Traversing a Career Path: Pat Fili-Krushel (A) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Traversing a Career Path: Pat Fili-Krushel (A)
Pat Fili-Krushel, CEO and president of WebMD and past president of ABC Network, contemplates accepting Richard Parson's offer to become the first executive vice president of administration at AOL Time Warner. Accepting this position would be a move back into mainstream media but also a career shift from line positions to a corporate staff role. The case profiles Fili-Krushel's media experiences, and her use of interpersonal influence and negotiation, leading up to the critical decision point. After consulting with colleagues throughout the media industry, Fili-Krushel's decision rests on her own career aspirations and her expectations about the future of AOL Time Warner.
Authors :: Kathleen L. McGinn, Deborah M. Kolb, Cailin B. Hammer
Swot Analysis of "Traversing a Career Path: Pat Fili-Krushel (A)" written by Kathleen L. McGinn, Deborah M. Kolb, Cailin B. Hammer includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Fili Krushel's facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Traversing a Career Path: Pat Fili-Krushel (A) case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Change management, Gender, Leadership and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Traversing a Career Path: Pat Fili-Krushel (A) casestudy better are - – wage bills are increasing, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, geopolitical disruptions, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings,
technology disruption, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Traversing a Career Path: Pat Fili-Krushel (A)
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Traversing a Career Path: Pat Fili-Krushel (A) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Fili Krushel's, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Fili Krushel's 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 Traversing a Career Path: Pat Fili-Krushel (A) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Traversing a Career Path: Pat Fili-Krushel (A) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Fili Krushel's
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 Fili Krushel's
Strengths Traversing a Career Path: Pat Fili-Krushel (A) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Fili Krushel's in Traversing a Career Path: Pat Fili-Krushel (A) Harvard Business Review case study are -
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Fili Krushel's 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 Traversing a Career Path: Pat Fili-Krushel (A) - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Training and development
– Fili Krushel's has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Traversing a Career Path: Pat Fili-Krushel (A) Harvard Business Review case study by analyzing – employees retention, in-house promotion, loyalty, new venture initiation, lack of conflict, and high level of both employees and customer engagement.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Traversing a Career Path: Pat Fili-Krushel (A) 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Fili Krushel's in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Strong track record of project management
– Fili Krushel's is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Organizational Resilience of Fili Krushel's
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Fili Krushel's does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Fili Krushel's in the sector have low bargaining power. Traversing a Career Path: Pat Fili-Krushel (A) has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Fili Krushel's to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Analytics focus
– Fili Krushel's is putting a lot of focus on utilizing the power of analytics in business decision making. This has put it among the leading players in the industry. The technology infrastructure suggested by Kathleen L. McGinn, Deborah M. Kolb, Cailin B. Hammer can also help it to harness the power of analytics for – marketing optimization, demand forecasting, customer relationship management, inventory management, information sharing across the value chain etc.
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Fili Krushel's digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Fili Krushel's 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
– Traversing a Career Path: Pat Fili-Krushel (A) firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Fili Krushel's to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Fili Krushel's to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Fili Krushel's 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 Fili Krushel's in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Learning organization
- Fili Krushel's 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 Fili Krushel's is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Traversing a Career Path: Pat Fili-Krushel (A) Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Weaknesses Traversing a Career Path: Pat Fili-Krushel (A) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Traversing a Career Path: Pat Fili-Krushel (A) are -
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Fili Krushel's 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Fili Krushel's 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Fili Krushel's 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Fili Krushel's has created an environment where the organization is dominated by functional specialists rather than management generalist. This has resulted into product oriented approach rather than marketing oriented approach or consumers oriented approach.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Traversing a Career Path: Pat Fili-Krushel (A) 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 Fili Krushel's has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Fili Krushel's is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Fili Krushel's needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Fili Krushel's to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Lack of clear differentiation of Fili Krushel's products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Fili Krushel's needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Fili Krushel's 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Traversing a Career Path: Pat Fili-Krushel (A), in the dynamic environment Fili Krushel's has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Fili Krushel's has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
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 Fili Krushel's supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Traversing a Career Path: Pat Fili-Krushel (A), it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Fili Krushel's vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Fili Krushel's 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.
Opportunities Traversing a Career Path: Pat Fili-Krushel (A) | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities highlighted in the Harvard Business Review case study Traversing a Career Path: Pat Fili-Krushel (A) are -
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. Fili Krushel's 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. Fili Krushel's 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Fili Krushel's 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Fili Krushel's to increase its market reach. Fili Krushel's 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 Fili Krushel's 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Fili Krushel's can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Traversing a Career Path: Pat Fili-Krushel (A) 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Fili Krushel's 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, Fili Krushel's is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Traversing a Career Path: Pat Fili-Krushel (A) 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Fili Krushel's 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Fili Krushel's 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Fili Krushel's can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Fili Krushel's operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Fili Krushel's 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 Fili Krushel's to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Fili Krushel's 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Fili Krushel's can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Threats Traversing a Career Path: Pat Fili-Krushel (A) External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Traversing a Career Path: Pat Fili-Krushel (A) are -
Consumer confidence and its impact on Fili Krushel's 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.
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.
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 Fili Krushel's business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Increasing wage structure of Fili Krushel's
– 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 Fili Krushel's.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Fili Krushel's with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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 Fili Krushel's.
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. Fili Krushel's can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Fili Krushel's is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, 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 Fili Krushel's in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Fili Krushel's 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.
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.
Environmental challenges
– Fili Krushel's 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. Fili Krushel's can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Traversing a Career Path: Pat Fili-Krushel (A), Fili Krushel's 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 .
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Traversing a Career Path: Pat Fili-Krushel (A) Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers in the HBR case study Traversing a Career Path: Pat Fili-Krushel (A) needs to zero down on the relative importance of each factor mentioned in the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants.
We can provide the relative importance to each factor by assigning relative weights. Weighted SWOT analysis process is a three stage process –
First stage for doing weighted SWOT analysis of the case study Traversing a Career Path: Pat Fili-Krushel (A) is to rank the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. This will help you to assess the most important strengths and weaknesses of the firm and which one of the strengths and weaknesses mentioned in the initial lists are marginal and can be left out.
Second stage for conducting weighted SWOT analysis of the Harvard case study Traversing a Career Path: Pat Fili-Krushel (A) is to give probabilities to the external strategic factors thus better understanding the opportunities and threats arising out of macro environment changes and developments.
Third stage of constructing weighted SWOT analysis of Traversing a Career Path: Pat Fili-Krushel (A) is to provide strategic recommendations includes – joining likelihood of external strategic factors such as opportunities and threats to the internal strategic factors – strengths and weaknesses. You should start with external factors as they will provide the direction of the overall industry. Secondly by joining probabilities with internal strategic factors can help the company not only strategic fit but also the most probably strategic trade-off that Fili Krushel's needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
