Swot Analysis of "Management Levels at Staples (E): Senior Vice President" written by David A. Garvin, Lynne C. Levesque includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Staples Levels facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Management Levels at Staples (E): Senior Vice President case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Leadership, Organizational structure, Strategy execution and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Management Levels at Staples (E): Senior Vice President casestudy better are - – increasing energy prices, wage bills are increasing, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, there is backlash against globalization, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing commodity prices,
competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing transportation and logistics costs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Management Levels at Staples (E): Senior Vice President
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Management Levels at Staples (E): Senior Vice President case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Staples Levels, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Staples Levels 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 Management Levels at Staples (E): Senior Vice President can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Management Levels at Staples (E): Senior Vice President case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Staples Levels
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 Staples Levels
Strengths Management Levels at Staples (E): Senior Vice President | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Staples Levels in Management Levels at Staples (E): Senior Vice President Harvard Business Review case study are -
Training and development
– Staples Levels has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Management Levels at Staples (E): Senior Vice President 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.
Learning organization
- Staples Levels 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 Staples Levels is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Management Levels at Staples (E): Senior Vice President Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Diverse revenue streams
– Staples Levels is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Management Levels at Staples (E): Senior Vice President 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Management Levels at Staples (E): Senior Vice President 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Staples Levels 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
– Staples Levels 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 Management Levels at Staples (E): Senior Vice President HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Analytics focus
– Staples Levels 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 David A. Garvin, Lynne C. Levesque 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.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Staples Levels 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 Staples Levels in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Strong track record of project management
– Staples Levels is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
High brand equity
– Staples Levels has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Staples Levels to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Staples Levels is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Management Levels at Staples (E): Senior Vice President are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Innovation driven organization
– Staples Levels is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Management Levels at Staples (E): Senior Vice President Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Weaknesses Management Levels at Staples (E): Senior Vice President | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Management Levels at Staples (E): Senior Vice President are -
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Management Levels at Staples (E): Senior Vice President, in the dynamic environment Staples Levels has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Staples Levels has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Management Levels at Staples (E): Senior Vice President 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 Staples Levels has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Lack of clear differentiation of Staples Levels products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Staples Levels needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Staples Levels 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 - Management Levels at Staples (E): Senior Vice President should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Management Levels at Staples (E): Senior Vice President has high operating costs in the. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Staples Levels 's lucrative customers.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Staples Levels, firm in the HBR case study Management Levels at Staples (E): Senior Vice President needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Management Levels at Staples (E): Senior Vice President 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 Management Levels at Staples (E): Senior Vice President can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Staples Levels is planning to shift buying processes online.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Staples Levels 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Management Levels at Staples (E): Senior Vice President, is just above the industry average. Staples Levels 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Staples Levels 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.
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 Staples Levels supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Management Levels at Staples (E): Senior Vice President, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Staples Levels vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Opportunities Management Levels at Staples (E): Senior Vice President | 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 Management Levels at Staples (E): Senior Vice President are -
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Staples Levels 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Staples Levels 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 Management Levels at Staples (E): Senior Vice President - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Staples Levels to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Staples Levels 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Staples Levels can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Staples Levels operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
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. Staples Levels 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. Staples Levels 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Staples Levels 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 Staples Levels to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Loyalty marketing
– Staples Levels 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Staples Levels 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Staples Levels 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, Management Levels at Staples (E): Senior Vice President, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Manufacturing automation
– Staples Levels 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
– Staples Levels 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Staples Levels is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Management Levels at Staples (E): Senior Vice President 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.
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. Staples Levels can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Threats Management Levels at Staples (E): Senior Vice President External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Management Levels at Staples (E): Senior Vice President are -
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Staples Levels 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Staples Levels 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.
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.
Environmental challenges
– Staples Levels 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. Staples Levels can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
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 Staples Levels in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Increasing wage structure of Staples Levels
– 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 Staples Levels.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Staples Levels with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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.
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. Staples Levels 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Staples Levels has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Staples Levels 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.
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 Staples Levels.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Staples Levels 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Staples Levels 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 Management Levels at Staples (E): Senior Vice President .
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Management Levels at Staples (E): Senior Vice President 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 Management Levels at Staples (E): Senior Vice President 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 Management Levels at Staples (E): Senior Vice President 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 Management Levels at Staples (E): Senior Vice President 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 Management Levels at Staples (E): Senior Vice President 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 Staples Levels needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.