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Conflict Over Leadership and Succession in a Successful Family Business: The Lakkard Leather Company SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution

Case Study Description of Conflict Over Leadership and Succession in a Successful Family Business: The Lakkard Leather Company


The founder of Lakkard Leather Company has headed the company for 24 years. He is proud of his business, and attributes much of its success to his own leadership style, which did not allow for anyone else's participation in decisions of substance. When he was badly injured in a car accident, his son stepped in and kept the business going. Without any intention to take over, the son altered the leadership and operations of the company in the space of a few months, so that by the time the founder returned, the company had changed and his role was significantly reduced. The son, in the meantime, grew to like his interim position and believed he did a better job than his father. Both men become locked in a power struggle; yet the company faced several key decisions that had to be taken in terms of expansion, product offering and sale opportunities.

Authors :: Simon Parker, Matthias Tietz

Topics :: Innovation & Entrepreneurship

Tags :: , SWOT Analysis, SWOT Matrix, TOWS, Weighted SWOT Analysis

Swot Analysis of "Conflict Over Leadership and Succession in a Successful Family Business: The Lakkard Leather Company" written by Simon Parker, Matthias Tietz includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Lakkard Son facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Conflict Over Leadership and Succession in a Successful Family Business: The Lakkard Leather Company case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.


Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Conflict Over Leadership and Succession in a Successful Family Business: The Lakkard Leather Company casestudy better are - – technology disruption, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, there is backlash against globalization, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, geopolitical disruptions, increasing commodity prices, etc



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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Conflict Over Leadership and Succession in a Successful Family Business: The Lakkard Leather Company


SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Conflict Over Leadership and Succession in a Successful Family Business: The Lakkard Leather Company case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Lakkard Son, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Lakkard Son 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 Conflict Over Leadership and Succession in a Successful Family Business: The Lakkard Leather Company can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Conflict Over Leadership and Succession in a Successful Family Business: The Lakkard Leather Company case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Lakkard Son
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 Lakkard Son




Strengths Conflict Over Leadership and Succession in a Successful Family Business: The Lakkard Leather Company | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Lakkard Son in Conflict Over Leadership and Succession in a Successful Family Business: The Lakkard Leather Company Harvard Business Review case study are -

Superior customer experience

– The customer experience strategy of Lakkard Son in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.

Diverse revenue streams

– Lakkard Son is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Conflict Over Leadership and Succession in a Successful Family Business: The Lakkard Leather Company 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.

Successful track record of launching new products

– Lakkard Son has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Lakkard Son 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.

Sustainable margins compare to other players in Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry

– Conflict Over Leadership and Succession in a Successful Family Business: The Lakkard Leather Company firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Lakkard Son to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Lakkard Son to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.

Ability to recruit top talent

– Lakkard Son is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Conflict Over Leadership and Succession in a Successful Family Business: The Lakkard Leather Company are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.

Innovation driven organization

– Lakkard Son is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Conflict Over Leadership and Succession in a Successful Family Business: The Lakkard Leather Company Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.

Ability to lead change in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field

– Lakkard Son 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 Lakkard Son in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.

Low bargaining power of suppliers

– Suppliers of Lakkard Son in the sector have low bargaining power. Conflict Over Leadership and Succession in a Successful Family Business: The Lakkard Leather Company has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Lakkard Son to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.

Analytics focus

– Lakkard Son 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 Simon Parker, Matthias Tietz 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.

Cross disciplinary teams

– Horizontal connected teams at the Lakkard Son 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.

Training and development

– Lakkard Son has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Conflict Over Leadership and Succession in a Successful Family Business: The Lakkard Leather Company 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.

Learning organization

- Lakkard Son 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 Lakkard Son is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Conflict Over Leadership and Succession in a Successful Family Business: The Lakkard Leather Company Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.






Weaknesses Conflict Over Leadership and Succession in a Successful Family Business: The Lakkard Leather Company | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of Conflict Over Leadership and Succession in a Successful Family Business: The Lakkard Leather Company are -

Products dominated business model

– Even though Lakkard Son 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 - Conflict Over Leadership and Succession in a Successful Family Business: The Lakkard Leather Company should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.

Slow to harness new channels of communication

– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Lakkard Son is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Conflict Over Leadership and Succession in a Successful Family Business: The Lakkard Leather Company can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.

