Celeritas, Inc.: Leadership Challenges in a Fast-Growth Industry, Spanish Version SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Celeritas, Inc.: Leadership Challenges in a Fast-Growth Industry, Spanish Version
In 2011, Celeritas is a leading data communications company in the crowded, highly competitive, and ever-evolving enterprise-network optimization market. Having experienced rapid growth since its founding in 2003, Celeritas has recently seen sales decline and has begun to lose market share along with its status as the top player. The CEO, concerned about several problems that may have contributed to this decline, engages an organizational development consultant who leads the firm's senior vice presidents through a two-day offsite exercise in team building. A followup meeting with a lower level of management raises questions about the effectiveness of those efforts.
Swot Analysis of "Celeritas, Inc.: Leadership Challenges in a Fast-Growth Industry, Spanish Version" written by Michael Beer, Ingrid Vargas includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Celeritas Decline facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Celeritas, Inc.: Leadership Challenges in a Fast-Growth Industry, Spanish Version case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Communication, Conflict, IT, Leadership, Leading teams, Market research, Motivating people and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Celeritas, Inc.: Leadership Challenges in a Fast-Growth Industry, Spanish Version casestudy better are - – wage bills are increasing, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing energy prices, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, there is backlash against globalization, there is increasing trade war between United States & China,
customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Celeritas, Inc.: Leadership Challenges in a Fast-Growth Industry, Spanish Version
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Celeritas, Inc.: Leadership Challenges in a Fast-Growth Industry, Spanish Version case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Celeritas Decline, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Celeritas Decline 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 Celeritas, Inc.: Leadership Challenges in a Fast-Growth Industry, Spanish Version can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Celeritas, Inc.: Leadership Challenges in a Fast-Growth Industry, Spanish Version case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Celeritas Decline
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 Celeritas Decline
Strengths Celeritas, Inc.: Leadership Challenges in a Fast-Growth Industry, Spanish Version | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Celeritas Decline in Celeritas, Inc.: Leadership Challenges in a Fast-Growth Industry, Spanish Version Harvard Business Review case study are -
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Celeritas Decline 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.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Celeritas Decline 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 Celeritas Decline 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 Celeritas Decline in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– Celeritas, Inc.: Leadership Challenges in a Fast-Growth Industry, Spanish Version firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Celeritas Decline to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Celeritas Decline to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Training and development
– Celeritas Decline has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Celeritas, Inc.: Leadership Challenges in a Fast-Growth Industry, Spanish Version Harvard Business Review case study by analyzing – employees retention, in-house promotion, loyalty, new venture initiation, lack of conflict, and high level of both employees and customer engagement.
Organizational Resilience of Celeritas Decline
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Celeritas Decline does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Analytics focus
– Celeritas Decline 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 Michael Beer, Ingrid Vargas 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.
Learning organization
- Celeritas Decline 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 Celeritas Decline is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Celeritas, Inc.: Leadership Challenges in a Fast-Growth Industry, Spanish Version Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Celeritas, Inc.: Leadership Challenges in a Fast-Growth Industry, Spanish Version 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Celeritas Decline is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Celeritas, Inc.: Leadership Challenges in a Fast-Growth Industry, Spanish Version 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Celeritas Decline has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Celeritas Decline 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Celeritas Decline 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.
Weaknesses Celeritas, Inc.: Leadership Challenges in a Fast-Growth Industry, Spanish Version | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Celeritas, Inc.: Leadership Challenges in a Fast-Growth Industry, Spanish Version are -
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Celeritas, Inc.: Leadership Challenges in a Fast-Growth Industry, Spanish Version 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 Celeritas, Inc.: Leadership Challenges in a Fast-Growth Industry, Spanish Version can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Celeritas Decline is planning to shift buying processes online.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Celeritas, Inc.: Leadership Challenges in a Fast-Growth Industry, Spanish Version, is just above the industry average. Celeritas Decline 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Celeritas, Inc.: Leadership Challenges in a Fast-Growth Industry, Spanish Version, 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Celeritas Decline is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Celeritas Decline needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Celeritas Decline to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Need for greater diversity
– Celeritas Decline has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Celeritas, Inc.: Leadership Challenges in a Fast-Growth Industry, Spanish Version, in the dynamic environment Celeritas Decline has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Celeritas Decline has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Celeritas Decline 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. Celeritas Decline 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Celeritas Decline 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 - Celeritas, Inc.: Leadership Challenges in a Fast-Growth Industry, Spanish Version should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Lack of clear differentiation of Celeritas Decline products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Celeritas Decline needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Celeritas, Inc.: Leadership Challenges in a Fast-Growth Industry, Spanish Version 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 Celeritas Decline has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Celeritas Decline has borrowed money from the capital market at higher rates. It needs to restructure the interest payment and costs so that it can compete better and improve profitability.
Opportunities Celeritas, Inc.: Leadership Challenges in a Fast-Growth Industry, Spanish Version | 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 Celeritas, Inc.: Leadership Challenges in a Fast-Growth Industry, Spanish Version are -
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Celeritas Decline 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 Celeritas Decline to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Loyalty marketing
– Celeritas Decline 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Celeritas Decline 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Celeritas Decline is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Celeritas, Inc.: Leadership Challenges in a Fast-Growth Industry, Spanish Version 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
– Celeritas Decline 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Celeritas Decline can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Celeritas Decline operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Buying journey improvements
– Celeritas Decline can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Celeritas, Inc.: Leadership Challenges in a Fast-Growth Industry, Spanish Version 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.
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 Celeritas Decline 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.
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. Celeritas Decline can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Celeritas Decline 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, Celeritas, Inc.: Leadership Challenges in a Fast-Growth Industry, Spanish Version, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Celeritas Decline 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.
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. Celeritas Decline 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. Celeritas Decline 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Celeritas Decline 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.
Threats Celeritas, Inc.: Leadership Challenges in a Fast-Growth Industry, Spanish Version External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Celeritas, Inc.: Leadership Challenges in a Fast-Growth Industry, Spanish Version are -
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Celeritas Decline 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Celeritas Decline 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.
Increasing wage structure of Celeritas Decline
– Post Covid-19 there is a sharp increase in the wages especially in the jobs that require interaction with people. The increasing wages can put downward pressure on the margins of Celeritas Decline.
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 Celeritas Decline in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Celeritas Decline has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Celeritas Decline 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 Celeritas Decline with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Celeritas Decline 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.
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. Celeritas Decline needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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 Celeritas Decline business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Regulatory challenges
– Celeritas Decline 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.
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 Celeritas Decline.
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. Celeritas Decline can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Celeritas Decline 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Celeritas, Inc.: Leadership Challenges in a Fast-Growth Industry, Spanish Version 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 Celeritas, Inc.: Leadership Challenges in a Fast-Growth Industry, Spanish Version 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 Celeritas, Inc.: Leadership Challenges in a Fast-Growth Industry, Spanish Version 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 Celeritas, Inc.: Leadership Challenges in a Fast-Growth Industry, Spanish Version 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 Celeritas, Inc.: Leadership Challenges in a Fast-Growth Industry, Spanish Version 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 Celeritas Decline needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
