Lighting the Fire: Crafting and Delivering Broadly Inspiring Messages SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Lighting the Fire: Crafting and Delivering Broadly Inspiring Messages
Communicating persuasively is a critical skill for leaders of any team or organization. Yet, connecting and resonating with an audience can nevertheless be a challenging task. We outline how to effectively mobilize groups through the power of communication. This note will serve leaders and members of diverse groups as they find their voice to inspire, unite, and engage others through messaging. With multiple examples as a backdrop, we highlight four key components of effective messaging in this note: 1) Structuring Messages and the Persuasive Story Pattern; 2) Appealing to the Audience; 3) Persuasively Communicating through Rhetorical Devices; and 4) Delivering Clear and Captivating Messages.
Swot Analysis of "Lighting the Fire: Crafting and Delivering Broadly Inspiring Messages" written by Tsedal Neeley, Tom Ryder includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Persuasively Messages facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Lighting the Fire: Crafting and Delivering Broadly Inspiring Messages case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Influence, Leadership and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Lighting the Fire: Crafting and Delivering Broadly Inspiring Messages casestudy better are - – challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion,
banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Lighting the Fire: Crafting and Delivering Broadly Inspiring Messages
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Lighting the Fire: Crafting and Delivering Broadly Inspiring Messages case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Persuasively Messages, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Persuasively Messages 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 Lighting the Fire: Crafting and Delivering Broadly Inspiring Messages can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Lighting the Fire: Crafting and Delivering Broadly Inspiring Messages case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Persuasively Messages
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 Persuasively Messages
Strengths Lighting the Fire: Crafting and Delivering Broadly Inspiring Messages | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Persuasively Messages in Lighting the Fire: Crafting and Delivering Broadly Inspiring Messages Harvard Business Review case study are -
Organizational Resilience of Persuasively Messages
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Persuasively Messages does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– Lighting the Fire: Crafting and Delivering Broadly Inspiring Messages firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Persuasively Messages to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Persuasively Messages to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Learning organization
- Persuasively Messages 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 Persuasively Messages is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Lighting the Fire: Crafting and Delivering Broadly Inspiring Messages Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Persuasively Messages 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 Lighting the Fire: Crafting and Delivering Broadly Inspiring Messages HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Persuasively Messages in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Persuasively Messages 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 Persuasively Messages 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Persuasively Messages 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 Lighting the Fire: Crafting and Delivering Broadly Inspiring Messages - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Analytics focus
– Persuasively Messages 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 Tsedal Neeley, Tom Ryder 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Persuasively Messages in the sector have low bargaining power. Lighting the Fire: Crafting and Delivering Broadly Inspiring Messages has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Persuasively Messages to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Strong track record of project management
– Persuasively Messages is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Diverse revenue streams
– Persuasively Messages is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Lighting the Fire: Crafting and Delivering Broadly Inspiring Messages 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.
Weaknesses Lighting the Fire: Crafting and Delivering Broadly Inspiring Messages | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Lighting the Fire: Crafting and Delivering Broadly Inspiring Messages are -
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Lighting the Fire: Crafting and Delivering Broadly Inspiring Messages 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 Lighting the Fire: Crafting and Delivering Broadly Inspiring Messages can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Persuasively Messages is planning to shift buying processes online.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Persuasively Messages 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Persuasively Messages 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 - Lighting the Fire: Crafting and Delivering Broadly Inspiring Messages should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Persuasively Messages 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Persuasively Messages 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Tsedal Neeley, Tom Ryder suggests that, Persuasively Messages 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 harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Persuasively Messages is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Lighting the Fire: Crafting and Delivering Broadly Inspiring Messages can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Lack of clear differentiation of Persuasively Messages products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Persuasively Messages needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Persuasively Messages 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Lighting the Fire: Crafting and Delivering Broadly Inspiring Messages, is just above the industry average. Persuasively Messages 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Persuasively Messages, firm in the HBR case study Lighting the Fire: Crafting and Delivering Broadly Inspiring Messages needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Opportunities Lighting the Fire: Crafting and Delivering Broadly Inspiring Messages | 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 Lighting the Fire: Crafting and Delivering Broadly Inspiring Messages are -
Buying journey improvements
– Persuasively Messages can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Lighting the Fire: Crafting and Delivering Broadly Inspiring Messages 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.
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. Persuasively Messages 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. Persuasively Messages 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Persuasively Messages 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.
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. Persuasively Messages can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
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 Persuasively Messages 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Persuasively Messages 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 Persuasively Messages to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Persuasively Messages to increase its market reach. Persuasively Messages 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Persuasively Messages 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Persuasively Messages has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Persuasively Messages to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Lighting the Fire: Crafting and Delivering Broadly Inspiring Messages case study. Persuasively Messages can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Developing new processes and practices
– Persuasively Messages 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Persuasively Messages 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Persuasively Messages 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 Lighting the Fire: Crafting and Delivering Broadly Inspiring Messages - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Persuasively Messages to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
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. Persuasively Messages can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Threats Lighting the Fire: Crafting and Delivering Broadly Inspiring Messages External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Lighting the Fire: Crafting and Delivering Broadly Inspiring Messages are -
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. Persuasively Messages needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Persuasively Messages has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Persuasively Messages needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Leadership & Managing People sector. According to Mckinsey study top managers believe that the adoption of technology in operations, communications is 20-25 times faster than what they planned in the beginning of 2019.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Persuasively Messages 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 Lighting the Fire: Crafting and Delivering Broadly Inspiring Messages, Persuasively Messages 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
– Persuasively Messages 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Persuasively Messages 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.
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.
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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Persuasively Messages 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 Lighting the Fire: Crafting and Delivering Broadly Inspiring Messages .
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. Persuasively Messages 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.
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 Persuasively Messages in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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 Persuasively Messages.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Persuasively Messages 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Lighting the Fire: Crafting and Delivering Broadly Inspiring Messages 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 Lighting the Fire: Crafting and Delivering Broadly Inspiring Messages 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 Lighting the Fire: Crafting and Delivering Broadly Inspiring Messages 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 Lighting the Fire: Crafting and Delivering Broadly Inspiring Messages 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 Lighting the Fire: Crafting and Delivering Broadly Inspiring Messages 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 Persuasively Messages needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
