Teckentrup: A Door to Managing Difference SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Teckentrup: A Door to Managing Difference
For Kai Teckentrup, the owner and co-CEO of the German "Mittelstand" door manufacturer Teckentrup, balancing competitive pressures, demographic realities and values were at the heart of the diversity program that he had started and championed at the company. Beyond this, attracting skilled workers to Germany was a national imperative; as the native population aged and its numbers in the workforce shrank, it would be critical to find new workers to fund and maintain the retirement and social service programs provided by the government. The company had made significant progress, and Kai was a recognized leader in German business for his attention to and success in managing diversity, but he knew there was much more to do.
Tags :: Diversity, Economy, Gender, Human resource management, Managing people, Social responsibility, SWOT Analysis, SWOT Matrix, TOWS, Weighted SWOT Analysis
Swot Analysis of "Teckentrup: A Door to Managing Difference" written by Clayton Rose, Jerome Lenhardt, Daniela Beyersdorfer includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Teckentrup Kai facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Teckentrup: A Door to Managing Difference case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Diversity, Economy, Gender, Human resource management, Managing people, Social responsibility and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Teckentrup: A Door to Managing Difference casestudy better are - – customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing commodity prices, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing household debt because of falling income levels,
technology disruption, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Teckentrup: A Door to Managing Difference
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Teckentrup: A Door to Managing Difference case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Teckentrup Kai, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Teckentrup Kai 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 Teckentrup: A Door to Managing Difference can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Teckentrup: A Door to Managing Difference case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Teckentrup Kai
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 Teckentrup Kai
Strengths Teckentrup: A Door to Managing Difference | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Teckentrup Kai in Teckentrup: A Door to Managing Difference Harvard Business Review case study are -
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Teckentrup Kai 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 Teckentrup: A Door to Managing Difference - 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
– Teckentrup Kai is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Teckentrup: A Door to Managing Difference Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Teckentrup Kai 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 Teckentrup Kai in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
High brand equity
– Teckentrup Kai has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Teckentrup Kai to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Training and development
– Teckentrup Kai has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Teckentrup: A Door to Managing Difference 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Teckentrup Kai in the sector have low bargaining power. Teckentrup: A Door to Managing Difference has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Teckentrup Kai to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Diverse revenue streams
– Teckentrup Kai is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Teckentrup: A Door to Managing Difference 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Teckentrup Kai 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.
Organizational Resilience of Teckentrup Kai
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Teckentrup Kai does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Teckentrup Kai has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Teckentrup Kai 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Teckentrup Kai is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Teckentrup Kai digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Teckentrup Kai 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.
Weaknesses Teckentrup: A Door to Managing Difference | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Teckentrup: A Door to Managing Difference are -
Products dominated business model
– Even though Teckentrup Kai has some of the most successful products in the industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. firm in the HBR case study - Teckentrup: A Door to Managing Difference should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Teckentrup: A Door to Managing Difference, it seems that the employees of Teckentrup Kai 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 Teckentrup: A Door to Managing Difference 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 Teckentrup Kai 's lucrative customers.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Teckentrup: A Door to Managing Difference 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 Teckentrup Kai has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Teckentrup: A Door to Managing Difference, 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Teckentrup Kai 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Teckentrup Kai is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Teckentrup: A Door to Managing Difference 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 Teckentrup Kai 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Teckentrup Kai, firm in the HBR case study Teckentrup: A Door to Managing Difference needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Teckentrup: A Door to Managing Difference 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 Teckentrup: A Door to Managing Difference can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Teckentrup Kai is planning to shift buying processes online.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Teckentrup: A Door to Managing Difference, in the dynamic environment Teckentrup Kai has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Teckentrup Kai has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Opportunities Teckentrup: A Door to Managing Difference | 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 Teckentrup: A Door to Managing Difference are -
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Teckentrup Kai 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 Teckentrup Kai to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Teckentrup Kai 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Teckentrup Kai can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Teckentrup: A Door to Managing Difference 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.
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 Teckentrup Kai 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Teckentrup Kai 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Leadership & Managing People industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Teckentrup Kai can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Teckentrup Kai can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Teckentrup Kai operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Teckentrup Kai has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Teckentrup Kai to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Teckentrup: A Door to Managing Difference case study. Teckentrup Kai can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Teckentrup Kai to increase its market reach. Teckentrup Kai 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Teckentrup Kai 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Teckentrup Kai 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Teckentrup Kai is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Teckentrup: A Door to Managing Difference 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Leadership & Managing People industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Teckentrup Kai can take advantage of these changes in consumer behavior to build a far more efficient business model. For example consumer regular ordering of products can reduce both last mile delivery costs and market penetration costs. Teckentrup Kai can further use this consumer data to build better customer loyalty, provide better products and service collection, and improve the value proposition in inflationary times.
Threats Teckentrup: A Door to Managing Difference External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Teckentrup: A Door to Managing Difference are -
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. Teckentrup Kai needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Teckentrup Kai 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 Teckentrup: A Door to Managing Difference .
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.
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. Teckentrup Kai 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Teckentrup Kai 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.
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 Teckentrup Kai.
Environmental challenges
– Teckentrup Kai 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. Teckentrup Kai can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
Increasing wage structure of Teckentrup Kai
– 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 Teckentrup Kai.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Teckentrup Kai 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Teckentrup Kai with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Regulatory challenges
– Teckentrup Kai 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 Teckentrup Kai business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Teckentrup Kai 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Teckentrup: A Door to Managing Difference 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 Teckentrup: A Door to Managing Difference 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 Teckentrup: A Door to Managing Difference 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 Teckentrup: A Door to Managing Difference 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 Teckentrup: A Door to Managing Difference 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 Teckentrup Kai needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
