InterfaceRAISE (in 2010): Raising the Bar in Sustainability Consulting SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Strategy & Execution
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of InterfaceRAISE (in 2010): Raising the Bar in Sustainability Consulting
Teaching Note for Product #MH0004 Following Ray Anderson's guidance and vision, Interface, a modular carpet and commercial broadloom company, had implemented a business model focused on sustainability. The results had been not just good for the environment but also for Interface's costs and bottom line. When larger companies such as Wal-Mart came to see Interface's sustainability practices in person to learn how sustainability could benefit their companies, Anderson started InterfaceRAISE, a sustainability consulting company, and made Jim Hartzfeld Managing Director. Now faced with growing the business, Jim must consider what he will need to do to increase InterfaceRAISE's influence for sustainable business on the corporate world.
Swot Analysis of "InterfaceRAISE (in 2010): Raising the Bar in Sustainability Consulting" written by Frank T. Rothaermel, Michael Janovec includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Sustainability Interface's facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in InterfaceRAISE (in 2010): Raising the Bar in Sustainability Consulting case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Corporate governance, Leadership, Organizational culture, Supply chain, Sustainability and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the InterfaceRAISE (in 2010): Raising the Bar in Sustainability Consulting casestudy better are - – increasing transportation and logistics costs, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing commodity prices, increasing energy prices, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, 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,
customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, wage bills are increasing, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of InterfaceRAISE (in 2010): Raising the Bar in Sustainability Consulting
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in InterfaceRAISE (in 2010): Raising the Bar in Sustainability Consulting case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Sustainability Interface's, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Sustainability Interface's operates in.
According to Harvard Business Review, 75% of the managers use SWOT analysis for various purposes such as – evaluating current scenario, strategic planning, new venture feasibility, personal growth goals, new market entry, Go To market strategies, portfolio management and strategic trade-off assessment, organizational restructuring, etc.
SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix
SWOT analysis of InterfaceRAISE (in 2010): Raising the Bar in Sustainability Consulting can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in InterfaceRAISE (in 2010): Raising the Bar in Sustainability Consulting case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Sustainability Interface's
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Strategy & Execution field.
4. Making a Strategy & Execution topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Sustainability Interface's
Strengths InterfaceRAISE (in 2010): Raising the Bar in Sustainability Consulting | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Sustainability Interface's in InterfaceRAISE (in 2010): Raising the Bar in Sustainability Consulting Harvard Business Review case study are -
Digital Transformation in Strategy & Execution segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Sustainability Interface's digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Sustainability Interface's has successfully integrated the four key components of digital transformation – digital integration in processes, digital integration in marketing and customer relationship management, digital integration into the value chain, and using technology to explore new products and market opportunities.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Sustainability Interface's has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive segment. Secondly the value chain collaborators of the firm in InterfaceRAISE (in 2010): Raising the Bar in Sustainability Consulting HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the InterfaceRAISE (in 2010): Raising the Bar in Sustainability Consulting 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.
Analytics focus
– Sustainability Interface's is putting a lot of focus on utilizing the power of analytics in business decision making. This has put it among the leading players in the industry. The technology infrastructure suggested by Frank T. Rothaermel, Michael Janovec 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Sustainability Interface's has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in, as mentioned in case study InterfaceRAISE (in 2010): Raising the Bar in Sustainability Consulting - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Sustainability Interface's is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the InterfaceRAISE (in 2010): Raising the Bar in Sustainability Consulting 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
– Sustainability Interface's is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Ability to lead change in Strategy & Execution field
– Sustainability Interface's is one of the leading players in its industry. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in its segment but also across the whole industry. The ability to lead change has enabled Sustainability Interface's in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Innovation driven organization
– Sustainability Interface's is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in InterfaceRAISE (in 2010): Raising the Bar in Sustainability Consulting Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Sustainability Interface's in the sector have low bargaining power. InterfaceRAISE (in 2010): Raising the Bar in Sustainability Consulting has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Sustainability Interface's to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Training and development
– Sustainability Interface's has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in InterfaceRAISE (in 2010): Raising the Bar in Sustainability Consulting 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.
High brand equity
– Sustainability Interface's has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Sustainability Interface's to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Weaknesses InterfaceRAISE (in 2010): Raising the Bar in Sustainability Consulting | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of InterfaceRAISE (in 2010): Raising the Bar in Sustainability Consulting are -
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Sustainability Interface's needs to come up with a strategy to reduce the workers concern regarding automation. Without a clear strategy, it could lead to disruption and uncertainty within the organization.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Sustainability Interface's is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study InterfaceRAISE (in 2010): Raising the Bar in Sustainability Consulting can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As InterfaceRAISE (in 2010): Raising the Bar in Sustainability Consulting HBR case study mentions - Sustainability Interface's takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the industry in last five years.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Frank T. Rothaermel, Michael Janovec suggests that, Sustainability Interface's 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study InterfaceRAISE (in 2010): Raising the Bar in Sustainability Consulting, it seems that the employees of Sustainability Interface's 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Sustainability Interface's is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Strategy & Execution segment. Sustainability Interface's needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Sustainability Interface's to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study InterfaceRAISE (in 2010): Raising the Bar in Sustainability Consulting, in the dynamic environment Sustainability Interface's has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Sustainability Interface's has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study InterfaceRAISE (in 2010): Raising the Bar in Sustainability Consulting 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 Sustainability Interface's 's lucrative customers.
