Al Gore: Surviving Career Setbacks SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Al Gore: Surviving Career Setbacks
This case follows the life of Al Gore, one of the most powerful vice-presidents in US history who, in 2000, failed to secure what is probably the most powerful job on earth - the presidency. It describes how he nonetheless reinvented himself after the defeat and built a successful and influential post-political career.
Swot Analysis of "Al Gore: Surviving Career Setbacks" written by Frederic Godart includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Gore Al facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Al Gore: Surviving Career Setbacks case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Influence, Leadership, Sustainability and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Al Gore: Surviving Career Setbacks casestudy better are - – geopolitical disruptions, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing commodity prices, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing transportation and logistics costs, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs,
banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Al Gore: Surviving Career Setbacks
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Al Gore: Surviving Career Setbacks case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Gore Al, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Gore Al 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 Al Gore: Surviving Career Setbacks can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Al Gore: Surviving Career Setbacks case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Gore Al
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 Gore Al
Strengths Al Gore: Surviving Career Setbacks | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Gore Al in Al Gore: Surviving Career Setbacks Harvard Business Review case study are -
Ability to recruit top talent
– Gore Al is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Al Gore: Surviving Career Setbacks are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Gore Al has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Gore Al 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.
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Gore Al digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Gore Al 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Gore Al 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 Al Gore: Surviving Career Setbacks HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Innovation driven organization
– Gore Al is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Al Gore: Surviving Career Setbacks Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Gore Al 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 Al Gore: Surviving Career Setbacks - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– Al Gore: Surviving Career Setbacks firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Gore Al to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Gore Al to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
High brand equity
– Gore Al has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Gore Al to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Strong track record of project management
– Gore Al is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Organizational Resilience of Gore Al
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Gore Al does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Gore Al in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Gore Al in the sector have low bargaining power. Al Gore: Surviving Career Setbacks has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Gore Al to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Weaknesses Al Gore: Surviving Career Setbacks | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Al Gore: Surviving Career Setbacks are -
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Gore Al is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Gore Al needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Gore Al to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Gore Al 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Gore Al 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 - Al Gore: Surviving Career Setbacks 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 Al Gore: Surviving Career Setbacks, is just above the industry average. Gore Al 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Al Gore: Surviving Career Setbacks, it seems that the employees of Gore Al 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Gore Al has created an environment where the organization is dominated by functional specialists rather than management generalist. This has resulted into product oriented approach rather than marketing oriented approach or consumers oriented approach.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Frederic Godart suggests that, Gore Al 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Gore Al is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Al Gore: Surviving Career Setbacks 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 dependence on existing supply chain
– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of Gore Al supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Al Gore: Surviving Career Setbacks, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Gore Al vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Gore Al 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. Gore Al even though has strong showing on digital transformation primary two stages, it has struggled to capitalize the power of digital transformation in marketing efforts and new venture efforts.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Gore Al, firm in the HBR case study Al Gore: Surviving Career Setbacks needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Opportunities Al Gore: Surviving Career Setbacks | 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 Al Gore: Surviving Career Setbacks are -
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Gore Al can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
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. Gore Al 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. Gore Al 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.
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 Gore Al in the consumer business. Now Gore Al can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Loyalty marketing
– Gore Al 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 Gore Al has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Gore Al to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Al Gore: Surviving Career Setbacks case study. Gore Al 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. Gore Al can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Gore Al is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Al Gore: Surviving Career Setbacks 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.
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. Gore Al can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Gore Al 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Gore Al 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, Al Gore: Surviving Career Setbacks, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Gore Al 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 Al Gore: Surviving Career Setbacks - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Gore Al to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Buying journey improvements
– Gore Al can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Al Gore: Surviving Career Setbacks 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Gore Al 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.
Threats Al Gore: Surviving Career Setbacks External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Al Gore: Surviving Career Setbacks are -
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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Gore Al with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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 Gore Al.
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 Gore Al in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Gore Al 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Gore Al 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Gore Al 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.
Environmental challenges
– Gore Al 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. Gore Al can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
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 Gore Al business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, 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. Gore Al can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Al Gore: Surviving Career Setbacks, Gore Al 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 .
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Gore Al 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 Al Gore: Surviving Career Setbacks .
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. Gore Al 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 Al Gore: Surviving Career Setbacks 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 Al Gore: Surviving Career Setbacks 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 Al Gore: Surviving Career Setbacks 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 Al Gore: Surviving Career Setbacks 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 Al Gore: Surviving Career Setbacks 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 Gore Al needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.