The Slingshot: Improving Water Access SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Sales & Marketing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of The Slingshot: Improving Water Access
To maximize their effectiveness, color cases should be printed in color.In 2012, over 750 million people around the globe lacked access to safe drinking water. Dean Kamen, inventor of the Segway, sought to bring fresh water to poor and rural areas with the Slingshot, a water purification device. Kamen's challenge was to identify ways to distribute the Slingshot to areas where it was most needed. A partnership with the Coca-Cola Company helped Kamen to pilot distribution of the Slingshot in low-access regions.
Authors :: John A. Quelch, Carin-Isabel Knoop, Margaret Rodriguez
Swot Analysis of "The Slingshot: Improving Water Access" written by John A. Quelch, Carin-Isabel Knoop, Margaret Rodriguez includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Slingshot Kamen facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in The Slingshot: Improving Water Access case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Demographics, Economy, Emerging markets, Health, Innovation, Intellectual property, Marketing, Personnel policies and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the The Slingshot: Improving Water Access casestudy better are - – central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, geopolitical disruptions, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, there is backlash against globalization,
there is increasing trade war between United States & China, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of The Slingshot: Improving Water Access
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in The Slingshot: Improving Water Access case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Slingshot Kamen, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Slingshot Kamen operates in.
According to Harvard Business Review, 75% of the managers use SWOT analysis for various purposes such as – evaluating current scenario, strategic planning, new venture feasibility, personal growth goals, new market entry, Go To market strategies, portfolio management and strategic trade-off assessment, organizational restructuring, etc.
SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix
SWOT analysis of The Slingshot: Improving Water Access can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in The Slingshot: Improving Water Access case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Slingshot Kamen
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 Slingshot Kamen
Strengths The Slingshot: Improving Water Access | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Slingshot Kamen in The Slingshot: Improving Water Access Harvard Business Review case study are -
Innovation driven organization
– Slingshot Kamen is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in The Slingshot: Improving Water Access Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Analytics focus
– Slingshot Kamen 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 John A. Quelch, Carin-Isabel Knoop, Margaret Rodriguez 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Slingshot Kamen has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Slingshot Kamen 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Slingshot Kamen in the sector have low bargaining power. The Slingshot: Improving Water Access has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Slingshot Kamen to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Slingshot Kamen is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the The Slingshot: Improving Water Access are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Strong track record of project management
– Slingshot Kamen is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Slingshot Kamen 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 The Slingshot: Improving Water Access HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Learning organization
- Slingshot Kamen 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 Slingshot Kamen is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in The Slingshot: Improving Water Access Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Training and development
– Slingshot Kamen has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in The Slingshot: Improving Water Access 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Sales & Marketing industry
– The Slingshot: Improving Water Access firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Slingshot Kamen to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Slingshot Kamen to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Organizational Resilience of Slingshot Kamen
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Slingshot Kamen does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Slingshot Kamen in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Weaknesses The Slingshot: Improving Water Access | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of The Slingshot: Improving Water Access are -
Need for greater diversity
– Slingshot Kamen 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Slingshot Kamen 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 The Slingshot: Improving Water Access, in the dynamic environment Slingshot Kamen has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Slingshot Kamen has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Slingshot Kamen 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Slingshot Kamen, firm in the HBR case study The Slingshot: Improving Water Access needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, John A. Quelch, Carin-Isabel Knoop, Margaret Rodriguez suggests that, Slingshot Kamen 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the The Slingshot: Improving Water Access 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 Slingshot Kamen has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As The Slingshot: Improving Water Access HBR case study mentions - Slingshot Kamen 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Slingshot Kamen 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.
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 Slingshot Kamen supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - The Slingshot: Improving Water Access, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Slingshot Kamen vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Lack of clear differentiation of Slingshot Kamen products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Slingshot Kamen needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Opportunities The Slingshot: Improving Water Access | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities highlighted in the Harvard Business Review case study The Slingshot: Improving Water Access are -
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Slingshot Kamen to increase its market reach. Slingshot Kamen 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Slingshot Kamen can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Slingshot Kamen operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Sales & Marketing sector.
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 Slingshot Kamen 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Slingshot Kamen 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Slingshot Kamen 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, The Slingshot: Improving Water Access, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
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. Slingshot Kamen 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. Slingshot Kamen 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.
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 Slingshot Kamen in the consumer business. Now Slingshot Kamen 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. Slingshot Kamen can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Developing new processes and practices
– Slingshot Kamen 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 Slingshot Kamen 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 Slingshot Kamen to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Slingshot Kamen can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Slingshot Kamen 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Slingshot Kamen is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. The Slingshot: Improving Water Access 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.
Threats The Slingshot: Improving Water Access External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study The Slingshot: Improving Water Access are -
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 Slingshot Kamen business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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, Slingshot Kamen 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 The Slingshot: Improving Water Access .
Consumer confidence and its impact on Slingshot Kamen 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. Slingshot Kamen 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 The Slingshot: Improving Water Access, Slingshot Kamen 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 .
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 Slingshot Kamen.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Slingshot Kamen 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.
Increasing wage structure of Slingshot Kamen
– 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 Slingshot Kamen.
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. Slingshot Kamen can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Slingshot Kamen is facing in Sales & Marketing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
New competition
– After the dotcom bust of 2001, financial crisis of 2008-09, the business formation in US economy had declined. But in 2020 alone, there are more than 1.5 million new business applications in United States. This can lead to greater competition for Slingshot Kamen in the Sales & Marketing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Environmental challenges
– Slingshot Kamen 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. Slingshot Kamen can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of The Slingshot: Improving Water Access Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers in the HBR case study The Slingshot: Improving Water Access needs to zero down on the relative importance of each factor mentioned in the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants.
We can provide the relative importance to each factor by assigning relative weights. Weighted SWOT analysis process is a three stage process –
First stage for doing weighted SWOT analysis of the case study The Slingshot: Improving Water Access is to rank the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. This will help you to assess the most important strengths and weaknesses of the firm and which one of the strengths and weaknesses mentioned in the initial lists are marginal and can be left out.
Second stage for conducting weighted SWOT analysis of the Harvard case study The Slingshot: Improving Water Access is to give probabilities to the external strategic factors thus better understanding the opportunities and threats arising out of macro environment changes and developments.
Third stage of constructing weighted SWOT analysis of The Slingshot: Improving Water Access 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 Slingshot Kamen needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.