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 - – there is backlash against globalization, increasing energy prices, increasing transportation and logistics costs, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies,
increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, 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 -
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.
High brand equity
– B5792 Collectionsupplement has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled B5792 Collectionsupplement to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
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.
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.
Analytics focus
– B5792 Collectionsupplement 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 Kellie A. McElhaney 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 -
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.
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.
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.
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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Wal-Mart's Global Women's Economic Empowerment Initiative Exhibit - Supplement, 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Wal-Mart's Global Women's Economic Empowerment Initiative Exhibit - Supplement that the firm needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department in the case Wal-Mart's Global Women's Economic Empowerment Initiative Exhibit - Supplement can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as B5792 Collectionsupplement is planning to shift buying processes online.
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.
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 -
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.
Identify volunteer opportunities
– Covid-19 has impacted working population in two ways – it has led to people soul searching about their professional choices, resulting in mass resignation. Secondly it has encouraged people to do things that they are passionate about. This has opened opportunities for businesses to build volunteer oriented socially driven projects. B5792 Collectionsupplement can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
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.
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 B5792 Collectionsupplement 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 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects B5792 Collectionsupplement can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 -
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents B5792 Collectionsupplement with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for B5792 Collectionsupplement 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.
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.
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.
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.
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 .
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.