Sales leadership icons and models: How comic book superheroes would make great sales leaders SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
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Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Sales leadership icons and models: How comic book superheroes would make great sales leaders
Developing strong leadership within the organization is one of the most valuable pursuits any firm can undertake. Considering the many demands on the resources of leaders, developmental opportunities must be efficient and effective to truly impact leadership ability. Comic books and their role in storytelling can offer unique insights regarding core leadership characteristics underlying great sales leadership and act as a tool for growth in leadership capabilities. With the recent explosion in superhero awareness through blockbuster movie releases and increased comic book readership, this article presents a series of leadership characteristics and their embodiment within superheroes. A list of top sales leader qualities from a panel of practicing sales professionals is first provided. Specific examples of these leadership qualities as evidenced by a particular superhero are then offered. These examples are solicited from a panel of superhero subject matter experts and yield insight into how managers can use superhero narratives as a learning tool. We summarize the findings from our research and propose specific managerial challenges and actionable recommendations offered by the exemplars we review.
Authors :: Adam Rapp, Jessica Ogilvie, Daniel G. Bachrach
Swot Analysis of "Sales leadership icons and models: How comic book superheroes would make great sales leaders" written by Adam Rapp, Jessica Ogilvie, Daniel G. Bachrach includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Superhero Comic facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Sales leadership icons and models: How comic book superheroes would make great sales leaders case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Leadership development, Managing people, Sales and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Sales leadership icons and models: How comic book superheroes would make great sales leaders casestudy better are - – digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing commodity prices, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, technology disruption,
supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Sales leadership icons and models: How comic book superheroes would make great sales leaders
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Sales leadership icons and models: How comic book superheroes would make great sales leaders case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Superhero Comic, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Superhero Comic 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 Sales leadership icons and models: How comic book superheroes would make great sales leaders can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Sales leadership icons and models: How comic book superheroes would make great sales leaders case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Superhero Comic
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 Superhero Comic
Strengths Sales leadership icons and models: How comic book superheroes would make great sales leaders | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Superhero Comic in Sales leadership icons and models: How comic book superheroes would make great sales leaders Harvard Business Review case study are -
Highly skilled collaborators
– Superhero Comic 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 Sales leadership icons and models: How comic book superheroes would make great sales leaders HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Superhero Comic digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Superhero Comic 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.
Training and development
– Superhero Comic has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Sales leadership icons and models: How comic book superheroes would make great sales leaders 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Superhero Comic in the sector have low bargaining power. Sales leadership icons and models: How comic book superheroes would make great sales leaders has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Superhero Comic to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Superhero Comic 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 Sales leadership icons and models: How comic book superheroes would make great sales leaders - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Organizational Resilience of Superhero Comic
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Superhero Comic does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Sales leadership icons and models: How comic book superheroes would make great sales leaders 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Superhero Comic 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.
Learning organization
- Superhero Comic 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 Superhero Comic is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Sales leadership icons and models: How comic book superheroes would make great sales leaders Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
High brand equity
– Superhero Comic has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Superhero Comic to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Superhero Comic has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Superhero Comic 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– Sales leadership icons and models: How comic book superheroes would make great sales leaders firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Superhero Comic to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Superhero Comic to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Weaknesses Sales leadership icons and models: How comic book superheroes would make great sales leaders | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Sales leadership icons and models: How comic book superheroes would make great sales leaders are -
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 Superhero Comic supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Sales leadership icons and models: How comic book superheroes would make great sales leaders, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Superhero Comic vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Sales leadership icons and models: How comic book superheroes would make great sales leaders, it seems that the employees of Superhero Comic 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Superhero Comic 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. Superhero Comic 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Superhero Comic 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Superhero Comic 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 - Sales leadership icons and models: How comic book superheroes would make great sales leaders should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Need for greater diversity
– Superhero Comic 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Superhero Comic products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Superhero Comic needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Superhero Comic 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Superhero Comic has not been able to do capital spending to the tune of the competition. This has resulted into fewer innovations and company facing stiff competition from both existing competitors and new entrants who are disrupting the industry using digital technology.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Superhero Comic, firm in the HBR case study Sales leadership icons and models: How comic book superheroes would make great sales leaders needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Sales leadership icons and models: How comic book superheroes would make great sales leaders 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 Superhero Comic 's lucrative customers.
Opportunities Sales leadership icons and models: How comic book superheroes would make great sales leaders | 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 Sales leadership icons and models: How comic book superheroes would make great sales leaders are -
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. Superhero Comic can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Superhero Comic has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Superhero Comic to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Sales leadership icons and models: How comic book superheroes would make great sales leaders case study. Superhero Comic can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Superhero Comic 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, Sales leadership icons and models: How comic book superheroes would make great sales leaders, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
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 Superhero Comic 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Superhero Comic 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Superhero Comic 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Superhero Comic 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 Superhero Comic to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
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 Superhero Comic in the consumer business. Now Superhero Comic can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Superhero Comic can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Superhero Comic operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Superhero Comic can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Buying journey improvements
– Superhero Comic can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Sales leadership icons and models: How comic book superheroes would make great sales leaders 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Superhero Comic 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, Superhero Comic is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Sales leadership icons and models: How comic book superheroes would make great sales leaders 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 Sales leadership icons and models: How comic book superheroes would make great sales leaders External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Sales leadership icons and models: How comic book superheroes would make great sales leaders are -
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 Superhero Comic in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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 Superhero Comic business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Superhero Comic 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Superhero Comic 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 Sales leadership icons and models: How comic book superheroes would make great sales leaders .
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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Sales leadership icons and models: How comic book superheroes would make great sales leaders, Superhero Comic 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 .
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Superhero Comic 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Superhero Comic 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.
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. Superhero Comic needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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 Superhero Comic.
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.
Increasing wage structure of Superhero Comic
– 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 Superhero Comic.
Instability in the European markets
– European Union markets are facing three big challenges post Covid – expanded balance sheets, Brexit related business disruption, and aggressive Russia looking to distract the existing security mechanism. Superhero Comic will face different problems in different parts of Europe. For example it will face inflationary pressures in UK, France, and Germany, balance sheet expansion and demand challenges in Southern European countries, and geopolitical instability in the Eastern Europe.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Sales leadership icons and models: How comic book superheroes would make great sales leaders 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 Sales leadership icons and models: How comic book superheroes would make great sales leaders 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 Sales leadership icons and models: How comic book superheroes would make great sales leaders 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 Sales leadership icons and models: How comic book superheroes would make great sales leaders 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 Sales leadership icons and models: How comic book superheroes would make great sales leaders 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 Superhero Comic needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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