Need for greater diversity
– Sustainability Interface's has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study InterfaceRAISE (in 2010): Raising the Bar in Sustainability Consulting, 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Sustainability Interface's products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Sustainability Interface's needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Opportunities InterfaceRAISE (in 2010): Raising the Bar in Sustainability Consulting | 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 InterfaceRAISE (in 2010): Raising the Bar in Sustainability Consulting are -
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Sustainability Interface's 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 Sustainability Interface's to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Sustainability Interface's 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Sustainability Interface's has focused on building a highly responsive customer relationship management platform. This platform is built on in-house data and driven by analytics and artificial intelligence. The customer analytics can help the organization to fine tune its loyalty marketing efforts, increase the wallet share of the organization, reduce wastage on mainstream advertising spending, build better pricing strategies using personalization, etc.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Sustainability Interface's has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Sustainability Interface's to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the InterfaceRAISE (in 2010): Raising the Bar in Sustainability Consulting case study. Sustainability Interface's can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, 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. Sustainability Interface's can take advantage of these changes in consumer behavior to build a far more efficient business model. For example consumer regular ordering of products can reduce both last mile delivery costs and market penetration costs. Sustainability Interface's can further use this consumer data to build better customer loyalty, provide better products and service collection, and improve the value proposition in inflationary times.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Sustainability Interface's to increase its market reach. Sustainability Interface's will be able to reach out to new customers. Secondly 5G will also provide technology framework to build new tools and products that can help more immersive consumer experience and faster consumer journey.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Sustainability Interface's has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in the sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled, as illustrated in the Harvard case study InterfaceRAISE (in 2010): Raising the Bar in Sustainability Consulting - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Sustainability Interface's to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Buying journey improvements
– Sustainability Interface's can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. InterfaceRAISE (in 2010): Raising the Bar in Sustainability Consulting 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Sustainability Interface's 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Sustainability Interface's can leverage digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate the production process, customer analytics to get better insights into consumer behavior, realtime digital dashboards to get better sales tracking, logistics and transportation, product tracking, etc.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Sustainability Interface's is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. InterfaceRAISE (in 2010): Raising the Bar in Sustainability Consulting 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Sustainability Interface's to conduct training and development for its employees across the world. This will result in not only reducing the cost of training but also help employees in different part of the world to integrate with the headquarter work culture, ethos, and standards.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Sustainability Interface's in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Strategy & Execution segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Threats InterfaceRAISE (in 2010): Raising the Bar in Sustainability Consulting External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study InterfaceRAISE (in 2010): Raising the Bar in Sustainability Consulting are -
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 Sustainability Interface's business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Sustainability Interface's is facing in Strategy & Execution sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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 Sustainability Interface's in the Strategy & Execution sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Sustainability Interface's in the Strategy & Execution industry. The Strategy & Execution industry is already at various protected from local competition in China, with the rise of trade war the protection levels may go up. This presents a clear threat of current business model in Chinese market.
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 Sustainability Interface's.
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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Sustainability Interface's 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.
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. Sustainability Interface's 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.
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. Sustainability Interface's can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Sustainability Interface's has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Strategy & Execution industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Sustainability Interface's needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Strategy & Execution sector. According to Mckinsey study top managers believe that the adoption of technology in operations, communications is 20-25 times faster than what they planned in the beginning of 2019.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Sustainability Interface's can face lack of demand in the market place because of Fed actions to reduce inflation. This can lead to sluggish growth in the economy, lower demands, lower investments, higher borrowing costs, and consolidation in the field.
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. Sustainability Interface's needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Strategy & Execution industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Sustainability Interface's can face downward pressure on margins from increasing competition from international players. The international players have stable revenue in their home market and can use those resources to penetrate prominent markets illustrated in HBR case study InterfaceRAISE (in 2010): Raising the Bar in Sustainability Consulting .
Weighted SWOT Analysis of InterfaceRAISE (in 2010): Raising the Bar in Sustainability Consulting 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 InterfaceRAISE (in 2010): Raising the Bar in Sustainability Consulting 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 InterfaceRAISE (in 2010): Raising the Bar in Sustainability Consulting 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 InterfaceRAISE (in 2010): Raising the Bar in Sustainability Consulting 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 InterfaceRAISE (in 2010): Raising the Bar in Sustainability Consulting 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 Sustainability Interface's needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.