Dealing With A Toxic Boss A SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Dealing With A Toxic Boss A
This case is divided into A, B, and C cases. See OB85 Dealing with a Toxic Boss for an expanded version of the full case. A Case: Ned was an upper middle manager in a major construction company. Six months prior, he was hired away from a competitor to develop the company's market in the fast-growing southeast region. He was assigned to Atlanta to grow that business. As it turned out, the major challenge was not with the market, but with his boss, Bill, Southeast Regional Director. The A case describes Ned's experience working with Bill and Ned's analysis about how to handle the situation. B Case: After a meeting with Bill that did not yield any improvements, Ned decided to approach John, the company president, about the negative impact that Bill's behavior was having on building the Southeast Region. The B case covers Ned's discussion with the company president, Bill's subsequent behavior, and new issues that arose in the regional office. C Case: Ned struggled with whether to continue raising issues about Bill and the impact of Bill's actions on both business growth and employees or simply resign. Case C covers Ned's decision, his plans for rolling out that decision, and the implications of his actions on others.
Swot Analysis of "Dealing With A Toxic Boss A" written by David L. Bradford includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Ned's Bill's facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Dealing With A Toxic Boss A case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Informal leadership, Managing organizations, Managing people and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Dealing With A Toxic Boss A casestudy better are - – geopolitical disruptions, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, technology disruption, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing commodity prices,
customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, there is backlash against globalization, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Dealing With A Toxic Boss A
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Dealing With A Toxic Boss A case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Ned's Bill's, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Ned's Bill's 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 Dealing With A Toxic Boss A can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Dealing With A Toxic Boss A case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Ned's Bill's
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 Ned's Bill's
Strengths Dealing With A Toxic Boss A | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Ned's Bill's in Dealing With A Toxic Boss A Harvard Business Review case study are -
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Ned's Bill's 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Ned's Bill's has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Ned's Bill's 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Ned's Bill's in the sector have low bargaining power. Dealing With A Toxic Boss A has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Ned's Bill's to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Ned's Bill's 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 Ned's Bill's in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Analytics focus
– Ned's Bill's 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 David L. Bradford 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Ned's Bill's 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 Dealing With A Toxic Boss A HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
High brand equity
– Ned's Bill's has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Ned's Bill's to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Ned's Bill's is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Dealing With A Toxic Boss A are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Strong track record of project management
– Ned's Bill's 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 Ned's Bill's
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Ned's Bill's does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– Dealing With A Toxic Boss A firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Ned's Bill's to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Ned's Bill's to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Ned's Bill's in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Weaknesses Dealing With A Toxic Boss A | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Dealing With A Toxic Boss A are -
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Dealing With A Toxic Boss A, it seems that the employees of Ned's Bill's 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Ned's Bill's is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Ned's Bill's needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Ned's Bill's to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Ned's Bill's, firm in the HBR case study Dealing With A Toxic Boss A needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Ned's Bill's 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Dealing With A Toxic Boss A HBR case study mentions - Ned's Bill's 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Dealing With A Toxic Boss A, is just above the industry average. Ned's Bill's 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 dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Dealing With A Toxic Boss A 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 Ned's Bill's has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Lack of clear differentiation of Ned's Bill's products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Ned's Bill's needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Ned's Bill's is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Dealing With A Toxic Boss 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Ned's Bill's 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 Dealing With A Toxic Boss 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.
Opportunities Dealing With A Toxic Boss 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 Dealing With A Toxic Boss A are -
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Ned's Bill's 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Ned's Bill's 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Ned's Bill's 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Ned's Bill's 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 Dealing With A Toxic Boss A - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Ned's Bill's to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Ned's Bill's 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, Dealing With A Toxic Boss A, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Ned's Bill's 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Ned's Bill's can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Dealing With A Toxic Boss A 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.
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. Ned's Bill's can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
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. Ned's Bill's can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Ned's Bill's to increase its market reach. Ned's Bill's 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Ned's Bill's can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Reconfiguring business model
– The expansion of digital payment system, the bringing down of international transactions costs using Bitcoin and other blockchain based currencies, etc can help Ned's Bill's to reconfigure its entire business model. For example it can used blockchain based technologies to reduce piracy of its products in the big markets such as China. Secondly it can use the popularity of e-commerce in various developing markets to build a Direct to Customer business model rather than the current Channel Heavy distribution network.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Ned's Bill's is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Dealing With A Toxic Boss A 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.
Threats Dealing With A Toxic Boss A External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Dealing With A Toxic Boss A are -
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Ned's Bill's 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.
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.
Environmental challenges
– Ned's Bill's 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. Ned's Bill's can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Dealing With A Toxic Boss A, Ned's Bill's 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 .
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 Ned's Bill's in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Ned's Bill's 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. Ned's Bill's can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Ned's Bill's has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Ned's Bill's 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Ned's Bill's 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 Ned's Bill's 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Ned's Bill's in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The Leadership & Managing People industry is already at various protected from local competition in China, with the rise of trade war the protection levels may go up. This presents a clear threat of current business model in Chinese market.
Regulatory challenges
– Ned's Bill's 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Ned's Bill's 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 Dealing With A Toxic Boss A .
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Dealing With A Toxic Boss 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 Dealing With A Toxic Boss 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 Dealing With A Toxic Boss 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 Dealing With A Toxic Boss 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 Dealing With A Toxic Boss 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 Ned's Bill's needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.