Sibanye: Changing Mindsets in Mining through Contextual Leadership SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Organizational Development
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Sibanye: Changing Mindsets in Mining through Contextual Leadership
In 2016, the executive vice-president of commercial services for Sibanye Gold, Westonaria (Sibanye), the largest gold producer in South Africa, faced a challenge. The company's latest acquisition had been particularly difficult, with much resistance from the acquired management team. Although the executive vice-president tried to empathize with the management team who had done things a certain way for decades, he was frustrated with their lack of co-operation and lists of concerns. The management team needed to internalize and learn to live by Sibanye's values, encapsulated in the acronym CARE-commitment, accountability, respect, and enabling. How could the executive vice-president help the management team to change their traditional mindset so they could effectively manage mining operations under the new company? Caren Scheepers is affiliated with University of Pretoria. Ken Mathu is affiliated with University of Pretoria.
Swot Analysis of "Sibanye: Changing Mindsets in Mining through Contextual Leadership" written by Caren Scheepers, Ken Mathu includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Sibanye Pretoria facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Sibanye: Changing Mindsets in Mining through Contextual Leadership case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Leadership, Organizational culture and Organizational Development.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Sibanye: Changing Mindsets in Mining through Contextual Leadership casestudy better are - – challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing energy prices, increasing transportation and logistics costs, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, geopolitical disruptions, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, technology disruption,
banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Sibanye: Changing Mindsets in Mining through Contextual Leadership
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Sibanye: Changing Mindsets in Mining through Contextual Leadership case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Sibanye Pretoria, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Sibanye Pretoria 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 Sibanye: Changing Mindsets in Mining through Contextual Leadership can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Sibanye: Changing Mindsets in Mining through Contextual Leadership case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Sibanye Pretoria
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 Sibanye Pretoria
Strengths Sibanye: Changing Mindsets in Mining through Contextual Leadership | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Sibanye Pretoria in Sibanye: Changing Mindsets in Mining through Contextual Leadership Harvard Business Review case study are -
Analytics focus
– Sibanye Pretoria 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 Caren Scheepers, Ken Mathu 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Sibanye Pretoria is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Sibanye: Changing Mindsets in Mining through Contextual Leadership are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Sibanye: Changing Mindsets in Mining through Contextual Leadership 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Sibanye Pretoria is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Sibanye: Changing Mindsets in Mining through Contextual Leadership 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Sibanye Pretoria in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
High brand equity
– Sibanye Pretoria has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Sibanye Pretoria to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Sibanye Pretoria 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.
Training and development
– Sibanye Pretoria has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Sibanye: Changing Mindsets in Mining through Contextual Leadership 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Sibanye Pretoria 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Sibanye Pretoria 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 Sibanye: Changing Mindsets in Mining through Contextual Leadership HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Organizational Resilience of Sibanye Pretoria
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Sibanye Pretoria does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Ability to lead change in Organizational Development field
– Sibanye Pretoria is one of the leading players in its industry. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in its segment but also across the whole industry. The ability to lead change has enabled Sibanye Pretoria in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Weaknesses Sibanye: Changing Mindsets in Mining through Contextual Leadership | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Sibanye: Changing Mindsets in Mining through Contextual Leadership are -
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Sibanye Pretoria has not been able to do capital spending to the tune of the competition. This has resulted into fewer innovations and company facing stiff competition from both existing competitors and new entrants who are disrupting the industry using digital technology.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Sibanye Pretoria 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. Sibanye Pretoria 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Sibanye Pretoria 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Sibanye: Changing Mindsets in Mining through Contextual Leadership has high operating costs in the. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Sibanye Pretoria 's lucrative customers.
Need for greater diversity
– Sibanye Pretoria 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.
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 Sibanye Pretoria supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Sibanye: Changing Mindsets in Mining through Contextual Leadership, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Sibanye Pretoria vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Sibanye: Changing Mindsets in Mining through Contextual Leadership 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 Sibanye: Changing Mindsets in Mining through Contextual Leadership can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Sibanye Pretoria is planning to shift buying processes online.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Sibanye Pretoria 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Sibanye: Changing Mindsets in Mining through Contextual Leadership 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 Sibanye Pretoria has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Lack of clear differentiation of Sibanye Pretoria products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Sibanye Pretoria needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Sibanye: Changing Mindsets in Mining through Contextual Leadership, it seems that the employees of Sibanye Pretoria 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.
Opportunities Sibanye: Changing Mindsets in Mining through Contextual Leadership | 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 Sibanye: Changing Mindsets in Mining through Contextual Leadership are -
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. Sibanye Pretoria 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. Sibanye Pretoria 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 Sibanye Pretoria can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Manufacturing automation
– Sibanye Pretoria can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Organizational Development segment. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Sibanye Pretoria has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Sibanye Pretoria to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Sibanye: Changing Mindsets in Mining through Contextual Leadership case study. Sibanye Pretoria can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Developing new processes and practices
– Sibanye Pretoria 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
– Sibanye Pretoria 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Sibanye Pretoria 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, Sibanye: Changing Mindsets in Mining through Contextual Leadership, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Sibanye Pretoria 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Sibanye Pretoria 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Organizational Development industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Sibanye Pretoria can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Sibanye Pretoria is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Sibanye: Changing Mindsets in Mining through Contextual Leadership 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Sibanye Pretoria can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Sibanye: Changing Mindsets in Mining through Contextual Leadership 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Sibanye Pretoria to expand its talent hiring zone. According to McKinsey Global Institute, 20% of the high end workforce in fields such as finance, information technology, can continously work from remote local post Covid-19. This presents a really great opportunity for Sibanye Pretoria to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Threats Sibanye: Changing Mindsets in Mining through Contextual Leadership External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Sibanye: Changing Mindsets in Mining through Contextual Leadership are -
Consumer confidence and its impact on Sibanye Pretoria 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.
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 wage structure of Sibanye Pretoria
– Post Covid-19 there is a sharp increase in the wages especially in the jobs that require interaction with people. The increasing wages can put downward pressure on the margins of Sibanye Pretoria.
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 Sibanye Pretoria.
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. Sibanye Pretoria needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Organizational Development industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Regulatory challenges
– Sibanye Pretoria 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Sibanye Pretoria is facing in Organizational Development sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Sibanye Pretoria with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Sibanye Pretoria 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 Sibanye: Changing Mindsets in Mining through Contextual Leadership .
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Sibanye Pretoria 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Sibanye Pretoria 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Sibanye: Changing Mindsets in Mining through Contextual Leadership, Sibanye Pretoria 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 .
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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Sibanye: Changing Mindsets in Mining through Contextual Leadership 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 Sibanye: Changing Mindsets in Mining through Contextual Leadership 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 Sibanye: Changing Mindsets in Mining through Contextual Leadership 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 Sibanye: Changing Mindsets in Mining through Contextual Leadership 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 Sibanye: Changing Mindsets in Mining through Contextual Leadership 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 Sibanye Pretoria needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.