Swot Analysis of "Milwaukee (B8): Richard Meeusen, CEO, Badger Meter and Co-chair, Water Council" written by Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Matthew Bird includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that B8 Meeusen facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Milwaukee (B8): Richard Meeusen, CEO, Badger Meter and Co-chair, Water Council case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Growth strategy and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Milwaukee (B8): Richard Meeusen, CEO, Badger Meter and Co-chair, Water Council casestudy better are - – increasing energy prices, increasing commodity prices, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, wage bills are increasing, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, technology disruption,
digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Milwaukee (B8): Richard Meeusen, CEO, Badger Meter and Co-chair, Water Council
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Milwaukee (B8): Richard Meeusen, CEO, Badger Meter and Co-chair, Water Council case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the B8 Meeusen, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which B8 Meeusen 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 Milwaukee (B8): Richard Meeusen, CEO, Badger Meter and Co-chair, Water Council can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Milwaukee (B8): Richard Meeusen, CEO, Badger Meter and Co-chair, Water Council case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of B8 Meeusen
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 B8 Meeusen
Strengths Milwaukee (B8): Richard Meeusen, CEO, Badger Meter and Co-chair, Water Council | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of B8 Meeusen in Milwaukee (B8): Richard Meeusen, CEO, Badger Meter and Co-chair, Water Council Harvard Business Review case study are -
Innovation driven organization
– B8 Meeusen is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Milwaukee (B8): Richard Meeusen, CEO, Badger Meter and Co-chair, Water Council Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of B8 Meeusen in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
High brand equity
– B8 Meeusen has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled B8 Meeusen to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Analytics focus
– B8 Meeusen 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 Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Matthew Bird 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 Milwaukee (B8): Richard Meeusen, CEO, Badger Meter and Co-chair, Water Council 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– B8 Meeusen has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. B8 Meeusen 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.
Ability to lead change in Sales & Marketing field
– B8 Meeusen 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 B8 Meeusen in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Diverse revenue streams
– B8 Meeusen is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Milwaukee (B8): Richard Meeusen, CEO, Badger Meter and Co-chair, Water Council 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.
Strong track record of project management
– B8 Meeusen is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of B8 Meeusen in the sector have low bargaining power. Milwaukee (B8): Richard Meeusen, CEO, Badger Meter and Co-chair, Water Council has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps B8 Meeusen to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Highly skilled collaborators
– B8 Meeusen 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 Milwaukee (B8): Richard Meeusen, CEO, Badger Meter and Co-chair, Water Council HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Training and development
– B8 Meeusen has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Milwaukee (B8): Richard Meeusen, CEO, Badger Meter and Co-chair, Water Council 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 Milwaukee (B8): Richard Meeusen, CEO, Badger Meter and Co-chair, Water Council | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Milwaukee (B8): Richard Meeusen, CEO, Badger Meter and Co-chair, Water Council are -
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at B8 Meeusen 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Milwaukee (B8): Richard Meeusen, CEO, Badger Meter and Co-chair, Water Council, in the dynamic environment B8 Meeusen has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. B8 Meeusen has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, B8 Meeusen 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of B8 Meeusen, firm in the HBR case study Milwaukee (B8): Richard Meeusen, CEO, Badger Meter and Co-chair, Water Council needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
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 B8 Meeusen supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Milwaukee (B8): Richard Meeusen, CEO, Badger Meter and Co-chair, Water Council, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left B8 Meeusen vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Milwaukee (B8): Richard Meeusen, CEO, Badger Meter and Co-chair, Water Council, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Sales & Marketing strategy. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Matthew Bird suggests that, B8 Meeusen is facing high bargaining power of the channel partners. So far it has not able to streamline the operations to reduce the bargaining power of the value chain partners in the industry.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Milwaukee (B8): Richard Meeusen, CEO, Badger Meter and Co-chair, Water Council, is just above the industry average. B8 Meeusen 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of B8 Meeusen products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, B8 Meeusen 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 Milwaukee (B8): Richard Meeusen, CEO, Badger Meter and Co-chair, Water Council 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 B8 Meeusen has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, B8 Meeusen 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. B8 Meeusen 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.
Opportunities Milwaukee (B8): Richard Meeusen, CEO, Badger Meter and Co-chair, Water Council | 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 Milwaukee (B8): Richard Meeusen, CEO, Badger Meter and Co-chair, Water Council are -
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help B8 Meeusen to increase its market reach. B8 Meeusen 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.
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 B8 Meeusen in the consumer business. Now B8 Meeusen can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
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. B8 Meeusen can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Loyalty marketing
– B8 Meeusen 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.
Buying journey improvements
– B8 Meeusen can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Milwaukee (B8): Richard Meeusen, CEO, Badger Meter and Co-chair, Water Council 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of B8 Meeusen has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help B8 Meeusen to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Milwaukee (B8): Richard Meeusen, CEO, Badger Meter and Co-chair, Water Council case study. B8 Meeusen can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Leveraging digital technologies
– B8 Meeusen 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– B8 Meeusen 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– B8 Meeusen 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 Milwaukee (B8): Richard Meeusen, CEO, Badger Meter and Co-chair, Water Council - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help B8 Meeusen 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 B8 Meeusen can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for B8 Meeusen 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, B8 Meeusen is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Milwaukee (B8): Richard Meeusen, CEO, Badger Meter and Co-chair, Water Council 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, B8 Meeusen 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.
Threats Milwaukee (B8): Richard Meeusen, CEO, Badger Meter and Co-chair, Water Council External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Milwaukee (B8): Richard Meeusen, CEO, Badger Meter and Co-chair, Water Council are -
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for B8 Meeusen 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.
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. B8 Meeusen can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Consumer confidence and its impact on B8 Meeusen 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.
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. B8 Meeusen 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents B8 Meeusen with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– B8 Meeusen has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Sales & Marketing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, B8 Meeusen 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.
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 international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, B8 Meeusen 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 Milwaukee (B8): Richard Meeusen, CEO, Badger Meter and Co-chair, Water Council .
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. B8 Meeusen needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Sales & Marketing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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 B8 Meeusen in the Sales & Marketing sector and impact the bottomline 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 B8 Meeusen business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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 B8 Meeusen.
Regulatory challenges
– B8 Meeusen 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Milwaukee (B8): Richard Meeusen, CEO, Badger Meter and Co-chair, Water Council 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 Milwaukee (B8): Richard Meeusen, CEO, Badger Meter and Co-chair, Water Council 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 Milwaukee (B8): Richard Meeusen, CEO, Badger Meter and Co-chair, Water Council 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 Milwaukee (B8): Richard Meeusen, CEO, Badger Meter and Co-chair, Water Council 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 Milwaukee (B8): Richard Meeusen, CEO, Badger Meter and Co-chair, Water Council 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 B8 Meeusen needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.