Case Study Description of Wal-Mart's Global Women's Economic Empowerment Initiative Exhibit - Supplement
University of California, Berkeley-Haas collectionSupplement for B5792
Authors :: Kellie A. McElhaney
Topics :: Sales & Marketing
Tags :: Customers, Diversity, Gender, Public relations, Social responsibility, SWOT Analysis, SWOT Matrix, TOWS, Weighted SWOT Analysis
Swot Analysis of "Wal-Mart's Global Women's Economic Empowerment Initiative Exhibit - Supplement" written by Kellie A. McElhaney includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that B5792 Collectionsupplement facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Wal-Mart's Global Women's Economic Empowerment Initiative Exhibit - Supplement case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Customers, Diversity, Gender, Public relations, Social responsibility and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Wal-Mart's Global Women's Economic Empowerment Initiative Exhibit - Supplement casestudy better are - – talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, geopolitical disruptions, increasing energy prices, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, there is backlash against globalization,
supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing household debt because of falling income levels, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Wal-Mart's Global Women's Economic Empowerment Initiative Exhibit - Supplement
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Wal-Mart's Global Women's Economic Empowerment Initiative Exhibit - Supplement case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the B5792 Collectionsupplement, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which B5792 Collectionsupplement 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 Wal-Mart's Global Women's Economic Empowerment Initiative Exhibit - Supplement can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Wal-Mart's Global Women's Economic Empowerment Initiative Exhibit - Supplement case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of B5792 Collectionsupplement
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 B5792 Collectionsupplement
Strengths Wal-Mart's Global Women's Economic Empowerment Initiative Exhibit - Supplement | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of B5792 Collectionsupplement in Wal-Mart's Global Women's Economic Empowerment Initiative Exhibit - Supplement Harvard Business Review case study are -
Innovation driven organization
– B5792 Collectionsupplement is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Wal-Mart's Global Women's Economic Empowerment Initiative Exhibit - Supplement Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Wal-Mart's Global Women's Economic Empowerment Initiative Exhibit - Supplement 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.
Digital Transformation in Sales & Marketing segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For B5792 Collectionsupplement digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. B5792 Collectionsupplement 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– B5792 Collectionsupplement 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 Wal-Mart's Global Women's Economic Empowerment Initiative Exhibit - Supplement - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Diverse revenue streams
– B5792 Collectionsupplement is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Wal-Mart's Global Women's Economic Empowerment Initiative Exhibit - Supplement 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the B5792 Collectionsupplement 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of B5792 Collectionsupplement in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Sales & Marketing industry
– Wal-Mart's Global Women's Economic Empowerment Initiative Exhibit - Supplement firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled B5792 Collectionsupplement to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped B5792 Collectionsupplement to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that B5792 Collectionsupplement 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.
Organizational Resilience of B5792 Collectionsupplement
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that B5792 Collectionsupplement does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Ability to recruit top talent
– B5792 Collectionsupplement is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Wal-Mart's Global Women's Economic Empowerment Initiative Exhibit - Supplement are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Training and development
– B5792 Collectionsupplement has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Wal-Mart's Global Women's Economic Empowerment Initiative Exhibit - Supplement 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.
