A Day in the Life of Alex Sander: Driving in the Fast Lane at Landon Care Products SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of A Day in the Life of Alex Sander: Driving in the Fast Lane at Landon Care Products
When students have the English-language PDF of this Brief Case in a coursepack, they will also have the option to purchase an audio version.Alex Sander is a new product manager whose drive and talents are attractive to management, but whose intolerant style has alienated employees. This tension is presented against the backdrop of a 360A? performance review process. Sander works in the Toiletries Division of Landon Care Products, which has recently been acquired by a European beauty company. Sander is leading the launch of a European skin care product into the U.S. market, which requires working with a multinational product development team. Sander's interactions with peers and direct reports in the case paint a picture of a tough, inflexible high achiever who uses temper as a management tool. At the end of the day, Sander's supervisor Sam Glass will provide Sander with 360A? performance feedback-the first time this process has been used at Landon. Sander remains skeptical about the value of the process and feedback, and of a long-term fit with the organization. On the other hand, Glass has a very high personal interest in keeping Sander at the company, but wonders how the organization can best develop and manage this star performer.
Swot Analysis of "A Day in the Life of Alex Sander: Driving in the Fast Lane at Landon Care Products" written by Elizabeth Collins, Larry E. Greiner includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Sander Landon facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in A Day in the Life of Alex Sander: Driving in the Fast Lane at Landon Care Products case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Career planning, Conflict, Difficult conversations, Informal leadership, Leadership, Mergers & acquisitions, Organizational culture, Product development, Talent management and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the A Day in the Life of Alex Sander: Driving in the Fast Lane at Landon Care Products casestudy better are - – increasing household debt because of falling income levels, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, technology disruption, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, there is backlash against globalization, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies,
competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of A Day in the Life of Alex Sander: Driving in the Fast Lane at Landon Care Products
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in A Day in the Life of Alex Sander: Driving in the Fast Lane at Landon Care Products case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Sander Landon, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Sander Landon 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 A Day in the Life of Alex Sander: Driving in the Fast Lane at Landon Care Products can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in A Day in the Life of Alex Sander: Driving in the Fast Lane at Landon Care Products case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Sander Landon
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 Sander Landon
Strengths A Day in the Life of Alex Sander: Driving in the Fast Lane at Landon Care Products | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Sander Landon in A Day in the Life of Alex Sander: Driving in the Fast Lane at Landon Care Products Harvard Business Review case study are -
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Sander Landon 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– A Day in the Life of Alex Sander: Driving in the Fast Lane at Landon Care Products firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Sander Landon to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Sander Landon to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Analytics focus
– Sander Landon 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 Elizabeth Collins, Larry E. Greiner 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.
Training and development
– Sander Landon has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in A Day in the Life of Alex Sander: Driving in the Fast Lane at Landon Care Products 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Sander Landon in the sector have low bargaining power. A Day in the Life of Alex Sander: Driving in the Fast Lane at Landon Care Products has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Sander Landon to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Sander Landon 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Sander Landon is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in A Day in the Life of Alex Sander: Driving in the Fast Lane at Landon Care Products Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Sander Landon 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 A Day in the Life of Alex Sander: Driving in the Fast Lane at Landon Care Products HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Strong track record of project management
– Sander Landon is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Sander Landon digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Sander Landon 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Sander Landon has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Sander Landon 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 Sander Landon in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Weaknesses A Day in the Life of Alex Sander: Driving in the Fast Lane at Landon Care Products | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of A Day in the Life of Alex Sander: Driving in the Fast Lane at Landon Care Products are -
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Sander Landon is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study A Day in the Life of Alex Sander: Driving in the Fast Lane at Landon Care Products can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study A Day in the Life of Alex Sander: Driving in the Fast Lane at Landon Care Products 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 A Day in the Life of Alex Sander: Driving in the Fast Lane at Landon Care Products can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Sander Landon is planning to shift buying processes online.
Lack of clear differentiation of Sander Landon products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Sander Landon needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Sander Landon 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Sander Landon is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Sander Landon needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Sander Landon to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Sander Landon 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study A Day in the Life of Alex Sander: Driving in the Fast Lane at Landon Care Products, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Leadership & Managing People strategy. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Sander Landon 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. Sander Landon 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 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 Sander Landon supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - A Day in the Life of Alex Sander: Driving in the Fast Lane at Landon Care Products, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Sander Landon vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Need for greater diversity
– Sander Landon 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the A Day in the Life of Alex Sander: Driving in the Fast Lane at Landon Care Products 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 Sander Landon has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Opportunities A Day in the Life of Alex Sander: Driving in the Fast Lane at Landon Care Products | 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 A Day in the Life of Alex Sander: Driving in the Fast Lane at Landon Care Products are -
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Sander Landon 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.
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. Sander Landon can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
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 Sander Landon 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Sander Landon 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Sander Landon can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Sander Landon operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
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. Sander Landon can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Sander Landon 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, A Day in the Life of Alex Sander: Driving in the Fast Lane at Landon Care Products, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Sander Landon has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Sander Landon to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the A Day in the Life of Alex Sander: Driving in the Fast Lane at Landon Care Products case study. Sander Landon can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Sander Landon 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.
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. Sander Landon 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. Sander Landon 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Sander Landon is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. A Day in the Life of Alex Sander: Driving in the Fast Lane at Landon Care Products 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Sander Landon 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 A Day in the Life of Alex Sander: Driving in the Fast Lane at Landon Care Products - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Sander Landon to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Developing new processes and practices
– Sander Landon 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 A Day in the Life of Alex Sander: Driving in the Fast Lane at Landon Care Products External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study A Day in the Life of Alex Sander: Driving in the Fast Lane at Landon Care Products are -
Regulatory challenges
– Sander Landon 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Sander Landon is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Environmental challenges
– Sander Landon 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. Sander Landon can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
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 Sander Landon.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Sander Landon 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 A Day in the Life of Alex Sander: Driving in the Fast Lane at Landon Care Products .
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 Sander Landon in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Instability in the European markets
– European Union markets are facing three big challenges post Covid – expanded balance sheets, Brexit related business disruption, and aggressive Russia looking to distract the existing security mechanism. Sander Landon will face different problems in different parts of Europe. For example it will face inflationary pressures in UK, France, and Germany, balance sheet expansion and demand challenges in Southern European countries, and geopolitical instability in the Eastern Europe.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Sander Landon has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Sander Landon 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Sander Landon 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.
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. Sander Landon can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Sander Landon 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study A Day in the Life of Alex Sander: Driving in the Fast Lane at Landon Care Products, Sander Landon may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Leadership & Managing People .
Weighted SWOT Analysis of A Day in the Life of Alex Sander: Driving in the Fast Lane at Landon Care Products 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 A Day in the Life of Alex Sander: Driving in the Fast Lane at Landon Care Products 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 A Day in the Life of Alex Sander: Driving in the Fast Lane at Landon Care Products 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 A Day in the Life of Alex Sander: Driving in the Fast Lane at Landon Care Products 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 A Day in the Life of Alex Sander: Driving in the Fast Lane at Landon Care Products 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 Sander Landon needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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