Clifford Chance: Repotting the Tree SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Clifford Chance: Repotting the Tree
Clifford Chance, LLP, a global law firm headquartered in London, needs to make a decision whether to stay in the central business district of London or move to a redeveloped business park at Canary Wharf, 3 miles outside of central London. Peter Charleton, head of the London Office, is proposing to move to Canary Wharf and building a single, landmark headquarters with all the necessary amenities and premium fit-outs that is appropriate for an elite law firm. The tension surrounding the case is the choice to move from the hub of commerce in central London to a relatively obscure site whose owners (Olympia & York) have a history of financial bankruptcy. What business elements (clients, operations, employees, etc.) should they consider if they move the firm and how much relative weight do they place on each element? How do they frame the advantages and disadvantages between central London and Canary Wharf? What type of items should they program into the new facility (cellular or open floor plans, ceiling heights, common space, dining facilities, gymnasiums, etc.)? How should they prioritize these items?
Authors :: Arthur I Segel, A. Eugene Kohn, Nhat Nguyen
Swot Analysis of "Clifford Chance: Repotting the Tree" written by Arthur I Segel, A. Eugene Kohn, Nhat Nguyen includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that London Canary facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Clifford Chance: Repotting the Tree case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Leadership, Operations management and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Clifford Chance: Repotting the Tree casestudy better are - – talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing commodity prices, there is backlash against globalization, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies,
geopolitical disruptions, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Clifford Chance: Repotting the Tree
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Clifford Chance: Repotting the Tree case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the London Canary, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which London Canary 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 Clifford Chance: Repotting the Tree can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Clifford Chance: Repotting the Tree case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of London Canary
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 London Canary
Strengths Clifford Chance: Repotting the Tree | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of London Canary in Clifford Chance: Repotting the Tree Harvard Business Review case study are -
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– London Canary 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 Clifford Chance: Repotting the Tree - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– Clifford Chance: Repotting the Tree firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled London Canary to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped London Canary to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– London Canary 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 London Canary in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Analytics focus
– London Canary 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 Arthur I Segel, A. Eugene Kohn, Nhat Nguyen 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 London Canary digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. London Canary 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that London Canary 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– London Canary has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. London Canary 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Clifford Chance: Repotting the Tree 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.
Strong track record of project management
– London Canary is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Learning organization
- London Canary 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 London Canary is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Clifford Chance: Repotting the Tree Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Ability to recruit top talent
– London Canary is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Clifford Chance: Repotting the Tree are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of London Canary in the sector have low bargaining power. Clifford Chance: Repotting the Tree has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps London Canary to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Weaknesses Clifford Chance: Repotting the Tree | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Clifford Chance: Repotting the Tree are -
Lack of clear differentiation of London Canary products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, London Canary needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Clifford Chance: Repotting the Tree HBR case study mentions - London Canary 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 London Canary supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Clifford Chance: Repotting the Tree, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left London Canary vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Clifford Chance: Repotting the Tree 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 London Canary has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, London Canary 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, London Canary 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of London Canary is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. London Canary needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help London Canary to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, London Canary is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Clifford Chance: Repotting the Tree can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Clifford Chance: Repotting the Tree, it seems that the employees of London Canary 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of London Canary, firm in the HBR case study Clifford Chance: Repotting the Tree needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Products dominated business model
– Even though London Canary 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 - Clifford Chance: Repotting the Tree should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Opportunities Clifford Chance: Repotting the Tree | 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 Clifford Chance: Repotting the Tree are -
Buying journey improvements
– London Canary can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Clifford Chance: Repotting the Tree 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– London Canary 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– London Canary 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 Clifford Chance: Repotting the Tree - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help London Canary to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, London Canary is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Clifford Chance: Repotting the Tree 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 London Canary 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help London Canary to increase its market reach. London Canary 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at London Canary 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, London Canary 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, Clifford Chance: Repotting the Tree, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Loyalty marketing
– London Canary 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. London Canary can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, London Canary can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that London Canary operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of London Canary has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help London Canary to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Clifford Chance: Repotting the Tree case study. London Canary can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, London Canary 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.
Threats Clifford Chance: Repotting the Tree External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Clifford Chance: Repotting the Tree are -
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 London Canary.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– London Canary has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, London Canary 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.
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. London Canary 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 London Canary is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Increasing wage structure of London Canary
– 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 London Canary.
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.
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 London Canary in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– London Canary 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.
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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– London Canary 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents London Canary with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for London Canary 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, London Canary 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 Clifford Chance: Repotting the Tree .
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Clifford Chance: Repotting the Tree 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 Clifford Chance: Repotting the Tree 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 Clifford Chance: Repotting the Tree 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 Clifford Chance: Repotting the Tree 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 Clifford Chance: Repotting the Tree 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 London Canary needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.