Swot Analysis of "Valley Carriers (B): Working on Versus Working in the Business" written by Vanessa M. Strike includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that W16326 Vanessa facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Valley Carriers (B): Working on Versus Working in the Business case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Leadership and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Valley Carriers (B): Working on Versus Working in the Business casestudy better are - – talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, wage bills are increasing, increasing commodity prices, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, there is backlash against globalization,
cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, technology disruption, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Valley Carriers (B): Working on Versus Working in the Business
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Valley Carriers (B): Working on Versus Working in the Business case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the W16326 Vanessa, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which W16326 Vanessa 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 Valley Carriers (B): Working on Versus Working in the Business can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Valley Carriers (B): Working on Versus Working in the Business case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of W16326 Vanessa
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 W16326 Vanessa
Strengths Valley Carriers (B): Working on Versus Working in the Business | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of W16326 Vanessa in Valley Carriers (B): Working on Versus Working in the Business Harvard Business Review case study are -
High brand equity
– W16326 Vanessa has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled W16326 Vanessa to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Diverse revenue streams
– W16326 Vanessa is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Valley Carriers (B): Working on Versus Working in the Business 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.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– W16326 Vanessa 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 W16326 Vanessa in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Innovation driven organization
– W16326 Vanessa is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Valley Carriers (B): Working on Versus Working in the Business Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Learning organization
- W16326 Vanessa 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 W16326 Vanessa is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Valley Carriers (B): Working on Versus Working in the Business Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of W16326 Vanessa in the sector have low bargaining power. Valley Carriers (B): Working on Versus Working in the Business has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps W16326 Vanessa to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– W16326 Vanessa 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 Valley Carriers (B): Working on Versus Working in the Business - 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 W16326 Vanessa 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that W16326 Vanessa 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.
Organizational Resilience of W16326 Vanessa
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that W16326 Vanessa does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Strong track record of project management
– W16326 Vanessa is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Highly skilled collaborators
– W16326 Vanessa 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 Valley Carriers (B): Working on Versus Working in the Business HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Weaknesses Valley Carriers (B): Working on Versus Working in the Business | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Valley Carriers (B): Working on Versus Working in the Business are -
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of W16326 Vanessa is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. W16326 Vanessa needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help W16326 Vanessa to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Valley Carriers (B): Working on Versus Working in the Business HBR case study mentions - W16326 Vanessa 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, W16326 Vanessa 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, W16326 Vanessa 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
W16326 Vanessa 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at W16326 Vanessa 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, W16326 Vanessa 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. W16326 Vanessa 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Valley Carriers (B): Working on Versus Working in the Business, in the dynamic environment W16326 Vanessa has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. W16326 Vanessa has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Products dominated business model
– Even though W16326 Vanessa 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 - Valley Carriers (B): Working on Versus Working in the Business should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of W16326 Vanessa, firm in the HBR case study Valley Carriers (B): Working on Versus Working in the Business needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Valley Carriers (B): Working on Versus Working in the Business HBR case study still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though W16326 Vanessa has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Opportunities Valley Carriers (B): Working on Versus Working in the Business | 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 Valley Carriers (B): Working on Versus Working in the Business are -
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for W16326 Vanessa 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at W16326 Vanessa 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.
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. W16326 Vanessa can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– W16326 Vanessa 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 Valley Carriers (B): Working on Versus Working in the Business - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help W16326 Vanessa to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Loyalty marketing
– W16326 Vanessa 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.
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. W16326 Vanessa can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Buying journey improvements
– W16326 Vanessa can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Valley Carriers (B): Working on Versus Working in the Business 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for W16326 Vanessa 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 W16326 Vanessa to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of W16326 Vanessa has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help W16326 Vanessa to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Valley Carriers (B): Working on Versus Working in the Business case study. W16326 Vanessa can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Developing new processes and practices
– W16326 Vanessa 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.
Manufacturing automation
– W16326 Vanessa 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– W16326 Vanessa 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, W16326 Vanessa can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that W16326 Vanessa operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Threats Valley Carriers (B): Working on Versus Working in the Business External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Valley Carriers (B): Working on Versus Working in the Business are -
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that W16326 Vanessa is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– W16326 Vanessa 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.
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 W16326 Vanessa business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Capital market disruption
– During the Covid-19, Dow Jones has touched record high. The valuations of a number of companies are way beyond their existing business model potential. This can lead to capital market correction which can put a number of suppliers, collaborators, value chain partners in great financial difficulty. It will directly impact the business of W16326 Vanessa.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– W16326 Vanessa 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. W16326 Vanessa can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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. W16326 Vanessa needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Environmental challenges
– W16326 Vanessa 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. W16326 Vanessa can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
Aging population
– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.
Regulatory challenges
– W16326 Vanessa 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on W16326 Vanessa 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents W16326 Vanessa 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, W16326 Vanessa 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 Valley Carriers (B): Working on Versus Working in the Business .
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Valley Carriers (B): Working on Versus Working in the Business 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 Valley Carriers (B): Working on Versus Working in the Business 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 Valley Carriers (B): Working on Versus Working in the Business 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 Valley Carriers (B): Working on Versus Working in the Business 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 Valley Carriers (B): Working on Versus Working in the Business 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 W16326 Vanessa needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.