Copeland Corporation: Manufacturing in China SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Strategy & Execution
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Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Copeland Corporation: Manufacturing in China
Describes the start up of a new manufacturing facility in China, to serve the China market, previously served by a field sales force and imported products. Plant, which incorporates state-of-art manufacturing technology, attains world-class status in manufacturing shortly after startup, but increased competition and sales stagnation in China market offer new challenges. The vice president of Asian Operations desires to use the new manufacturing facility as a competitive weapon and must integrate more closely with Sales and Marketing. Case is designed for a course in Operations Strategy or International Business; can be used to illustrate issues associated with plant startups in China, and issues related to Marketing and Manufacturing interaction.
Swot Analysis of "Copeland Corporation: Manufacturing in China" written by Edward W. Davis includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Manufacturing China facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Copeland Corporation: Manufacturing in China case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Manufacturing and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Copeland Corporation: Manufacturing in China casestudy better are - – increasing transportation and logistics costs, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing commodity prices, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%,
competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, wage bills are increasing, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Copeland Corporation: Manufacturing in China
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Copeland Corporation: Manufacturing in China case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Manufacturing China, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Manufacturing China 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 Copeland Corporation: Manufacturing in China can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Copeland Corporation: Manufacturing in China case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Manufacturing China
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 Manufacturing China
Strengths Copeland Corporation: Manufacturing in China | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Manufacturing China in Copeland Corporation: Manufacturing in China Harvard Business Review case study are -
High brand equity
– Manufacturing China has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Manufacturing China to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Innovation driven organization
– Manufacturing China is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Copeland Corporation: Manufacturing in China Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Manufacturing China has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Manufacturing China has effective processes in place that helps in exploring new product needs, doing quick pilot testing, and then launching the products quickly using its extensive distribution network.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Manufacturing China in the sector have low bargaining power. Copeland Corporation: Manufacturing in China has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Manufacturing China to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Copeland Corporation: Manufacturing in China 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Manufacturing China in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Manufacturing China 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Manufacturing China is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Copeland Corporation: Manufacturing in China 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Strategy & Execution industry
– Copeland Corporation: Manufacturing in China firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Manufacturing China to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Manufacturing China to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Manufacturing China is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Copeland Corporation: Manufacturing in China are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Strong track record of project management
– Manufacturing China is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Training and development
– Manufacturing China has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Copeland Corporation: Manufacturing in China 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.
Weaknesses Copeland Corporation: Manufacturing in China | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Copeland Corporation: Manufacturing in China are -
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Copeland Corporation: Manufacturing in China 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 Copeland Corporation: Manufacturing in China can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Manufacturing China is planning to shift buying processes online.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Manufacturing China 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Manufacturing China products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Manufacturing China needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Manufacturing China has borrowed money from the capital market at higher rates. It needs to restructure the interest payment and costs so that it can compete better and improve profitability.
High dependence on existing supply chain
– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of Manufacturing China supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Copeland Corporation: Manufacturing in China, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Manufacturing China vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Copeland Corporation: Manufacturing in China, it seems that the employees of Manufacturing China 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Manufacturing China is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Copeland Corporation: Manufacturing in China can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Copeland Corporation: Manufacturing in China, is just above the industry average. Manufacturing China 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 cash cycle compare to competitors
Manufacturing China 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Manufacturing China has some of the most successful products in the industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. firm in the HBR case study - Copeland Corporation: Manufacturing in China should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Manufacturing China, firm in the HBR case study Copeland Corporation: Manufacturing in China needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Opportunities Copeland Corporation: Manufacturing in China | 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 Copeland Corporation: Manufacturing in China are -
Loyalty marketing
– Manufacturing China 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Manufacturing China 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. Manufacturing China can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Buying journey improvements
– Manufacturing China can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Copeland Corporation: Manufacturing in China 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Manufacturing China can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Manufacturing China operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Strategy & Execution sector.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Manufacturing China 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, Copeland Corporation: Manufacturing in China, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Developing new processes and practices
– Manufacturing China 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Manufacturing China 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 Manufacturing China to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Manufacturing China can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Manufacturing China is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Copeland Corporation: Manufacturing in China case study suggests that firm can utilize new technology to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
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. Manufacturing China 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. Manufacturing China 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 Manufacturing China 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 Manufacturing China has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Manufacturing China to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Copeland Corporation: Manufacturing in China case study. Manufacturing China can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Threats Copeland Corporation: Manufacturing in China External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Copeland Corporation: Manufacturing in China are -
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 Manufacturing China in the Strategy & Execution sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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. Manufacturing China 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.
Environmental challenges
– Manufacturing China 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. Manufacturing China can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Manufacturing China 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 Copeland Corporation: Manufacturing in China .
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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Manufacturing China 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 Manufacturing China business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Increasing wage structure of Manufacturing China
– 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 Manufacturing China.
Regulatory challenges
– Manufacturing China 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Manufacturing China is facing in Strategy & Execution sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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. Manufacturing China needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Strategy & Execution industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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. Manufacturing China 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Copeland Corporation: Manufacturing in China 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 Copeland Corporation: Manufacturing in China 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 Copeland Corporation: Manufacturing in China 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 Copeland Corporation: Manufacturing in China 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 Copeland Corporation: Manufacturing in China 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 Manufacturing China needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
