Case Study Description of Gillette Co. (B): Leadership for Change
Describes the actions and behavior of a new CEO in his first days and weeks as he sets expectations for his top management team and introduces processes and disciplines to begin the turnaround of a global consumer products company.
Swot Analysis of "Gillette Co. (B): Leadership for Change" written by Rosabeth Moss Kanter, James Weber includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Disciplines Gillette facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Gillette Co. (B): Leadership for Change case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Change management, Competition, Leadership and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Gillette Co. (B): Leadership for Change casestudy better are - – competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, technology disruption, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models,
wage bills are increasing, increasing energy prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Gillette Co. (B): Leadership for Change
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Gillette Co. (B): Leadership for Change case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Disciplines Gillette, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Disciplines Gillette 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 Gillette Co. (B): Leadership for Change can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Gillette Co. (B): Leadership for Change case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Disciplines Gillette
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 Disciplines Gillette
Strengths Gillette Co. (B): Leadership for Change | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Disciplines Gillette in Gillette Co. (B): Leadership for Change Harvard Business Review case study are -
Ability to recruit top talent
– Disciplines Gillette is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Gillette Co. (B): Leadership for Change are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Disciplines Gillette 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 Disciplines Gillette in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Analytics focus
– Disciplines Gillette 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 Rosabeth Moss Kanter, James Weber 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.
Organizational Resilience of Disciplines Gillette
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Disciplines Gillette does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Gillette Co. (B): Leadership for Change 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
– Disciplines Gillette has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Disciplines Gillette 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.
Learning organization
- Disciplines Gillette 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 Disciplines Gillette is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Gillette Co. (B): Leadership for Change Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– Gillette Co. (B): Leadership for Change firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Disciplines Gillette to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Disciplines Gillette to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Disciplines Gillette in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Disciplines Gillette 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 Gillette Co. (B): Leadership for Change - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Disciplines Gillette in the sector have low bargaining power. Gillette Co. (B): Leadership for Change has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Disciplines Gillette to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Training and development
– Disciplines Gillette has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Gillette Co. (B): Leadership for Change 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.
Weaknesses Gillette Co. (B): Leadership for Change | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Gillette Co. (B): Leadership for Change are -
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Gillette Co. (B): Leadership for Change, it seems that the employees of Disciplines Gillette 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Disciplines Gillette is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Gillette Co. (B): Leadership for Change can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Gillette Co. (B): Leadership for Change, in the dynamic environment Disciplines Gillette has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Disciplines Gillette has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Gillette Co. (B): Leadership for Change 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 Gillette Co. (B): Leadership for Change can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Disciplines Gillette is planning to shift buying processes online.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Disciplines Gillette 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 - Gillette Co. (B): Leadership for Change should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Gillette Co. (B): Leadership for Change, is just above the industry average. Disciplines Gillette 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Disciplines Gillette 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Gillette Co. (B): Leadership for Change 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 Disciplines Gillette 's lucrative customers.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Gillette Co. (B): Leadership for Change HBR case study mentions - Disciplines Gillette 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 cash cycle compare to competitors
Disciplines Gillette 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Disciplines Gillette 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.
Opportunities Gillette Co. (B): Leadership for Change | 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 Gillette Co. (B): Leadership for Change are -
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 Disciplines Gillette 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Disciplines Gillette can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Disciplines Gillette operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Disciplines Gillette is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Gillette Co. (B): Leadership for Change 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
– Disciplines Gillette 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Disciplines Gillette can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Loyalty marketing
– Disciplines Gillette 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Disciplines Gillette to increase its market reach. Disciplines Gillette 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Disciplines Gillette 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, Gillette Co. (B): Leadership for Change, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Disciplines Gillette 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Disciplines Gillette can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Gillette Co. (B): Leadership for Change suggest that firm can provide automated chats to help consumers solve their own problems, provide online suggestions to get maximum out of the products and services, and help consumers to build a community where they can interact with each other to develop new features and uses.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Disciplines Gillette has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Disciplines Gillette to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Gillette Co. (B): Leadership for Change case study. Disciplines Gillette can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Disciplines Gillette 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 Gillette Co. (B): Leadership for Change - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Disciplines Gillette to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Disciplines Gillette 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.
Threats Gillette Co. (B): Leadership for Change External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Gillette Co. (B): Leadership for Change are -
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Disciplines Gillette is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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. Disciplines Gillette 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.
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. Disciplines Gillette can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Disciplines Gillette 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.
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 Disciplines Gillette in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Disciplines Gillette 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 Gillette Co. (B): Leadership for Change .
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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Disciplines Gillette has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Disciplines Gillette 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.
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 Disciplines Gillette business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Disciplines Gillette 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 Disciplines Gillette 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Disciplines Gillette 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Gillette Co. (B): Leadership for Change 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 Gillette Co. (B): Leadership for Change 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 Gillette Co. (B): Leadership for Change 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 Gillette Co. (B): Leadership for Change 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 Gillette Co. (B): Leadership for Change 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 Disciplines Gillette needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.