Case Study Description of Nanyang Optical: Beyond Product Design - Managing the Supply Chain
This case illustrates the process and challenges of designing a new product and then making it a reality. It examines a myriad of product development, manufacturing and launch challenges confronting entrepreneurs with resource constraints. It does this from two perspectives: that of a product designer and that of an entrepreneur and business owner. Thus, the issues are both creative and practical.
Swot Analysis of "Nanyang Optical: Beyond Product Design - Managing the Supply Chain" written by Beng Geok Wee includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Nanyang Product facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Nanyang Optical: Beyond Product Design - Managing the Supply Chain case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Entrepreneurship, Supply chain and Organizational Development.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Nanyang Optical: Beyond Product Design - Managing the Supply Chain casestudy better are - – increasing household debt because of falling income levels, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, technology disruption, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , geopolitical disruptions, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings,
talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, there is backlash against globalization, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Nanyang Optical: Beyond Product Design - Managing the Supply Chain
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Nanyang Optical: Beyond Product Design - Managing the Supply Chain case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Nanyang Product, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Nanyang Product 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 Nanyang Optical: Beyond Product Design - Managing the Supply Chain can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Nanyang Optical: Beyond Product Design - Managing the Supply Chain case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Nanyang Product
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 Nanyang Product
Strengths Nanyang Optical: Beyond Product Design - Managing the Supply Chain | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Nanyang Product in Nanyang Optical: Beyond Product Design - Managing the Supply Chain Harvard Business Review case study are -
Successful track record of launching new products
– Nanyang Product has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Nanyang Product has effective processes in place that helps in exploring new product needs, doing quick pilot testing, and then launching the products quickly using its extensive distribution network.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Nanyang Product 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 Nanyang Optical: Beyond Product Design - Managing the Supply Chain HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Learning organization
- Nanyang Product 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 Nanyang Product is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Nanyang Optical: Beyond Product Design - Managing the Supply Chain Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Organizational Development industry
– Nanyang Optical: Beyond Product Design - Managing the Supply Chain firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Nanyang Product to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Organizational Development industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Nanyang Product to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Organizational Resilience of Nanyang Product
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Nanyang Product does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Nanyang Product 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Nanyang Product in the sector have low bargaining power. Nanyang Optical: Beyond Product Design - Managing the Supply Chain has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Nanyang Product to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Nanyang Optical: Beyond Product Design - Managing the Supply Chain 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Nanyang Product is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Nanyang Product 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.
Training and development
– Nanyang Product has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Nanyang Optical: Beyond Product Design - Managing the Supply Chain 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.
Analytics focus
– Nanyang Product 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 Beng Geok Wee 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.
Weaknesses Nanyang Optical: Beyond Product Design - Managing the Supply Chain | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Nanyang Optical: Beyond Product Design - Managing the Supply Chain are -
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Nanyang Product 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Nanyang Product 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.
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 Nanyang Product supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Nanyang Optical: Beyond Product Design - Managing the Supply Chain, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Nanyang Product vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Lack of clear differentiation of Nanyang Product products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Nanyang Product needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Nanyang Optical: Beyond Product Design - Managing the Supply Chain 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 Nanyang Product has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Nanyang Product 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Nanyang Product 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Nanyang Product 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Nanyang Optical: Beyond Product Design - Managing the Supply Chain HBR case study mentions - Nanyang Product 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Nanyang Product 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 - Nanyang Optical: Beyond Product Design - Managing the Supply Chain 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 Nanyang Optical: Beyond Product Design - Managing the Supply Chain 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 Nanyang Optical: Beyond Product Design - Managing the Supply Chain can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Nanyang Product is planning to shift buying processes online.
Opportunities Nanyang Optical: Beyond Product Design - Managing the Supply Chain | 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 Nanyang Optical: Beyond Product Design - Managing the Supply Chain are -
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 Nanyang Product in the consumer business. Now Nanyang Product can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Buying journey improvements
– Nanyang Product can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Nanyang Optical: Beyond Product Design - Managing the Supply Chain 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Nanyang Product 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.
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. Nanyang Product can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
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 Nanyang Product 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Nanyang Product 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, Nanyang Optical: Beyond Product Design - Managing the Supply Chain, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Nanyang Product 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Nanyang Product 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.
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. Nanyang Product 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. Nanyang Product 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 Nanyang Product can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Developing new processes and practices
– Nanyang Product 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Nanyang Product 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Nanyang Product is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Nanyang Optical: Beyond Product Design - Managing the Supply Chain 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.
Threats Nanyang Optical: Beyond Product Design - Managing the Supply Chain External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Nanyang Optical: Beyond Product Design - Managing the Supply Chain are -
Consumer confidence and its impact on Nanyang Product 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.
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 Nanyang Product.
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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Nanyang Product has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Organizational Development industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Nanyang Product needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Organizational Development 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.
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. Nanyang Product needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Organizational Development industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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 Nanyang Product business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Nanyang Product with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Regulatory challenges
– Nanyang Product 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
– Nanyang Product 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 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.
Instability in the European markets
– European Union markets are facing three big challenges post Covid – expanded balance sheets, Brexit related business disruption, and aggressive Russia looking to distract the existing security mechanism. Nanyang Product will face different problems in different parts of Europe. For example it will face inflationary pressures in UK, France, and Germany, balance sheet expansion and demand challenges in Southern European countries, and geopolitical instability in the Eastern Europe.
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. Nanyang Product can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Nanyang Product 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 Nanyang Optical: Beyond Product Design - Managing the Supply Chain .
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Nanyang Optical: Beyond Product Design - Managing the Supply Chain 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 Nanyang Optical: Beyond Product Design - Managing the Supply Chain 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 Nanyang Optical: Beyond Product Design - Managing the Supply Chain 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 Nanyang Optical: Beyond Product Design - Managing the Supply Chain 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 Nanyang Optical: Beyond Product Design - Managing the Supply Chain 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 Nanyang Product needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
