Real-Time Leadership at Fabrinet (A): Navigating through the 2011 Thailand flood crisis SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Real-Time Leadership at Fabrinet (A): Navigating through the 2011 Thailand flood crisis
University of California, Berkeley-Haas collectionThis case (A & B) provides an understanding of the ""real-time"" leadership concept. The case examines Fabrinet's preparation in advance the Fall 2011 Thailand floods and the steps it then took to restart manufacturing within three weeks after one of its two Thailand-based plants was deemed inoperable and which had accounted for 40 percent of the company's total production capability. The case also provides an understanding of how Fabrinet's ""leadership DNA"" also contributed to the company's ability to navigate through this crisis. Students will have the opportunity to evaluate the ""real-time"" leadership abilities of Fabrinet's management team in their handling of this situation. The case ends with several questions, including those asking students to evaluate ""real-time"" leadership within their own organization, to identify which of the leadership lessons are most relevant to them, and to contrast ""real-time"" leadership with traditional leadership. Please note: this case also has a supplementary case available. The (B) supplement can be found using product number B5796.
Swot Analysis of "Real-Time Leadership at Fabrinet (A): Navigating through the 2011 Thailand flood crisis" written by Homa Bahrami, Stuart Evans includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Fabrinet's Leadership facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Real-Time Leadership at Fabrinet (A): Navigating through the 2011 Thailand flood crisis case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Crisis management, Decision making, Human resource management, Leadership, Manufacturing, Organizational culture, Risk management and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Real-Time Leadership at Fabrinet (A): Navigating through the 2011 Thailand flood crisis casestudy better are - – increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, geopolitical disruptions, there is backlash against globalization, increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing energy prices, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, technology disruption,
banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Real-Time Leadership at Fabrinet (A): Navigating through the 2011 Thailand flood crisis
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Real-Time Leadership at Fabrinet (A): Navigating through the 2011 Thailand flood crisis case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Fabrinet's Leadership, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Fabrinet's Leadership 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 Real-Time Leadership at Fabrinet (A): Navigating through the 2011 Thailand flood crisis can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Real-Time Leadership at Fabrinet (A): Navigating through the 2011 Thailand flood crisis case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Fabrinet's Leadership
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 Fabrinet's Leadership
Strengths Real-Time Leadership at Fabrinet (A): Navigating through the 2011 Thailand flood crisis | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Fabrinet's Leadership in Real-Time Leadership at Fabrinet (A): Navigating through the 2011 Thailand flood crisis Harvard Business Review case study are -
Highly skilled collaborators
– Fabrinet's Leadership 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 Real-Time Leadership at Fabrinet (A): Navigating through the 2011 Thailand flood crisis HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Learning organization
- Fabrinet's Leadership 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 Fabrinet's Leadership is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Real-Time Leadership at Fabrinet (A): Navigating through the 2011 Thailand flood crisis Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Fabrinet's Leadership 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 Fabrinet's Leadership in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
High brand equity
– Fabrinet's Leadership has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Fabrinet's Leadership to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Fabrinet's Leadership 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.
