Drawing 'Align' in the Sand: The Cultural Shift Toward Federating IT at Guardian Life Insurance SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Drawing 'Align' in the Sand: The Cultural Shift Toward Federating IT at Guardian Life Insurance
The 5-year transformation at Guardian Life Insurance provides significant insights for organizations aspiring to enhance their IT-business alignment. Alignment is more than just organizational structure, there is no silver bullet; it requires effective governance, partnership, communications, value analytics, technical services, and people. Like most companies around the globe, Guardian recognized the importance of moving to a collaborative IT-business alignment relationship; IT-business alignment was a persistent pervasive problem that needed to be improved. In 2005, Guardian viewed IT as an ineffective expensive cost of supporting the business. Was improving the IT-business relationship as difficult as drawing 'a line' in the sand? Today, IT is enabling and driving demonstrable strategic business value. The approach that transpired this turnaround at Guardian will provide students and organizations with a clear understanding and set of lessons learned that can be applied to enhance IT-business harmony. More importantly, it will help organizations recognize the important role that IT and business leadership must play as they collaborate to address the important considerations necessary to attain a mature relationship. To demonstrate this transformation, the past and the current IT-business alignment maturity of Guardian has been benchmarked and analyzed to reveal the steps taken to enhance the impact that IT is having on the company. Were these initiatives all that are necessary to enhance the IT-business relationship? What are the important next steps to improve the relationship?
Authors :: Jerry Luftman, Frank Wander, Mark Nathan, Harshil Sutaria
Swot Analysis of "Drawing 'Align' in the Sand: The Cultural Shift Toward Federating IT at Guardian Life Insurance" written by Jerry Luftman, Frank Wander, Mark Nathan, Harshil Sutaria includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Guardian Alignment facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Drawing 'Align' in the Sand: The Cultural Shift Toward Federating IT at Guardian Life Insurance case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Strategy and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Drawing 'Align' in the Sand: The Cultural Shift Toward Federating IT at Guardian Life Insurance casestudy better are - – wage bills are increasing, increasing energy prices, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs,
increasing household debt because of falling income levels, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Drawing 'Align' in the Sand: The Cultural Shift Toward Federating IT at Guardian Life Insurance
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Drawing 'Align' in the Sand: The Cultural Shift Toward Federating IT at Guardian Life Insurance case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Guardian Alignment, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Guardian Alignment 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 Drawing 'Align' in the Sand: The Cultural Shift Toward Federating IT at Guardian Life Insurance can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Drawing 'Align' in the Sand: The Cultural Shift Toward Federating IT at Guardian Life Insurance case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Guardian Alignment
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 Guardian Alignment
Strengths Drawing 'Align' in the Sand: The Cultural Shift Toward Federating IT at Guardian Life Insurance | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Guardian Alignment in Drawing 'Align' in the Sand: The Cultural Shift Toward Federating IT at Guardian Life Insurance Harvard Business Review case study are -
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Guardian Alignment 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 Drawing 'Align' in the Sand: The Cultural Shift Toward Federating IT at Guardian Life Insurance - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Guardian Alignment is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Drawing 'Align' in the Sand: The Cultural Shift Toward Federating IT at Guardian Life Insurance are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Guardian Alignment 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.
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Guardian Alignment digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Guardian Alignment 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.
Organizational Resilience of Guardian Alignment
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Guardian Alignment does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Diverse revenue streams
– Guardian Alignment is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Drawing 'Align' in the Sand: The Cultural Shift Toward Federating IT at Guardian Life Insurance 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.
Learning organization
- Guardian Alignment 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 Guardian Alignment is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Drawing 'Align' in the Sand: The Cultural Shift Toward Federating IT at Guardian Life Insurance Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Guardian Alignment 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 Drawing 'Align' in the Sand: The Cultural Shift Toward Federating IT at Guardian Life Insurance HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– Drawing 'Align' in the Sand: The Cultural Shift Toward Federating IT at Guardian Life Insurance firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Guardian Alignment to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Guardian Alignment to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Innovation driven organization
– Guardian Alignment is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Drawing 'Align' in the Sand: The Cultural Shift Toward Federating IT at Guardian Life Insurance Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Drawing 'Align' in the Sand: The Cultural Shift Toward Federating IT at Guardian Life Insurance 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Guardian Alignment has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Guardian Alignment 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.
