Welsh Water (E): General Information and Confidential Instructions for Pat Cooper, Lead Negotiator for NUPE SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
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Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Welsh Water (E): General Information and Confidential Instructions for Pat Cooper, Lead Negotiator for NUPE
This is a four-player negotiation simulation in which a newly-privatized British water utility must deal with contentious unions and national collective-bargaining agreements. Explores the question of coalitions and multi-lateral negotiations, and the value of interlocking guarantees. This case contains the confidential information for one of the four roles.
Swot Analysis of "Welsh Water (E): General Information and Confidential Instructions for Pat Cooper, Lead Negotiator for NUPE" written by Robert J. Robinson includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Nupe Confidential facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Welsh Water (E): General Information and Confidential Instructions for Pat Cooper, Lead Negotiator for NUPE case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Labor, Negotiations and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Welsh Water (E): General Information and Confidential Instructions for Pat Cooper, Lead Negotiator for NUPE casestudy better are - – talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, technology disruption, wage bills are increasing, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing household debt because of falling income levels,
geopolitical disruptions, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Welsh Water (E): General Information and Confidential Instructions for Pat Cooper, Lead Negotiator for NUPE
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Welsh Water (E): General Information and Confidential Instructions for Pat Cooper, Lead Negotiator for NUPE case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Nupe Confidential, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Nupe Confidential 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 Welsh Water (E): General Information and Confidential Instructions for Pat Cooper, Lead Negotiator for NUPE can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Welsh Water (E): General Information and Confidential Instructions for Pat Cooper, Lead Negotiator for NUPE case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Nupe Confidential
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 Nupe Confidential
Strengths Welsh Water (E): General Information and Confidential Instructions for Pat Cooper, Lead Negotiator for NUPE | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Nupe Confidential in Welsh Water (E): General Information and Confidential Instructions for Pat Cooper, Lead Negotiator for NUPE Harvard Business Review case study are -
Learning organization
- Nupe Confidential 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 Nupe Confidential is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Welsh Water (E): General Information and Confidential Instructions for Pat Cooper, Lead Negotiator for NUPE Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Training and development
– Nupe Confidential has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Welsh Water (E): General Information and Confidential Instructions for Pat Cooper, Lead Negotiator for NUPE 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Welsh Water (E): General Information and Confidential Instructions for Pat Cooper, Lead Negotiator for NUPE Harvard Business Review case study comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the industry, building diversified operations across different geographies so that disruption in one part of the world doesn’t impact the overall performance of the firm, and integrating the various business operations and processes through its digital transformation drive.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Nupe Confidential is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Welsh Water (E): General Information and Confidential Instructions for Pat Cooper, Lead Negotiator for NUPE are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Nupe Confidential has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Nupe Confidential 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Nupe Confidential 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 Welsh Water (E): General Information and Confidential Instructions for Pat Cooper, Lead Negotiator for NUPE 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 Nupe Confidential in the sector have low bargaining power. Welsh Water (E): General Information and Confidential Instructions for Pat Cooper, Lead Negotiator for NUPE has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Nupe Confidential to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Innovation driven organization
– Nupe Confidential is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Welsh Water (E): General Information and Confidential Instructions for Pat Cooper, Lead Negotiator for NUPE Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
High brand equity
– Nupe Confidential has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Nupe Confidential to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Strategy & Execution industry
– Welsh Water (E): General Information and Confidential Instructions for Pat Cooper, Lead Negotiator for NUPE firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Nupe Confidential to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Nupe Confidential to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Nupe Confidential 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.
