Case Study Description of Re-Imagining Crotonville: Epicenter of GE's Leadership Culture (A)
The case examines the evolution of GE's corporate university in Crotonville, NY from its founding in 1956 through 2010 and the start of an effort of "Re-Imagining Crotonville." One of the world's first corporate universities, Crotonville became a model of leadership development and a recognized innovator in its field. The case details the role that Crotonville played under successive GE leaders, from Ralph Cordiner - who inaugurated Crotonville to train general managers to support a sweeping decentralization program - to Jeffrey Immelt. It considers how the institution changed in response to changing business needs and the factors that contributed to its vitality and success over several decades. Beginning in the 1980s, Crotonville became the nerve center of a cultural change effort launched by CEO Jack Welch, spawning programs such as "Work-Out" to cut through bureaucracy and return initiative to individual managers. Following the global financial crisis in 2008-9, CEO Jeffrey Immelt and Crotonville's leaders set in motion an exploration of the changing nature of leadership needed to confront the new realities in which GE operated globally. CLO Susan Peters initiated Re-Imagining Crotonville to align learning and development with these new leadership expectations. The case examines the choices faced by Peters and her team in re-thinking the environment, experience, and content of leadership learning at Crotonville. Learning objectives: Understand factors that have made Crotonville central to GE's leadership culture over time. Examine role of CEO and corporate leadership in driving cultural change through learning and development. Understand the unique assets and potential limitations of a 'corporate university' model for leadership learning. Explore the change management challenges of managing a legacy of success - continuing to evolve while preserving the strong 'brand' and 'secret sauce' that make Crotonville unique.
Authors :: Shlomo Ben-Hur, Bernard J. Jaworski, David Gray
Swot Analysis of "Re-Imagining Crotonville: Epicenter of GE's Leadership Culture (A)" written by Shlomo Ben-Hur, Bernard J. Jaworski, David Gray includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Crotonville Imagining facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Re-Imagining Crotonville: Epicenter of GE's Leadership Culture (A) case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Knowledge management, Leadership development, Manufacturing, Strategy and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Re-Imagining Crotonville: Epicenter of GE's Leadership Culture (A) casestudy better are - – increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, there is backlash against globalization, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing transportation and logistics costs, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation,
increasing commodity prices, increasing energy prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Re-Imagining Crotonville: Epicenter of GE's Leadership Culture (A)
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Re-Imagining Crotonville: Epicenter of GE's Leadership Culture (A) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Crotonville Imagining, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Crotonville Imagining 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 Re-Imagining Crotonville: Epicenter of GE's Leadership Culture (A) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Re-Imagining Crotonville: Epicenter of GE's Leadership Culture (A) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Crotonville Imagining
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 Crotonville Imagining
Strengths Re-Imagining Crotonville: Epicenter of GE's Leadership Culture (A) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Crotonville Imagining in Re-Imagining Crotonville: Epicenter of GE's Leadership Culture (A) Harvard Business Review case study are -
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– Re-Imagining Crotonville: Epicenter of GE's Leadership Culture (A) firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Crotonville Imagining to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Crotonville Imagining to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Crotonville Imagining 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 Re-Imagining Crotonville: Epicenter of GE's Leadership Culture (A) HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Strong track record of project management
– Crotonville Imagining is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Analytics focus
– Crotonville Imagining 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 Shlomo Ben-Hur, Bernard J. Jaworski, David Gray 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Re-Imagining Crotonville: Epicenter of GE's Leadership Culture (A) 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.
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Crotonville Imagining digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Crotonville Imagining 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
– Crotonville Imagining is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Re-Imagining Crotonville: Epicenter of GE's Leadership Culture (A) Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Learning organization
- Crotonville Imagining 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 Crotonville Imagining is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Re-Imagining Crotonville: Epicenter of GE's Leadership Culture (A) Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
High brand equity
– Crotonville Imagining has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Crotonville Imagining to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Crotonville Imagining 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 Crotonville Imagining in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Crotonville Imagining in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Diverse revenue streams
– Crotonville Imagining is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Re-Imagining Crotonville: Epicenter of GE's Leadership Culture (A) case study a diverse revenue stream that has helped it to survive disruptions such as global pandemic in Covid-19, financial disruption of 2008, and supply chain disruption of 2021.
