Managing Teams from a Distance: Making the Most of Virtual Meetings SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Communication
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Managing Teams from a Distance: Making the Most of Virtual Meetings
This technical note is a meta-analysis of some of the issues involving the management of virtual teams. Managing people who are geographically dispersed across time, space, and organizational boundaries requires team leaders who are able to communicate effectively and navigate interpersonal relationships. This requires an understanding of team dynamics, how to create a virtual team culture, and what works best when managing from a distance. The successful virtual tam leader knows what it takes to create and sustain high-performing teams, whether people are working in separate, remote locations or in the same corporate workplace.
Swot Analysis of "Managing Teams from a Distance: Making the Most of Virtual Meetings" written by June West includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Virtual Teams facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Managing Teams from a Distance: Making the Most of Virtual Meetings case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Leading teams and Communication.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Managing Teams from a Distance: Making the Most of Virtual Meetings casestudy better are - – central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, wage bills are increasing, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , there is backlash against globalization, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies,
increasing energy prices, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Managing Teams from a Distance: Making the Most of Virtual Meetings
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Managing Teams from a Distance: Making the Most of Virtual Meetings case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Virtual Teams, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Virtual Teams 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 Managing Teams from a Distance: Making the Most of Virtual Meetings can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Managing Teams from a Distance: Making the Most of Virtual Meetings case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Virtual Teams
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Communication field.
4. Making a Communication topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Virtual Teams
Strengths Managing Teams from a Distance: Making the Most of Virtual Meetings | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Virtual Teams in Managing Teams from a Distance: Making the Most of Virtual Meetings Harvard Business Review case study are -
Successful track record of launching new products
– Virtual Teams has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Virtual Teams 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Virtual Teams 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 recruit top talent
– Virtual Teams is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Managing Teams from a Distance: Making the Most of Virtual Meetings are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Diverse revenue streams
– Virtual Teams is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Managing Teams from a Distance: Making the Most of Virtual Meetings 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Virtual Teams is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Managing Teams from a Distance: Making the Most of Virtual Meetings Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Digital Transformation in Communication segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Virtual Teams digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Virtual Teams 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Virtual Teams in the sector have low bargaining power. Managing Teams from a Distance: Making the Most of Virtual Meetings has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Virtual Teams to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Virtual Teams 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 Managing Teams from a Distance: Making the Most of Virtual Meetings 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 Managing Teams from a Distance: Making the Most of Virtual Meetings 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.
Learning organization
- Virtual Teams 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 Virtual Teams is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Managing Teams from a Distance: Making the Most of Virtual Meetings Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Virtual Teams 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.
High brand equity
– Virtual Teams has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Virtual Teams to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Weaknesses Managing Teams from a Distance: Making the Most of Virtual Meetings | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Managing Teams from a Distance: Making the Most of Virtual Meetings are -
Lack of clear differentiation of Virtual Teams products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Virtual Teams needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, June West suggests that, Virtual Teams 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Virtual Teams 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Virtual Teams 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. Virtual Teams 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Virtual Teams 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Managing Teams from a Distance: Making the Most of Virtual Meetings 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 Managing Teams from a Distance: Making the Most of Virtual Meetings can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Virtual Teams is planning to shift buying processes online.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Virtual Teams 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 - Managing Teams from a Distance: Making the Most of Virtual Meetings should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Managing Teams from a Distance: Making the Most of Virtual Meetings 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 Virtual Teams 's lucrative customers.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Managing Teams from a Distance: Making the Most of Virtual Meetings, in the dynamic environment Virtual Teams has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Virtual Teams has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Virtual Teams is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Communication segment. Virtual Teams needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Virtual Teams to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Virtual Teams 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 Managing Teams from a Distance: Making the Most of Virtual Meetings | 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 Managing Teams from a Distance: Making the Most of Virtual Meetings are -
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Virtual Teams has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Virtual Teams to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Managing Teams from a Distance: Making the Most of Virtual Meetings case study. Virtual Teams can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Virtual Teams 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 Virtual Teams to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Virtual Teams to increase its market reach. Virtual Teams 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 Virtual Teams in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Communication segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
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 Virtual Teams in the consumer business. Now Virtual Teams can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Virtual Teams 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 Managing Teams from a Distance: Making the Most of Virtual Meetings - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Virtual Teams to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Manufacturing automation
– Virtual Teams can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Communication 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Virtual Teams is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Managing Teams from a Distance: Making the Most of Virtual Meetings 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.
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 Virtual Teams 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Virtual Teams can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Managing Teams from a Distance: Making the Most of Virtual Meetings 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Virtual Teams 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Communication industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Virtual Teams 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. Virtual Teams 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
– Virtual Teams can develop new processes and procedures in Communication 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 Managing Teams from a Distance: Making the Most of Virtual Meetings External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Managing Teams from a Distance: Making the Most of Virtual Meetings are -
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 Virtual Teams in the Communication 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Virtual Teams 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 Managing Teams from a Distance: Making the Most of Virtual Meetings .
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. Virtual Teams needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Communication industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Virtual Teams is facing in Communication sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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 Virtual Teams.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Virtual Teams 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.
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 Virtual Teams business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Regulatory challenges
– Virtual Teams 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 Communication industry regulations.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Virtual Teams 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.
Environmental challenges
– Virtual Teams 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. Virtual Teams can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Communication industry.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Virtual Teams 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Managing Teams from a Distance: Making the Most of Virtual Meetings, Virtual Teams may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Communication .
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Managing Teams from a Distance: Making the Most of Virtual Meetings 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 Managing Teams from a Distance: Making the Most of Virtual Meetings 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 Managing Teams from a Distance: Making the Most of Virtual Meetings 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 Managing Teams from a Distance: Making the Most of Virtual Meetings 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 Managing Teams from a Distance: Making the Most of Virtual Meetings 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 Virtual Teams needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.