Swot Analysis of "Life Journey Profile: Mark Goldweitz" written by Bhaskar Chakravorti, Shirley M. Spence includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Goldweitz Journey facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Life Journey Profile: Mark Goldweitz case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Life Journey Profile: Mark Goldweitz casestudy better are - – talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing transportation and logistics costs, geopolitical disruptions, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings,
supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Life Journey Profile: Mark Goldweitz
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Life Journey Profile: Mark Goldweitz case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Goldweitz Journey, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Goldweitz Journey 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 Life Journey Profile: Mark Goldweitz can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Life Journey Profile: Mark Goldweitz case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Goldweitz Journey
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 Goldweitz Journey
Strengths Life Journey Profile: Mark Goldweitz | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Goldweitz Journey in Life Journey Profile: Mark Goldweitz Harvard Business Review case study are -
Analytics focus
– Goldweitz Journey 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 Bhaskar Chakravorti, Shirley M. Spence 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Goldweitz Journey is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Life Journey Profile: Mark Goldweitz are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Life Journey Profile: Mark Goldweitz 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Goldweitz Journey is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Goldweitz Journey 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 Life Journey Profile: Mark Goldweitz HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Goldweitz Journey 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Goldweitz Journey in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Training and development
– Goldweitz Journey has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Life Journey Profile: Mark Goldweitz 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.
Organizational Resilience of Goldweitz Journey
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Goldweitz Journey does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Learning organization
- Goldweitz Journey 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 Goldweitz Journey is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Life Journey Profile: Mark Goldweitz Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
High brand equity
– Goldweitz Journey has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Goldweitz Journey to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Goldweitz Journey in the sector have low bargaining power. Life Journey Profile: Mark Goldweitz has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Goldweitz Journey to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Weaknesses Life Journey Profile: Mark Goldweitz | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Life Journey Profile: Mark Goldweitz are -
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Life Journey Profile: Mark Goldweitz, is just above the industry average. Goldweitz Journey 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 strategic competitive environment developments
– As Life Journey Profile: Mark Goldweitz HBR case study mentions - Goldweitz Journey 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Goldweitz Journey 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Goldweitz Journey 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 - Life Journey Profile: Mark Goldweitz should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Goldweitz Journey 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. Goldweitz Journey 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Goldweitz Journey is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment. Goldweitz Journey needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Goldweitz Journey to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Life Journey Profile: Mark Goldweitz 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 Life Journey Profile: Mark Goldweitz can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Goldweitz Journey is planning to shift buying processes online.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Life Journey Profile: Mark Goldweitz 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 Goldweitz Journey has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Goldweitz Journey 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Goldweitz Journey 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Goldweitz Journey is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Life Journey Profile: Mark Goldweitz can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Opportunities Life Journey Profile: Mark Goldweitz | 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 Life Journey Profile: Mark Goldweitz are -
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Goldweitz Journey 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Goldweitz Journey 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.
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 Goldweitz Journey 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Goldweitz Journey has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Goldweitz Journey to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Life Journey Profile: Mark Goldweitz case study. Goldweitz Journey can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Goldweitz Journey can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
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 Goldweitz Journey in the consumer business. Now Goldweitz Journey can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Goldweitz Journey 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Goldweitz Journey can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Life Journey Profile: Mark Goldweitz 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Goldweitz Journey 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Goldweitz Journey 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 Goldweitz Journey to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Goldweitz Journey is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Life Journey Profile: Mark Goldweitz 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
– Goldweitz Journey 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Goldweitz Journey to increase its market reach. Goldweitz Journey 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.
Threats Life Journey Profile: Mark Goldweitz External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Life Journey Profile: Mark Goldweitz are -
Increasing wage structure of Goldweitz Journey
– 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 Goldweitz Journey.
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 Goldweitz Journey in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Goldweitz Journey 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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Goldweitz Journey can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Goldweitz Journey 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.
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. Goldweitz Journey needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Life Journey Profile: Mark Goldweitz, Goldweitz Journey 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 .
Environmental challenges
– Goldweitz Journey 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. Goldweitz Journey can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Goldweitz Journey 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Goldweitz Journey 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 Life Journey Profile: Mark Goldweitz .
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 Goldweitz Journey business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Goldweitz Journey with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Life Journey Profile: Mark Goldweitz 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 Life Journey Profile: Mark Goldweitz 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 Life Journey Profile: Mark Goldweitz 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 Life Journey Profile: Mark Goldweitz 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 Life Journey Profile: Mark Goldweitz 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 Goldweitz Journey needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
