Conflict at MRW: The New Employee's Pregnancy SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Conflict at MRW: The New Employee's Pregnancy
MRW is a courier firm based in Barcelona (Spain). In 2010, it was consolidating internationalization of its business. It is against this background that the case raises a highly sensitive, emotional issue: What to do about Sonia, a recently-hired manager (still in her probationary period) who suddenly reveals that she is pregnant. Moreover, her pregnancy is a high-risk one, likely requiring an early medical leave. The new manager's post involves setting up Information Technology (IT) systems, which are vital to the firm's business, internationalization and invoicing. 'The case explores two standpoints: (1) a company weathering the economic crisis, in which it is contrary to the firm's 'belt-tightening' measures to hire a replacement for an employee on leave; (2) the company's track record in the CSR field including its promotion of opportunities for women. The case aims to create a dilemma for students. Some will defend Sonia's right to a maternity leave and to continue working in MRW, especially in the light of her trials and tribulations with fertility treatment and the fact that the pregnancy is a risky one. Others will defend the company's interests, arguing that the situation in the firm is critical and that MRW's internationalization is vital for the company's business development. The latter group will focus on Sonia's role in launching the internationalization project. The question of what to do about Sonia's pregnancy is a critical one for both the Technology Department and for Sonia. Dealing with it requires great care.
Swot Analysis of "Conflict at MRW: The New Employee's Pregnancy" written by Margarita MM Marti, Adolfo AM Montalvo includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Pregnancy Mrw facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Conflict at MRW: The New Employee's Pregnancy case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Decision making, Gender, Knowledge management and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Conflict at MRW: The New Employee's Pregnancy casestudy better are - – increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, wage bills are increasing, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing commodity prices, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, geopolitical disruptions,
increasing household debt because of falling income levels, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Conflict at MRW: The New Employee's Pregnancy
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Conflict at MRW: The New Employee's Pregnancy case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Pregnancy Mrw, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Pregnancy Mrw 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 Conflict at MRW: The New Employee's Pregnancy can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Conflict at MRW: The New Employee's Pregnancy case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Pregnancy Mrw
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 Pregnancy Mrw
Strengths Conflict at MRW: The New Employee's Pregnancy | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Pregnancy Mrw in Conflict at MRW: The New Employee's Pregnancy Harvard Business Review case study are -
Innovation driven organization
– Pregnancy Mrw is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Conflict at MRW: The New Employee's Pregnancy Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Pregnancy Mrw in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Pregnancy Mrw 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 Conflict at MRW: The New Employee's Pregnancy - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Strong track record of project management
– Pregnancy Mrw is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
High brand equity
– Pregnancy Mrw has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Pregnancy Mrw to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Conflict at MRW: The New Employee's Pregnancy 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Pregnancy Mrw is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Conflict at MRW: The New Employee's Pregnancy are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Pregnancy Mrw 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.
Learning organization
- Pregnancy Mrw 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 Pregnancy Mrw is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Conflict at MRW: The New Employee's Pregnancy Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Organizational Resilience of Pregnancy Mrw
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Pregnancy Mrw does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Pregnancy Mrw digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Pregnancy Mrw 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Pregnancy Mrw 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 Conflict at MRW: The New Employee's Pregnancy HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Weaknesses Conflict at MRW: The New Employee's Pregnancy | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Conflict at MRW: The New Employee's Pregnancy are -
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Conflict at MRW: The New Employee's Pregnancy, 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Conflict at MRW: The New Employee's Pregnancy 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 Pregnancy Mrw 's lucrative customers.
Need for greater diversity
– Pregnancy Mrw 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 Pregnancy Mrw, firm in the HBR case study Conflict at MRW: The New Employee's Pregnancy needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Lack of clear differentiation of Pregnancy Mrw products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Pregnancy Mrw needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Conflict at MRW: The New Employee's Pregnancy, in the dynamic environment Pregnancy Mrw has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Pregnancy Mrw has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Pregnancy Mrw is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Conflict at MRW: The New Employee's Pregnancy can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Pregnancy Mrw 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Conflict at MRW: The New Employee's Pregnancy 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 Conflict at MRW: The New Employee's Pregnancy can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Pregnancy Mrw is planning to shift buying processes online.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Pregnancy Mrw 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Conflict at MRW: The New Employee's Pregnancy, is just above the industry average. Pregnancy Mrw 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.
Opportunities Conflict at MRW: The New Employee's Pregnancy | 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 Conflict at MRW: The New Employee's Pregnancy are -
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Pregnancy Mrw 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 Pregnancy Mrw to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Pregnancy Mrw 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Pregnancy Mrw 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 Conflict at MRW: The New Employee's Pregnancy - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Pregnancy Mrw to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Pregnancy Mrw 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. Pregnancy Mrw 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. Pregnancy Mrw 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Pregnancy Mrw 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Pregnancy Mrw 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.
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. Pregnancy Mrw can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Pregnancy Mrw to increase its market reach. Pregnancy Mrw 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Pregnancy Mrw 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Pregnancy Mrw can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Conflict at MRW: The New Employee's Pregnancy 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Pregnancy Mrw can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Pregnancy Mrw operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
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 Pregnancy Mrw in the consumer business. Now Pregnancy Mrw can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Threats Conflict at MRW: The New Employee's Pregnancy External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Conflict at MRW: The New Employee's Pregnancy are -
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Pregnancy Mrw 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Pregnancy Mrw with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Pregnancy Mrw has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Pregnancy Mrw 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.
Increasing wage structure of Pregnancy Mrw
– 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 Pregnancy Mrw.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Pregnancy Mrw 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 Conflict at MRW: The New Employee's Pregnancy .
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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Pregnancy Mrw demand
– There is a high probability of declining consumer confidence, given – high inflammation rate, rise of gig economy, lower job stability, increasing cost of living, higher interest rates, and aging demography. All the factors contribute to people saving higher rate of their income, resulting in lower consumer demand in the industry and other sectors.
Regulatory challenges
– Pregnancy Mrw 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 Pregnancy Mrw business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Conflict at MRW: The New Employee's Pregnancy, Pregnancy Mrw 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 .
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 Pregnancy Mrw in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline 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 Pregnancy Mrw.
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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Conflict at MRW: The New Employee's Pregnancy 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 Conflict at MRW: The New Employee's Pregnancy 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 Conflict at MRW: The New Employee's Pregnancy 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 Conflict at MRW: The New Employee's Pregnancy 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 Conflict at MRW: The New Employee's Pregnancy 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 Pregnancy Mrw needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.