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 - – competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, technology disruption, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, there is backlash against globalization, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic ,
increasing commodity prices, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, 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 -
Learning organization
- B5792 Collectionsupplement 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 B5792 Collectionsupplement is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Wal-Mart's Global Women's Economic Empowerment Initiative Exhibit - Supplement Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Strong track record of project management
– B5792 Collectionsupplement is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
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.
Ability to lead change in Sales & Marketing field
– B5792 Collectionsupplement 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 B5792 Collectionsupplement in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Successful track record of launching new products
– B5792 Collectionsupplement has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. B5792 Collectionsupplement 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.
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.
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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– B5792 Collectionsupplement 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 Wal-Mart's Global Women's Economic Empowerment Initiative Exhibit - Supplement HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
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 -
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.
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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, B5792 Collectionsupplement 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.
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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Wal-Mart's Global Women's Economic Empowerment Initiative Exhibit - Supplement 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 B5792 Collectionsupplement 's lucrative customers.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, B5792 Collectionsupplement 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. B5792 Collectionsupplement 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.
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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, B5792 Collectionsupplement 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
B5792 Collectionsupplement 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.
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.
Lack of clear differentiation of B5792 Collectionsupplement products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, B5792 Collectionsupplement needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
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 -
Buying journey improvements
– B5792 Collectionsupplement can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Wal-Mart's Global Women's Economic Empowerment Initiative Exhibit - Supplement 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.
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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– B5792 Collectionsupplement 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 Wal-Mart's Global Women's Economic Empowerment Initiative Exhibit - Supplement - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help B5792 Collectionsupplement to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for B5792 Collectionsupplement 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 B5792 Collectionsupplement to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, B5792 Collectionsupplement is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Wal-Mart's Global Women's Economic Empowerment Initiative Exhibit - Supplement 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
– 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.
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 -
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. B5792 Collectionsupplement needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Sales & Marketing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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.
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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, B5792 Collectionsupplement 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 Wal-Mart's Global Women's Economic Empowerment Initiative Exhibit - Supplement .
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.
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.
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.
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 .
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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on B5792 Collectionsupplement 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– B5792 Collectionsupplement 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.
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 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.
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.