Weaknesses Re-Imagining Crotonville: Epicenter of GE's Leadership Culture (A) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Re-Imagining Crotonville: Epicenter of GE's Leadership Culture (A) are -
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Crotonville Imagining is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Re-Imagining Crotonville: Epicenter of GE's Leadership Culture (A) can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Crotonville Imagining needs to come up with a strategy to reduce the workers concern regarding automation. Without a clear strategy, it could lead to disruption and uncertainty within the organization.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Shlomo Ben-Hur, Bernard J. Jaworski, David Gray suggests that, Crotonville Imagining 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Crotonville Imagining 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Re-Imagining Crotonville: Epicenter of GE's Leadership Culture (A), 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Crotonville Imagining products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Crotonville Imagining 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 Re-Imagining Crotonville: Epicenter of GE's Leadership Culture (A), is just above the industry average. Crotonville Imagining 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Re-Imagining Crotonville: Epicenter of GE's Leadership Culture (A), in the dynamic environment Crotonville Imagining has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Crotonville Imagining has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Re-Imagining Crotonville: Epicenter of GE's Leadership Culture (A), it seems that the employees of Crotonville Imagining 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Re-Imagining Crotonville: Epicenter of GE's Leadership Culture (A) 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 Re-Imagining Crotonville: Epicenter of GE's Leadership Culture (A) can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Crotonville Imagining is planning to shift buying processes online.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Crotonville Imagining 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 - Re-Imagining Crotonville: Epicenter of GE's Leadership Culture (A) should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Opportunities Re-Imagining Crotonville: Epicenter of GE's Leadership Culture (A) | 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 Re-Imagining Crotonville: Epicenter of GE's Leadership Culture (A) are -
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 Crotonville Imagining in the consumer business. Now Crotonville Imagining can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
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. Crotonville Imagining 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. Crotonville Imagining 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Crotonville Imagining to increase its market reach. Crotonville Imagining 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Crotonville Imagining 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.
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. Crotonville Imagining can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Crotonville Imagining 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 Crotonville Imagining to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Crotonville Imagining 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Crotonville Imagining 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Crotonville Imagining has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Crotonville Imagining to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Re-Imagining Crotonville: Epicenter of GE's Leadership Culture (A) case study. Crotonville Imagining can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Leadership & Managing People industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Crotonville Imagining can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Crotonville Imagining 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Crotonville Imagining 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Crotonville Imagining 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 Re-Imagining Crotonville: Epicenter of GE's Leadership Culture (A) External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Re-Imagining Crotonville: Epicenter of GE's Leadership Culture (A) are -
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 Crotonville Imagining.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Crotonville Imagining 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Crotonville Imagining 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
– Crotonville Imagining has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Crotonville Imagining 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Crotonville Imagining 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 Re-Imagining Crotonville: Epicenter of GE's Leadership Culture (A) .
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Crotonville Imagining with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Crotonville Imagining 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.
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.
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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Re-Imagining Crotonville: Epicenter of GE's Leadership Culture (A), Crotonville Imagining 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 .
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 Crotonville Imagining business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, 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. Crotonville Imagining will face different problems in different parts of Europe. For example it will face inflationary pressures in UK, France, and Germany, balance sheet expansion and demand challenges in Southern European countries, and geopolitical instability in the Eastern Europe.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Crotonville Imagining 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Re-Imagining Crotonville: Epicenter of GE's Leadership Culture (A) 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 Re-Imagining Crotonville: Epicenter of GE's Leadership Culture (A) 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 Re-Imagining Crotonville: Epicenter of GE's Leadership Culture (A) 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 Re-Imagining Crotonville: Epicenter of GE's Leadership Culture (A) 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 Re-Imagining Crotonville: Epicenter of GE's Leadership Culture (A) 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 Crotonville Imagining needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.