, J. Bruce Harreld, David Lane suggests that, Calderon Felipe 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 Felipe Calderon: Leading with Light and Power (C) 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 Felipe Calderon: Leading with Light and Power (C) can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Calderon Felipe is planning to shift buying processes online.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Calderon Felipe is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment. Calderon Felipe needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Calderon Felipe to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Calderon Felipe 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. Calderon Felipe 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Felipe Calderon: Leading with Light and Power (C), it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Innovation & Entrepreneurship 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Felipe Calderon: Leading with Light and Power (C), is just above the industry average. Calderon Felipe 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Felipe Calderon: Leading with Light and Power (C) 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 Calderon Felipe 's lucrative customers.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Calderon Felipe 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Calderon Felipe, firm in the HBR case study Felipe Calderon: Leading with Light and Power (C) needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Opportunities Felipe Calderon: Leading with Light and Power (C) | 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 Felipe Calderon: Leading with Light and Power (C) are -
Developing new processes and practices
– Calderon Felipe can develop new processes and procedures in Innovation & Entrepreneurship 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Calderon Felipe can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Calderon Felipe operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Calderon Felipe is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Felipe Calderon: Leading with Light and Power (C) 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Calderon Felipe 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, Felipe Calderon: Leading with Light and Power (C), to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Calderon Felipe 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 Felipe Calderon: Leading with Light and Power (C) - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Calderon Felipe to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Buying journey improvements
– Calderon Felipe can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Felipe Calderon: Leading with Light and Power (C) 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Calderon Felipe 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. Calderon Felipe can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Calderon Felipe 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 Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Calderon Felipe in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Calderon Felipe 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. Calderon Felipe 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Calderon Felipe 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.
Reconfiguring business model
– The expansion of digital payment system, the bringing down of international transactions costs using Bitcoin and other blockchain based currencies, etc can help Calderon Felipe to reconfigure its entire business model. For example it can used blockchain based technologies to reduce piracy of its products in the big markets such as China. Secondly it can use the popularity of e-commerce in various developing markets to build a Direct to Customer business model rather than the current Channel Heavy distribution network.
Threats Felipe Calderon: Leading with Light and Power (C) External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Felipe Calderon: Leading with Light and Power (C) are -
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 Calderon Felipe business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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. Calderon Felipe 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.
Increasing wage structure of Calderon Felipe
– 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 Calderon Felipe.
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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Calderon Felipe in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The Innovation & Entrepreneurship 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Felipe Calderon: Leading with Light and Power (C), Calderon Felipe may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Innovation & Entrepreneurship .
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. Calderon Felipe needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Calderon Felipe 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Calderon Felipe with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Calderon Felipe 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Calderon Felipe is facing in Innovation & Entrepreneurship 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, Calderon Felipe 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 Felipe Calderon: Leading with Light and Power (C) .
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Felipe Calderon: Leading with Light and Power (C) 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 Felipe Calderon: Leading with Light and Power (C) 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 Felipe Calderon: Leading with Light and Power (C) 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 Felipe Calderon: Leading with Light and Power (C) 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 Felipe Calderon: Leading with Light and Power (C) 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 Calderon Felipe needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
