Case Study Description of Anjali Kumar - Negotiating a Job Offer (A)
Anjali Kumar receives her first job offer after graduation at an organization she admires, with interesting work and good benefits, but the salary is low. Also, she is unsure whether the position offers any advancement opportunities. At the end of the A case, Anjali has to decide whether to accept the offer, decline the offer, or try to negotiate a better offer, even though she had received no other offers at the time. The B case describes Anjali's efforts to negotiate with the potential employer, and the employer's response.
Swot Analysis of "Anjali Kumar - Negotiating a Job Offer (A)" written by Alison Konrad, Nundini Krishnan includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Anjali Offer facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Anjali Kumar - Negotiating a Job Offer (A) case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Human resource management, Leadership, Negotiations, Organizational culture and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Anjali Kumar - Negotiating a Job Offer (A) casestudy better are - – banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, technology disruption, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion,
digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing commodity prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Anjali Kumar - Negotiating a Job Offer (A)
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Anjali Kumar - Negotiating a Job Offer (A) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Anjali Offer, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Anjali Offer 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 Anjali Kumar - Negotiating a Job Offer (A) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Anjali Kumar - Negotiating a Job Offer (A) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Anjali Offer
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 Anjali Offer
Strengths Anjali Kumar - Negotiating a Job Offer (A) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Anjali Offer in Anjali Kumar - Negotiating a Job Offer (A) Harvard Business Review case study are -
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Anjali Offer in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Anjali Offer 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Anjali Offer in the sector have low bargaining power. Anjali Kumar - Negotiating a Job Offer (A) has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Anjali Offer to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Anjali Offer 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 Anjali Offer in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Anjali Offer is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Anjali Kumar - Negotiating a Job Offer (A) are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Analytics focus
– Anjali Offer 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 Alison Konrad, Nundini Krishnan 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Anjali Offer is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Anjali Kumar - Negotiating a Job Offer (A) 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.
Organizational Resilience of Anjali Offer
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Anjali Offer does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– Anjali Kumar - Negotiating a Job Offer (A) firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Anjali Offer to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Anjali Offer to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Learning organization
- Anjali Offer 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 Anjali Offer is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Anjali Kumar - Negotiating a Job Offer (A) Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Anjali Offer 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 Anjali Kumar - Negotiating a Job Offer (A) - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Innovation driven organization
– Anjali Offer is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Anjali Kumar - Negotiating a Job Offer (A) Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Weaknesses Anjali Kumar - Negotiating a Job Offer (A) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Anjali Kumar - Negotiating a Job Offer (A) are -
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Anjali Offer 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Anjali Offer, firm in the HBR case study Anjali Kumar - Negotiating a Job Offer (A) needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Anjali Kumar - Negotiating a Job Offer (A), in the dynamic environment Anjali Offer has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Anjali Offer has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Anjali Kumar - Negotiating a Job Offer (A), it seems that the employees of Anjali Offer 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Anjali Offer products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Anjali Offer needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Anjali Offer 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Anjali Kumar - Negotiating a Job Offer (A) 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 Anjali Kumar - Negotiating a Job Offer (A) can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Anjali Offer is planning to shift buying processes online.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Anjali Offer 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. Anjali Offer even though has strong showing on digital transformation primary two stages, it has struggled to capitalize the power of digital transformation in marketing efforts and new venture efforts.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Anjali Kumar - Negotiating a Job Offer (A), 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Anjali Offer is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Anjali Offer needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Anjali Offer to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Anjali Offer 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.
Opportunities Anjali Kumar - Negotiating a Job Offer (A) | 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 Anjali Kumar - Negotiating a Job Offer (A) are -
Loyalty marketing
– Anjali Offer 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Anjali Offer to increase its market reach. Anjali Offer 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Anjali Offer 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, Anjali Kumar - Negotiating a Job Offer (A), to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Anjali Offer has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Anjali Offer to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Anjali Kumar - Negotiating a Job Offer (A) case study. Anjali Offer can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Identify volunteer opportunities
– Covid-19 has impacted working population in two ways – it has led to people soul searching about their professional choices, resulting in mass resignation. Secondly it has encouraged people to do things that they are passionate about. This has opened opportunities for businesses to build volunteer oriented socially driven projects. Anjali Offer can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Manufacturing automation
– Anjali Offer can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Leadership & Managing People 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
– Anjali Offer can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Anjali Kumar - Negotiating a Job Offer (A) 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Anjali Offer 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 Anjali Kumar - Negotiating a Job Offer (A) - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Anjali Offer 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 Anjali Offer 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Anjali Offer can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Anjali Offer operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Anjali Offer 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 Anjali Offer can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Anjali Offer 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.
Threats Anjali Kumar - Negotiating a Job Offer (A) External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Anjali Kumar - Negotiating a Job Offer (A) are -
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.
Aging population
– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Anjali Offer 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Anjali Offer has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Anjali Offer 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Anjali Offer 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 Anjali Offer
– 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 Anjali Offer.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Anjali Offer 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Anjali Offer 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Anjali Offer 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Anjali Kumar - Negotiating a Job Offer (A), Anjali Offer may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Leadership & Managing People .
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Anjali Offer is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Anjali Offer 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 Anjali Kumar - Negotiating a Job Offer (A) .
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 Anjali Offer in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Anjali Kumar - Negotiating a Job Offer (A) 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 Anjali Kumar - Negotiating a Job Offer (A) 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 Anjali Kumar - Negotiating a Job Offer (A) 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 Anjali Kumar - Negotiating a Job Offer (A) 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 Anjali Kumar - Negotiating a Job Offer (A) 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 Anjali Offer needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
