Jan Carlzon: CEO at SAS (A) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Jan Carlzon: CEO at SAS (A)
Describes Jan Carlzon's actions on assuming the CEO's responsibility at SAS in a time of financial and organizational difficulty. After tracing Carlzon's development as a manager, it focuses on the way in which he developed, then communicated a clear and motivating strategic mission to become "the world's best businessman's airline." After a spectacular turnaround, organizational problems re-emerge, and the case concludes with Carlzon wondering if his "second wave" can provide the same impetus that he gained on his first wave. Highlights the power of a clear and well-communicated strategic mission (strategic intent), but also explores problems and limits that can arise. Specifically, focuses on the common problem of motivating middle managers who often feel disenfranchised by front line empowerment.
Authors :: Christopher A. Bartlett, Kenton W. Elderkin, Barbara Feinberg
Swot Analysis of "Jan Carlzon: CEO at SAS (A)" written by Christopher A. Bartlett, Kenton W. Elderkin, Barbara Feinberg includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Carlzon's Carlzon facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Jan Carlzon: CEO at SAS (A) case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Corporate governance, Crisis management, Human resource management, Knowledge management, Leadership, Motivating people, Recession, Strategy execution and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Jan Carlzon: CEO at SAS (A) casestudy better are - – central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing transportation and logistics costs, technology disruption, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models,
competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, geopolitical disruptions, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Jan Carlzon: CEO at SAS (A)
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Jan Carlzon: CEO at SAS (A) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Carlzon's Carlzon, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Carlzon's Carlzon 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 Jan Carlzon: CEO at SAS (A) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Jan Carlzon: CEO at SAS (A) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Carlzon's Carlzon
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 Carlzon's Carlzon
Strengths Jan Carlzon: CEO at SAS (A) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Carlzon's Carlzon in Jan Carlzon: CEO at SAS (A) Harvard Business Review case study are -
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Carlzon's Carlzon in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Carlzon's Carlzon 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.
Organizational Resilience of Carlzon's Carlzon
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Carlzon's Carlzon does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Carlzon's Carlzon 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.
Analytics focus
– Carlzon's Carlzon 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 Christopher A. Bartlett, Kenton W. Elderkin, Barbara Feinberg 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.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Carlzon's Carlzon 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 Carlzon's Carlzon in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Strong track record of project management
– Carlzon's Carlzon is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Carlzon's Carlzon in the sector have low bargaining power. Jan Carlzon: CEO at SAS (A) has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Carlzon's Carlzon to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Carlzon's Carlzon 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 Jan Carlzon: CEO at SAS (A) HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Training and development
– Carlzon's Carlzon has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Jan Carlzon: CEO at SAS (A) 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Carlzon's Carlzon is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Jan Carlzon: CEO at SAS (A) 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.
Learning organization
- Carlzon's Carlzon 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 Carlzon's Carlzon is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Jan Carlzon: CEO at SAS (A) Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Weaknesses Jan Carlzon: CEO at SAS (A) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Jan Carlzon: CEO at SAS (A) are -
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Jan Carlzon: CEO at SAS (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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Jan Carlzon: CEO at SAS (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 Carlzon's Carlzon has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Jan Carlzon: CEO at SAS (A), is just above the industry average. Carlzon's Carlzon 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Carlzon's Carlzon 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 - Jan Carlzon: CEO at SAS (A) should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Carlzon's Carlzon is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Jan Carlzon: CEO at SAS (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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Carlzon's Carlzon 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Carlzon's Carlzon 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. Carlzon's Carlzon 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Carlzon's Carlzon 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 Carlzon's Carlzon, firm in the HBR case study Jan Carlzon: CEO at SAS (A) needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Jan Carlzon: CEO at SAS (A) HBR case study mentions - Carlzon's Carlzon 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 Carlzon's Carlzon is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Carlzon's Carlzon needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Carlzon's Carlzon to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Opportunities Jan Carlzon: CEO at SAS (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 Jan Carlzon: CEO at SAS (A) are -
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Carlzon's Carlzon 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Carlzon's Carlzon 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.
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 Carlzon's Carlzon 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Carlzon's Carlzon to increase its market reach. Carlzon's Carlzon 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Carlzon's Carlzon 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Carlzon's Carlzon can make experimentation a productive activity and build a culture of innovation using approaches such as – mining transaction data, A/B testing of websites and selling platforms, engaging potential customers over various needs, and building on small ideas in the Leadership & Managing People segment.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Carlzon's Carlzon 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, Jan Carlzon: CEO at SAS (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.
Buying journey improvements
– Carlzon's Carlzon can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Jan Carlzon: CEO at SAS (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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Carlzon's Carlzon can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Carlzon's Carlzon 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 Carlzon's Carlzon in the consumer business. Now Carlzon's Carlzon can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Developing new processes and practices
– Carlzon's Carlzon 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.
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. Carlzon's Carlzon 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. Carlzon's Carlzon 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Carlzon's Carlzon can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Threats Jan Carlzon: CEO at SAS (A) External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Jan Carlzon: CEO at SAS (A) are -
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Carlzon's Carlzon 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Carlzon's Carlzon has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Carlzon's Carlzon 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.
Increasing wage structure of Carlzon's Carlzon
– 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 Carlzon's Carlzon.
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. Carlzon's Carlzon can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Jan Carlzon: CEO at SAS (A), Carlzon's Carlzon 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 .
Environmental challenges
– Carlzon's Carlzon 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. Carlzon's Carlzon can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Carlzon's Carlzon 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 Jan Carlzon: CEO at SAS (A) .
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Carlzon's Carlzon 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Carlzon's Carlzon is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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 Carlzon's Carlzon in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Regulatory challenges
– Carlzon's Carlzon 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.
Aging population
– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Carlzon's Carlzon with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Jan Carlzon: CEO at SAS (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 Jan Carlzon: CEO at SAS (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 Jan Carlzon: CEO at SAS (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 Jan Carlzon: CEO at SAS (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 Jan Carlzon: CEO at SAS (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 Carlzon's Carlzon needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
