Reflexite Corporation: An Employee-Owned Company SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Reflexite Corporation: An Employee-Owned Company
The Reflexite Corporation made plastic films and other products engineered to focus reflected light. The company had recently shifted their strategy to include new applications in broader markets. In March, 2007, the organization structure and compensation systems that had successfully guided the company to this time were under fire. Michael Foley, Chief Executive Officer of the Reflexite Corporation had to decide whether to proceed with a change in company's employee stock ownership plan. The management and employees had held two rounds of "town meetings" to discuss changes in the allocation formula that determined how much stock employees would receive. Their recommendation was to change to allocate stock based on corporate-wide performance. Previously, the company based allocations on business-unit performance, causing wide variance in the amount of stock employees received. While the non-binding "town meeting" vote favored the change by a wide margin, the Chairman of the Board of Directors was adamant in his opposition. Foley, still in his first year as CEO wondered; the employees had spoken, but when the man who had built the company strongly objected, shouldn't one listen?
Authors :: David W. Rosenthal
Topics :: Leadership & Managing People
Tags :: Entrepreneurship, Human resource management, Motivating people, Organizational culture, Social responsibility, SWOT Analysis, SWOT Matrix, TOWS, Weighted SWOT Analysis
Swot Analysis of "Reflexite Corporation: An Employee-Owned Company" written by David W. Rosenthal includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Reflexite Foley facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Reflexite Corporation: An Employee-Owned Company case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Entrepreneurship, Human resource management, Motivating people, Organizational culture, Social responsibility and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Reflexite Corporation: An Employee-Owned Company casestudy better are - – digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, there is backlash against globalization, technology disruption, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing transportation and logistics costs, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies,
central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing energy prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Reflexite Corporation: An Employee-Owned Company
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Reflexite Corporation: An Employee-Owned Company case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Reflexite Foley, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Reflexite Foley 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 Reflexite Corporation: An Employee-Owned Company can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Reflexite Corporation: An Employee-Owned Company case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Reflexite Foley
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 Reflexite Foley
Strengths Reflexite Corporation: An Employee-Owned Company | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Reflexite Foley in Reflexite Corporation: An Employee-Owned Company Harvard Business Review case study are -
Strong track record of project management
– Reflexite Foley is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– Reflexite Corporation: An Employee-Owned Company firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Reflexite Foley to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Reflexite Foley to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Reflexite Foley in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Reflexite Corporation: An Employee-Owned Company Harvard Business Review case study comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the industry, building diversified operations across different geographies so that disruption in one part of the world doesn’t impact the overall performance of the firm, and integrating the various business operations and processes through its digital transformation drive.
Innovation driven organization
– Reflexite Foley is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Reflexite Corporation: An Employee-Owned Company Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Reflexite Foley 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Reflexite Foley 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 Reflexite Corporation: An Employee-Owned Company - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Reflexite Foley 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.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Reflexite Foley 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 Reflexite Foley in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
High brand equity
– Reflexite Foley has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Reflexite Foley to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Organizational Resilience of Reflexite Foley
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Reflexite Foley does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Reflexite Foley digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Reflexite Foley 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 Reflexite Corporation: An Employee-Owned Company | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Reflexite Corporation: An Employee-Owned Company are -
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Reflexite Foley 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Reflexite Corporation: An Employee-Owned Company, in the dynamic environment Reflexite Foley has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Reflexite Foley has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Reflexite Corporation: An Employee-Owned Company 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 Reflexite Corporation: An Employee-Owned Company can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Reflexite Foley is planning to shift buying processes online.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Reflexite Foley 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Reflexite Foley 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 - Reflexite Corporation: An Employee-Owned Company should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Lack of clear differentiation of Reflexite Foley products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Reflexite Foley needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Reflexite Corporation: An Employee-Owned Company, it seems that the employees of Reflexite Foley 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Reflexite Corporation: An Employee-Owned Company, 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Reflexite Foley 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Reflexite Foley, firm in the HBR case study Reflexite Corporation: An Employee-Owned Company needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Reflexite Foley 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.
Opportunities Reflexite Corporation: An Employee-Owned Company | 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 Reflexite Corporation: An Employee-Owned Company are -
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Reflexite Foley 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 Reflexite Foley to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Reflexite Foley is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Reflexite Corporation: An Employee-Owned Company 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.
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. Reflexite Foley can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Developing new processes and practices
– Reflexite Foley 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Reflexite Foley 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Reflexite Foley 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Reflexite Foley to increase its market reach. Reflexite Foley 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, Reflexite Foley 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, Reflexite Corporation: An Employee-Owned Company, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Reflexite Foley 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.
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 Reflexite Foley 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, Reflexite Foley can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Reflexite Foley operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Reflexite Foley 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Reflexite Foley can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Threats Reflexite Corporation: An Employee-Owned Company External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Reflexite Corporation: An Employee-Owned Company are -
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Reflexite Foley 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.
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 Reflexite Foley business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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. Reflexite Foley can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Increasing wage structure of Reflexite Foley
– 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 Reflexite Foley.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Reflexite Foley is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Reflexite Foley 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.
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. Reflexite Foley 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Reflexite Foley 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 Reflexite Corporation: An Employee-Owned Company .
Regulatory challenges
– Reflexite Foley 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.
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 Reflexite Foley in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Environmental challenges
– Reflexite Foley 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. Reflexite Foley can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Reflexite Foley 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 Reflexite Foley 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 Reflexite Corporation: An Employee-Owned Company 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 Reflexite Corporation: An Employee-Owned Company 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 Reflexite Corporation: An Employee-Owned Company 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 Reflexite Corporation: An Employee-Owned Company 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 Reflexite Corporation: An Employee-Owned Company 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 Reflexite Foley needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
