Diversity Challenge: An Integrated Process to Bridge the 'Implementation Gap' SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Diversity Challenge: An Integrated Process to Bridge the 'Implementation Gap'
At this time of crisis, companies rediscover the key role people play in achieving a sustainable competitive advantage. Taking into account the heterogeneity of their workforces, boards of directors and managers alike face the challenge of understanding how to manage diversities such that the benefits outweigh the costs. This article argues that companies can deal with this challenge by adopting an integrated process of change across strategic, tactical, and operational levels. Indeed, people's differences and diversity management need to be introduced and integrated within company values and vision (strategic level). This vision has to be translated into strategies, a specific policy, and its associated practices to promote the development of synergic cultural and organizational changes that affect the whole company (tactical level). Finally, this policy and its associated practices need to be turned into real actions (operational level). Herein, we propose and discuss an integrated process to implement diversity management in a detailed and sufficiently flexible way such that it can be personalized and adapted to a specific organization. From a managerial standpoint, the proposed model could be a guide for bridging the 'implementation gap' of diversity management.
Swot Analysis of "Diversity Challenge: An Integrated Process to Bridge the 'Implementation Gap'" written by Rossella Ricco, Marco Guerci includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Diversity Integrated facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Diversity Challenge: An Integrated Process to Bridge the 'Implementation Gap' case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Competitive strategy, Organizational culture and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Diversity Challenge: An Integrated Process to Bridge the 'Implementation Gap' casestudy better are - – banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing energy prices, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings,
there is backlash against globalization, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Diversity Challenge: An Integrated Process to Bridge the 'Implementation Gap'
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Diversity Challenge: An Integrated Process to Bridge the 'Implementation Gap' case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Diversity Integrated, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Diversity Integrated 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 Diversity Challenge: An Integrated Process to Bridge the 'Implementation Gap' can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Diversity Challenge: An Integrated Process to Bridge the 'Implementation Gap' case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Diversity Integrated
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 Diversity Integrated
Strengths Diversity Challenge: An Integrated Process to Bridge the 'Implementation Gap' | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Diversity Integrated in Diversity Challenge: An Integrated Process to Bridge the 'Implementation Gap' Harvard Business Review case study are -
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Diversity Integrated digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Diversity Integrated 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Diversity Integrated 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 Diversity Challenge: An Integrated Process to Bridge the 'Implementation Gap' - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Diversity Challenge: An Integrated Process to Bridge the 'Implementation Gap' 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
– Diversity Integrated has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Diversity Integrated 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Diversity Integrated is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Diversity Challenge: An Integrated Process to Bridge the 'Implementation Gap' are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Training and development
– Diversity Integrated has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Diversity Challenge: An Integrated Process to Bridge the 'Implementation Gap' 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.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Diversity Integrated 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 Diversity Integrated in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Innovation driven organization
– Diversity Integrated is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Diversity Challenge: An Integrated Process to Bridge the 'Implementation Gap' Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– Diversity Challenge: An Integrated Process to Bridge the 'Implementation Gap' firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Diversity Integrated to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Diversity Integrated to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Diversity Integrated 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 Diversity Challenge: An Integrated Process to Bridge the 'Implementation Gap' HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Strong track record of project management
– Diversity Integrated 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 Diversity Integrated
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Diversity Integrated does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Weaknesses Diversity Challenge: An Integrated Process to Bridge the 'Implementation Gap' | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Diversity Challenge: An Integrated Process to Bridge the 'Implementation Gap' are -
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Diversity Integrated 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Diversity Integrated is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Diversity Challenge: An Integrated Process to Bridge the 'Implementation Gap' can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Diversity Integrated 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Diversity Integrated 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Diversity Challenge: An Integrated Process to Bridge the 'Implementation Gap', in the dynamic environment Diversity Integrated has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Diversity Integrated has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Diversity Challenge: An Integrated Process to Bridge the 'Implementation Gap', it seems that the employees of Diversity Integrated 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Diversity Challenge: An Integrated Process to Bridge the 'Implementation Gap', is just above the industry average. Diversity Integrated 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Rossella Ricco, Marco Guerci suggests that, Diversity Integrated 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 Diversity Challenge: An Integrated Process to Bridge the 'Implementation Gap' HBR case study mentions - Diversity Integrated 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Diversity Integrated is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Diversity Integrated needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Diversity Integrated to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Diversity Integrated 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 - Diversity Challenge: An Integrated Process to Bridge the 'Implementation Gap' should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Opportunities Diversity Challenge: An Integrated Process to Bridge the 'Implementation Gap' | 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 Diversity Challenge: An Integrated Process to Bridge the 'Implementation Gap' are -
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Diversity Integrated 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, Diversity Integrated 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, Diversity Challenge: An Integrated Process to Bridge the 'Implementation Gap', to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Diversity Integrated 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.
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. Diversity Integrated 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. Diversity Integrated 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
– Diversity Integrated 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. Diversity Integrated can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Diversity Integrated is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Diversity Challenge: An Integrated Process to Bridge the 'Implementation Gap' 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.
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. Diversity Integrated can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Diversity Integrated 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 Diversity Integrated to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Diversity Integrated 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Diversity Integrated 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 Diversity Challenge: An Integrated Process to Bridge the 'Implementation Gap' - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Diversity Integrated to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Diversity Integrated 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Diversity Integrated to increase its market reach. Diversity Integrated 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.
Threats Diversity Challenge: An Integrated Process to Bridge the 'Implementation Gap' External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Diversity Challenge: An Integrated Process to Bridge the 'Implementation Gap' are -
Environmental challenges
– Diversity Integrated 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. Diversity Integrated can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Diversity Challenge: An Integrated Process to Bridge the 'Implementation Gap', Diversity Integrated 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 .
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. Diversity Integrated 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 Diversity Integrated in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The Leadership & Managing People industry is already at various protected from local competition in China, with the rise of trade war the protection levels may go up. This presents a clear threat of current business model in Chinese market.
New competition
– After the dotcom bust of 2001, financial crisis of 2008-09, the business formation in US economy had declined. But in 2020 alone, there are more than 1.5 million new business applications in United States. This can lead to greater competition for Diversity Integrated 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 Diversity Integrated.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Diversity Integrated 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.
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. Diversity Integrated can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Diversity Integrated 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 Diversity Challenge: An Integrated Process to Bridge the 'Implementation Gap' .
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Diversity Integrated 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.
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 Diversity Integrated business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Diversity Integrated has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Diversity Integrated 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Diversity Challenge: An Integrated Process to Bridge the 'Implementation Gap' 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 Diversity Challenge: An Integrated Process to Bridge the 'Implementation Gap' 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 Diversity Challenge: An Integrated Process to Bridge the 'Implementation Gap' 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 Diversity Challenge: An Integrated Process to Bridge the 'Implementation Gap' 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 Diversity Challenge: An Integrated Process to Bridge the 'Implementation Gap' 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 Diversity Integrated needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.