The Downside of Growth: Asia's Wicked Environmental Problems SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Organizational Development
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of The Downside of Growth: Asia's Wicked Environmental Problems
As Asia's population and per capita incomes rise, four key components of its natural resource base are set to decline substantially. The authors group the environmental problems that confront Asia into four categories-water management, deforestation and land degradation, air pollution, and climate change. They then provide seven policy objectives that can serve as a platform from which to address these problems, at both regional and local levels. Embracing these objectives, they believe, will facilitate the management of Asia's environmental problems to 2030 and beyond.
Swot Analysis of "The Downside of Growth: Asia's Wicked Environmental Problems" written by Stephen Howes, Paul Wyroll includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Asia's Environmental facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in The Downside of Growth: Asia's Wicked Environmental Problems case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Leadership, Managing organizations and Organizational Development.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the The Downside of Growth: Asia's Wicked Environmental Problems casestudy better are - – talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , geopolitical disruptions, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, there is backlash against globalization, increasing transportation and logistics costs,
banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing energy prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of The Downside of Growth: Asia's Wicked Environmental Problems
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in The Downside of Growth: Asia's Wicked Environmental Problems case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Asia's Environmental, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Asia's Environmental 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 The Downside of Growth: Asia's Wicked Environmental Problems can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in The Downside of Growth: Asia's Wicked Environmental Problems case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Asia's Environmental
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 Asia's Environmental
Strengths The Downside of Growth: Asia's Wicked Environmental Problems | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Asia's Environmental in The Downside of Growth: Asia's Wicked Environmental Problems Harvard Business Review case study are -
High brand equity
– Asia's Environmental has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Asia's Environmental to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Asia's Environmental has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Asia's Environmental 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Asia's Environmental is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in The Downside of Growth: Asia's Wicked Environmental Problems 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Asia's Environmental 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 The Downside of Growth: Asia's Wicked Environmental Problems - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Asia's Environmental in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Digital Transformation in Organizational Development segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Asia's Environmental digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Asia's Environmental 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Asia's Environmental is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the The Downside of Growth: Asia's Wicked Environmental Problems are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Analytics focus
– Asia's Environmental 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 Stephen Howes, Paul Wyroll 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the The Downside of Growth: Asia's Wicked Environmental Problems 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Asia's Environmental in the sector have low bargaining power. The Downside of Growth: Asia's Wicked Environmental Problems has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Asia's Environmental to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Innovation driven organization
– Asia's Environmental is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in The Downside of Growth: Asia's Wicked Environmental Problems Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Organizational Development industry
– The Downside of Growth: Asia's Wicked Environmental Problems firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Asia's Environmental to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Organizational Development industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Asia's Environmental to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Weaknesses The Downside of Growth: Asia's Wicked Environmental Problems | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of The Downside of Growth: Asia's Wicked Environmental Problems are -
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Asia's Environmental, firm in the HBR case study The Downside of Growth: Asia's Wicked Environmental Problems needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study The Downside of Growth: Asia's Wicked Environmental Problems, is just above the industry average. Asia's Environmental 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Asia's Environmental is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study The Downside of Growth: Asia's Wicked Environmental Problems can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study The Downside of Growth: Asia's Wicked Environmental Problems, in the dynamic environment Asia's Environmental has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Asia's Environmental has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
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 Asia's Environmental supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - The Downside of Growth: Asia's Wicked Environmental Problems, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Asia's Environmental vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Need for greater diversity
– Asia's Environmental 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study The Downside of Growth: Asia's Wicked Environmental Problems, it seems that the employees of Asia's Environmental 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Asia's Environmental 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Asia's Environmental 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. Asia's Environmental 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 dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the The Downside of Growth: Asia's Wicked Environmental Problems 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 Asia's Environmental has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Asia's Environmental 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.
Opportunities The Downside of Growth: Asia's Wicked Environmental Problems | 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 The Downside of Growth: Asia's Wicked Environmental Problems are -
Developing new processes and practices
– Asia's Environmental 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.
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. Asia's Environmental can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Asia's Environmental to increase its market reach. Asia's Environmental will be able to reach out to new customers. Secondly 5G will also provide technology framework to build new tools and products that can help more immersive consumer experience and faster consumer journey.
Loyalty marketing
– Asia's Environmental 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.
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 Asia's Environmental 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Asia's Environmental 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Asia's Environmental is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. The Downside of Growth: Asia's Wicked Environmental Problems 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Asia's Environmental 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 The Downside of Growth: Asia's Wicked Environmental Problems - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Asia's Environmental to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Asia's Environmental 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
– Asia's Environmental can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. The Downside of Growth: Asia's Wicked Environmental Problems 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 Asia's Environmental 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 Asia's Environmental to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Asia's Environmental has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Asia's Environmental to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the The Downside of Growth: Asia's Wicked Environmental Problems case study. Asia's Environmental can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Asia's Environmental 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.
Threats The Downside of Growth: Asia's Wicked Environmental Problems External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study The Downside of Growth: Asia's Wicked Environmental Problems are -
Consumer confidence and its impact on Asia's Environmental 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Asia's Environmental 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.
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. Asia's Environmental can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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. Asia's Environmental 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Asia's Environmental 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.
Environmental challenges
– Asia's Environmental 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. Asia's Environmental can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Organizational Development industry.
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 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.
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 Asia's Environmental business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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 Asia's Environmental in the Organizational Development sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Asia's Environmental 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Asia's Environmental 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Asia's Environmental has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Organizational Development industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Asia's Environmental 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of The Downside of Growth: Asia's Wicked Environmental Problems 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 The Downside of Growth: Asia's Wicked Environmental Problems 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 The Downside of Growth: Asia's Wicked Environmental Problems 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 The Downside of Growth: Asia's Wicked Environmental Problems 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 The Downside of Growth: Asia's Wicked Environmental Problems 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 Asia's Environmental needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.