Dow and the Circular Economy: Trash to Treasure? SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Strategy & Execution
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Dow and the Circular Economy: Trash to Treasure?
Erica Ocampo, sustainability and advocacy manager at The Dow Chemical Company, is getting ready to present her report on the pilot Energy Bag program to her boss. The waste-to-energy program has been met with success in converting plastics to energy, but Ocampo is wondering how she can take the project a step further and truly make Dow a participant and leader in the circular economy. Students are asked to identify with Ocampo and develop a plan of action for the company.
Swot Analysis of "Dow and the Circular Economy: Trash to Treasure?" written by Andrew Hoffman includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Ocampo Dow facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Dow and the Circular Economy: Trash to Treasure? case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Sustainability and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Dow and the Circular Economy: Trash to Treasure? casestudy better are - – increasing energy prices, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, wage bills are increasing, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google,
there is backlash against globalization, increasing transportation and logistics costs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Dow and the Circular Economy: Trash to Treasure?
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Dow and the Circular Economy: Trash to Treasure? case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Ocampo Dow, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Ocampo Dow 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 Dow and the Circular Economy: Trash to Treasure? can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Dow and the Circular Economy: Trash to Treasure? case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Ocampo Dow
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 Ocampo Dow
Strengths Dow and the Circular Economy: Trash to Treasure? | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Ocampo Dow in Dow and the Circular Economy: Trash to Treasure? Harvard Business Review case study are -
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Ocampo Dow in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Training and development
– Ocampo Dow has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Dow and the Circular Economy: Trash to Treasure? 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Strategy & Execution industry
– Dow and the Circular Economy: Trash to Treasure? firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Ocampo Dow to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Ocampo Dow to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Diverse revenue streams
– Ocampo Dow is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Dow and the Circular Economy: Trash to Treasure? 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.
High brand equity
– Ocampo Dow has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Ocampo Dow to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Ability to lead change in Strategy & Execution field
– Ocampo Dow 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 Ocampo Dow in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Learning organization
- Ocampo Dow 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 Ocampo Dow is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Dow and the Circular Economy: Trash to Treasure? Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Ocampo Dow 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.
Digital Transformation in Strategy & Execution segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Ocampo Dow digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Ocampo Dow 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Ocampo Dow 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 Dow and the Circular Economy: Trash to Treasure? HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Strong track record of project management
– Ocampo Dow 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 Ocampo Dow
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Ocampo Dow does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Weaknesses Dow and the Circular Economy: Trash to Treasure? | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Dow and the Circular Economy: Trash to Treasure? are -
Lack of clear differentiation of Ocampo Dow products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Ocampo Dow needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Andrew Hoffman suggests that, Ocampo Dow 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Dow and the Circular Economy: Trash to Treasure? 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 Ocampo Dow 's lucrative customers.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Ocampo Dow 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Ocampo Dow 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. Ocampo Dow 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 Ocampo Dow supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Dow and the Circular Economy: Trash to Treasure?, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Ocampo Dow vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Need for greater diversity
– Ocampo Dow 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Ocampo Dow 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Dow and the Circular Economy: Trash to Treasure?, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Strategy & Execution strategy. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Dow and the Circular Economy: Trash to Treasure?, in the dynamic environment Ocampo Dow has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Ocampo Dow has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Ocampo Dow 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 - Dow and the Circular Economy: Trash to Treasure? should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Opportunities Dow and the Circular Economy: Trash to Treasure? | 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 Dow and the Circular Economy: Trash to Treasure? are -
Leveraging digital technologies
– Ocampo Dow can leverage digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate the production process, customer analytics to get better insights into consumer behavior, realtime digital dashboards to get better sales tracking, logistics and transportation, product tracking, etc.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Ocampo Dow 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 Ocampo Dow to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Buying journey improvements
– Ocampo Dow can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Dow and the Circular Economy: Trash to Treasure? 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.
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. Ocampo Dow 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. Ocampo Dow 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 Ocampo Dow 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Ocampo Dow can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Ocampo Dow has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Ocampo Dow to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Dow and the Circular Economy: Trash to Treasure? case study. Ocampo Dow can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Manufacturing automation
– Ocampo Dow 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Ocampo Dow 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, Dow and the Circular Economy: Trash to Treasure?, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Loyalty marketing
– Ocampo Dow 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 Ocampo Dow 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Ocampo Dow 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.
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 Ocampo Dow in the consumer business. Now Ocampo Dow can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Threats Dow and the Circular Economy: Trash to Treasure? External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Dow and the Circular Economy: Trash to Treasure? are -
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. Ocampo Dow 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
– Ocampo Dow 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. Ocampo Dow can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Ocampo Dow 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Dow and the Circular Economy: Trash to Treasure?, Ocampo Dow 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 .
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 Ocampo Dow in the Strategy & Execution sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Ocampo Dow 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 Dow and the Circular Economy: Trash to Treasure? .
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. Ocampo Dow needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Strategy & Execution industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Ocampo Dow 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Ocampo Dow 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Ocampo Dow has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Strategy & Execution industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Ocampo Dow 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.
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.
Increasing wage structure of Ocampo Dow
– 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 Ocampo Dow.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Dow and the Circular Economy: Trash to Treasure? 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 Dow and the Circular Economy: Trash to Treasure? 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 Dow and the Circular Economy: Trash to Treasure? 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 Dow and the Circular Economy: Trash to Treasure? 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 Dow and the Circular Economy: Trash to Treasure? 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 Ocampo Dow needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.