Ellen Moore (B): Living and Working in Korea SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Ellen Moore (B): Living and Working in Korea
This case is a supplement to Ellen Moore (A): Living and Working in Korea, which ends with Ellen Moore working on one of the largest consulting projects in South Korea. In this follow-up case, she discusses how a major crisis was averted and reflects on what she learned during her assignment in Korea.
Authors :: Gail Ellement, Henry W. Lane, Jeanne M. McNett
Swot Analysis of "Ellen Moore (B): Living and Working in Korea" written by Gail Ellement, Henry W. Lane, Jeanne M. McNett includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Ellen Korea facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Ellen Moore (B): Living and Working in Korea case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Gender, Leading teams, Project management and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Ellen Moore (B): Living and Working in Korea casestudy better are - – cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, geopolitical disruptions, increasing energy prices,
technology disruption, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Ellen Moore (B): Living and Working in Korea
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Ellen Moore (B): Living and Working in Korea case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Ellen Korea, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Ellen Korea 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 Ellen Moore (B): Living and Working in Korea can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Ellen Moore (B): Living and Working in Korea case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Ellen Korea
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 Ellen Korea
Strengths Ellen Moore (B): Living and Working in Korea | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Ellen Korea in Ellen Moore (B): Living and Working in Korea Harvard Business Review case study are -
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Ellen Moore (B): Living and Working in Korea 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.
Training and development
– Ellen Korea has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Ellen Moore (B): Living and Working in Korea 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Ellen Korea 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Ellen Korea 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Ellen Korea 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 Ellen Moore (B): Living and Working in Korea HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Ellen Korea is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Ellen Moore (B): Living and Working in Korea are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Strong track record of project management
– Ellen Korea is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Learning organization
- Ellen Korea 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 Ellen Korea is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Ellen Moore (B): Living and Working in Korea Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
High brand equity
– Ellen Korea has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Ellen Korea to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Innovation driven organization
– Ellen Korea is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Ellen Moore (B): Living and Working in Korea Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Ellen Korea in the sector have low bargaining power. Ellen Moore (B): Living and Working in Korea has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Ellen Korea to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– Ellen Moore (B): Living and Working in Korea firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Ellen Korea to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Ellen Korea to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Weaknesses Ellen Moore (B): Living and Working in Korea | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Ellen Moore (B): Living and Working in Korea are -
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 Ellen Korea supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Ellen Moore (B): Living and Working in Korea, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Ellen Korea vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Ellen Moore (B): Living and Working in Korea 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 Ellen Korea has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Ellen Korea 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Ellen Korea 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. Ellen Korea 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Ellen Moore (B): Living and Working in Korea 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 Ellen Moore (B): Living and Working in Korea can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Ellen Korea is planning to shift buying processes online.
Need for greater diversity
– Ellen Korea has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Ellen Korea 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 - Ellen Moore (B): Living and Working in Korea should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Ellen Korea is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Ellen Korea needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Ellen Korea to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Ellen Moore (B): Living and Working in Korea HBR case study mentions - Ellen Korea 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Ellen Korea 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Ellen Korea 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.
Opportunities Ellen Moore (B): Living and Working in Korea | 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 Ellen Moore (B): Living and Working in Korea are -
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Leadership & Managing People industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Ellen Korea can take advantage of these changes in consumer behavior to build a far more efficient business model. For example consumer regular ordering of products can reduce both last mile delivery costs and market penetration costs. Ellen Korea can further use this consumer data to build better customer loyalty, provide better products and service collection, and improve the value proposition in inflationary times.
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. Ellen Korea can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Ellen Korea is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Ellen Moore (B): Living and Working in Korea 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Ellen Korea can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Ellen Korea operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
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. Ellen Korea can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
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 Ellen Korea in the consumer business. Now Ellen Korea can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Loyalty marketing
– Ellen Korea 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Ellen Korea 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Ellen Korea can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Ellen Korea 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Ellen Korea 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Ellen Korea can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Ellen Moore (B): Living and Working in Korea 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Ellen Korea has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Ellen Korea to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Ellen Moore (B): Living and Working in Korea case study. Ellen Korea can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Threats Ellen Moore (B): Living and Working in Korea External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Ellen Moore (B): Living and Working in Korea 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 Ellen Korea 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 Ellen Korea.
Regulatory challenges
– Ellen Korea 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.
Increasing wage structure of Ellen Korea
– 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 Ellen Korea.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Ellen Korea 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 Ellen Moore (B): Living and Working in Korea .
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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Ellen Korea has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Ellen Korea 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Ellen Moore (B): Living and Working in Korea, Ellen Korea 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 .
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Ellen Korea 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Ellen Korea 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Ellen Korea 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.
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 Ellen Korea in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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. Ellen Korea 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Ellen Moore (B): Living and Working in Korea 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 Ellen Moore (B): Living and Working in Korea 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 Ellen Moore (B): Living and Working in Korea 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 Ellen Moore (B): Living and Working in Korea 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 Ellen Moore (B): Living and Working in Korea 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 Ellen Korea needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.