Deloitte & Touche (A): A Hole in the Pipeline SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Deloitte & Touche (A): A Hole in the Pipeline
Deloitte & Touche was losing talented women, and CEO Mike Cook wanted to stop the loss, especially as the accounting and consulting fields became more competitive. The firm commissioned an analysis of the situation; now it had to consider the results and develop a plan change.
Swot Analysis of "Deloitte & Touche (A): A Hole in the Pipeline" written by Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Jane Roessner includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Touche Deloitte facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Deloitte & Touche (A): A Hole in the Pipeline case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Boards, Change management, Collaboration, Financial management, Gender, Human resource management, Intellectual property, Organizational culture, Professional transitions, Strategic planning and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Deloitte & Touche (A): A Hole in the Pipeline casestudy better are - – central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing energy prices, wage bills are increasing, increasing transportation and logistics costs, geopolitical disruptions, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs,
supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , there is increasing trade war between United States & China, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Deloitte & Touche (A): A Hole in the Pipeline
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Deloitte & Touche (A): A Hole in the Pipeline case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Touche Deloitte, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Touche Deloitte 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 Deloitte & Touche (A): A Hole in the Pipeline can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Deloitte & Touche (A): A Hole in the Pipeline case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Touche Deloitte
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 Touche Deloitte
Strengths Deloitte & Touche (A): A Hole in the Pipeline | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Touche Deloitte in Deloitte & Touche (A): A Hole in the Pipeline Harvard Business Review case study are -
Organizational Resilience of Touche Deloitte
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Touche Deloitte 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 Touche Deloitte in the sector have low bargaining power. Deloitte & Touche (A): A Hole in the Pipeline has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Touche Deloitte to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Strong track record of project management
– Touche Deloitte is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Innovation driven organization
– Touche Deloitte is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Deloitte & Touche (A): A Hole in the Pipeline Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Deloitte & Touche (A): A Hole in the Pipeline 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Touche Deloitte 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Touche Deloitte 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 Deloitte & Touche (A): A Hole in the Pipeline HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Touche Deloitte has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Touche Deloitte 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Touche Deloitte in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Touche Deloitte 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.
Learning organization
- Touche Deloitte 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 Touche Deloitte is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Deloitte & Touche (A): A Hole in the Pipeline Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Touche Deloitte digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Touche Deloitte has successfully integrated the four key components of digital transformation – digital integration in processes, digital integration in marketing and customer relationship management, digital integration into the value chain, and using technology to explore new products and market opportunities.
Weaknesses Deloitte & Touche (A): A Hole in the Pipeline | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Deloitte & Touche (A): A Hole in the Pipeline are -
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Touche Deloitte 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. Touche Deloitte 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Deloitte & Touche (A): A Hole in the Pipeline, is just above the industry average. Touche Deloitte needs to redesign the compensation structure and incentives to increase the revenue per employees. Some of the steps that it can take are – hiring more specialists on project basis, etc.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Touche Deloitte 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Deloitte & Touche (A): A Hole in the Pipeline, it seems that the employees of Touche Deloitte don’t have comprehensive understanding of the firm’s strategy. This is reflected in number of promotional campaigns over the last few years that had mixed messaging and competing priorities. Some of the strategic activities and services promoted in the promotional campaigns were not consistent with the organization’s strategy.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Deloitte & Touche (A): A Hole in the Pipeline 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 Deloitte & Touche (A): A Hole in the Pipeline can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Touche Deloitte is planning to shift buying processes online.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Touche Deloitte 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Touche Deloitte has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Touche Deloitte, firm in the HBR case study Deloitte & Touche (A): A Hole in the Pipeline needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Deloitte & Touche (A): A Hole in the Pipeline, in the dynamic environment Touche Deloitte has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Touche Deloitte has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Deloitte & Touche (A): A Hole in the Pipeline 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 Touche Deloitte has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Lack of clear differentiation of Touche Deloitte products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Touche Deloitte needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Opportunities Deloitte & Touche (A): A Hole in the Pipeline | 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 Deloitte & Touche (A): A Hole in the Pipeline are -
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Touche Deloitte 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, Deloitte & Touche (A): A Hole in the Pipeline, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Touche Deloitte can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Touche Deloitte operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Touche Deloitte 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Touche Deloitte 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 Deloitte & Touche (A): A Hole in the Pipeline - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Touche Deloitte to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Loyalty marketing
– Touche Deloitte 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Leadership & Managing People industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Touche Deloitte can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Buying journey improvements
– Touche Deloitte can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Deloitte & Touche (A): A Hole in the Pipeline 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.
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. Touche Deloitte can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Touche Deloitte 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Touche Deloitte 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.
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 Touche Deloitte 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Touche Deloitte 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
– Touche Deloitte 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 Deloitte & Touche (A): A Hole in the Pipeline External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Deloitte & Touche (A): A Hole in the Pipeline are -
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Deloitte & Touche (A): A Hole in the Pipeline, Touche Deloitte 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 .
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Touche Deloitte with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Environmental challenges
– Touche Deloitte 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. Touche Deloitte can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
Regulatory challenges
– Touche Deloitte 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Touche Deloitte 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Touche Deloitte 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Touche Deloitte 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 international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Touche Deloitte 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 Deloitte & Touche (A): A Hole in the Pipeline .
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 Touche Deloitte in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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.
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 Touche Deloitte.
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 Touche Deloitte business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Touche Deloitte has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Touche Deloitte 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Deloitte & Touche (A): A Hole in the Pipeline 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 Deloitte & Touche (A): A Hole in the Pipeline 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 Deloitte & Touche (A): A Hole in the Pipeline 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 Deloitte & Touche (A): A Hole in the Pipeline 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 Deloitte & Touche (A): A Hole in the Pipeline 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 Touche Deloitte needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.