Case Study Description of Martha Goldberg Aronson: Challenges at Mid-Career (B)
Martha Goldberg Aronson of Medtronic is trying to decide whether to accept the offer from Medtronic CEO Bill Hawkins to become senior vice president and chief talent officer. Aronson returned from an executive role in Europe just 18 months before as vice president, investor relations, but sees herself as a fine executive. Thus, she is undecided about taking a senior staff position.
Swot Analysis of "Martha Goldberg Aronson: Challenges at Mid-Career (B)" written by William W. George includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Aronson Goldberg facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Martha Goldberg Aronson: Challenges at Mid-Career (B) case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Leadership, Organizational structure and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Martha Goldberg Aronson: Challenges at Mid-Career (B) casestudy better are - – challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing energy prices, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, wage bills are increasing, increasing commodity prices, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic ,
geopolitical disruptions, increasing transportation and logistics costs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Martha Goldberg Aronson: Challenges at Mid-Career (B)
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Martha Goldberg Aronson: Challenges at Mid-Career (B) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Aronson Goldberg, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Aronson Goldberg 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 Martha Goldberg Aronson: Challenges at Mid-Career (B) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Martha Goldberg Aronson: Challenges at Mid-Career (B) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Aronson Goldberg
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 Aronson Goldberg
Strengths Martha Goldberg Aronson: Challenges at Mid-Career (B) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Aronson Goldberg in Martha Goldberg Aronson: Challenges at Mid-Career (B) Harvard Business Review case study are -
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Aronson Goldberg 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 Martha Goldberg Aronson: Challenges at Mid-Career (B) - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Aronson Goldberg 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Aronson Goldberg 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 Martha Goldberg Aronson: Challenges at Mid-Career (B) HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Aronson Goldberg in the sector have low bargaining power. Martha Goldberg Aronson: Challenges at Mid-Career (B) has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Aronson Goldberg to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Aronson Goldberg has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Aronson Goldberg 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.
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Aronson Goldberg digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Aronson Goldberg 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 Aronson Goldberg in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Aronson Goldberg is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Martha Goldberg Aronson: Challenges at Mid-Career (B) are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Training and development
– Aronson Goldberg has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Martha Goldberg Aronson: Challenges at Mid-Career (B) 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Aronson Goldberg 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.
High brand equity
– Aronson Goldberg has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Aronson Goldberg to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– Martha Goldberg Aronson: Challenges at Mid-Career (B) firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Aronson Goldberg to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Aronson Goldberg to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Weaknesses Martha Goldberg Aronson: Challenges at Mid-Career (B) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Martha Goldberg Aronson: Challenges at Mid-Career (B) are -
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Aronson Goldberg, firm in the HBR case study Martha Goldberg Aronson: Challenges at Mid-Career (B) needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Aronson Goldberg 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. Aronson Goldberg 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
Aronson Goldberg 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Martha Goldberg Aronson: Challenges at Mid-Career (B) HBR case study mentions - Aronson Goldberg 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.
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 Aronson Goldberg supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Martha Goldberg Aronson: Challenges at Mid-Career (B), it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Aronson Goldberg vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Need for greater diversity
– Aronson Goldberg 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Aronson Goldberg 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Aronson Goldberg 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 - Martha Goldberg Aronson: Challenges at Mid-Career (B) should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Aronson Goldberg 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Martha Goldberg Aronson: Challenges at Mid-Career (B) has high operating costs in the. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Aronson Goldberg 's lucrative customers.
Lack of clear differentiation of Aronson Goldberg products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Aronson Goldberg needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Opportunities Martha Goldberg Aronson: Challenges at Mid-Career (B) | 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 Martha Goldberg Aronson: Challenges at Mid-Career (B) are -
Leveraging digital technologies
– Aronson Goldberg 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Aronson Goldberg is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Martha Goldberg Aronson: Challenges at Mid-Career (B) 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Aronson Goldberg 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Aronson Goldberg 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Aronson Goldberg 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Aronson Goldberg can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Aronson Goldberg 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 Aronson Goldberg 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 Aronson Goldberg to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Aronson Goldberg in the consumer business. Now Aronson Goldberg can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Aronson Goldberg has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Aronson Goldberg to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Martha Goldberg Aronson: Challenges at Mid-Career (B) case study. Aronson Goldberg can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Buying journey improvements
– Aronson Goldberg can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Martha Goldberg Aronson: Challenges at Mid-Career (B) 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.
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. Aronson Goldberg 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. Aronson Goldberg 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Aronson Goldberg 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Aronson Goldberg 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.
Threats Martha Goldberg Aronson: Challenges at Mid-Career (B) External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Martha Goldberg Aronson: Challenges at Mid-Career (B) are -
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. Aronson Goldberg can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Environmental challenges
– Aronson Goldberg 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. Aronson Goldberg can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
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. Aronson Goldberg needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Aronson Goldberg 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
– Aronson Goldberg 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.
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 Aronson Goldberg business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Aronson Goldberg 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Aronson Goldberg with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Aronson Goldberg 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.
Increasing wage structure of Aronson Goldberg
– 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 Aronson Goldberg.
Regulatory challenges
– Aronson Goldberg 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Martha Goldberg Aronson: Challenges at Mid-Career (B) 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 Martha Goldberg Aronson: Challenges at Mid-Career (B) 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 Martha Goldberg Aronson: Challenges at Mid-Career (B) 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 Martha Goldberg Aronson: Challenges at Mid-Career (B) 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 Martha Goldberg Aronson: Challenges at Mid-Career (B) 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 Aronson Goldberg needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.