Conflict Over Leadership and Succession in a Successful Family Business: The Lakkard Leather Company SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Strategy / MBA Resources
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.
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 - – competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing transportation and logistics costs, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies,
wage bills are increasing, increasing commodity prices, etc
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 -
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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Lakkard Son 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 Lakkard Son in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Digital Transformation in Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Lakkard Son digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Lakkard Son 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.
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.
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.
Organizational Resilience of Lakkard Son
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Lakkard Son does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Lakkard Son 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 Conflict Over Leadership and Succession in a Successful Family Business: The Lakkard Leather Company - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
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 -
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Conflict Over Leadership and Succession in a Successful Family Business: The Lakkard Leather Company HBR case study mentions - Lakkard Son 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.
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.
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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Conflict Over Leadership and Succession in a Successful Family Business: The Lakkard Leather Company, it seems that the employees of Lakkard Son 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 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Lakkard Son 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. Lakkard Son 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Conflict Over Leadership and Succession in a Successful Family Business: The Lakkard Leather Company, is just above the industry average. Lakkard Son 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.
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.
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.
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 -
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.
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. Lakkard Son can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Lakkard Son in the consumer business. Now Lakkard Son can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Lakkard Son 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Lakkard Son has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Lakkard Son to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Conflict Over Leadership and Succession in a Successful Family Business: The Lakkard Leather Company case study. Lakkard Son 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, 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.
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.
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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Lakkard Son is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Conflict Over Leadership and Succession in a Successful Family Business: The Lakkard Leather Company 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Lakkard Son has focused on building a highly responsive customer relationship management platform. This platform is built on in-house data and driven by analytics and artificial intelligence. The customer analytics can help the organization to fine tune its loyalty marketing efforts, increase the wallet share of the organization, reduce wastage on mainstream advertising spending, build better pricing strategies using personalization, etc.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Lakkard Son can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
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.
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 -
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.
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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Lakkard Son has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Lakkard Son needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship 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.
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. Lakkard Son can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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 Lakkard Son in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector and impact the bottomline 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Lakkard Son 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.
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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Lakkard Son 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.
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.
Environmental challenges
– Lakkard Son 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. Lakkard Son can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry.
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.
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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