Case Study Description of Wilkins, A Zurn Company: Demand Forecasting
The newly promoted inventory manager wonders if there is an easier, more reliable means of forecasting sales demand. Currently, forecasts are based on the plant manager's, sales/marketing manager's, and inventory manager's knowledge of industry trends, competitive strategies, and sales history. The inventory manager must decide if using statistical forecasting methods would ease the forecasting process and make the forecasts more reliable. Students are exposed to different forecasting techniques, including executive opinion, linear regression, and time series. The data characteristics include seasonality, trend, and random fluctuations.
Swot Analysis of "Wilkins, A Zurn Company: Demand Forecasting" written by Carol Prahinski, Eric Olsen includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Forecasting Manager's facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Wilkins, A Zurn Company: Demand Forecasting case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Forecasting, Managing uncertainty, Manufacturing, Strategic planning and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Wilkins, A Zurn Company: Demand Forecasting casestudy better are - – geopolitical disruptions, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, wage bills are increasing, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing commodity prices, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google,
competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing transportation and logistics costs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Wilkins, A Zurn Company: Demand Forecasting
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Wilkins, A Zurn Company: Demand Forecasting case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Forecasting Manager's, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Forecasting Manager's 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 Wilkins, A Zurn Company: Demand Forecasting can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Wilkins, A Zurn Company: Demand Forecasting case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Forecasting Manager's
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Sales & Marketing field.
4. Making a Sales & Marketing topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Forecasting Manager's
Strengths Wilkins, A Zurn Company: Demand Forecasting | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Forecasting Manager's in Wilkins, A Zurn Company: Demand Forecasting Harvard Business Review case study are -
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Forecasting Manager's in the sector have low bargaining power. Wilkins, A Zurn Company: Demand Forecasting has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Forecasting Manager's to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Forecasting Manager's 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 Wilkins, A Zurn Company: Demand Forecasting - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Analytics focus
– Forecasting Manager's 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 Carol Prahinski, Eric Olsen 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Forecasting Manager's is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Wilkins, A Zurn Company: Demand Forecasting Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Organizational Resilience of Forecasting Manager's
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Forecasting Manager's does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Forecasting Manager's has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Forecasting Manager's 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
– Forecasting Manager's 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 Wilkins, A Zurn Company: Demand Forecasting HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Training and development
– Forecasting Manager's has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Wilkins, A Zurn Company: Demand Forecasting 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 Forecasting Manager's 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Forecasting Manager's is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Wilkins, A Zurn Company: Demand Forecasting 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 Wilkins, A Zurn Company: Demand Forecasting 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.
Learning organization
- Forecasting Manager's 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 Forecasting Manager's is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Wilkins, A Zurn Company: Demand Forecasting Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Weaknesses Wilkins, A Zurn Company: Demand Forecasting | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Wilkins, A Zurn Company: Demand Forecasting are -
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Wilkins, A Zurn Company: Demand Forecasting, it seems that the employees of Forecasting Manager's 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Forecasting Manager's, firm in the HBR case study Wilkins, A Zurn Company: Demand Forecasting needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Forecasting Manager's is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Wilkins, A Zurn Company: Demand Forecasting can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Forecasting Manager's 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. Forecasting Manager's 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Forecasting Manager's 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Forecasting Manager's products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Forecasting Manager's 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 Wilkins, A Zurn Company: Demand Forecasting 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 Forecasting Manager's has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Forecasting Manager's 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 - Wilkins, A Zurn Company: Demand Forecasting should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Forecasting Manager's 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 cash cycle compare to competitors
Forecasting Manager's 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 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 Forecasting Manager's supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Wilkins, A Zurn Company: Demand Forecasting, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Forecasting Manager's vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Opportunities Wilkins, A Zurn Company: Demand Forecasting | 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 Wilkins, A Zurn Company: Demand Forecasting are -
Developing new processes and practices
– Forecasting Manager's can develop new processes and procedures in Sales & Marketing 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Forecasting Manager's can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Wilkins, A Zurn Company: Demand Forecasting 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Forecasting Manager's is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Wilkins, A Zurn Company: Demand Forecasting 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Forecasting Manager's 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Forecasting Manager's can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Sales & Marketing 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Forecasting Manager's 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Forecasting Manager's 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 Wilkins, A Zurn Company: Demand Forecasting - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Forecasting Manager's to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
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 Forecasting Manager's in the consumer business. Now Forecasting Manager's 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 Sales & Marketing industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Forecasting Manager's 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. Forecasting Manager's 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Sales & Marketing industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Forecasting Manager's can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
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 Forecasting Manager's 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Forecasting Manager's 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Forecasting Manager's 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 Forecasting Manager's to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Threats Wilkins, A Zurn Company: Demand Forecasting External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Wilkins, A Zurn Company: Demand Forecasting are -
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 Forecasting Manager's
– 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 Forecasting Manager's.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Wilkins, A Zurn Company: Demand Forecasting, Forecasting Manager's may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Sales & Marketing .
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 Forecasting Manager's business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Forecasting Manager's in the Sales & Marketing industry. The Sales & Marketing 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Forecasting Manager's 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.
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. Forecasting Manager's needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Sales & Marketing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Forecasting Manager's with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Regulatory challenges
– Forecasting Manager's 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 Sales & Marketing industry regulations.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Forecasting Manager's has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Sales & Marketing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Forecasting Manager's needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Sales & Marketing 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Forecasting Manager's 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 Wilkins, A Zurn Company: Demand Forecasting .
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Sales & Marketing field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Forecasting Manager's can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Environmental challenges
– Forecasting Manager's 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. Forecasting Manager's can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Wilkins, A Zurn Company: Demand Forecasting 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 Wilkins, A Zurn Company: Demand Forecasting 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 Wilkins, A Zurn Company: Demand Forecasting 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 Wilkins, A Zurn Company: Demand Forecasting 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 Wilkins, A Zurn Company: Demand Forecasting 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 Forecasting Manager's needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.