Liz Claiborne and the New Working Woman SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Liz Claiborne and the New Working Woman
At age 47, with two decades of experience as a lead designer for a Fortune 500 fashion company, Liz Claiborne put her life savings on the line to form Liz Claiborne, Inc., a partnership that included her husband. A decade later, in 1986, Claiborne was CEO of her own Fortune 500 company, reaching that milestone faster than any other business up to that point in history. Because the company did not own any of the factories that made its clothing, Claiborne relied upon her detailed understanding of design and manufacturing processes to instruct successfully her American and offshore contractors on how to mass-produce designer clothing at affordable prices. Claiborne was an industry pioneer in many ways. She developed detailed customer feedback collection systems. She and her staff were in frequent contact with department stores to help them present her clothing in display and to customers. In the 1980s, after building up her designer brand name, Claiborne expanded her business through licensing arrangements with quality manufacturers of apparel, shoes, and accessories.
Swot Analysis of "Liz Claiborne and the New Working Woman" written by Anthony J. Mayo, Mark Benson includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Claiborne Liz facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Liz Claiborne and the New Working Woman case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Collaboration, Customers, Demographics, Entrepreneurship, Leadership, Operations management, Strategy and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Liz Claiborne and the New Working Woman casestudy better are - – talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, there is backlash against globalization, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing transportation and logistics costs, geopolitical disruptions,
there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Liz Claiborne and the New Working Woman
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Liz Claiborne and the New Working Woman case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Claiborne Liz, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Claiborne Liz 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 Liz Claiborne and the New Working Woman can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Liz Claiborne and the New Working Woman case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Claiborne Liz
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 Claiborne Liz
Strengths Liz Claiborne and the New Working Woman | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Claiborne Liz in Liz Claiborne and the New Working Woman Harvard Business Review case study are -
Ability to recruit top talent
– Claiborne Liz is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Liz Claiborne and the New Working Woman are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Strong track record of project management
– Claiborne Liz is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Organizational Resilience of Claiborne Liz
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Claiborne Liz does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
High brand equity
– Claiborne Liz has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Claiborne Liz to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– Liz Claiborne and the New Working Woman firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Claiborne Liz to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Claiborne Liz to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Claiborne Liz 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Claiborne Liz is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Liz Claiborne and the New Working Woman 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Claiborne Liz has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Claiborne Liz 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Claiborne Liz 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 Liz Claiborne and the New Working Woman - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Claiborne Liz in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Learning organization
- Claiborne Liz 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 Claiborne Liz is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Liz Claiborne and the New Working Woman Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Liz Claiborne and the New Working Woman 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.
Weaknesses Liz Claiborne and the New Working Woman | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Liz Claiborne and the New Working Woman are -
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Liz Claiborne and the New Working Woman 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 Claiborne Liz 's lucrative customers.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Anthony J. Mayo, Mark Benson suggests that, Claiborne Liz 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.
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 Claiborne Liz supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Liz Claiborne and the New Working Woman, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Claiborne Liz vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Need for greater diversity
– Claiborne Liz 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 Liz Claiborne and the New Working Woman 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 Claiborne Liz has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Lack of clear differentiation of Claiborne Liz products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Claiborne Liz needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Claiborne Liz is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Liz Claiborne and the New Working Woman can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Claiborne Liz 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 - Liz Claiborne and the New Working Woman should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Liz Claiborne and the New Working Woman, 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Liz Claiborne and the New Working Woman, is just above the industry average. Claiborne Liz 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Claiborne Liz 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. Claiborne Liz 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.
Opportunities Liz Claiborne and the New Working Woman | 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 Liz Claiborne and the New Working Woman are -
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 Claiborne Liz in the consumer business. Now Claiborne Liz can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Claiborne Liz can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
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. Claiborne Liz 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. Claiborne Liz 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Claiborne Liz 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Claiborne Liz 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.
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. Claiborne Liz can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Claiborne Liz is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Liz Claiborne and the New Working Woman 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 Claiborne Liz 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Claiborne Liz 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 Claiborne Liz to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Developing new processes and practices
– Claiborne Liz 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Claiborne Liz 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Claiborne Liz 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Claiborne Liz has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Claiborne Liz to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Liz Claiborne and the New Working Woman case study. Claiborne Liz can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Threats Liz Claiborne and the New Working Woman External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Liz Claiborne and the New Working Woman 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 Claiborne Liz in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Increasing wage structure of Claiborne Liz
– 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 Claiborne Liz.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Liz Claiborne and the New Working Woman, Claiborne Liz 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 .
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Claiborne Liz 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
– Claiborne Liz 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Claiborne Liz is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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. Claiborne Liz 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
– Claiborne Liz has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Claiborne Liz 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.
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. Claiborne Liz 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Claiborne Liz 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.
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 Claiborne Liz business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, 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 Claiborne Liz.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Liz Claiborne and the New Working Woman 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 Liz Claiborne and the New Working Woman 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 Liz Claiborne and the New Working Woman 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 Liz Claiborne and the New Working Woman 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 Liz Claiborne and the New Working Woman 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 Claiborne Liz needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
