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 government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, there is backlash against globalization, wage bills are increasing, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, technology disruption, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, 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 -

High brand equity

– Carrie Career has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Carrie Career to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Superior customer experience

– The customer experience strategy of Carrie Career in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.

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.

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.

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.

Innovation driven organization

– Carrie Career is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Carrie Wagner: Climbing the Corporate Ladder (A) - Early Career, from Student to Manager Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.

Operational resilience

– The operational resilience strategy in the Carrie Wagner: Climbing the Corporate Ladder (A) - Early Career, from Student to Manager 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.

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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 -

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.

High bargaining power of channel partners

– Because of the regulatory requirements, Anne Mesny, Brian King, Viana Poulin, Catherine Lassure suggests that, Carrie Career 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.

Lack of clear differentiation of Carrie Career products

– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Carrie Career needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.

Capital Spending Reduction

– Even during the low interest decade, Carrie Career has not been able to do capital spending to the tune of the competition. This has resulted into fewer innovations and company facing stiff competition from both existing competitors and new entrants who are disrupting the industry using digital technology.

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.

No frontier risks strategy

– After analyzing the HBR case study Carrie Wagner: Climbing the Corporate Ladder (A) - Early Career, from Student to Manager, 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 Carrie Wagner: Climbing the Corporate Ladder (A) - Early Career, from Student to Manager 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 Career 's lucrative customers.

Compensation and incentives

– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Carrie Wagner: Climbing the Corporate Ladder (A) - Early Career, from Student to Manager, is just above the industry average. Carrie Career 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.

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.

Interest costs

– Compare to the competition, Carrie Career has borrowed money from the capital market at higher rates. It needs to restructure the interest payment and costs so that it can compete better and improve profitability.

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.

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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 -

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.

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.

Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities

– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Carrie Career 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 Career to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 Carrie Career 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.

Reforming the budgeting process

- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Carrie Career can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.

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 Career can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.

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.

Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains

– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Carrie Career 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 (A) - Early Career, from Student to Manager, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.

Lowering marketing communication costs

– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Carrie Career 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.

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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 -

Learning curve for new practices

– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Carrie Wagner: Climbing the Corporate Ladder (A) - Early Career, from Student to Manager, Carrie Career 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 .

Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution

– Carrie Career 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 Career 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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 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 .

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.

Shortening product life cycle

– it is one of the major threat that Carrie Career is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.

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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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