Scandia Steel Ab: Kaj Johansson SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Scandia Steel Ab: Kaj Johansson
This is a Darden case study.This case provides the background for one participant in a contract negotiation regarding price, duration, and exclusivity.
Swot Analysis of "Scandia Steel Ab: Kaj Johansson" written by Sherwood C. Frey includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Johansson Kaj facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Scandia Steel Ab: Kaj Johansson case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Negotiations and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Scandia Steel Ab: Kaj Johansson casestudy better are - – customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, technology disruption, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing transportation and logistics costs, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies,
increasing energy prices, increasing commodity prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Scandia Steel Ab: Kaj Johansson
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Scandia Steel Ab: Kaj Johansson case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Johansson Kaj, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Johansson Kaj 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 Scandia Steel Ab: Kaj Johansson can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Scandia Steel Ab: Kaj Johansson case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Johansson Kaj
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 Johansson Kaj
Strengths Scandia Steel Ab: Kaj Johansson | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Johansson Kaj in Scandia Steel Ab: Kaj Johansson Harvard Business Review case study are -
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Johansson Kaj in the sector have low bargaining power. Scandia Steel Ab: Kaj Johansson has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Johansson Kaj to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Training and development
– Johansson Kaj has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Scandia Steel Ab: Kaj Johansson 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Johansson Kaj is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Scandia Steel Ab: Kaj Johansson 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 brand equity
– Johansson Kaj has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Johansson Kaj to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Johansson Kaj 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 Scandia Steel Ab: Kaj Johansson HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Scandia Steel Ab: Kaj Johansson 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
– Johansson Kaj is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Scandia Steel Ab: Kaj Johansson Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Organizational Resilience of Johansson Kaj
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Johansson Kaj does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Johansson Kaj 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 Scandia Steel Ab: Kaj Johansson - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Johansson Kaj digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Johansson Kaj 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– Scandia Steel Ab: Kaj Johansson firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Johansson Kaj to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Johansson Kaj to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Strong track record of project management
– Johansson Kaj is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Weaknesses Scandia Steel Ab: Kaj Johansson | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Scandia Steel Ab: Kaj Johansson are -
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Johansson Kaj 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Scandia Steel Ab: Kaj Johansson, 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Johansson Kaj 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. Johansson Kaj 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Johansson Kaj 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Johansson Kaj is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Johansson Kaj needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Johansson Kaj to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
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 Johansson Kaj supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Scandia Steel Ab: Kaj Johansson, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Johansson Kaj vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Johansson Kaj 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Sherwood C. Frey suggests that, Johansson Kaj 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 harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Johansson Kaj is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Scandia Steel Ab: Kaj Johansson can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Lack of clear differentiation of Johansson Kaj products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Johansson Kaj needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Johansson Kaj 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 Scandia Steel Ab: Kaj Johansson | 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 Scandia Steel Ab: Kaj Johansson are -
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Johansson Kaj 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 Scandia Steel Ab: Kaj Johansson - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Johansson Kaj to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Johansson Kaj 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Johansson Kaj 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, Johansson Kaj is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Scandia Steel Ab: Kaj Johansson 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Johansson Kaj 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 Johansson Kaj to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Manufacturing automation
– Johansson Kaj can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Leadership & Managing People segment. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.
Buying journey improvements
– Johansson Kaj can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Scandia Steel Ab: Kaj Johansson 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 Johansson Kaj 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Johansson Kaj 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Johansson Kaj 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, Scandia Steel Ab: Kaj Johansson, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
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. Johansson Kaj can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Developing new processes and practices
– Johansson Kaj 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Johansson Kaj has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Johansson Kaj to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Scandia Steel Ab: Kaj Johansson case study. Johansson Kaj can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Threats Scandia Steel Ab: Kaj Johansson External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Scandia Steel Ab: Kaj Johansson are -
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Johansson Kaj 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 Scandia Steel Ab: Kaj Johansson .
Increasing wage structure of Johansson Kaj
– 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 Johansson Kaj.
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. Johansson Kaj needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Scandia Steel Ab: Kaj Johansson, Johansson Kaj 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 .
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. Johansson Kaj 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.
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.
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. Johansson Kaj can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Johansson Kaj 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.
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 Johansson Kaj in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Aging population
– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Johansson Kaj has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Johansson Kaj 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Johansson Kaj 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Johansson Kaj with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Scandia Steel Ab: Kaj Johansson 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 Scandia Steel Ab: Kaj Johansson 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 Scandia Steel Ab: Kaj Johansson 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 Scandia Steel Ab: Kaj Johansson 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 Scandia Steel Ab: Kaj Johansson 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 Johansson Kaj needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