Workers concerns about automation

– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Lakkard Son 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 cash cycle compare to competitors

Lakkard Son 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 operating costs

– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Conflict Over Leadership and Succession in a Successful Family Business: The Lakkard Leather Company 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 Lakkard Son 's lucrative customers.

No frontier risks strategy

– After analyzing the HBR case study Conflict Over Leadership and Succession in a Successful Family Business: The Lakkard Leather Company, 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.

Increasing silos among functional specialists

– The organizational structure of Lakkard Son is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment. Lakkard Son needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Lakkard Son to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.

Ability to respond to the competition

– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Conflict Over Leadership and Succession in a Successful Family Business: The Lakkard Leather Company, in the dynamic environment Lakkard Son has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Lakkard Son has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.

High bargaining power of channel partners

– Because of the regulatory requirements, Simon Parker, Matthias Tietz suggests that, Lakkard Son 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.

Capital Spending Reduction

– Even during the low interest decade, Lakkard Son has not been able to do capital spending to the tune of the competition. This has resulted into fewer innovations and company facing stiff competition from both existing competitors and new entrants who are disrupting the industry using digital technology.

Interest costs

– Compare to the competition, Lakkard Son 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.




Opportunities Conflict Over Leadership and Succession in a Successful Family Business: The Lakkard Leather Company | 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 Conflict Over Leadership and Succession in a Successful Family Business: The Lakkard Leather Company are -

Learning at scale

– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Lakkard Son 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.

Reforming the budgeting process

- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Lakkard Son can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.

Increase in government spending

– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Lakkard Son can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Lakkard Son operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector.

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. Lakkard Son 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. Lakkard Son 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.

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 Lakkard Son in the consumer business. Now Lakkard Son can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.

Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities

– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Lakkard Son 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 Lakkard Son to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.

Low interest rates

– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Lakkard Son 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.

Manufacturing automation

– Lakkard Son can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Innovation & Entrepreneurship 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.

Buying journey improvements

– Lakkard Son can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Conflict Over Leadership and Succession in a Successful Family Business: The Lakkard Leather Company 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.

Leveraging digital technologies

– Lakkard Son 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.

Using analytics as competitive advantage

– Lakkard Son 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 Conflict Over Leadership and Succession in a Successful Family Business: The Lakkard Leather Company - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Lakkard Son to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.

Better consumer reach

– The expansion of the 5G network will help Lakkard Son to increase its market reach. Lakkard Son 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.

Lowering marketing communication costs

– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Lakkard Son 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.




Threats Conflict Over Leadership and Succession in a Successful Family Business: The Lakkard Leather Company External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis


The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Conflict Over Leadership and Succession in a Successful Family Business: The Lakkard Leather Company are -

Capital market disruption

– During the Covid-19, Dow Jones has touched record high. The valuations of a number of companies are way beyond their existing business model potential. This can lead to capital market correction which can put a number of suppliers, collaborators, value chain partners in great financial difficulty. It will directly impact the business of Lakkard Son.

Regulatory challenges

– Lakkard Son needs to prepare for regulatory challenges as consumer protection groups and other pressure groups are vigorously advocating for more regulations on big business - to reduce inequality, to create a level playing field, to product data privacy and consumer privacy, to reduce the influence of big money on democratic institutions, etc. This can lead to significant changes in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry regulations.

Increasing wage structure of Lakkard Son

– 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 Lakkard Son.

Consumer confidence and its impact on Lakkard Son 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.

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. Lakkard Son 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.

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. Lakkard Son 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.

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 Lakkard Son business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.

Learning curve for new practices

– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Conflict Over Leadership and Succession in a Successful Family Business: The Lakkard Leather Company, Lakkard Son 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 .

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.

Barriers of entry lowering

– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Lakkard Son with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.

Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins

– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Lakkard Son 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 Conflict Over Leadership and Succession in a Successful Family Business: The Lakkard Leather Company .

Stagnating economy with rate increase

– Lakkard Son 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.




Weighted SWOT Analysis of Conflict Over Leadership and Succession in a Successful Family Business: The Lakkard Leather Company 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 Conflict Over Leadership and Succession in a Successful Family Business: The Lakkard Leather Company 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 Conflict Over Leadership and Succession in a Successful Family Business: The Lakkard Leather Company 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 Conflict Over Leadership and Succession in a Successful Family Business: The Lakkard Leather Company 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 Conflict Over Leadership and Succession in a Successful Family Business: The Lakkard Leather Company 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 Lakkard Son needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.



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