Strengths & Weaknesses Analysis

This is an exclusive document to Flevy Pro community - http://flevy.com/pro
Framework Primer
Strengths & Weaknesses Analysis
• Understanding client financial
needs
• Understanding local markets
(international)
• Managing brand image
• Pricing
• Communicating financial product
offering
Marketing Product Development
Sales & Distribution
Channel Management
Execution & Control
• Developing innovative
products
• Width / depth of the product
range
• Designing bundles of products
• Repackaging existing
products
• Corporate finance skills
• Size of the branch network
• Size of investor base
• Local presence (international)
• Efficient salesforce
• Long-term oriented selling
culture
• Consultative selling (including
assets and liabilities, business
and personal matters)
• Managing risk
• Trading global debt, equity,
currencies
• Processing transactions
• Making OTC transactions
• Compliance
• Credit / underwriting skills

2This document is an exclusive document available to Flevy Pro members - http://flevy.com/pro
Strengths and weaknesses analysis
What it is
• Identification of a client’s strengths and
weaknesses that impact its ability to
implement a strategic option
• Assess strengths and weaknesses:
– With respect to the competition
– That are/are not sustainable and
leveragable in the future
– That are potential exportable (new
market expansion)
Why we use it
• Validates opportunities for developing a
company
• Determines a strategic direction
consistent with:
– Company’s capabilities
– Industry requirements
Strengths & limitations
• Strengths:
– Comprehensive process (depending
on time taken for analysis)
– Can engage client early on in
assignment with a familiar topic
• Limitations:
– Time-consuming process
The content on this page has been partially hidden.
FlevyPro members can download the full document here:
https://flevy.com/browse/flevypro/strengths-and-weaknesses-analysis-1716

How to do it
Conduct Capabilities Survey
• Agree with your client the definition of capabilities
• List capabilities using:
– Previous capabilities studies
– Internal survey for clients
– Expert studies
– Etc.
• Test list on sample of client personnel and refine
• Conduct a survey:
– Choose group for distribution:
- Ensure it is significant in terms of size and scope
– Consider best use/coverage of:
- Focus interviews
- Postal/fax surveys
- Workshops
• Ask respondents to assess current and future importance of
the surveyed capabilities in your industry:
– Establish ranking categories
• Map capabilities onto the value chain, differentiating:
– Top 10, bottom 10
– Most important 10, least important 10
Benchmark Against
External Sources
• Choose external consti-
tuents (recognized for their
knowledge of the industry)
• Identify best practices
against which you can test
your client’s capabilities:
– Ask interviewees to rank
company’s performance
against these
Analyze Findings
• Identify capabilities in the
required industry
• Position your client on a
capabilities spectrum
relative to competitors
• Assess gaps
• Brainstorm to drive insight

How to do it – analysis process
Validate
results with
strategy
group &
executive
managers
Review
analysis
regarding
capability
identifica-
tion
Industry
experts
develop
capabilities
along value
chain
Develop
list of
industry
capabili-
ties
Capabilities
validation:
questionnai
re (100
internal)
List of
capabilities
Design capabilities survey
Choose
competitors to
compare
Conduct
capabili-
ties survey
internally
and
externally
Validation by
strategy group
Consult-
ants (who
have
worked on
similar
projects)
Analysts,
head
hunters &
journalists
Selected
400 in
company
Interviews
with top
managers
Analyse
capabilities
survey
results
Validated
capabili-
ties
Internal Input
External Input
Source: Capabilities Analysis – A How to Guide, 1996

Illustrative output (1)
XYZ’s above-average capabilities
• Understanding client financial
needs
• Understanding local markets
(international)
• Managing brand image
• Pricing
• Communicating financial product
offering
Marketing Product Development
Sales & Distribution
Channel Management
Execution & Control
• Developing innovative
products
• Width / depth of the product
range
• Designing bundles of products
• Repackaging existing
products
• Corporate finance skills
• Size of the branch network
• Size of investor base
• Local presence (international)
• Efficient salesforce
• Long-term oriented selling
culture
• Consultative selling (including
assets and liabilities, business
and personal matters)
• Managing risk
• Trading global debt, equity,
currencies
• Processing transactions
• Making OTC transactions
• Compliance
• Credit / underwriting skills
Managing Information
Leadership / People Development
Managing External Relationships
• International communication
network
• Equity and economic research
Funding and Financing
• Quote and brokerage
information system
• Risk management
system
• Sales support system
• Recruiting & retaining talented people
• Managing incentives
• Training and managing the sales force
• Effective teamwork
• Identifying and exploiting new business
opportunities
• Allocating resources to meet strategic
objectives
• Managing government relations
• Managing professional advisors
• Ethical and trustworthy public image
• Building institutional relationships
• Managing local funding
• Strong capital base
• Debt ratings

