How to Become a Better Leader SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of How to Become a Better Leader
This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. Traits that benefit an executive in one position often do not work well in another position. Moving into new roles or environments, executives may need to play up or rein in different facets of their personalities. Strengths can become weaknesses. Psychologists have identified countless traits distinguishing us from one another. But recent research has converged toward five broad dimensions, each comprising a cluster of traits that account for the majority of the differences among individual personalities. These dimensions have been dubbed the Big Five: need for stability, extraversion, openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness. Drawing on their extensive coaching work with senior executives, the authors identify common leadership pitfalls associated with high and low scores on each of the Big Five personality dimensions, as well as potential solutions. For example, executives who tend to dominate group settings -demonstrating high levels of extraversion -can practice the "four-sentence"rule: limiting whatever they have to say to four sentences. Executives who are too blunt or aggressive -demonstrating low levels of agreeableness -can practice the art of cushioning their criticisms with phrases such as "let me play devil's advocate for a moment"or "if I put on my critic's hat." Self-awareness, the authors conclude, is the inevitable starting point for managing one's psychological preferences. Without it, executives will struggle to evolve or find coping strategies. With it, leaders can learn where their natural inclinations lie -and they can boost or compensate for those inclinations, depending on the circumstances. The idea is not to undergo a personality change. It is to be yourself, with more skill.
Swot Analysis of "How to Become a Better Leader" written by Ginka Toegel, Jean-Louis Barsoux includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Traits Agreeableness facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in How to Become a Better Leader case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Knowledge management, Labor, Leadership and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the How to Become a Better Leader casestudy better are - – wage bills are increasing, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing transportation and logistics costs, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, there is backlash against globalization, increasing energy prices,
central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of How to Become a Better Leader
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in How to Become a Better Leader case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Traits Agreeableness, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Traits Agreeableness 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 How to Become a Better Leader can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in How to Become a Better Leader case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Traits Agreeableness
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 Traits Agreeableness
Strengths How to Become a Better Leader | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Traits Agreeableness in How to Become a Better Leader Harvard Business Review case study are -
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Traits Agreeableness 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 Traits Agreeableness in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Diverse revenue streams
– Traits Agreeableness is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in How to Become a Better Leader 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 How to Become a Better Leader 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Traits Agreeableness is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the How to Become a Better Leader 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
– Traits Agreeableness is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Organizational Resilience of Traits Agreeableness
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Traits Agreeableness does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Learning organization
- Traits Agreeableness 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 Traits Agreeableness is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in How to Become a Better Leader Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Traits Agreeableness in the sector have low bargaining power. How to Become a Better Leader has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Traits Agreeableness to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Analytics focus
– Traits Agreeableness 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 Ginka Toegel, Jean-Louis Barsoux 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.
Training and development
– Traits Agreeableness has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in How to Become a Better Leader 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Traits Agreeableness 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Traits Agreeableness 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.
Weaknesses How to Become a Better Leader | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of How to Become a Better Leader are -
Need for greater diversity
– Traits Agreeableness 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study How to Become a Better Leader, it seems that the employees of Traits Agreeableness 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study How to Become a Better Leader 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 How to Become a Better Leader can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Traits Agreeableness is planning to shift buying processes online.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Traits Agreeableness is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Traits Agreeableness needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Traits Agreeableness to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
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 Traits Agreeableness supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - How to Become a Better Leader, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Traits Agreeableness vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Ginka Toegel, Jean-Louis Barsoux suggests that, Traits Agreeableness 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As How to Become a Better Leader HBR case study mentions - Traits Agreeableness 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study How to Become a Better Leader, in the dynamic environment Traits Agreeableness has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Traits Agreeableness has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Traits Agreeableness has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Traits Agreeableness 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Traits Agreeableness products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Traits Agreeableness needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Opportunities How to Become a Better Leader | 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 How to Become a Better Leader are -
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Traits Agreeableness is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. How to Become a Better Leader 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Traits Agreeableness 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 Traits Agreeableness 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Traits Agreeableness 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Traits Agreeableness can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Traits Agreeableness to increase its market reach. Traits Agreeableness 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Traits Agreeableness 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Traits Agreeableness 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 Traits Agreeableness to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Traits Agreeableness 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 How to Become a Better Leader - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Traits Agreeableness to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Buying journey improvements
– Traits Agreeableness can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. How to Become a Better Leader 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 Traits Agreeableness has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Traits Agreeableness to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the How to Become a Better Leader case study. Traits Agreeableness can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Traits Agreeableness 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.
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. Traits Agreeableness 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. Traits Agreeableness 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.
Threats How to Become a Better Leader External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study How to Become a Better Leader are -
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Traits Agreeableness 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.
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.
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. Traits Agreeableness can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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. Traits Agreeableness needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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.
Regulatory challenges
– Traits Agreeableness 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.
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 Traits Agreeableness in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Traits Agreeableness 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 How to Become a Better Leader .
Increasing wage structure of Traits Agreeableness
– 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 Traits Agreeableness.
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 Traits Agreeableness.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Traits Agreeableness with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Traits Agreeableness is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study How to Become a Better Leader, Traits Agreeableness 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 .
Weighted SWOT Analysis of How to Become a Better Leader 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 How to Become a Better Leader 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 How to Become a Better Leader 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 How to Become a Better Leader 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 How to Become a Better Leader 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 Traits Agreeableness needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
