Lockheed Martin: The Employer of Choice Mission SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Lockheed Martin: The Employer of Choice Mission
A Lockheed Martin manager is faced with the decision of where to focus the organization's resources in order to develop a world-class employee development system. The manager's recommendation will serve as the basis for the company's goal of becoming an Employer of Choice in the minds of its current and prospective employees. Compounding the difficulty of his decision is the pressure from the current financial, operational, and cultural challenges facing the business. With the defense industry becoming more cost competitive and contracts being awarded to non-traditional defense industry suppliers, Lockheed Martin is faced with a need to reduce its cost structure while developing employee talent and future leaders who can adapt quickly to change and effectively lead in this new environment.
Authors :: Clayton M. Christensen, Michael Overdorf
Swot Analysis of "Lockheed Martin: The Employer of Choice Mission" written by Clayton M. Christensen, Michael Overdorf includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Lockheed Martin facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Lockheed Martin: The Employer of Choice Mission case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Leadership development, Organizational structure and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Lockheed Martin: The Employer of Choice Mission casestudy better are - – digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing energy prices, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, wage bills are increasing, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy,
increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing transportation and logistics costs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Lockheed Martin: The Employer of Choice Mission
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Lockheed Martin: The Employer of Choice Mission case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Lockheed Martin, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Lockheed Martin 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 Lockheed Martin: The Employer of Choice Mission can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Lockheed Martin: The Employer of Choice Mission case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Lockheed Martin
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 Lockheed Martin
Strengths Lockheed Martin: The Employer of Choice Mission | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Lockheed Martin in Lockheed Martin: The Employer of Choice Mission Harvard Business Review case study are -
Learning organization
- Lockheed Martin 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 Lockheed Martin is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Lockheed Martin: The Employer of Choice Mission Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Innovation driven organization
– Lockheed Martin is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Lockheed Martin: The Employer of Choice Mission Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Lockheed Martin has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Lockheed Martin has effective processes in place that helps in exploring new product needs, doing quick pilot testing, and then launching the products quickly using its extensive distribution network.
High brand equity
– Lockheed Martin has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Lockheed Martin to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Lockheed Martin 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 Lockheed Martin in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Lockheed Martin 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.
Organizational Resilience of Lockheed Martin
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Lockheed Martin does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Lockheed Martin is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Lockheed Martin: The Employer of Choice Mission are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Lockheed Martin: The Employer of Choice Mission 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Lockheed Martin in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Diverse revenue streams
– Lockheed Martin is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Lockheed Martin: The Employer of Choice Mission 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.
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Lockheed Martin digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Lockheed Martin 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.
Weaknesses Lockheed Martin: The Employer of Choice Mission | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Lockheed Martin: The Employer of Choice Mission are -
Lack of clear differentiation of Lockheed Martin products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Lockheed Martin needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Lockheed Martin: The Employer of Choice Mission, it seems that the employees of Lockheed Martin 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Lockheed Martin 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 Lockheed Martin, firm in the HBR case study Lockheed Martin: The Employer of Choice Mission needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Lockheed Martin: The Employer of Choice Mission, in the dynamic environment Lockheed Martin has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Lockheed Martin has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Lockheed Martin: The Employer of Choice Mission 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 Lockheed Martin: The Employer of Choice Mission can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Lockheed Martin is planning to shift buying processes online.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Lockheed Martin 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 - Lockheed Martin: The Employer of Choice Mission should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Lockheed Martin is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Lockheed Martin: The Employer of Choice Mission can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Lockheed Martin is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Lockheed Martin needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Lockheed Martin to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Lockheed Martin 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. Lockheed Martin 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Lockheed Martin: The Employer of Choice Mission, is just above the industry average. Lockheed Martin 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.
Opportunities Lockheed Martin: The Employer of Choice Mission | 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 Lockheed Martin: The Employer of Choice Mission are -
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Lockheed Martin in the consumer business. Now Lockheed Martin can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Lockheed Martin 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.
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. Lockheed Martin can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Lockheed Martin can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Lockheed Martin operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Lockheed Martin 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Lockheed Martin to increase its market reach. Lockheed Martin will be able to reach out to new customers. Secondly 5G will also provide technology framework to build new tools and products that can help more immersive consumer experience and faster consumer journey.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Lockheed Martin 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Lockheed Martin 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.
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 Lockheed Martin 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Lockheed Martin has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Lockheed Martin to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Lockheed Martin: The Employer of Choice Mission case study. Lockheed Martin can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Lockheed Martin 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, Lockheed Martin: The Employer of Choice Mission, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Lockheed Martin 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Lockheed Martin can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Threats Lockheed Martin: The Employer of Choice Mission External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Lockheed Martin: The Employer of Choice Mission 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. Lockheed Martin 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Lockheed Martin 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Lockheed Martin 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Lockheed Martin 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.
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 Lockheed Martin.
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 Lockheed Martin business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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 Lockheed Martin in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Environmental challenges
– Lockheed Martin 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. Lockheed Martin can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
Increasing wage structure of Lockheed Martin
– 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 Lockheed Martin.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Lockheed Martin 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 Lockheed Martin: The Employer of Choice Mission .
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Lockheed Martin with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Lockheed Martin has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Lockheed Martin 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Lockheed Martin is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Lockheed Martin: The Employer of Choice Mission 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 Lockheed Martin: The Employer of Choice Mission 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 Lockheed Martin: The Employer of Choice Mission 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 Lockheed Martin: The Employer of Choice Mission 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 Lockheed Martin: The Employer of Choice Mission 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 Lockheed Martin needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
