Case Study Description of Negotiating Corporate Change: Confidential Information, Jack Morris, VP, Food Division
This case provides the confidential role information necessary for one person in a four-person negotiation simulation about a major corporate change. Specifically, it describes the role of Jack Morris as he attempts to negotiate a new uniform corporate information system with three peers.
Swot Analysis of "Negotiating Corporate Change: Confidential Information, Jack Morris, VP, Food Division" written by James K. Sebenius includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Morris Jack facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Negotiating Corporate Change: Confidential Information, Jack Morris, VP, Food Division case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Change management, Influence, IT, Negotiations and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Negotiating Corporate Change: Confidential Information, Jack Morris, VP, Food Division casestudy better are - – banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, technology disruption, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%,
there is backlash against globalization, geopolitical disruptions, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Negotiating Corporate Change: Confidential Information, Jack Morris, VP, Food Division
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Negotiating Corporate Change: Confidential Information, Jack Morris, VP, Food Division case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Morris Jack, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Morris Jack 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 Negotiating Corporate Change: Confidential Information, Jack Morris, VP, Food Division can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Negotiating Corporate Change: Confidential Information, Jack Morris, VP, Food Division case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Morris Jack
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 Morris Jack
Strengths Negotiating Corporate Change: Confidential Information, Jack Morris, VP, Food Division | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Morris Jack in Negotiating Corporate Change: Confidential Information, Jack Morris, VP, Food Division Harvard Business Review case study are -
Successful track record of launching new products
– Morris Jack has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Morris Jack 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.
Organizational Resilience of Morris Jack
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Morris Jack does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Morris Jack 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 Morris Jack in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Morris Jack 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.
Training and development
– Morris Jack has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Negotiating Corporate Change: Confidential Information, Jack Morris, VP, Food Division 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.
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Morris Jack digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Morris Jack 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Morris Jack in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Morris Jack in the sector have low bargaining power. Negotiating Corporate Change: Confidential Information, Jack Morris, VP, Food Division has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Morris Jack to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Learning organization
- Morris Jack 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 Morris Jack is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Negotiating Corporate Change: Confidential Information, Jack Morris, VP, Food Division Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
High brand equity
– Morris Jack has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Morris Jack to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Morris Jack has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive segment. Secondly the value chain collaborators of the firm in Negotiating Corporate Change: Confidential Information, Jack Morris, VP, Food Division HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Morris Jack 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.
Weaknesses Negotiating Corporate Change: Confidential Information, Jack Morris, VP, Food Division | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Negotiating Corporate Change: Confidential Information, Jack Morris, VP, Food Division are -
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Morris Jack is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Negotiating Corporate Change: Confidential Information, Jack Morris, VP, Food Division can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Negotiating Corporate Change: Confidential Information, Jack Morris, VP, Food Division, 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 bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, James K. Sebenius suggests that, Morris Jack is facing high bargaining power of the channel partners. So far it has not able to streamline the operations to reduce the bargaining power of the value chain partners in the industry.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Negotiating Corporate Change: Confidential Information, Jack Morris, VP, Food Division HBR case study mentions - Morris Jack takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the industry in last five years.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Negotiating Corporate Change: Confidential Information, Jack Morris, VP, Food Division, in the dynamic environment Morris Jack has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Morris Jack has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Morris Jack 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Morris Jack products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Morris Jack needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Morris Jack 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. Morris Jack 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Morris Jack 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Negotiating Corporate Change: Confidential Information, Jack Morris, VP, Food Division, it seems that the employees of Morris Jack 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Morris Jack 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.
Opportunities Negotiating Corporate Change: Confidential Information, Jack Morris, VP, Food Division | 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 Negotiating Corporate Change: Confidential Information, Jack Morris, VP, Food Division are -
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Morris Jack 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, Negotiating Corporate Change: Confidential Information, Jack Morris, VP, Food Division, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Morris Jack can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Morris Jack 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.
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. Morris Jack can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Manufacturing automation
– Morris Jack 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.
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 Morris Jack 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Morris Jack 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Morris Jack can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Morris Jack operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Developing new processes and practices
– Morris Jack 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, Morris Jack is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Negotiating Corporate Change: Confidential Information, Jack Morris, VP, Food Division 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.
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. Morris Jack can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Morris Jack 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 Negotiating Corporate Change: Confidential Information, Jack Morris, VP, Food Division - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Morris Jack to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Morris Jack has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Morris Jack to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Negotiating Corporate Change: Confidential Information, Jack Morris, VP, Food Division case study. Morris Jack can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Threats Negotiating Corporate Change: Confidential Information, Jack Morris, VP, Food Division External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Negotiating Corporate Change: Confidential Information, Jack Morris, VP, Food Division are -
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 Morris Jack.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Morris Jack has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Morris Jack 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Negotiating Corporate Change: Confidential Information, Jack Morris, VP, Food Division, Morris Jack 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 wage structure of Morris Jack
– 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 Morris Jack.
Environmental challenges
– Morris Jack 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. Morris Jack can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Morris Jack is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Morris Jack with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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. Morris Jack needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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 Morris Jack business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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 Morris Jack in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Morris Jack 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 Negotiating Corporate Change: Confidential Information, Jack Morris, VP, Food Division .
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Morris Jack 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.
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 Negotiating Corporate Change: Confidential Information, Jack Morris, VP, Food Division 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 Negotiating Corporate Change: Confidential Information, Jack Morris, VP, Food Division 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 Negotiating Corporate Change: Confidential Information, Jack Morris, VP, Food Division 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 Negotiating Corporate Change: Confidential Information, Jack Morris, VP, Food Division 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 Negotiating Corporate Change: Confidential Information, Jack Morris, VP, Food Division 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 Morris Jack needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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