Marilyn Carlson Nelson and the Carlson Companies' Renaissance SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Marilyn Carlson Nelson and the Carlson Companies' Renaissance
In 2005, Marilyn Carlson Nelson, CEO and chairman of the Carlson Companies, must decide whether to outsource jobs at the risk of destroying the culture centered on the values of integrity, trustworthiness, and caring that she had painstakingly created since becoming CEO of the family-owned company. Profiles the leadership development of the protagonist, tracing her career in business and civic associations, her youth and education, her leadership education, and her values and aspirations. Provides information on the business and history of Carlson Companies, including its company culture and management. Raises questions about the consequences of leadership decisions and the durability of company cultures.
Swot Analysis of "Marilyn Carlson Nelson and the Carlson Companies' Renaissance" written by William W. George, Andrew N. McLean includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Carlson Marilyn facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Marilyn Carlson Nelson and the Carlson Companies' Renaissance case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Informal leadership, Leadership, Motivating people, Operations management, Organizational culture, Social responsibility and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Marilyn Carlson Nelson and the Carlson Companies' Renaissance casestudy better are - – increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing energy prices, geopolitical disruptions, technology disruption,
challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, wage bills are increasing, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Marilyn Carlson Nelson and the Carlson Companies' Renaissance
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Marilyn Carlson Nelson and the Carlson Companies' Renaissance case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Carlson Marilyn, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Carlson Marilyn 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 Marilyn Carlson Nelson and the Carlson Companies' Renaissance can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Marilyn Carlson Nelson and the Carlson Companies' Renaissance case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Carlson Marilyn
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 Carlson Marilyn
Strengths Marilyn Carlson Nelson and the Carlson Companies' Renaissance | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Carlson Marilyn in Marilyn Carlson Nelson and the Carlson Companies' Renaissance Harvard Business Review case study are -
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Carlson Marilyn 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Carlson Marilyn has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Carlson Marilyn 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Carlson Marilyn 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 Marilyn Carlson Nelson and the Carlson Companies' Renaissance 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 Carlson Marilyn 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
– Marilyn Carlson Nelson and the Carlson Companies' Renaissance firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Carlson Marilyn to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Carlson Marilyn to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Carlson Marilyn is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Marilyn Carlson Nelson and the Carlson Companies' Renaissance are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Learning organization
- Carlson Marilyn 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 Carlson Marilyn is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Marilyn Carlson Nelson and the Carlson Companies' Renaissance Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Carlson Marilyn 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 Marilyn Carlson Nelson and the Carlson Companies' Renaissance - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Training and development
– Carlson Marilyn has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Marilyn Carlson Nelson and the Carlson Companies' Renaissance 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.
High brand equity
– Carlson Marilyn has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Carlson Marilyn to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Carlson Marilyn 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Carlson Marilyn is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Marilyn Carlson Nelson and the Carlson Companies' Renaissance Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Weaknesses Marilyn Carlson Nelson and the Carlson Companies' Renaissance | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Marilyn Carlson Nelson and the Carlson Companies' Renaissance are -
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, William W. George, Andrew N. McLean suggests that, Carlson Marilyn 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Marilyn Carlson Nelson and the Carlson Companies' Renaissance 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 Marilyn Carlson Nelson and the Carlson Companies' Renaissance can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Carlson Marilyn is planning to shift buying processes online.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Carlson Marilyn 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 decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Carlson Marilyn has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the industry over the last five years. Carlson Marilyn even though has strong showing on digital transformation primary two stages, it has struggled to capitalize the power of digital transformation in marketing efforts and new venture efforts.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Carlson Marilyn, firm in the HBR case study Marilyn Carlson Nelson and the Carlson Companies' Renaissance needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Carlson Marilyn 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 - Marilyn Carlson Nelson and the Carlson Companies' Renaissance should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Marilyn Carlson Nelson and the Carlson Companies' Renaissance HBR case study mentions - Carlson Marilyn 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Marilyn Carlson Nelson and the Carlson Companies' Renaissance 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 Carlson Marilyn has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Carlson Marilyn 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 Marilyn Carlson Nelson and the Carlson Companies' Renaissance, 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Marilyn Carlson Nelson and the Carlson Companies' Renaissance, in the dynamic environment Carlson Marilyn has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Carlson Marilyn has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Opportunities Marilyn Carlson Nelson and the Carlson Companies' Renaissance | 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 Marilyn Carlson Nelson and the Carlson Companies' Renaissance are -
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Carlson Marilyn can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Carlson Marilyn operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Loyalty marketing
– Carlson Marilyn 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Carlson Marilyn 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 Carlson Marilyn to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Carlson Marilyn 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. Carlson Marilyn 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. Carlson Marilyn 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Carlson Marilyn 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Carlson Marilyn has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Carlson Marilyn to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Marilyn Carlson Nelson and the Carlson Companies' Renaissance case study. Carlson Marilyn can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Carlson Marilyn 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
– Carlson Marilyn 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 Marilyn Carlson Nelson and the Carlson Companies' Renaissance - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Carlson Marilyn to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Carlson Marilyn can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Carlson Marilyn 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Carlson Marilyn is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Marilyn Carlson Nelson and the Carlson Companies' Renaissance 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.
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 Carlson Marilyn in the consumer business. Now Carlson Marilyn can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Threats Marilyn Carlson Nelson and the Carlson Companies' Renaissance External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Marilyn Carlson Nelson and the Carlson Companies' Renaissance are -
Consumer confidence and its impact on Carlson Marilyn 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Carlson Marilyn with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Carlson Marilyn 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.
Environmental challenges
– Carlson Marilyn 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. Carlson Marilyn can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Carlson Marilyn has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Carlson Marilyn 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.
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. Carlson Marilyn 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Carlson Marilyn 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Marilyn Carlson Nelson and the Carlson Companies' Renaissance, Carlson Marilyn 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 .
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Carlson Marilyn is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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. Carlson Marilyn can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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 Carlson Marilyn in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Backlash against dominant players
– US Congress and other legislative arms of the government are getting tough on big business especially technology companies. The digital arm of Carlson Marilyn business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Carlson Marilyn 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Marilyn Carlson Nelson and the Carlson Companies' Renaissance 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 Marilyn Carlson Nelson and the Carlson Companies' Renaissance 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 Marilyn Carlson Nelson and the Carlson Companies' Renaissance 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 Marilyn Carlson Nelson and the Carlson Companies' Renaissance 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 Marilyn Carlson Nelson and the Carlson Companies' Renaissance 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 Carlson Marilyn needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.