Carrie Wagner: Climbing the Corporate Ladder (A) - Early Career, from Student to Manager SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution

Case Study Description of Carrie Wagner: Climbing the Corporate Ladder (A) - Early Career, from Student to Manager

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 (A) - Early Career, from Student to Manager (4 p.) - Carrie joins a large multi-national as a summer student when she is 19 years old. Upon graduation, she takes a full-time job in the budget department. After six months in this position she is promoted to manager at the age of 22. Carrie knows nothing about finance and Jim, her Executive Director, is an invaluable ally.

Authors :: Anne Mesny, Brian King, Viana Poulin, Catherine Lassure

Topics :: Leadership & Managing People

Tags :: , SWOT Analysis, SWOT Matrix, TOWS, Weighted SWOT Analysis

Swot Analysis of "Carrie Wagner: Climbing the Corporate Ladder (A) - Early Career, from Student to Manager" 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 Career facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Carrie Wagner: Climbing the Corporate Ladder (A) - Early Career, from Student to Manager 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 (A) - Early Career, from Student to Manager casestudy better are - – increasing energy prices, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, geopolitical disruptions, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, etc

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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Carrie Wagner: Climbing the Corporate Ladder (A) - Early Career, from Student to Manager

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 (A) - Early Career, from Student to Manager case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Carrie Career, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Carrie Career 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.

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SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix

SWOT analysis of Carrie Wagner: Climbing the Corporate Ladder (A) - Early Career, from Student to Manager can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Carrie Wagner: Climbing the Corporate Ladder (A) - Early Career, from Student to Manager case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Carrie Career
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 Career

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Strengths Carrie Wagner: Climbing the Corporate Ladder (A) - Early Career, from Student to Manager | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Carrie Career in Carrie Wagner: Climbing the Corporate Ladder (A) - Early Career, from Student to Manager Harvard Business Review case study are -

Strong track record of project management

– Carrie Career is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.

Ability to recruit top talent

– Carrie Career is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Carrie Wagner: Climbing the Corporate Ladder (A) - Early Career, from Student to Manager are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.

Diverse revenue streams

– Carrie Career is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Carrie Wagner: Climbing the Corporate Ladder (A) - Early Career, from Student to Manager 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.

Low bargaining power of suppliers

– Suppliers of Carrie Career in the sector have low bargaining power. Carrie Wagner: Climbing the Corporate Ladder (A) - Early Career, from Student to Manager has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Carrie Career to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.

Organizational Resilience of Carrie Career

– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Carrie Career does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.

Cross disciplinary teams

– Horizontal connected teams at the Carrie Career 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.

Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment

- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Carrie Career digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Carrie Career has successfully integrated the four key components of digital transformation – digital integration in processes, digital integration in marketing and customer relationship management, digital integration into the value chain, and using technology to explore new products and market opportunities.

High switching costs

– The high switching costs that Carrie Career 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.

Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field

– Carrie Career 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 Career in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.

Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry

– Carrie Wagner: Climbing the Corporate Ladder (A) - Early Career, from Student to Manager firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Carrie Career to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Carrie Career to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.

Learning organization

- Carrie Career 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 Career is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Carrie Wagner: Climbing the Corporate Ladder (A) - Early Career, from Student to Manager Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.

Effective Research and Development (R&D)

– Carrie Career 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 (A) - Early Career, from Student to Manager - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.

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Weaknesses Carrie Wagner: Climbing the Corporate Ladder (A) - Early Career, from Student to Manager | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of Carrie Wagner: Climbing the Corporate Ladder (A) - Early Career, from Student to Manager are -

Aligning sales with marketing

– It come across in the case study Carrie Wagner: Climbing the Corporate Ladder (A) - Early Career, from Student to Manager 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 (A) - Early Career, from Student to Manager can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Carrie Career is planning to shift buying processes online.

Slow decision making process

– As mentioned earlier in the report, Carrie Career 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. Carrie Career 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.

Increasing silos among functional specialists

– The organizational structure of Carrie Career is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Carrie Career needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Carrie Career to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.

