Hopwood Manufacturing: Seeking to Hire the Best and the Brightest, or Not (A) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Hopwood Manufacturing: Seeking to Hire the Best and the Brightest, or Not (A)
"This is a case series featuring an A, B and C case. Robert Harvey, a business professor at a small university in Iowa, arranged for Hopwood Manufacturing Company to come to the campus to interview his students for internship and management-in-training positions, only to learn that the recruiters, Dave Maggert and Wendy Blair, appeared to be more interested in the appearances of the candidates than their qualifications. Harvey must now decide what action to take in response to the recruiters' discriminatory statements."
Swot Analysis of "Hopwood Manufacturing: Seeking to Hire the Best and the Brightest, or Not (A)" written by Timothy Ogden includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Hopwood Recruiters facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Hopwood Manufacturing: Seeking to Hire the Best and the Brightest, or Not (A) case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Diversity, Labor, Leadership, Strategy and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Hopwood Manufacturing: Seeking to Hire the Best and the Brightest, or Not (A) casestudy better are - – increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, technology disruption, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, there is increasing trade war between United States & China,
digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Hopwood Manufacturing: Seeking to Hire the Best and the Brightest, or Not (A)
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Hopwood Manufacturing: Seeking to Hire the Best and the Brightest, or Not (A) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Hopwood Recruiters, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Hopwood Recruiters 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 Hopwood Manufacturing: Seeking to Hire the Best and the Brightest, or Not (A) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Hopwood Manufacturing: Seeking to Hire the Best and the Brightest, or Not (A) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Hopwood Recruiters
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 Hopwood Recruiters
Strengths Hopwood Manufacturing: Seeking to Hire the Best and the Brightest, or Not (A) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Hopwood Recruiters in Hopwood Manufacturing: Seeking to Hire the Best and the Brightest, or Not (A) Harvard Business Review case study are -
Learning organization
- Hopwood Recruiters 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 Hopwood Recruiters is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Hopwood Manufacturing: Seeking to Hire the Best and the Brightest, or Not (A) Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– Hopwood Manufacturing: Seeking to Hire the Best and the Brightest, or Not (A) firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Hopwood Recruiters to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Hopwood Recruiters to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Hopwood Recruiters 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 Hopwood Manufacturing: Seeking to Hire the Best and the Brightest, or Not (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.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Hopwood Recruiters 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 Hopwood Recruiters in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Hopwood Recruiters has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Hopwood Recruiters 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Hopwood Recruiters in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Hopwood Recruiters is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Hopwood Manufacturing: Seeking to Hire the Best and the Brightest, or Not (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.
Innovation driven organization
– Hopwood Recruiters is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Hopwood Manufacturing: Seeking to Hire the Best and the Brightest, or Not (A) Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Hopwood Recruiters are driving operational speed, building greater agility, and keeping the organization nimble to compete with new competitors. It helps are organization to ideate new ideas, and execute them swiftly in the marketplace.
Training and development
– Hopwood Recruiters has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Hopwood Manufacturing: Seeking to Hire the Best and the Brightest, or Not (A) 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Hopwood Recruiters is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Analytics focus
– Hopwood Recruiters 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 Timothy Ogden 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.
Weaknesses Hopwood Manufacturing: Seeking to Hire the Best and the Brightest, or Not (A) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Hopwood Manufacturing: Seeking to Hire the Best and the Brightest, or Not (A) are -
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Hopwood Manufacturing: Seeking to Hire the Best and the Brightest, or Not (A), in the dynamic environment Hopwood Recruiters has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Hopwood Recruiters has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Lack of clear differentiation of Hopwood Recruiters products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Hopwood Recruiters needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Need for greater diversity
– Hopwood Recruiters 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Hopwood Recruiters 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Hopwood Recruiters, firm in the HBR case study Hopwood Manufacturing: Seeking to Hire the Best and the Brightest, or Not (A) needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Hopwood Recruiters is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Hopwood Manufacturing: Seeking to Hire the Best and the Brightest, or Not (A) can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Hopwood Recruiters 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Hopwood Recruiters has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Hopwood Manufacturing: Seeking to Hire the Best and the Brightest, or Not (A) 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 Hopwood Recruiters 's lucrative customers.
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 Hopwood Recruiters supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Hopwood Manufacturing: Seeking to Hire the Best and the Brightest, or Not (A), it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Hopwood Recruiters vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Hopwood Recruiters 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.
Opportunities Hopwood Manufacturing: Seeking to Hire the Best and the Brightest, or Not (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 Hopwood Manufacturing: Seeking to Hire the Best and the Brightest, or Not (A) are -
Loyalty marketing
– Hopwood Recruiters 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Hopwood Recruiters 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Hopwood Recruiters 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 Hopwood Manufacturing: Seeking to Hire the Best and the Brightest, or Not (A) - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Hopwood Recruiters to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Hopwood Recruiters 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Hopwood Recruiters 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Hopwood Recruiters 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Hopwood Recruiters 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 Hopwood Recruiters to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Developing new processes and practices
– Hopwood Recruiters 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Hopwood Recruiters 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.
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 Hopwood Recruiters 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 Hopwood Recruiters has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Hopwood Recruiters to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Hopwood Manufacturing: Seeking to Hire the Best and the Brightest, or Not (A) case study. Hopwood Recruiters can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Hopwood Recruiters can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Hopwood Recruiters to increase its market reach. Hopwood Recruiters 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 Hopwood Manufacturing: Seeking to Hire the Best and the Brightest, or Not (A) External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Hopwood Manufacturing: Seeking to Hire the Best and the Brightest, or Not (A) are -
Increasing wage structure of Hopwood Recruiters
– 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 Hopwood Recruiters.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Hopwood Manufacturing: Seeking to Hire the Best and the Brightest, or Not (A), Hopwood Recruiters 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 .
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Hopwood Recruiters 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 Hopwood Manufacturing: Seeking to Hire the Best and the Brightest, or Not (A) .
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. Hopwood Recruiters can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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 Hopwood Recruiters.
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. Hopwood Recruiters needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Hopwood Recruiters is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Regulatory challenges
– Hopwood Recruiters needs to prepare for regulatory challenges as consumer protection groups and other pressure groups are vigorously advocating for more regulations on big business - to reduce inequality, to create a level playing field, to product data privacy and consumer privacy, to reduce the influence of big money on democratic institutions, etc. This can lead to significant changes in the Leadership & Managing People industry regulations.
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 Hopwood Recruiters business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Environmental challenges
– Hopwood Recruiters 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. Hopwood Recruiters can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Hopwood Recruiters with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Hopwood Recruiters 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Hopwood Recruiters 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Hopwood Manufacturing: Seeking to Hire the Best and the Brightest, or Not (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 Hopwood Manufacturing: Seeking to Hire the Best and the Brightest, or Not (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 Hopwood Manufacturing: Seeking to Hire the Best and the Brightest, or Not (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 Hopwood Manufacturing: Seeking to Hire the Best and the Brightest, or Not (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 Hopwood Manufacturing: Seeking to Hire the Best and the Brightest, or Not (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 Hopwood Recruiters needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
