Double Career Negotiation (A): Confidential Instructions for the MBA Student SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Double Career Negotiation (A): Confidential Instructions for the MBA Student
A scored 1-on-1 multi-issue negotiation between two romantic partners (an MBA student and medical doctor). After being away for one year and having promised to return to India, the MBA student receives an excellent offer to work abroad. Where will they settle and what will the couple do as regards their future plans and dreams?
Swot Analysis of "Double Career Negotiation (A): Confidential Instructions for the MBA Student" written by Horacio Falcao, Serena Wee, Heather Grover, Chi-Ying Cheng includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Mba Student facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Double Career Negotiation (A): Confidential Instructions for the MBA Student case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Difficult conversations, Financial markets, Gender, Growth strategy, International business, Leadership, Negotiations and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Double Career Negotiation (A): Confidential Instructions for the MBA Student casestudy better are - – customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing transportation and logistics costs, technology disruption, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing energy prices, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies,
geopolitical disruptions, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Double Career Negotiation (A): Confidential Instructions for the MBA Student
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Double Career Negotiation (A): Confidential Instructions for the MBA Student case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Mba Student, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Mba Student 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 Double Career Negotiation (A): Confidential Instructions for the MBA Student can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Double Career Negotiation (A): Confidential Instructions for the MBA Student case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Mba Student
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 Mba Student
Strengths Double Career Negotiation (A): Confidential Instructions for the MBA Student | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Mba Student in Double Career Negotiation (A): Confidential Instructions for the MBA Student Harvard Business Review case study are -
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Mba Student 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Mba Student in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Mba Student digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Mba Student 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Mba Student in the sector have low bargaining power. Double Career Negotiation (A): Confidential Instructions for the MBA Student has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Mba Student to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Mba Student 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 Mba Student in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Mba Student 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Mba Student 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 Double Career Negotiation (A): Confidential Instructions for the MBA Student - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Innovation driven organization
– Mba Student is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Double Career Negotiation (A): Confidential Instructions for the MBA Student Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Mba Student has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Mba Student 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
- Mba Student 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 Mba Student is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Double Career Negotiation (A): Confidential Instructions for the MBA Student Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Mba Student 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 Double Career Negotiation (A): Confidential Instructions for the MBA Student HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Analytics focus
– Mba Student 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 Horacio Falcao, Serena Wee, Heather Grover, Chi-Ying Cheng 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.
Weaknesses Double Career Negotiation (A): Confidential Instructions for the MBA Student | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Double Career Negotiation (A): Confidential Instructions for the MBA Student are -
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Mba Student 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Mba Student is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Double Career Negotiation (A): Confidential Instructions for the MBA Student can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Double Career Negotiation (A): Confidential Instructions for the MBA Student 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 Mba Student 's lucrative customers.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Horacio Falcao, Serena Wee, Heather Grover, Chi-Ying Cheng suggests that, Mba Student 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 Double Career Negotiation (A): Confidential Instructions for the MBA Student 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 Double Career Negotiation (A): Confidential Instructions for the MBA Student can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Mba Student is planning to shift buying processes online.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Mba Student is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Mba Student needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Mba Student to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Mba Student 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Mba Student products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Mba Student needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Double Career Negotiation (A): Confidential Instructions for the MBA Student, it seems that the employees of Mba Student 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Mba Student 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 - Double Career Negotiation (A): Confidential Instructions for the MBA Student should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Mba Student, firm in the HBR case study Double Career Negotiation (A): Confidential Instructions for the MBA Student needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Opportunities Double Career Negotiation (A): Confidential Instructions for the MBA Student | 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 Double Career Negotiation (A): Confidential Instructions for the MBA Student are -
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Mba Student 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Mba Student 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Mba Student has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Mba Student to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Double Career Negotiation (A): Confidential Instructions for the MBA Student case study. Mba Student can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Mba Student 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Mba Student can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Double Career Negotiation (A): Confidential Instructions for the MBA Student 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.
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 Mba Student in the consumer business. Now Mba Student can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Mba Student to increase its market reach. Mba Student 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.
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. Mba Student can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Loyalty marketing
– Mba Student 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Mba Student is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Double Career Negotiation (A): Confidential Instructions for the MBA Student 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
– Mba Student 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Mba Student can develop new processes and procedures in Leadership & Managing People industry using technology such as automation using artificial intelligence, real time transportation and products tracking, 3D modeling for concept development and new products pilot testing etc.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Mba Student 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 Double Career Negotiation (A): Confidential Instructions for the MBA Student - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Mba Student to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Threats Double Career Negotiation (A): Confidential Instructions for the MBA Student External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Double Career Negotiation (A): Confidential Instructions for the MBA Student are -
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Mba Student has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Mba Student 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Mba Student 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Mba Student 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. Mba Student can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Mba Student 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.
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 Mba Student.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Mba Student 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Double Career Negotiation (A): Confidential Instructions for the MBA Student, Mba Student 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 Mba Student business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Mba Student 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
– Mba Student 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.
Environmental challenges
– Mba Student 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. Mba Student can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
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. Mba Student needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Double Career Negotiation (A): Confidential Instructions for the MBA Student 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 Double Career Negotiation (A): Confidential Instructions for the MBA Student 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 Double Career Negotiation (A): Confidential Instructions for the MBA Student 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 Double Career Negotiation (A): Confidential Instructions for the MBA Student 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 Double Career Negotiation (A): Confidential Instructions for the MBA Student 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 Mba Student needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