Weaknesses Wal-Mart's Global Women's Economic Empowerment Initiative Exhibit - Supplement | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Wal-Mart's Global Women's Economic Empowerment Initiative Exhibit - Supplement are -
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of B5792 Collectionsupplement, firm in the HBR case study Wal-Mart's Global Women's Economic Empowerment Initiative Exhibit - Supplement needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at B5792 Collectionsupplement 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, B5792 Collectionsupplement 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Wal-Mart's Global Women's Economic Empowerment Initiative Exhibit - Supplement, is just above the industry average. B5792 Collectionsupplement 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 strategic competitive environment developments
– As Wal-Mart's Global Women's Economic Empowerment Initiative Exhibit - Supplement HBR case study mentions - B5792 Collectionsupplement 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of B5792 Collectionsupplement is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Sales & Marketing segment. B5792 Collectionsupplement needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help B5792 Collectionsupplement to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Wal-Mart's Global Women's Economic Empowerment Initiative Exhibit - Supplement, in the dynamic environment B5792 Collectionsupplement has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. B5792 Collectionsupplement has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Wal-Mart's Global Women's Economic Empowerment Initiative Exhibit - Supplement 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 B5792 Collectionsupplement has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Wal-Mart's Global Women's Economic Empowerment Initiative Exhibit - Supplement, it seems that the employees of B5792 Collectionsupplement don’t have comprehensive understanding of the firm’s strategy. This is reflected in number of promotional campaigns over the last few years that had mixed messaging and competing priorities. Some of the strategic activities and services promoted in the promotional campaigns were not consistent with the organization’s strategy.
Need for greater diversity
– B5792 Collectionsupplement 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though B5792 Collectionsupplement 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 - Wal-Mart's Global Women's Economic Empowerment Initiative Exhibit - Supplement should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Opportunities Wal-Mart's Global Women's Economic Empowerment Initiative Exhibit - Supplement | 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 Wal-Mart's Global Women's Economic Empowerment Initiative Exhibit - Supplement are -
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for B5792 Collectionsupplement in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Sales & Marketing segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, B5792 Collectionsupplement can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that B5792 Collectionsupplement operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Sales & Marketing sector.
Loyalty marketing
– B5792 Collectionsupplement 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.
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. B5792 Collectionsupplement 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. B5792 Collectionsupplement 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of B5792 Collectionsupplement has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help B5792 Collectionsupplement to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Wal-Mart's Global Women's Economic Empowerment Initiative Exhibit - Supplement case study. B5792 Collectionsupplement 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
– B5792 Collectionsupplement 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.
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. B5792 Collectionsupplement can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for B5792 Collectionsupplement 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.
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 B5792 Collectionsupplement in the consumer business. Now B5792 Collectionsupplement can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Leveraging digital technologies
– B5792 Collectionsupplement 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, B5792 Collectionsupplement 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at B5792 Collectionsupplement can make experimentation a productive activity and build a culture of innovation using approaches such as – mining transaction data, A/B testing of websites and selling platforms, engaging potential customers over various needs, and building on small ideas in the Sales & Marketing segment.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, B5792 Collectionsupplement 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, Wal-Mart's Global Women's Economic Empowerment Initiative Exhibit - Supplement, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Threats Wal-Mart's Global Women's Economic Empowerment Initiative Exhibit - Supplement External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Wal-Mart's Global Women's Economic Empowerment Initiative Exhibit - Supplement are -
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. B5792 Collectionsupplement can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– B5792 Collectionsupplement has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Sales & Marketing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, B5792 Collectionsupplement 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.
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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Wal-Mart's Global Women's Economic Empowerment Initiative Exhibit - Supplement, B5792 Collectionsupplement 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 .
High dependence on third party suppliers
– B5792 Collectionsupplement 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.
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. B5792 Collectionsupplement 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.
Environmental challenges
– B5792 Collectionsupplement 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. B5792 Collectionsupplement can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.
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 B5792 Collectionsupplement business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Regulatory challenges
– B5792 Collectionsupplement 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.
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 B5792 Collectionsupplement.
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.
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 B5792 Collectionsupplement in the Sales & Marketing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that B5792 Collectionsupplement is facing in Sales & Marketing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Wal-Mart's Global Women's Economic Empowerment Initiative Exhibit - Supplement 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 Wal-Mart's Global Women's Economic Empowerment Initiative Exhibit - Supplement 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 Wal-Mart's Global Women's Economic Empowerment Initiative Exhibit - Supplement 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 Wal-Mart's Global Women's Economic Empowerment Initiative Exhibit - Supplement 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 Wal-Mart's Global Women's Economic Empowerment Initiative Exhibit - Supplement 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 B5792 Collectionsupplement needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.