Fixed ne two rk pla nning & co nstruc tion
Traff ic capacity mana ge me nt
M an agin glarge v olume s of t rans a ctions
Manag eme nt of f ie ld
engine erin g fo rce
La rge sc ale b ill
pa ymen t &
proces s ing
Mo bile ne tw ork
pla n. & c o nstr uction
Re mot ene twor k surv eillance & repai r
La rg e sca le proje ct ma nagem ent
Mana ging q uality n etw ork
operation s co st eff ecti ve ly
Buildingse curit y
into s ystems
D esign ings pecific ation s
f ore xt ernal suppl iers
Co ntra ct negot iation
De mand f orecas ting
D at am anagemen t
Data st ora ge& retrieva l
Retailing
Prod uct/service p ortf olio ma nag emen t
D evelo ping CPE t o
le v era ge pla tf orm
fu nctio nality
C o mm ercia l & financial acum en
Mana ging relationsh ips
with suppliers
Volu me s elling
Cust omer reque st ha ndlin g
L evera ging o f exis ting net wo rk func tiona lity to deve lop solut ions
Co mmun icatin gth e sale s of fer
Ma nagi ng rel a tion s hips
wi th otherd is tributo rs
D e sign ingu s er int erfa ce s
Pla t form & sys tems integ ration
Tra ining, de velo ping & man aging p eo ple
C us tom is ation & fl exibil ity of billing
Co ntinuou s le arning &
kn owled ge sh aring
D at a us age & inte rpretat ion
Cross selli ng oth erpr od ucts t o
exis ti ngc ustome rs
M otivat ingemp loy ee s
D e cis ion mak ing/ empowerment
C reat in gco nte nt
Get ting new
pro du cts /
sol utions to
ma rket q uickly
E ntrep re neu rship
Flex ib ility , ada ptab ili t y an d nim bleness toc h ang e fo c us
Managin g th e inte gration
of mergers, JV & al liance s
In fluen cing & lead ing indu stry stan dards
Re searc h & d evelopment
Ne t work de sig n (inc lu ding envi sionin gf uturep latfo rm need s)
Ma naging corp orate imag ea nd publ ic re la tion s
Re lationship a ccoun t ma nagem ent
Mana ging customers’ g loba l re qu irements
E stab lis hing & neg otiat ing
mergers, JV, allian ces &
fra nchis es
Deve loping & ac ting on s t rat eg ic v is ion
Understan ding the market
d yna mics of the info. indus try
U nderstand ing & in fluencing reg ulators
U nders tandi ng & antici pat ing
c u stom er needs & beha viou rs
Ma nagin g go vernment relat ions
Spo tting
mar ket
tren ds
Crea tivity/
inno vatio n
T ailori ng &
m ark eting s ol’ns
t o mee t sp ecific
c ust. n eed s
C onve rting techno logy d eve lo pmen ts
in toco mmerc ial ap plicat ions
U nde rst andin g& op erati ng
in diff ere nt cu ltures
Pac ka ging con ten t in a cust . ori ented way
M anaging loc a l delivery in ov e rsea s mark etsDesig ning &
deve loping
soft w are
U nder stand ing of hum an fac tors
Pricing stra teg y
Brand m gmt. Com petit or und ersta nding
& de velop ing market resp onse
Build ing &
le ver aging
custo mer l oyalty
Deve loping indu s.
co nv e rgen ce off ering s
Attrac ting &
re tainin gp eople
Illustrative output (2)
Overall Capabilities Summary
Percentage of respondents
rating capability as good,
best in industry or world
class across industry
Strong
Weak
Source: Internal capabilities survey based on 171 responses
Note: Capability is listed to the right of the dot
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Basic Leading Sharing

Strengths and weaknesses analysis – top tips
Potential
Insights
Highlights capabilities necessary to become “best-in-class” player in industry:
– Summarizes discrepancies between external and internal views
– Summarizes capabilities by section in value chain
Groups stronger capabilities to highlight business opportunities
Hints and
Pitfalls
Do:
– Spend time building a solid list of capabilities – it provides the basis for a powerful analysis
– Build a hypothesis of likely output before sending out the survey (can be derived from analyst reports)
– Stick to a generic value chain when breaking down capabilities along it (unless the client has a broadly accepted view of its
industry and its value chain)
Don’t:
– Mistake capabilities with:
– Record of achievements
– Long list of the basics necessary to compete in market
– Summary of individual strengths
Data sources Interviews with clients and competitors are a key source
Joint team/company executives
Previous capabilities studies
SICC database on Lotus Notes
Related
Analytics
Key success factors and index of key success factors
Venkat Matrix
Build, Buy, Ally options

This primer was extracted from the Complete Business Frameworks
Reference Guide
The Complete Business Frameworks Reference
Guide is a best selling document on Flevy. It is 350+
slides--covering 51 common management consulting
frameworks and methodologies. A summary is
provided for each business framework.
The frameworks in this deck span across Corporate
Strategy, Sales, Marketing, Operations, Organization,
Change Management, and Finance.
This reference guide is great for those who need a
refresher on common frameworks, as well as be
introduced and learn new useful frameworks.
You can find this document here;
http://flevy.com/browse/business-document/complete-
consulting-frameworks-toolkit-644

Flevy (www.flevy.com) is the marketplace
for premium documents. These
documents can range from Business
Frameworks to Financial Models to
PowerPoint Templates.
Flevy was founded under the principle that
companies waste a lot of time and money
recreating the same foundational business
documents. Our vision is for Flevy to
become a comprehensive knowledge base
of business documents. All organizations,
from startups to large enterprises, can use
Flevy— whether it's to jumpstart projects, to
find reference or comparison materials, or
just to learn.
Contact Us
Please contact us with any questions you may have
about our company.
• General Inquiries
support@flevy.com
• Media/PR
press@flevy.com
• Billing
billing@flevy.com

1
Flevy (www.flevy.com) is the marketplace
for premium documents. These
documents can range from Business
Frameworks to Financial Models to
PowerPoint Templates.
Flevy was founded under the principle that
companies waste a lot of time and money
recreating the same foundational business
documents. Our vision is for Flevy to
become a comprehensive knowledge base
of business documents. All organizations,
from startups to large enterprises, can use
Flevy— whether it's to jumpstart projects, to
find reference or comparison materials, or
just to learn.
Contact Us
Please contact us with any questions you may have
about our company.
• General Inquiries
support@flevy.com
• Media/PR
press@flevy.com
• Billing
billing@flevy.com

Strengths & Weaknesses Analysis

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

Similar to Strengths & Weaknesses Analysis

Similar to Strengths & Weaknesses Analysis (20)

More from Flevy.com Best Practices

More from Flevy.com Best Practices (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Strengths & Weaknesses Analysis