Carrie Wagner: Climbing the Corporate Ladder (C) - Cut the Cord? SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Carrie Wagner: Climbing the Corporate Ladder (C) - Cut the Cord?
This three-part case traces Carrie Wagner's career in a single, large international package delivery company over a 30-year period during which she rose through the ranks from a student's summer job to senior executive positions. Part (C) - Cutting the Cord? (5 p.) - At 46, Carrie is seen as a potential VP, and reluctantly accepts a job as head of Human Resources, reporting to the President and his first VPs. The case describes the challenges of this new position for Carrie and how she finds it difficult to work in an advisory role that is disconnected from operations. After five years in this position, she becomes aware of an opportunity outside the company that piques her interest. This opportunity, combined with several other considerations, including professional as well personal factors, lead Carrie to wonder whether she should not give up on a possible VP position and ""cut the cord"" with the company where she has worked for 30 years.
Authors :: Anne Mesny, Brian King, Viana Poulin, Catherine Lassure
Swot Analysis of "Carrie Wagner: Climbing the Corporate Ladder (C) - Cut the Cord?" written by Anne Mesny, Brian King, Viana Poulin, Catherine Lassure includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Carrie Cord facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Carrie Wagner: Climbing the Corporate Ladder (C) - Cut the Cord? case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Carrie Wagner: Climbing the Corporate Ladder (C) - Cut the Cord? casestudy better are - – supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, technology disruption, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing energy prices,
there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing commodity prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Carrie Wagner: Climbing the Corporate Ladder (C) - Cut the Cord?
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Carrie Wagner: Climbing the Corporate Ladder (C) - Cut the Cord? case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Carrie Cord, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Carrie Cord 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 Carrie Wagner: Climbing the Corporate Ladder (C) - Cut the Cord? can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Carrie Wagner: Climbing the Corporate Ladder (C) - Cut the Cord? case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Carrie Cord
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 Carrie Cord
Strengths Carrie Wagner: Climbing the Corporate Ladder (C) - Cut the Cord? | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Carrie Cord in Carrie Wagner: Climbing the Corporate Ladder (C) - Cut the Cord? Harvard Business Review case study are -
Ability to recruit top talent
– Carrie Cord is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Carrie Wagner: Climbing the Corporate Ladder (C) - Cut the Cord? 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 Carrie Cord in the sector have low bargaining power. Carrie Wagner: Climbing the Corporate Ladder (C) - Cut the Cord? has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Carrie Cord to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Learning organization
- Carrie Cord 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 Carrie Cord is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Carrie Wagner: Climbing the Corporate Ladder (C) - Cut the Cord? Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Carrie Cord 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 Carrie Cord in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Carrie Cord 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 Carrie Wagner: Climbing the Corporate Ladder (C) - Cut the Cord? - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Training and development
– Carrie Cord has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Carrie Wagner: Climbing the Corporate Ladder (C) - Cut the Cord? 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Carrie Cord is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Carrie Wagner: Climbing the Corporate Ladder (C) - Cut the Cord? Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Diverse revenue streams
– Carrie Cord is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Carrie Wagner: Climbing the Corporate Ladder (C) - Cut the Cord? 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.
High brand equity
– Carrie Cord has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Carrie Cord to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Carrie Cord has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Carrie Cord 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Carrie Cord 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Carrie Wagner: Climbing the Corporate Ladder (C) - Cut the Cord? 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 Carrie Wagner: Climbing the Corporate Ladder (C) - Cut the Cord? | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Carrie Wagner: Climbing the Corporate Ladder (C) - Cut the Cord? are -
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Carrie Cord is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Carrie Wagner: Climbing the Corporate Ladder (C) - Cut the Cord? can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Lack of clear differentiation of Carrie Cord products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Carrie Cord needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Carrie Wagner: Climbing the Corporate Ladder (C) - Cut the Cord? 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 Carrie Cord 's lucrative customers.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Anne Mesny, Brian King, Viana Poulin, Catherine Lassure suggests that, Carrie Cord 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Carrie Cord is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Carrie Cord needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Carrie Cord to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Carrie Cord 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 - Carrie Wagner: Climbing the Corporate Ladder (C) - Cut the Cord? should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Need for greater diversity
– Carrie Cord 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Carrie Wagner: Climbing the Corporate Ladder (C) - Cut the Cord? HBR case study mentions - Carrie Cord 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 Carrie Cord supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Carrie Wagner: Climbing the Corporate Ladder (C) - Cut the Cord?, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Carrie Cord vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Carrie Wagner: Climbing the Corporate Ladder (C) - Cut the Cord? 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 Carrie Wagner: Climbing the Corporate Ladder (C) - Cut the Cord? can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Carrie Cord is planning to shift buying processes online.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Carrie Wagner: Climbing the Corporate Ladder (C) - Cut the Cord?, in the dynamic environment Carrie Cord has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Carrie Cord has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Opportunities Carrie Wagner: Climbing the Corporate Ladder (C) - Cut the Cord? | 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 Carrie Wagner: Climbing the Corporate Ladder (C) - Cut the Cord? 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 Carrie Cord in the consumer business. Now Carrie Cord can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Carrie Cord 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 Carrie Wagner: Climbing the Corporate Ladder (C) - Cut the Cord? - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Carrie Cord to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Loyalty marketing
– Carrie Cord 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Carrie Cord can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Carrie Cord 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, Carrie Wagner: Climbing the Corporate Ladder (C) - Cut the Cord?, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Carrie Cord can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Carrie Cord operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Carrie Cord 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Carrie Cord 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Carrie Cord 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Carrie Cord 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 Carrie Cord to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
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. Carrie Cord can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Carrie Cord 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Carrie Cord to increase its market reach. Carrie Cord 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.
Threats Carrie Wagner: Climbing the Corporate Ladder (C) - Cut the Cord? External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Carrie Wagner: Climbing the Corporate Ladder (C) - Cut the Cord? are -
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Carrie Cord 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. Carrie Cord 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.
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 Carrie Cord business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Increasing wage structure of Carrie Cord
– 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 Carrie Cord.
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 Carrie Cord in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Carrie Cord with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Carrie Cord is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Carrie Cord 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
– Carrie Cord 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Carrie Cord 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 Carrie Wagner: Climbing the Corporate Ladder (C) - Cut the Cord? .
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 Carrie Cord.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Carrie Cord has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Carrie Cord needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Leadership & Managing People sector. According to Mckinsey study top managers believe that the adoption of technology in operations, communications is 20-25 times faster than what they planned in the beginning of 2019.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Carrie Wagner: Climbing the Corporate Ladder (C) - Cut the Cord? 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 Carrie Wagner: Climbing the Corporate Ladder (C) - Cut the Cord? 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 Carrie Wagner: Climbing the Corporate Ladder (C) - Cut the Cord? 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 Carrie Wagner: Climbing the Corporate Ladder (C) - Cut the Cord? 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 Carrie Wagner: Climbing the Corporate Ladder (C) - Cut the Cord? 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 Carrie Cord needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
