The Perils and Pitfalls of Leading Change: A Young Manager's Turnaround Journey SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of The Perils and Pitfalls of Leading Change: A Young Manager's Turnaround Journey
After early successes in a very selective management-training program, Daniel Oliveira, a young manager for Brazilian fashion chain Clothes & Accessories, is thrown into the deep end of the pool by being reassigned to a region lagging in sales. Early on, Oliveira discovers that his store, located in mid-sized VitA?ria in southeastern Brazil, is in trouble. As soon as he tries to make changes, however, he meets with resistance from long-term employees. The case details his pitfalls and growing awareness of the complexities of leading a diverse workforce and managing change.
Swot Analysis of "The Perils and Pitfalls of Leading Change: A Young Manager's Turnaround Journey" written by Karen Cates, Guilherme Riederer, Nathan Tacha, Ulrich Nsele Awanda Rodrigue includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Oliveira Pitfalls facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in The Perils and Pitfalls of Leading Change: A Young Manager's Turnaround Journey case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, International business, Leadership, Leadership development, Organizational culture and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the The Perils and Pitfalls of Leading Change: A Young Manager's Turnaround Journey casestudy better are - – digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies,
geopolitical disruptions, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of The Perils and Pitfalls of Leading Change: A Young Manager's Turnaround Journey
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in The Perils and Pitfalls of Leading Change: A Young Manager's Turnaround Journey case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Oliveira Pitfalls, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Oliveira Pitfalls 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 The Perils and Pitfalls of Leading Change: A Young Manager's Turnaround Journey can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in The Perils and Pitfalls of Leading Change: A Young Manager's Turnaround Journey case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Oliveira Pitfalls
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 Oliveira Pitfalls
Strengths The Perils and Pitfalls of Leading Change: A Young Manager's Turnaround Journey | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Oliveira Pitfalls in The Perils and Pitfalls of Leading Change: A Young Manager's Turnaround Journey Harvard Business Review case study are -
Successful track record of launching new products
– Oliveira Pitfalls has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Oliveira Pitfalls 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.
Organizational Resilience of Oliveira Pitfalls
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Oliveira Pitfalls does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Oliveira Pitfalls 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 The Perils and Pitfalls of Leading Change: A Young Manager's Turnaround Journey - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Oliveira Pitfalls 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 The Perils and Pitfalls of Leading Change: A Young Manager's Turnaround Journey HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Learning organization
- Oliveira Pitfalls 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 Oliveira Pitfalls is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in The Perils and Pitfalls of Leading Change: A Young Manager's Turnaround Journey Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the The Perils and Pitfalls of Leading Change: A Young Manager's Turnaround Journey 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Oliveira Pitfalls in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– The Perils and Pitfalls of Leading Change: A Young Manager's Turnaround Journey firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Oliveira Pitfalls to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Oliveira Pitfalls to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Oliveira Pitfalls 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 Oliveira Pitfalls in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Innovation driven organization
– Oliveira Pitfalls is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in The Perils and Pitfalls of Leading Change: A Young Manager's Turnaround Journey Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Training and development
– Oliveira Pitfalls has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in The Perils and Pitfalls of Leading Change: A Young Manager's Turnaround Journey 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 recruit top talent
– Oliveira Pitfalls is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the The Perils and Pitfalls of Leading Change: A Young Manager's Turnaround Journey are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Weaknesses The Perils and Pitfalls of Leading Change: A Young Manager's Turnaround Journey | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of The Perils and Pitfalls of Leading Change: A Young Manager's Turnaround Journey are -
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study The Perils and Pitfalls of Leading Change: A Young Manager's Turnaround Journey, it seems that the employees of Oliveira Pitfalls 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Oliveira Pitfalls, firm in the HBR case study The Perils and Pitfalls of Leading Change: A Young Manager's Turnaround Journey needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Oliveira Pitfalls 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study The Perils and Pitfalls of Leading Change: A Young Manager's Turnaround Journey, 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the The Perils and Pitfalls of Leading Change: A Young Manager's Turnaround Journey HBR case study still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Oliveira Pitfalls has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study The Perils and Pitfalls of Leading Change: A Young Manager's Turnaround Journey, in the dynamic environment Oliveira Pitfalls has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Oliveira Pitfalls has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study The Perils and Pitfalls of Leading Change: A Young Manager's Turnaround Journey 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 Oliveira Pitfalls 's lucrative customers.
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 Oliveira Pitfalls supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - The Perils and Pitfalls of Leading Change: A Young Manager's Turnaround Journey, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Oliveira Pitfalls vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Lack of clear differentiation of Oliveira Pitfalls products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Oliveira Pitfalls needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study The Perils and Pitfalls of Leading Change: A Young Manager's Turnaround Journey, is just above the industry average. Oliveira Pitfalls 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Oliveira Pitfalls is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Oliveira Pitfalls needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Oliveira Pitfalls to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Opportunities The Perils and Pitfalls of Leading Change: A Young Manager's Turnaround Journey | 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 The Perils and Pitfalls of Leading Change: A Young Manager's Turnaround Journey are -
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Oliveira Pitfalls 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 Oliveira Pitfalls can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Oliveira Pitfalls is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. The Perils and Pitfalls of Leading Change: A Young Manager's Turnaround Journey 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Oliveira Pitfalls can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Leadership & Managing People segment. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Oliveira Pitfalls 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Oliveira Pitfalls 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.
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. Oliveira Pitfalls 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 Oliveira Pitfalls 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.
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. Oliveira Pitfalls can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Oliveira Pitfalls to increase its market reach. Oliveira Pitfalls 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
– Oliveira Pitfalls 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. Oliveira Pitfalls 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. Oliveira Pitfalls 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.
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 Oliveira Pitfalls in the consumer business. Now Oliveira Pitfalls can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Threats The Perils and Pitfalls of Leading Change: A Young Manager's Turnaround Journey External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study The Perils and Pitfalls of Leading Change: A Young Manager's Turnaround Journey are -
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Oliveira Pitfalls is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Oliveira Pitfalls has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Oliveira Pitfalls 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Oliveira Pitfalls 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Oliveira Pitfalls 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.
Increasing wage structure of Oliveira Pitfalls
– 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 Oliveira Pitfalls.
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. Oliveira Pitfalls can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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 Oliveira Pitfalls business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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 Oliveira Pitfalls 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, Oliveira Pitfalls 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 The Perils and Pitfalls of Leading Change: A Young Manager's Turnaround Journey .
Consumer confidence and its impact on Oliveira Pitfalls 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.
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 Oliveira Pitfalls.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Oliveira Pitfalls 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Oliveira Pitfalls with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of The Perils and Pitfalls of Leading Change: A Young Manager's Turnaround Journey 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 The Perils and Pitfalls of Leading Change: A Young Manager's Turnaround Journey 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 The Perils and Pitfalls of Leading Change: A Young Manager's Turnaround Journey 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 The Perils and Pitfalls of Leading Change: A Young Manager's Turnaround Journey 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 The Perils and Pitfalls of Leading Change: A Young Manager's Turnaround Journey 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 Oliveira Pitfalls needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.