StormFisher (A): Power with Purpose SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Organizational Development
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of StormFisher (A): Power with Purpose
The case illustrates the tensions, trade-offs and adaptation challenges involved in designing a clean technology venture in a changing regulatory, funding and competitive context (Ontario, Canada, 2006-2008). The multiple decision points in the case have the students critically and iteratively assess the prospects of clean technology ventures and the evolving interface between technology and strategy in Canada's emerging clean energy sector. Beyond understanding the specific challenges faced by the venturing team, students are asked to grapple with the controversies and priorities for Canada's environmental policies in the energy sector, discuss competitive tension or symbiotic relationships between incumbents and disruptors, and actively align new venture design and strategy with a rapidly morphing regulatory, technological and competitive environment. The case discussion also opens up a broader platform for exploring the role of incumbents and disruptive business models in informing provincial and national responses to climate change, and, more generally, the role of cleantech venturing and venture capital in fostering climate change readiness and greener energy solutions. The A case asks students to compare and contrast the clean technologies available, discuss their pros and cons, and articulate a compelling business proposition.
Authors :: Oana Branzei, Stewart Thornhill, Adam Reeds
Swot Analysis of "StormFisher (A): Power with Purpose" written by Oana Branzei, Stewart Thornhill, Adam Reeds includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Clean Venturing facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in StormFisher (A): Power with Purpose case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Government, Organizational structure, Strategy, Sustainability, Technology, Venture capital and Organizational Development.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the StormFisher (A): Power with Purpose casestudy better are - – wage bills are increasing, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, there is backlash against globalization, increasing energy prices, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies,
competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of StormFisher (A): Power with Purpose
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in StormFisher (A): Power with Purpose case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Clean Venturing, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Clean Venturing 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 StormFisher (A): Power with Purpose can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in StormFisher (A): Power with Purpose case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Clean Venturing
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Organizational Development field.
4. Making a Organizational Development topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Clean Venturing
Strengths StormFisher (A): Power with Purpose | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Clean Venturing in StormFisher (A): Power with Purpose Harvard Business Review case study are -
Digital Transformation in Organizational Development segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Clean Venturing digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Clean Venturing 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the StormFisher (A): Power with Purpose 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Clean Venturing 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Clean Venturing 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 StormFisher (A): Power with Purpose HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Innovation driven organization
– Clean Venturing is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in StormFisher (A): Power with Purpose Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Diverse revenue streams
– Clean Venturing is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in StormFisher (A): Power with Purpose 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
- Clean Venturing 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 Clean Venturing is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in StormFisher (A): Power with Purpose Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Clean Venturing 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 StormFisher (A): Power with Purpose - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Clean Venturing in the sector have low bargaining power. StormFisher (A): Power with Purpose has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Clean Venturing to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
High brand equity
– Clean Venturing has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Clean Venturing to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Strong track record of project management
– Clean Venturing is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Clean Venturing in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Weaknesses StormFisher (A): Power with Purpose | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of StormFisher (A): Power with Purpose are -
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study StormFisher (A): Power with Purpose, it seems that the employees of Clean Venturing 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Clean Venturing 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As StormFisher (A): Power with Purpose HBR case study mentions - Clean Venturing 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study StormFisher (A): Power with Purpose, is just above the industry average. Clean Venturing 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Oana Branzei, Stewart Thornhill, Adam Reeds suggests that, Clean Venturing 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Clean Venturing 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study StormFisher (A): Power with Purpose 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 StormFisher (A): Power with Purpose can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Clean Venturing is planning to shift buying processes online.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study StormFisher (A): Power with Purpose, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Organizational Development 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Clean Venturing has created an environment where the organization is dominated by functional specialists rather than management generalist. This has resulted into product oriented approach rather than marketing oriented approach or consumers oriented approach.
High dependence on existing supply chain
– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of Clean Venturing supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - StormFisher (A): Power with Purpose, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Clean Venturing vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Clean Venturing needs to come up with a strategy to reduce the workers concern regarding automation. Without a clear strategy, it could lead to disruption and uncertainty within the organization.
Opportunities StormFisher (A): Power with Purpose | 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 StormFisher (A): Power with Purpose are -
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. Clean Venturing can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Clean Venturing can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Clean Venturing operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Organizational Development 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 Clean Venturing in the consumer business. Now Clean Venturing 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 Organizational Development industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Clean Venturing 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. Clean Venturing 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Clean Venturing 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 StormFisher (A): Power with Purpose - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Clean Venturing to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Clean Venturing 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Clean Venturing 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 Organizational Development segment.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Clean Venturing in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Organizational Development segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Developing new processes and practices
– Clean Venturing can develop new processes and procedures in Organizational Development 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Clean Venturing is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. StormFisher (A): Power with Purpose 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Clean Venturing can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Buying journey improvements
– Clean Venturing can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. StormFisher (A): Power with Purpose 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Clean Venturing 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, StormFisher (A): Power with Purpose, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Threats StormFisher (A): Power with Purpose External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study StormFisher (A): Power with Purpose are -
Regulatory challenges
– Clean Venturing 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 Organizational Development industry regulations.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Clean Venturing 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.
Environmental challenges
– Clean Venturing 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. Clean Venturing can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Organizational Development industry.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Clean Venturing 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.
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 Clean Venturing business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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. Clean Venturing needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Organizational Development 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 Clean Venturing in the Organizational Development sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study StormFisher (A): Power with Purpose, Clean Venturing may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Organizational Development .
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Organizational Development field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Clean Venturing can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Clean Venturing in the Organizational Development industry. The Organizational Development 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.
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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Clean Venturing 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 StormFisher (A): Power with Purpose .
Consumer confidence and its impact on Clean Venturing 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of StormFisher (A): Power with Purpose 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 StormFisher (A): Power with Purpose 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 StormFisher (A): Power with Purpose 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 StormFisher (A): Power with Purpose 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 StormFisher (A): Power with Purpose 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 Clean Venturing needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
