Case Study Description of Block 16: Ecuadorian Government's Perspective
Supplements Block 16: Conoco's Green Oil Strategy (A). Provides the government perspective on Conoco's Ecuadorian strategy. Designed to be distributed to students who will be playing the role of Ecuadorian government officials.
Swot Analysis of "Block 16: Ecuadorian Government's Perspective" written by Malcolm S. Salter, Susan E.A. Hall includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Ecuadorian Conoco's facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Block 16: Ecuadorian Government's Perspective case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Ethics, Marketing, Policy, Social responsibility, Sustainability and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Block 16: Ecuadorian Government's Perspective casestudy better are - – central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, geopolitical disruptions, increasing transportation and logistics costs, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy,
wage bills are increasing, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Block 16: Ecuadorian Government's Perspective
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Block 16: Ecuadorian Government's Perspective case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Ecuadorian Conoco's, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Ecuadorian Conoco's 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 Block 16: Ecuadorian Government's Perspective can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Block 16: Ecuadorian Government's Perspective case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Ecuadorian Conoco's
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Strategy & Execution field.
4. Making a Strategy & Execution topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Ecuadorian Conoco's
Strengths Block 16: Ecuadorian Government's Perspective | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Ecuadorian Conoco's in Block 16: Ecuadorian Government's Perspective Harvard Business Review case study are -
Training and development
– Ecuadorian Conoco's has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Block 16: Ecuadorian Government's Perspective 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.
Ability to lead change in Strategy & Execution field
– Ecuadorian Conoco's 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 Ecuadorian Conoco's in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Strategy & Execution industry
– Block 16: Ecuadorian Government's Perspective firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Ecuadorian Conoco's to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Ecuadorian Conoco's to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Ecuadorian Conoco's has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Ecuadorian Conoco's 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.
High brand equity
– Ecuadorian Conoco's has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Ecuadorian Conoco's to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Digital Transformation in Strategy & Execution segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Ecuadorian Conoco's digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Ecuadorian Conoco's 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Ecuadorian Conoco's is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Ecuadorian Conoco's is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Block 16: Ecuadorian Government's Perspective are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Ecuadorian Conoco's 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 Block 16: Ecuadorian Government's Perspective HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Ecuadorian Conoco's in the sector have low bargaining power. Block 16: Ecuadorian Government's Perspective has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Ecuadorian Conoco's to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Analytics focus
– Ecuadorian Conoco's 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 Malcolm S. Salter, Susan E.A. Hall 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 Ecuadorian Conoco's 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.
Weaknesses Block 16: Ecuadorian Government's Perspective | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Block 16: Ecuadorian Government's Perspective are -
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Ecuadorian Conoco's 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 Block 16: Ecuadorian Government's Perspective, in the dynamic environment Ecuadorian Conoco's has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Ecuadorian Conoco's has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Ecuadorian Conoco's 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Block 16: Ecuadorian Government's Perspective, is just above the industry average. Ecuadorian Conoco's 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Ecuadorian Conoco's 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Ecuadorian Conoco's 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Block 16: Ecuadorian Government's Perspective 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 Ecuadorian Conoco's has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Ecuadorian Conoco's is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Block 16: Ecuadorian Government's Perspective can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Block 16: Ecuadorian Government's Perspective 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 Ecuadorian Conoco's 's lucrative customers.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Block 16: Ecuadorian Government's Perspective 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 Block 16: Ecuadorian Government's Perspective can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Ecuadorian Conoco's is planning to shift buying processes online.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Ecuadorian Conoco's 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.
Opportunities Block 16: Ecuadorian Government's Perspective | 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 Block 16: Ecuadorian Government's Perspective are -
Leveraging digital technologies
– Ecuadorian Conoco's 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Ecuadorian Conoco's to increase its market reach. Ecuadorian Conoco's 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Ecuadorian Conoco's can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Strategy & Execution segment. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.
Loyalty marketing
– Ecuadorian Conoco's has focused on building a highly responsive customer relationship management platform. This platform is built on in-house data and driven by analytics and artificial intelligence. The customer analytics can help the organization to fine tune its loyalty marketing efforts, increase the wallet share of the organization, reduce wastage on mainstream advertising spending, build better pricing strategies using personalization, etc.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Strategy & Execution industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Ecuadorian Conoco's 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. Ecuadorian Conoco's 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Ecuadorian Conoco's 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Ecuadorian Conoco's can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Block 16: Ecuadorian Government's Perspective 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 Ecuadorian Conoco's has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Ecuadorian Conoco's to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Block 16: Ecuadorian Government's Perspective case study. Ecuadorian Conoco's can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Ecuadorian Conoco's 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, Block 16: Ecuadorian Government's Perspective, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Ecuadorian Conoco's 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 Block 16: Ecuadorian Government's Perspective - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Ecuadorian Conoco's 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 Ecuadorian Conoco's can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
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 Ecuadorian Conoco's in the consumer business. Now Ecuadorian Conoco's can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Ecuadorian Conoco's in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Strategy & Execution segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Threats Block 16: Ecuadorian Government's Perspective External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Block 16: Ecuadorian Government's Perspective are -
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Ecuadorian Conoco's 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 Ecuadorian Conoco's business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Increasing wage structure of Ecuadorian Conoco's
– 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 Ecuadorian Conoco's.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Ecuadorian Conoco's has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Strategy & Execution industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Ecuadorian Conoco's needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Strategy & Execution 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Ecuadorian Conoco's with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Block 16: Ecuadorian Government's Perspective, Ecuadorian Conoco's may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Strategy & Execution .
Consumer confidence and its impact on Ecuadorian Conoco's 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Ecuadorian Conoco's 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 Strategy & Execution industry regulations.
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 Ecuadorian Conoco's in the Strategy & Execution sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Ecuadorian Conoco's in the Strategy & Execution industry. The Strategy & Execution 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.
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, Ecuadorian Conoco's 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 Block 16: Ecuadorian Government's Perspective .
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Ecuadorian Conoco's is facing in Strategy & Execution sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Block 16: Ecuadorian Government's Perspective 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 Block 16: Ecuadorian Government's Perspective 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 Block 16: Ecuadorian Government's Perspective 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 Block 16: Ecuadorian Government's Perspective 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 Block 16: Ecuadorian Government's Perspective 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 Ecuadorian Conoco's needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.