Products dominated business model

– Even though Carrie Career 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 (A) - Early Career, from Student to Manager should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.

Slow to strategic competitive environment developments

– As Carrie Wagner: Climbing the Corporate Ladder (A) - Early Career, from Student to Manager HBR case study mentions - Carrie Career 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.

Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy

– From the instances in the HBR case study Carrie Wagner: Climbing the Corporate Ladder (A) - Early Career, from Student to Manager, it seems that the employees of Carrie Career don’t have comprehensive understanding of the firm’s strategy. This is reflected in number of promotional campaigns over the last few years that had mixed messaging and competing priorities. Some of the strategic activities and services promoted in the promotional campaigns were not consistent with the organization’s strategy.

Low market penetration in new markets

– Outside its home market of Carrie Career, firm in the HBR case study Carrie Wagner: Climbing the Corporate Ladder (A) - Early Career, from Student to Manager needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.

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 Career supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Carrie Wagner: Climbing the Corporate Ladder (A) - Early Career, from Student to Manager, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Carrie Career vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.

Ability to respond to the competition

– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Carrie Wagner: Climbing the Corporate Ladder (A) - Early Career, from Student to Manager, in the dynamic environment Carrie Career has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Carrie Career has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.

High cash cycle compare to competitors

Carrie Career 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.

Workers concerns about automation

– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Carrie Career needs to come up with a strategy to reduce the workers concern regarding automation. Without a clear strategy, it could lead to disruption and uncertainty within the organization.

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Opportunities Carrie Wagner: Climbing the Corporate Ladder (A) - Early Career, from Student to Manager | 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 (A) - Early Career, from Student to Manager are -

Developing new processes and practices

– Carrie Career 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.

Creating value in data economy

– The success of analytics program of Carrie Career has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Carrie Career to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Carrie Wagner: Climbing the Corporate Ladder (A) - Early Career, from Student to Manager case study. Carrie Career can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.

Using analytics as competitive advantage

– Carrie Career 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 (A) - Early Career, from Student to Manager - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Carrie Career to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.

Learning at scale

– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Carrie Career 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.

Manufacturing automation

– Carrie Career can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Leadership & Managing People segment. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.

Buying journey improvements

– Carrie Career can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Carrie Wagner: Climbing the Corporate Ladder (A) - Early Career, from Student to Manager 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.

Low interest rates

– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Carrie Career 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.

Building a culture of innovation

– managers at Carrie Career 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.

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. Carrie Career can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.

Increase in government spending

– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Carrie Career can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Carrie Career operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.

Loyalty marketing

– Carrie Career 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.

Redefining models of collaboration and team work

– As explained in the weaknesses section, Carrie Career is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Carrie Wagner: Climbing the Corporate Ladder (A) - Early Career, from Student to Manager 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.

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. Carrie Career 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. Carrie Career 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.

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Threats Carrie Wagner: Climbing the Corporate Ladder (A) - Early Career, from Student to Manager 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 (A) - Early Career, from Student to Manager are -

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. Carrie Career 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.

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 Career in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.

Environmental challenges

– Carrie Career 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. Carrie Career can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.

Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins

– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Carrie Career 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 (A) - Early Career, from Student to Manager .

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 Career business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.

High level of anxiety and lack of motivation

– the Great Resignation in United States is the sign of broader dissatisfaction among the workforce in United States. Carrie Career needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.

Trade war between China and United States

– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Carrie Career 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.

Consumer confidence and its impact on Carrie Career 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.

High dependence on third party suppliers

– Carrie Career 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.

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 Career can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.

Barriers of entry lowering

– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Carrie Career with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.

Increasing wage structure of Carrie Career

– 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 Career.

Stagnating economy with rate increase

– Carrie Career 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.

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Weighted SWOT Analysis of Carrie Wagner: Climbing the Corporate Ladder (A) - Early Career, from Student to Manager 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 (A) - Early Career, from Student to Manager 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 (A) - Early Career, from Student to Manager 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 (A) - Early Career, from Student to Manager 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 (A) - Early Career, from Student to Manager 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 Career needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.

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