Organizational Resilience of Nupe Confidential
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Nupe Confidential does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Weaknesses Welsh Water (E): General Information and Confidential Instructions for Pat Cooper, Lead Negotiator for NUPE | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Welsh Water (E): General Information and Confidential Instructions for Pat Cooper, Lead Negotiator for NUPE are -
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Robert J. Robinson suggests that, Nupe Confidential 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 Welsh Water (E): General Information and Confidential Instructions for Pat Cooper, Lead Negotiator for NUPE, is just above the industry average. Nupe Confidential needs to redesign the compensation structure and incentives to increase the revenue per employees. Some of the steps that it can take are – hiring more specialists on project basis, etc.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Welsh Water (E): General Information and Confidential Instructions for Pat Cooper, Lead Negotiator for NUPE 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 Nupe Confidential has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Nupe Confidential 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Nupe Confidential 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Nupe Confidential 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Nupe Confidential 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. Nupe Confidential 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.
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 Nupe Confidential supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Welsh Water (E): General Information and Confidential Instructions for Pat Cooper, Lead Negotiator for NUPE, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Nupe Confidential vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Nupe Confidential, firm in the HBR case study Welsh Water (E): General Information and Confidential Instructions for Pat Cooper, Lead Negotiator for NUPE needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Welsh Water (E): General Information and Confidential Instructions for Pat Cooper, Lead Negotiator for NUPE 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 Welsh Water (E): General Information and Confidential Instructions for Pat Cooper, Lead Negotiator for NUPE can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Nupe Confidential is planning to shift buying processes online.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Nupe Confidential 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.
Opportunities Welsh Water (E): General Information and Confidential Instructions for Pat Cooper, Lead Negotiator for NUPE | 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 Welsh Water (E): General Information and Confidential Instructions for Pat Cooper, Lead Negotiator for NUPE are -
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 Nupe Confidential in the consumer business. Now Nupe Confidential can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Loyalty marketing
– Nupe Confidential 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
– Nupe Confidential can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Welsh Water (E): General Information and Confidential Instructions for Pat Cooper, Lead Negotiator for NUPE 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.
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. Nupe Confidential can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Nupe Confidential 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Nupe Confidential 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 Strategy & Execution segment.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Nupe Confidential 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 Welsh Water (E): General Information and Confidential Instructions for Pat Cooper, Lead Negotiator for NUPE - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Nupe Confidential to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Nupe Confidential can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Nupe Confidential operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Strategy & Execution sector.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Nupe Confidential can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Nupe Confidential 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Nupe Confidential can develop new processes and procedures in Strategy & Execution 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Nupe Confidential 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Nupe Confidential 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.
Threats Welsh Water (E): General Information and Confidential Instructions for Pat Cooper, Lead Negotiator for NUPE External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Welsh Water (E): General Information and Confidential Instructions for Pat Cooper, Lead Negotiator for NUPE are -
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 Nupe Confidential 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Nupe Confidential 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.
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 Nupe Confidential.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Nupe Confidential 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.
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 Nupe Confidential in the Strategy & Execution sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Nupe Confidential 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Nupe Confidential is facing in Strategy & Execution sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Welsh Water (E): General Information and Confidential Instructions for Pat Cooper, Lead Negotiator for NUPE, Nupe Confidential 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 .
Increasing wage structure of Nupe Confidential
– 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 Nupe Confidential.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Strategy & Execution field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Nupe Confidential can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Technology disruption because of hacks, piracy etc
– The colonial pipeline illustrated, how vulnerable modern organization are to international hackers, miscreants, and disruptors. The cyber security interruption, data leaks, etc can seriously jeopardize the future growth of the organization.
Environmental challenges
– Nupe Confidential 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. Nupe Confidential can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Welsh Water (E): General Information and Confidential Instructions for Pat Cooper, Lead Negotiator for NUPE 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 Welsh Water (E): General Information and Confidential Instructions for Pat Cooper, Lead Negotiator for NUPE 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 Welsh Water (E): General Information and Confidential Instructions for Pat Cooper, Lead Negotiator for NUPE 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 Welsh Water (E): General Information and Confidential Instructions for Pat Cooper, Lead Negotiator for NUPE 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 Welsh Water (E): General Information and Confidential Instructions for Pat Cooper, Lead Negotiator for NUPE 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 Nupe Confidential needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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