Case Study Description of Baxter's Asia Pacific "Talent Edge" Initiative
To maximize their effectiveness, color cases should be printed in color.Can multinationals wield competitive advantage by aggressively hiring talented members of the excluded social group in each market? This is the subject of Siegel's global strategy research as well as the focus of this case study.
Authors :: Jordan Siegel, Mimi Xi, Christopher Poliquin
Topics :: Strategy & Execution
Tags :: Corporate governance, Diversity, Hiring, Human resource management, International business, SWOT Analysis, SWOT Matrix, TOWS, Weighted SWOT Analysis
Swot Analysis of "Baxter's Asia Pacific "Talent Edge" Initiative" written by Jordan Siegel, Mimi Xi, Christopher Poliquin includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Baxter's Color.can facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Baxter's Asia Pacific "Talent Edge" Initiative case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Corporate governance, Diversity, Hiring, Human resource management, International business and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Baxter's Asia Pacific "Talent Edge" Initiative casestudy better are - – 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%, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing commodity prices, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings,
geopolitical disruptions, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Baxter's Asia Pacific "Talent Edge" Initiative
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Baxter's Asia Pacific "Talent Edge" Initiative case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Baxter's Color.can, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Baxter's Color.can 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 Baxter's Asia Pacific "Talent Edge" Initiative can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Baxter's Asia Pacific "Talent Edge" Initiative case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Baxter's Color.can
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 Baxter's Color.can
Strengths Baxter's Asia Pacific "Talent Edge" Initiative | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Baxter's Color.can in Baxter's Asia Pacific "Talent Edge" Initiative Harvard Business Review case study are -
Digital Transformation in Strategy & Execution segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Baxter's Color.can digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Baxter's Color.can 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Baxter's Color.can in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Baxter's Color.can in the sector have low bargaining power. Baxter's Asia Pacific "Talent Edge" Initiative has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Baxter's Color.can to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
High brand equity
– Baxter's Color.can has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Baxter's Color.can to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Baxter's Color.can has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Baxter's Color.can 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Baxter's Color.can 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Strategy & Execution industry
– Baxter's Asia Pacific "Talent Edge" Initiative firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Baxter's Color.can to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Baxter's Color.can to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Strong track record of project management
– Baxter's Color.can is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Organizational Resilience of Baxter's Color.can
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Baxter's Color.can does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Baxter's Color.can 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 Baxter's Asia Pacific "Talent Edge" Initiative HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Analytics focus
– Baxter's Color.can 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 Jordan Siegel, Mimi Xi, Christopher Poliquin 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.
Learning organization
- Baxter's Color.can 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 Baxter's Color.can is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Baxter's Asia Pacific "Talent Edge" Initiative Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Weaknesses Baxter's Asia Pacific "Talent Edge" Initiative | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Baxter's Asia Pacific "Talent Edge" Initiative are -
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Baxter's Color.can 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Baxter's Asia Pacific "Talent Edge" Initiative 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 Baxter's Color.can has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Need for greater diversity
– Baxter's Color.can 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Baxter's Color.can, firm in the HBR case study Baxter's Asia Pacific "Talent Edge" Initiative needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Baxter's Color.can 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. Baxter's Color.can 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Baxter's Asia Pacific "Talent Edge" Initiative 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 Baxter's Asia Pacific "Talent Edge" Initiative can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Baxter's Color.can is planning to shift buying processes online.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Baxter's Asia Pacific "Talent Edge" Initiative, it seems that the employees of Baxter's Color.can don’t have comprehensive understanding of the firm’s strategy. This is reflected in number of promotional campaigns over the last few years that had mixed messaging and competing priorities. Some of the strategic activities and services promoted in the promotional campaigns were not consistent with the organization’s strategy.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Baxter's Color.can 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Baxter's Asia Pacific "Talent Edge" Initiative 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 Baxter's Color.can 's lucrative customers.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Jordan Siegel, Mimi Xi, Christopher Poliquin suggests that, Baxter's Color.can 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Baxter's Color.can is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Baxter's Asia Pacific "Talent Edge" Initiative can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Opportunities Baxter's Asia Pacific "Talent Edge" Initiative | 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 Baxter's Asia Pacific "Talent Edge" Initiative are -
Loyalty marketing
– Baxter's Color.can 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Baxter's Color.can 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Baxter's Color.can has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Baxter's Color.can to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Baxter's Asia Pacific "Talent Edge" Initiative case study. Baxter's Color.can can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, 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 Baxter's Color.can in the consumer business. Now Baxter's Color.can can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
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. Baxter's Color.can 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. Baxter's Color.can 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 Baxter's Color.can 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Baxter's Color.can 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.
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. Baxter's Color.can can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Baxter's Color.can 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 Baxter's Asia Pacific "Talent Edge" Initiative - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Baxter's Color.can to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Baxter's Color.can 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, Baxter's Asia Pacific "Talent Edge" Initiative, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Baxter's Color.can can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Buying journey improvements
– Baxter's Color.can can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Baxter's Asia Pacific "Talent Edge" Initiative 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Baxter's Color.can 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.
Threats Baxter's Asia Pacific "Talent Edge" Initiative External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Baxter's Asia Pacific "Talent Edge" Initiative are -
Consumer confidence and its impact on Baxter's Color.can 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.
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. Baxter's Color.can can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
High level of anxiety and lack of motivation
– the Great Resignation in United States is the sign of broader dissatisfaction among the workforce in United States. Baxter's Color.can needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Strategy & Execution industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Baxter's Color.can has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Strategy & Execution industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Baxter's Color.can 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Baxter's Asia Pacific "Talent Edge" Initiative, Baxter's Color.can 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 Baxter's Color.can
– 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 Baxter's Color.can.
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 Baxter's Color.can business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Environmental challenges
– Baxter's Color.can 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. Baxter's Color.can can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Baxter's Color.can 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Baxter's Color.can is facing in Strategy & Execution sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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. Baxter's Color.can 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Baxter's Color.can 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.
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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Baxter's Asia Pacific "Talent Edge" Initiative 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 Baxter's Asia Pacific "Talent Edge" Initiative 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 Baxter's Asia Pacific "Talent Edge" Initiative 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 Baxter's Asia Pacific "Talent Edge" Initiative 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 Baxter's Asia Pacific "Talent Edge" Initiative 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 Baxter's Color.can needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.