Swot Analysis of "David Neeleman: Flight Path of a Servant Leader (B)" written by William W. George, Matthew D. Breitfelder includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Neeleman David facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in David Neeleman: Flight Path of a Servant Leader (B) case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Leadership and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the David Neeleman: Flight Path of a Servant Leader (B) casestudy better are - – technology disruption, increasing transportation and logistics costs, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , wage bills are increasing, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing commodity prices,
digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of David Neeleman: Flight Path of a Servant Leader (B)
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in David Neeleman: Flight Path of a Servant Leader (B) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Neeleman David, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Neeleman David 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 David Neeleman: Flight Path of a Servant Leader (B) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in David Neeleman: Flight Path of a Servant Leader (B) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Neeleman David
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 Neeleman David
Strengths David Neeleman: Flight Path of a Servant Leader (B) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Neeleman David in David Neeleman: Flight Path of a Servant Leader (B) Harvard Business Review case study are -
Learning organization
- Neeleman David 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 Neeleman David is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in David Neeleman: Flight Path of a Servant Leader (B) Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Training and development
– Neeleman David has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in David Neeleman: Flight Path of a Servant Leader (B) 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 Neeleman David in the sector have low bargaining power. David Neeleman: Flight Path of a Servant Leader (B) has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Neeleman David to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Diverse revenue streams
– Neeleman David is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in David Neeleman: Flight Path of a Servant Leader (B) 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.
Organizational Resilience of Neeleman David
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Neeleman David 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 David Neeleman: Flight Path of a Servant Leader (B) 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– David Neeleman: Flight Path of a Servant Leader (B) firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Neeleman David to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Neeleman David to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Neeleman David 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Neeleman David is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Neeleman David digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Neeleman David 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Neeleman David 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 David Neeleman: Flight Path of a Servant Leader (B) HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Neeleman David in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Weaknesses David Neeleman: Flight Path of a Servant Leader (B) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of David Neeleman: Flight Path of a Servant Leader (B) are -
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study David Neeleman: Flight Path of a Servant Leader (B), is just above the industry average. Neeleman David 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 to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Neeleman David is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study David Neeleman: Flight Path of a Servant Leader (B) can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Neeleman David 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 - David Neeleman: Flight Path of a Servant Leader (B) should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study David Neeleman: Flight Path of a Servant Leader (B) 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 David Neeleman: Flight Path of a Servant Leader (B) can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Neeleman David is planning to shift buying processes online.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Neeleman David is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Neeleman David needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Neeleman David to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Neeleman David, firm in the HBR case study David Neeleman: Flight Path of a Servant Leader (B) needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Neeleman David 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. Neeleman David 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Neeleman David products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Neeleman David needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Neeleman David 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study David Neeleman: Flight Path of a Servant Leader (B), it seems that the employees of Neeleman David 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study David Neeleman: Flight Path of a Servant Leader (B), it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Leadership & Managing People strategy. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.
Opportunities David Neeleman: Flight Path of a Servant Leader (B) | 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 David Neeleman: Flight Path of a Servant Leader (B) are -
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Neeleman David to increase its market reach. Neeleman David 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.
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 Neeleman David 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. Neeleman David can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Neeleman David has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Neeleman David to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the David Neeleman: Flight Path of a Servant Leader (B) case study. Neeleman David can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Buying journey improvements
– Neeleman David can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. David Neeleman: Flight Path of a Servant Leader (B) 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Neeleman David is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. David Neeleman: Flight Path of a Servant Leader (B) 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Neeleman David can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Neeleman David operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Neeleman David can leverage digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate the production process, customer analytics to get better insights into consumer behavior, realtime digital dashboards to get better sales tracking, logistics and transportation, product tracking, etc.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Neeleman David 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 David Neeleman: Flight Path of a Servant Leader (B) - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Neeleman David to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
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 Neeleman David in the consumer business. Now Neeleman David can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
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. Neeleman David 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. Neeleman David 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Neeleman David 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.
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. Neeleman David can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Threats David Neeleman: Flight Path of a Servant Leader (B) External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study David Neeleman: Flight Path of a Servant Leader (B) are -
Consumer confidence and its impact on Neeleman David 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Neeleman David with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Environmental challenges
– Neeleman David 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. Neeleman David can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
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 Neeleman David 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 Neeleman David business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Neeleman David 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Neeleman David is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Leadership & Managing People field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Neeleman David can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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.
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 Neeleman David.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Neeleman David 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study David Neeleman: Flight Path of a Servant Leader (B), Neeleman David 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 .
Regulatory challenges
– Neeleman David 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of David Neeleman: Flight Path of a Servant Leader (B) 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 David Neeleman: Flight Path of a Servant Leader (B) 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 David Neeleman: Flight Path of a Servant Leader (B) 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 David Neeleman: Flight Path of a Servant Leader (B) 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 David Neeleman: Flight Path of a Servant Leader (B) 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 Neeleman David needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.