Training and development
– Fabrinet's Leadership has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Real-Time Leadership at Fabrinet (A): Navigating through the 2011 Thailand flood crisis 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Fabrinet's Leadership in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Strong track record of project management
– Fabrinet's Leadership 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)
– Fabrinet's Leadership 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 Real-Time Leadership at Fabrinet (A): Navigating through the 2011 Thailand flood crisis - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Analytics focus
– Fabrinet's Leadership is putting a lot of focus on utilizing the power of analytics in business decision making. This has put it among the leading players in the industry. The technology infrastructure suggested by Homa Bahrami, Stuart Evans can also help it to harness the power of analytics for – marketing optimization, demand forecasting, customer relationship management, inventory management, information sharing across the value chain etc.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Fabrinet's Leadership 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– Real-Time Leadership at Fabrinet (A): Navigating through the 2011 Thailand flood crisis firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Fabrinet's Leadership to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Fabrinet's Leadership to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Weaknesses Real-Time Leadership at Fabrinet (A): Navigating through the 2011 Thailand flood crisis | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Real-Time Leadership at Fabrinet (A): Navigating through the 2011 Thailand flood crisis are -
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Fabrinet's Leadership 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Fabrinet's Leadership, firm in the HBR case study Real-Time Leadership at Fabrinet (A): Navigating through the 2011 Thailand flood crisis needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Fabrinet's Leadership 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Real-Time Leadership at Fabrinet (A): Navigating through the 2011 Thailand flood crisis, in the dynamic environment Fabrinet's Leadership has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Fabrinet's Leadership has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Fabrinet's Leadership 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Fabrinet's Leadership products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Fabrinet's Leadership needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Fabrinet's Leadership is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Fabrinet's Leadership needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Fabrinet's Leadership to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Real-Time Leadership at Fabrinet (A): Navigating through the 2011 Thailand flood crisis 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 Real-Time Leadership at Fabrinet (A): Navigating through the 2011 Thailand flood crisis can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Fabrinet's Leadership is planning to shift buying processes online.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Real-Time Leadership at Fabrinet (A): Navigating through the 2011 Thailand flood crisis, 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 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 Fabrinet's Leadership supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Real-Time Leadership at Fabrinet (A): Navigating through the 2011 Thailand flood crisis, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Fabrinet's Leadership vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Homa Bahrami, Stuart Evans suggests that, Fabrinet's Leadership 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.
Opportunities Real-Time Leadership at Fabrinet (A): Navigating through the 2011 Thailand flood crisis | 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 Real-Time Leadership at Fabrinet (A): Navigating through the 2011 Thailand flood crisis are -
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Fabrinet's Leadership 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Fabrinet's Leadership is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Real-Time Leadership at Fabrinet (A): Navigating through the 2011 Thailand flood crisis 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Fabrinet's Leadership 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Fabrinet's Leadership has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Fabrinet's Leadership to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Real-Time Leadership at Fabrinet (A): Navigating through the 2011 Thailand flood crisis case study. Fabrinet's Leadership can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Manufacturing automation
– Fabrinet's Leadership 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Fabrinet's Leadership 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 Fabrinet's Leadership to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Fabrinet's Leadership 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Fabrinet's Leadership 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Fabrinet's Leadership 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 Real-Time Leadership at Fabrinet (A): Navigating through the 2011 Thailand flood crisis - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Fabrinet's Leadership to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Fabrinet's Leadership can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Fabrinet's Leadership 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Fabrinet's Leadership 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Fabrinet's Leadership 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.
Threats Real-Time Leadership at Fabrinet (A): Navigating through the 2011 Thailand flood crisis External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Real-Time Leadership at Fabrinet (A): Navigating through the 2011 Thailand flood crisis are -
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 Fabrinet's Leadership business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Environmental challenges
– Fabrinet's Leadership 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. Fabrinet's Leadership can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
Regulatory challenges
– Fabrinet's Leadership 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.
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. Fabrinet's Leadership can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Fabrinet's Leadership is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, 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 Fabrinet's Leadership.
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 Fabrinet's Leadership in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Fabrinet's Leadership 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 Real-Time Leadership at Fabrinet (A): Navigating through the 2011 Thailand flood crisis .
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Fabrinet's Leadership has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Fabrinet's Leadership 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.
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. Fabrinet's Leadership needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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. Fabrinet's Leadership 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Fabrinet's Leadership 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Real-Time Leadership at Fabrinet (A): Navigating through the 2011 Thailand flood crisis 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 Real-Time Leadership at Fabrinet (A): Navigating through the 2011 Thailand flood crisis 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 Real-Time Leadership at Fabrinet (A): Navigating through the 2011 Thailand flood crisis 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 Real-Time Leadership at Fabrinet (A): Navigating through the 2011 Thailand flood crisis 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 Real-Time Leadership at Fabrinet (A): Navigating through the 2011 Thailand flood crisis 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 Fabrinet's Leadership needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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