The Future Challenges of Business: Rethinking Management Education SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of The Future Challenges of Business: Rethinking Management Education
The traditional paradigm of business schools is not well suited to handle the ambiguity and high rate of change facing many industries today. The typical MBA program is focused on analytic and cognitive skills, stylized treatment of real business problems, and self-centered careerism with a limited recognition that management is as much art as science. These new challenges that managers now face call for a shift in emphasis toward topics not well covered in academia, from the role of intuition to how to navigate uncertainty (in contrast to risk) or balance focal and peripheral vision. This article examines the teaching, research, and governance issues these new learning imperatives pose for business schools and offers some constructive suggestions for fixing them, based in part on the experience of Wharton's Mack Center for Technological Innovation.
Swot Analysis of "The Future Challenges of Business: Rethinking Management Education" written by Paul J.H. Schoemaker includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Careerism Wharton's facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in The Future Challenges of Business: Rethinking Management Education case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Managing uncertainty, Social enterprise and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the The Future Challenges of Business: Rethinking Management Education casestudy better are - – digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing energy prices, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, wage bills are increasing, increasing commodity prices, technology disruption, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation,
supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing transportation and logistics costs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of The Future Challenges of Business: Rethinking Management Education
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in The Future Challenges of Business: Rethinking Management Education case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Careerism Wharton's, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Careerism Wharton's 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 The Future Challenges of Business: Rethinking Management Education can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in The Future Challenges of Business: Rethinking Management Education case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Careerism Wharton's
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Leadership & Managing People field.
4. Making a Leadership & Managing People topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Careerism Wharton's
Strengths The Future Challenges of Business: Rethinking Management Education | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Careerism Wharton's in The Future Challenges of Business: Rethinking Management Education Harvard Business Review case study are -
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Careerism Wharton's 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Careerism Wharton's is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in The Future Challenges of Business: Rethinking Management Education Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Careerism Wharton's has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Careerism Wharton's 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the The Future Challenges of Business: Rethinking Management Education 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.
High brand equity
– Careerism Wharton's has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Careerism Wharton's to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Learning organization
- Careerism Wharton's 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 Careerism Wharton's is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in The Future Challenges of Business: Rethinking Management Education Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Analytics focus
– Careerism Wharton's 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 Paul J.H. Schoemaker 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.
Organizational Resilience of Careerism Wharton's
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Careerism Wharton's does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Careerism Wharton's 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Careerism Wharton's is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– The Future Challenges of Business: Rethinking Management Education firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Careerism Wharton's to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Careerism Wharton's to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Careerism Wharton's is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the The Future Challenges of Business: Rethinking Management Education are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Weaknesses The Future Challenges of Business: Rethinking Management Education | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of The Future Challenges of Business: Rethinking Management Education are -
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Careerism Wharton's is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Careerism Wharton's needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Careerism Wharton's to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study The Future Challenges of Business: Rethinking Management Education 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 The Future Challenges of Business: Rethinking Management Education can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Careerism Wharton's is planning to shift buying processes online.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study The Future Challenges of Business: Rethinking Management Education, it seems that the employees of Careerism Wharton's 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Careerism Wharton's has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study The Future Challenges of Business: Rethinking Management Education, is just above the industry average. Careerism Wharton's 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 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 Careerism Wharton's supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - The Future Challenges of Business: Rethinking Management Education, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Careerism Wharton's vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study The Future Challenges of Business: Rethinking Management Education, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Leadership & Managing People 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 dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the The Future Challenges of Business: Rethinking Management Education 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 Careerism Wharton's has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Careerism Wharton's 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. Careerism Wharton's 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Careerism Wharton's products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Careerism Wharton's needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Careerism Wharton's is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study The Future Challenges of Business: Rethinking Management Education 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 The Future Challenges of Business: Rethinking Management Education | 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 The Future Challenges of Business: Rethinking Management Education are -
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Careerism Wharton's 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 Leadership & Managing People segment.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Careerism Wharton's 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, The Future Challenges of Business: Rethinking Management Education, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Careerism Wharton's in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Leadership & Managing People segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
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 Careerism Wharton's in the consumer business. Now Careerism Wharton's can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Careerism Wharton's 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 The Future Challenges of Business: Rethinking Management Education - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Careerism Wharton's to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
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 Careerism Wharton's 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Careerism Wharton's can develop new processes and procedures in Leadership & Managing People 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Careerism Wharton's is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. The Future Challenges of Business: Rethinking Management Education 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Careerism Wharton's 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 Careerism Wharton's to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Careerism Wharton's 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Careerism Wharton's can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. The Future Challenges of Business: Rethinking Management Education 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Careerism Wharton's 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Careerism Wharton's 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.
Threats The Future Challenges of Business: Rethinking Management Education External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study The Future Challenges of Business: Rethinking Management Education 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 Careerism Wharton's business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Careerism Wharton's 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.
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 Careerism Wharton's.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Leadership & Managing People field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Careerism Wharton's can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Careerism Wharton's in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The Leadership & Managing People 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Careerism Wharton's with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Increasing wage structure of Careerism Wharton's
– 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 Careerism Wharton's.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Careerism Wharton's has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Careerism Wharton's needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Leadership & Managing People 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.
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 Careerism Wharton's in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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. Careerism Wharton's needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Environmental challenges
– Careerism Wharton's 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. Careerism Wharton's can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People 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. Careerism Wharton's 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.
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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of The Future Challenges of Business: Rethinking Management Education 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 The Future Challenges of Business: Rethinking Management Education 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 The Future Challenges of Business: Rethinking Management Education 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 The Future Challenges of Business: Rethinking Management Education 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 The Future Challenges of Business: Rethinking Management Education 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 Careerism Wharton's needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
