Acquiring Intellect: Managing the Integration of Knowledge-Intensive Acquisitions SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Acquiring Intellect: Managing the Integration of Knowledge-Intensive Acquisitions
To ensure that acquisitions generate value, what should the priorities of the new management team be? If it starts with rationalization (closing duplicate facilities, reducing the head count), it will make rapid progress on the cost side, but risk a demotivated work force. If it emphasizes acculturation (building relationships, fostering a common culture), it will have happy employees, but little cost savings. Doing both at the same time is no answer, either. Intensive analysis of three case studies suggests a model for the acquiring firm in deciding whether to pursue the "high road" by first emphasizing human integration before concentrating on operational synergies, or the "low road" of attending to cost savings initially and subsequently focusing on relationships. Evidence supports the case for a "high road" approach when the acquired firm's key assets are R&D and knowledge-intensive. A three-phase model--initial actions, follow-up, and second wave--is offered to help top management avoid the perils on either side of an optimal integration path. Specific examples are drawn from the experiences documented in the three case studies.
Swot Analysis of "Acquiring Intellect: Managing the Integration of Knowledge-Intensive Acquisitions" written by Julian Birkinshaw includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Intensive Road facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Acquiring Intellect: Managing the Integration of Knowledge-Intensive Acquisitions case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Intellectual property, Managing people, Mergers & acquisitions, Strategic planning and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Acquiring Intellect: Managing the Integration of Knowledge-Intensive Acquisitions casestudy better are - – talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing commodity prices, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing household debt because of falling income levels,
wage bills are increasing, increasing energy prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Acquiring Intellect: Managing the Integration of Knowledge-Intensive Acquisitions
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Acquiring Intellect: Managing the Integration of Knowledge-Intensive Acquisitions case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Intensive Road, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Intensive Road 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 Acquiring Intellect: Managing the Integration of Knowledge-Intensive Acquisitions can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Acquiring Intellect: Managing the Integration of Knowledge-Intensive Acquisitions case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Intensive Road
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 Intensive Road
Strengths Acquiring Intellect: Managing the Integration of Knowledge-Intensive Acquisitions | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Intensive Road in Acquiring Intellect: Managing the Integration of Knowledge-Intensive Acquisitions Harvard Business Review case study are -
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Intensive Road in the sector have low bargaining power. Acquiring Intellect: Managing the Integration of Knowledge-Intensive Acquisitions has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Intensive Road to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Acquiring Intellect: Managing the Integration of Knowledge-Intensive Acquisitions 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.
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Intensive Road digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Intensive Road 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.
Organizational Resilience of Intensive Road
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Intensive Road does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
High brand equity
– Intensive Road has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Intensive Road to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Intensive Road 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Intensive Road 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 Acquiring Intellect: Managing the Integration of Knowledge-Intensive Acquisitions - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Diverse revenue streams
– Intensive Road is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Acquiring Intellect: Managing the Integration of Knowledge-Intensive Acquisitions 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.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Intensive Road 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 Intensive Road 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 Intensive Road in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Learning organization
- Intensive Road 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 Intensive Road is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Acquiring Intellect: Managing the Integration of Knowledge-Intensive Acquisitions Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Training and development
– Intensive Road has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Acquiring Intellect: Managing the Integration of Knowledge-Intensive Acquisitions 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.
Weaknesses Acquiring Intellect: Managing the Integration of Knowledge-Intensive Acquisitions | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Acquiring Intellect: Managing the Integration of Knowledge-Intensive Acquisitions are -
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Acquiring Intellect: Managing the Integration of Knowledge-Intensive Acquisitions HBR case study mentions - Intensive Road 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Intensive Road is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Intensive Road needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Intensive Road to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Intensive Road has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Intensive Road is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Acquiring Intellect: Managing the Integration of Knowledge-Intensive Acquisitions can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Acquiring Intellect: Managing the Integration of Knowledge-Intensive Acquisitions, in the dynamic environment Intensive Road has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Intensive Road has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Need for greater diversity
– Intensive Road 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Acquiring Intellect: Managing the Integration of Knowledge-Intensive Acquisitions 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 Acquiring Intellect: Managing the Integration of Knowledge-Intensive Acquisitions can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Intensive Road is planning to shift buying processes online.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Intensive Road 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Acquiring Intellect: Managing the Integration of Knowledge-Intensive Acquisitions, is just above the industry average. Intensive Road 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Intensive Road 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. Intensive Road 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Julian Birkinshaw suggests that, Intensive Road 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.
Opportunities Acquiring Intellect: Managing the Integration of Knowledge-Intensive Acquisitions | 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 Acquiring Intellect: Managing the Integration of Knowledge-Intensive Acquisitions are -
Buying journey improvements
– Intensive Road can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Acquiring Intellect: Managing the Integration of Knowledge-Intensive Acquisitions 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Intensive Road 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Intensive Road 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 Intensive Road to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Intensive Road can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Intensive Road operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
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 Intensive Road in the consumer business. Now Intensive Road can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Intensive Road 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 Acquiring Intellect: Managing the Integration of Knowledge-Intensive Acquisitions - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Intensive Road 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, Intensive Road 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, Acquiring Intellect: Managing the Integration of Knowledge-Intensive Acquisitions, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
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. Intensive Road 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. Intensive Road 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Intensive Road is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Acquiring Intellect: Managing the Integration of Knowledge-Intensive Acquisitions 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Intensive Road has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Intensive Road to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Acquiring Intellect: Managing the Integration of Knowledge-Intensive Acquisitions case study. Intensive Road can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Loyalty marketing
– Intensive Road 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.
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. Intensive Road can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Intensive Road 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.
Threats Acquiring Intellect: Managing the Integration of Knowledge-Intensive Acquisitions External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Acquiring Intellect: Managing the Integration of Knowledge-Intensive Acquisitions are -
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Intensive Road in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The Leadership & Managing People industry is already at various protected from local competition in China, with the rise of trade war the protection levels may go up. This presents a clear threat of current business model in Chinese market.
Capital market disruption
– During the Covid-19, Dow Jones has touched record high. The valuations of a number of companies are way beyond their existing business model potential. This can lead to capital market correction which can put a number of suppliers, collaborators, value chain partners in great financial difficulty. It will directly impact the business of Intensive Road.
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. Intensive Road needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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 Intensive Road in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Environmental challenges
– Intensive Road 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. Intensive Road can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
Increasing wage structure of Intensive Road
– 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 Intensive Road.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Acquiring Intellect: Managing the Integration of Knowledge-Intensive Acquisitions, Intensive Road may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Leadership & Managing People .
Backlash against dominant players
– US Congress and other legislative arms of the government are getting tough on big business especially technology companies. The digital arm of Intensive Road business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Intensive Road 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.
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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Intensive Road is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Intensive Road 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.
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. Intensive Road can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Acquiring Intellect: Managing the Integration of Knowledge-Intensive Acquisitions 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 Acquiring Intellect: Managing the Integration of Knowledge-Intensive Acquisitions 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 Acquiring Intellect: Managing the Integration of Knowledge-Intensive Acquisitions 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 Acquiring Intellect: Managing the Integration of Knowledge-Intensive Acquisitions 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 Acquiring Intellect: Managing the Integration of Knowledge-Intensive Acquisitions 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 Intensive Road needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.