The Thoughtful Leader: A Model of Integrative Leadership SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of The Thoughtful Leader: A Model of Integrative Leadership
As our political, social and institutional environment has become increasingly volatile, we have developed new expectations of how leaders should act. Today's most effective leaders do much more than get results: they also build the capabilities of the people around them and build effective teams and systems, so that unimagined results can be achieved. If this sounds like a job that requires a great deal of thought, that's because it does. The author presents a revised leadership model that reconciles the key theories about 'what leaders do' into an integrated model that includes the thinking of John Kotter, Daniel Kahneman and Roger Martin.
Swot Analysis of "The Thoughtful Leader: A Model of Integrative Leadership" written by Jim Fisher includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Leaders Kahneman facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in The Thoughtful Leader: A Model of Integrative Leadership case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Psychology and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the The Thoughtful Leader: A Model of Integrative Leadership casestudy better are - – cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, technology disruption, there is backlash against globalization, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, geopolitical disruptions, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic ,
increasing commodity prices, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of The Thoughtful Leader: A Model of Integrative Leadership
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in The Thoughtful Leader: A Model of Integrative Leadership case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Leaders Kahneman, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Leaders Kahneman 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 Thoughtful Leader: A Model of Integrative Leadership can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in The Thoughtful Leader: A Model of Integrative Leadership case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Leaders Kahneman
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 Leaders Kahneman
Strengths The Thoughtful Leader: A Model of Integrative Leadership | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Leaders Kahneman in The Thoughtful Leader: A Model of Integrative Leadership Harvard Business Review case study are -
Ability to recruit top talent
– Leaders Kahneman is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the The Thoughtful Leader: A Model of Integrative Leadership are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Leaders Kahneman in the sector have low bargaining power. The Thoughtful Leader: A Model of Integrative Leadership has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Leaders Kahneman to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Training and development
– Leaders Kahneman has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in The Thoughtful Leader: A Model of Integrative Leadership 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Leaders Kahneman in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Analytics focus
– Leaders Kahneman 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 Jim Fisher 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.
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Leaders Kahneman digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Leaders Kahneman 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Leaders Kahneman is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in The Thoughtful Leader: A Model of Integrative Leadership Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Organizational Resilience of Leaders Kahneman
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Leaders Kahneman does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Leaders Kahneman 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the The Thoughtful Leader: A Model of Integrative Leadership 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Leaders Kahneman 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Leaders Kahneman is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Weaknesses The Thoughtful Leader: A Model of Integrative Leadership | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of The Thoughtful Leader: A Model of Integrative Leadership are -
Need for greater diversity
– Leaders Kahneman has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Leaders Kahneman 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. Leaders Kahneman 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study The Thoughtful Leader: A Model of Integrative Leadership, 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As The Thoughtful Leader: A Model of Integrative Leadership HBR case study mentions - Leaders Kahneman 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Leaders Kahneman, firm in the HBR case study The Thoughtful Leader: A Model of Integrative Leadership needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study The Thoughtful Leader: A Model of Integrative Leadership, is just above the industry average. Leaders Kahneman 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 operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study The Thoughtful Leader: A Model of Integrative Leadership 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 Leaders Kahneman 's lucrative customers.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study The Thoughtful Leader: A Model of Integrative Leadership, in the dynamic environment Leaders Kahneman has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Leaders Kahneman has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Leaders Kahneman 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the The Thoughtful Leader: A Model of Integrative Leadership 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 Leaders Kahneman has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Leaders Kahneman 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.
Opportunities The Thoughtful Leader: A Model of Integrative Leadership | 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 Thoughtful Leader: A Model of Integrative Leadership are -
Buying journey improvements
– Leaders Kahneman can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. The Thoughtful Leader: A Model of Integrative Leadership 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Leaders Kahneman 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, The Thoughtful Leader: A Model of Integrative Leadership, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Leaders Kahneman can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
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. Leaders Kahneman can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
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 Leaders Kahneman in the consumer business. Now Leaders Kahneman can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Leaders Kahneman 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Leaders Kahneman is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. The Thoughtful Leader: A Model of Integrative Leadership 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Leaders Kahneman 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Leaders Kahneman 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.
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. Leaders Kahneman can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Leaders Kahneman has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Leaders Kahneman to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the The Thoughtful Leader: A Model of Integrative Leadership case study. Leaders Kahneman 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
– Leaders Kahneman 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 The Thoughtful Leader: A Model of Integrative Leadership - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Leaders Kahneman to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Leaders Kahneman 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.
Threats The Thoughtful Leader: A Model of Integrative Leadership External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study The Thoughtful Leader: A Model of Integrative Leadership are -
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Leaders Kahneman 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 Thoughtful Leader: A Model of Integrative Leadership .
Environmental challenges
– Leaders Kahneman 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. Leaders Kahneman can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Leaders Kahneman 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. Leaders Kahneman will face different problems in different parts of Europe. For example it will face inflationary pressures in UK, France, and Germany, balance sheet expansion and demand challenges in Southern European countries, and geopolitical instability in the Eastern Europe.
New competition
– After the dotcom bust of 2001, financial crisis of 2008-09, the business formation in US economy had declined. But in 2020 alone, there are more than 1.5 million new business applications in United States. This can lead to greater competition for Leaders Kahneman 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 Leaders Kahneman.
High level of anxiety and lack of motivation
– the Great Resignation in United States is the sign of broader dissatisfaction among the workforce in United States. Leaders Kahneman needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Leaders Kahneman 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Leaders Kahneman 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Leaders Kahneman 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.
Increasing wage structure of Leaders Kahneman
– 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 Leaders Kahneman.
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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of The Thoughtful Leader: A Model of Integrative Leadership 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 Thoughtful Leader: A Model of Integrative Leadership 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 Thoughtful Leader: A Model of Integrative Leadership 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 Thoughtful Leader: A Model of Integrative Leadership 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 Thoughtful Leader: A Model of Integrative Leadership 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 Leaders Kahneman needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.