Weaknesses Drawing 'Align' in the Sand: The Cultural Shift Toward Federating IT at Guardian Life Insurance | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Drawing 'Align' in the Sand: The Cultural Shift Toward Federating IT at Guardian Life Insurance are -
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Drawing 'Align' in the Sand: The Cultural Shift Toward Federating IT at Guardian Life Insurance 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 Guardian Alignment 's lucrative customers.
Lack of clear differentiation of Guardian Alignment products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Guardian Alignment needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Guardian Alignment 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Guardian Alignment, firm in the HBR case study Drawing 'Align' in the Sand: The Cultural Shift Toward Federating IT at Guardian Life Insurance needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Jerry Luftman, Frank Wander, Mark Nathan, Harshil Sutaria suggests that, Guardian Alignment 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Guardian Alignment 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 Drawing 'Align' in the Sand: The Cultural Shift Toward Federating IT at Guardian Life Insurance, in the dynamic environment Guardian Alignment has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Guardian Alignment has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Drawing 'Align' in the Sand: The Cultural Shift Toward Federating IT at Guardian Life Insurance, 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Guardian Alignment 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 - Drawing 'Align' in the Sand: The Cultural Shift Toward Federating IT at Guardian Life Insurance should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Need for greater diversity
– Guardian Alignment 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Guardian Alignment 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.
Opportunities Drawing 'Align' in the Sand: The Cultural Shift Toward Federating IT at Guardian Life Insurance | 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 Drawing 'Align' in the Sand: The Cultural Shift Toward Federating IT at Guardian Life Insurance are -
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Guardian Alignment 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 Guardian Alignment to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Guardian Alignment 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.
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 Guardian Alignment 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Guardian Alignment to increase its market reach. Guardian Alignment 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Guardian Alignment 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.
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. Guardian Alignment 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. Guardian Alignment 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Guardian Alignment can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Guardian Alignment operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Guardian Alignment has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Guardian Alignment to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Drawing 'Align' in the Sand: The Cultural Shift Toward Federating IT at Guardian Life Insurance case study. Guardian Alignment can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Guardian Alignment is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Drawing 'Align' in the Sand: The Cultural Shift Toward Federating IT at Guardian Life Insurance 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Guardian Alignment can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Manufacturing automation
– Guardian Alignment 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Guardian Alignment can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Drawing 'Align' in the Sand: The Cultural Shift Toward Federating IT at Guardian Life Insurance 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.
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 Guardian Alignment in the consumer business. Now Guardian Alignment can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Threats Drawing 'Align' in the Sand: The Cultural Shift Toward Federating IT at Guardian Life Insurance External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Drawing 'Align' in the Sand: The Cultural Shift Toward Federating IT at Guardian Life Insurance are -
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Guardian Alignment 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 Drawing 'Align' in the Sand: The Cultural Shift Toward Federating IT at Guardian Life Insurance .
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. Guardian Alignment needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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 Guardian Alignment in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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 Guardian Alignment business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Environmental challenges
– Guardian Alignment 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. Guardian Alignment can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
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 Guardian Alignment.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Guardian Alignment is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Increasing wage structure of Guardian Alignment
– 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 Guardian Alignment.
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. Guardian Alignment 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 Guardian Alignment 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.
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. Guardian Alignment can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Drawing 'Align' in the Sand: The Cultural Shift Toward Federating IT at Guardian Life Insurance, Guardian Alignment 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 .
Regulatory challenges
– Guardian Alignment 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Drawing 'Align' in the Sand: The Cultural Shift Toward Federating IT at Guardian Life Insurance 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 Drawing 'Align' in the Sand: The Cultural Shift Toward Federating IT at Guardian Life Insurance 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 Drawing 'Align' in the Sand: The Cultural Shift Toward Federating IT at Guardian Life Insurance 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 Drawing 'Align' in the Sand: The Cultural Shift Toward Federating IT at Guardian Life Insurance 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 Drawing 'Align' in the Sand: The Cultural Shift Toward Federating IT at Guardian Life Insurance 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 Guardian Alignment needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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