Deloitte SWOT Company - Assignment Example

This paper documents the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threat analysis for Deloitte Company. The characteristics highlighted in this article are those that have the most significant impact on the company’s position in the global market. Deloitte Company competes in the business consulting services market, which may be worth over $20 billion. Since the market is very competitive and fragmented, Deloitte has to differentiate itself to succeed. Firms in the consulting services market need to deal with price pressures and frequent technological changes that occur in the business processes. Since Deloitte is among the biggest consulting service providers, it is critical to conduct a SWOT analysis for the company to understand its success in the corporate world. The SWOT analysis will also identify areas that may require adjustments and appropriate changes Strengths The Value driven approach present at Deloitte differentiates the company from others in the consulting services business sector. Focusing on the value of the client is part of Deloitte business strategy. The company chooses to stick to engage its customers in the company’s operations until there are significant improvements in that particular area. There is a defined business value in everything the company does from promotions to IT. The fact that Deloitte has a defined business value in every functional unit of the company gives a competitive advantage over other firms in the industry. Deloitte uses the Value Map to identify potential areas with clients where the company can improve the value of the enterprise. The Value Map can also help the company in establishing a value-based billing approach (Jestegr, Heng, & Von Uechtritz, 2010). The fact that Deloitte is Business-led in its approach to clients is an added strength to the company. The IT-enabled approach to engagements helps Deloitte attract more customers especially those who are IT-centric. An understanding of the client’s business is a crucial factor in providing a satisfactory outcome in the consulting business sector. A strong technological practice is a strength Deloitte uses in its marketing approach. Companies in the consulting services industry differentiate themselves by the importance of their functional and business best practices. However, the variation among these providers in the level of business, processes and technology expertise. Deloitte exhibits depth in vertical industries and business process knowledge resulting from the company’s clear business strategy, audit practice and investment in research. This is a great strength in the consulting business sector. The ability for Deloitte to invest is another significant strength for the company. Besides having the funds to invest, Deloitte exhibits an exceptional breadth of services and skills that allows the company to works and satisfy the interdependence of its client base and business processes. The long-term working relationship between Deloitte and other clients make the company a trusted brand among many people. Such strengths sustain the excellence of the company in the consulting business world. Weaknesses The fact that Deloitte’s Brand awareness is limited only to some executives in the client enterprise is a major weakness facing the company. Other than the relationships the company has with its clients and executives, the company is little understood by other people. The top business executives only know the company as a financial accounting provider, nothing more. The global structure of Deloitte as an association of independent firm possess a challenge to the company. This means that innovations within the firm cannot be implemented in a clear rolled out manner. Partners in country-level firms such as Deloitte have to be convinced before any decision is made to take innovations or offerings in the market. The structure of management at Deloitte can slow down operations at the company (Jestegr, Heng, & Von Uechtritz, 2010) The other weakness of Deloitte is its underrepresentation in Asia/pacific. Deloitte remains underpenetrated in the high growth region of Asia/pacific. Although the company has some strengths in Australia and Japan, it services are less frequent in these areas, and the consulting revenues are equally small. The limitation of market opportunity due to audit is a weakness facing Deloitte. It is well known that professional rules of auditor independence apply to all accounting firms or organizations that perform audits. Although the independence rules may vary with jurisdiction, they main constraint Deloitte from competing because they may not allow the company to provide limited audit services to its clients. Opportunities The ever changing economic and business environment in the world offers great opportunities to major consulting firms such as Deloitte. In such a changing business environment, Deloitte helps clients solve the competitive and environmental challenges they face such as stiffer competition, consolidation and mergers, growing awareness of business risk, and increasing globalization. Deloitte is in a strategic position to capitalize on these opportunities to improve its business depth. Green agenda offers an excellent opportunity for Deloitte. Since the company has a trusted brand, it can approach these issues from a serious business perspective by portraying itself to the in support of the green agenda. Deloitte is known for credential and skills that may be applicable in the green agenda particularly in carbon trading. The accounting and business heritage makes Deloitte strategically placed to capture opportunities in the green agenda. Thus, the company has invested in sustainable services that are aligned to the global green agenda (Deloitte, 2013). The midmarket offers excellent opportunities for Deloitte. In fact, the Deloitte has already penetrated the midmarket segment. Over 70 percent of its revenues being generated from other countries in the world other than the U.S. In the U.S., about 60 percent of the company’s revenues comes from small and middle-sized businesses (Jestegr, Heng, & Von Uechtritz, 2010). Deloitte has local country-based audit practices that allow the company to penetrate into the midmarket sector. The midmarket is an area Deloitte can further exploit using its innovations such as the Deloitte Digital. The sovereign wealth funds and the public sector worldwide are the other high-growth areas Deloitte can exploit. The health services sector is the other area that offers a great opportunity for Deloitte to exploit. Threats Competition from the IT heritage is a threat to Deloitte. The company is vulnerable to other IT services providers because of the difficulty for a company to cover all aspects of IT required for consulting services. The fact that some companies working with consulting providers can provide their technology may limit the ability of Deloitte to control its consulting business outcomes. Other competing firms that have integrated a business focus with IT such as IBM Global and capgemini pose a great threat to Deloitte. In the current business world, competitors with IT capabilities have great competitive advantage in the business world Approaches to improving performance Leadership is the first step to increasing performance of an organization. Leaders are the first people to implement change in an organization. This is by developing a strong vision for the company and communicating that particular vision to other members of the firm. The leaders play a critical role in eliminating resistance to change that may be springing up in the organization. Change leaders seek to prevent detractors to change. Such leaders ensure that every member of their organizations is willing to embrace the change. By clearly communicating the vision, mission and objectives of the company to the employees, leaders can help improve performance among their employing by ensuring that everyone focuses on the bigger picture (Washington & Hacker, 2005). With the right leadership, various steps can help increase performance within the organization. Firstly, providing clear, achievable goals and ensuring that there are measurable standards for evaluating performance can be critical in improving performance. The expectancy theory developed by Vroom supported the concept that if employees know what they are expected to do, they will yield the expected performance (Lunenburg, 2011). Therefore, employees must understand the goals and objectives of the organization Secondly, providing continuous feedback may also enhance performance within the organization. The immediate feedback helps employees understand how their actions affect the entire organization (Farooq & Khan, 2011). The goal-setting theory suggests that employee performance can be enhanced by setting goals and providing feedback to the employees. Continuous feedback also increases employee motivation to their duties. Praising the employees publicly through monthly celebrations of the best performers and giving them bonuses and other incentives can help increase performance. A reward system for acknowledging the best performers can help employees improve their performance because they seek the rewards. Vroom’s expectancy equation acknowledges the significance of linking rewards and the desired performance among the employees. References Deloitte. (2013). Deloitte Annual Report: Making an Impact. Deloitte. Farooq, M., & Khan, M. (2011). Impact of Training and Feedback on Employee Performance. Far East Journal of Psychology and Business, 5(1), 23-33. Jestegr, R., Heng, J., & Von Uechtritz, M. (2010). SWOT: Deloitte, Business Consulting Services, Worldwide. Gartner for Business Leaders Research. Lunenburg, F. (2011). Expectancy Theory of Motivation: Motivating by Altering Expectations. International Journal of Management, Business, and Administration, 15(1), 1-6. Washington, M., & Hacker, M. (2005). Why change fails: Knowledge counts. Leadership and Organizational Development Journal, 26(5), 400-411. Read More