Competitive Environmental Strategies: When Does It Pay to Be Green? SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Strategy & Execution
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Competitive Environmental Strategies: When Does It Pay to Be Green?
Proactive corporations have typically invested in increasingly ambitious sustainability initiatives. However, managers need to identify the circumstances favoring the generation of both public benefits and corporate profits. For some firms, better utilization of resources may result from some environment-related investments. For others, obtaining ISO 14001 certification or having some eco-labeled products can enable them to pursue competitive advantage. However, no one generic strategy makes business sense for all firms. Presents a framework for categorizing generic types of competitive environmental strategies to help managers define and prioritize areas of organizational action, thus optimizing the overall economic return on environmental investments and making them into sources of competitive advantage.
Swot Analysis of "Competitive Environmental Strategies: When Does It Pay to Be Green?" written by Renato J. Orsato includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Generic Environmental facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Competitive Environmental Strategies: When Does It Pay to Be Green? case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Financial management, Social responsibility, Sustainability and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Competitive Environmental Strategies: When Does It Pay to Be Green? casestudy better are - – technology disruption, increasing commodity prices, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion,
increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Competitive Environmental Strategies: When Does It Pay to Be Green?
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Competitive Environmental Strategies: When Does It Pay to Be Green? case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Generic Environmental, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Generic Environmental 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 Competitive Environmental Strategies: When Does It Pay to Be Green? can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Competitive Environmental Strategies: When Does It Pay to Be Green? case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Generic Environmental
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 Generic Environmental
Strengths Competitive Environmental Strategies: When Does It Pay to Be Green? | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Generic Environmental in Competitive Environmental Strategies: When Does It Pay to Be Green? Harvard Business Review case study are -
Diverse revenue streams
– Generic Environmental is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Competitive Environmental Strategies: When Does It Pay to Be Green? 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Generic Environmental 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Generic Environmental is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Competitive Environmental Strategies: When Does It Pay to Be Green? are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Learning organization
- Generic Environmental 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 Generic Environmental is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Competitive Environmental Strategies: When Does It Pay to Be Green? Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Analytics focus
– Generic Environmental 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 Renato J. Orsato 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Strategy & Execution industry
– Competitive Environmental Strategies: When Does It Pay to Be Green? firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Generic Environmental to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Generic Environmental to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Organizational Resilience of Generic Environmental
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Generic Environmental does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Competitive Environmental Strategies: When Does It Pay to Be Green? 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.
High brand equity
– Generic Environmental has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Generic Environmental to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Ability to lead change in Strategy & Execution field
– Generic Environmental 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 Generic Environmental in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Digital Transformation in Strategy & Execution segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Generic Environmental digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Generic Environmental 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
– Generic Environmental 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 Competitive Environmental Strategies: When Does It Pay to Be Green? HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Weaknesses Competitive Environmental Strategies: When Does It Pay to Be Green? | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Competitive Environmental Strategies: When Does It Pay to Be Green? are -
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Competitive Environmental Strategies: When Does It Pay to Be Green? HBR case study mentions - Generic Environmental 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Generic Environmental 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 bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Renato J. Orsato suggests that, Generic Environmental 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Generic Environmental products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Generic Environmental needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Generic Environmental 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.
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 Generic Environmental supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Competitive Environmental Strategies: When Does It Pay to Be Green?, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Generic Environmental vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Competitive Environmental Strategies: When Does It Pay to Be Green? 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 Generic Environmental has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Need for greater diversity
– Generic Environmental 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Competitive Environmental Strategies: When Does It Pay to Be Green?, is just above the industry average. Generic Environmental 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
Generic Environmental 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Competitive Environmental Strategies: When Does It Pay to Be Green? 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 Competitive Environmental Strategies: When Does It Pay to Be Green? can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Generic Environmental is planning to shift buying processes online.
Opportunities Competitive Environmental Strategies: When Does It Pay to Be Green? | 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 Competitive Environmental Strategies: When Does It Pay to Be Green? are -
Leveraging digital technologies
– Generic Environmental 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Generic Environmental 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Generic Environmental can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
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. Generic Environmental 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. Generic Environmental 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Generic Environmental 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.
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. Generic Environmental can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Generic Environmental has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Generic Environmental to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Competitive Environmental Strategies: When Does It Pay to Be Green? case study. Generic Environmental can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Generic Environmental 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Strategy & Execution industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Generic Environmental can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Generic Environmental 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, Competitive Environmental Strategies: When Does It Pay to Be Green?, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Buying journey improvements
– Generic Environmental can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Competitive Environmental Strategies: When Does It Pay to Be Green? 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Generic Environmental 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 Competitive Environmental Strategies: When Does It Pay to Be Green? - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Generic Environmental to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Generic Environmental 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 Generic Environmental to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Threats Competitive Environmental Strategies: When Does It Pay to Be Green? External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Competitive Environmental Strategies: When Does It Pay to Be Green? are -
Consumer confidence and its impact on Generic Environmental 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Competitive Environmental Strategies: When Does It Pay to Be Green?, Generic Environmental 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 .
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Generic Environmental 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. Generic Environmental 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
– Generic Environmental has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Strategy & Execution industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Generic Environmental 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Generic Environmental 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 Competitive Environmental Strategies: When Does It Pay to Be Green? .
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Generic Environmental 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. Generic Environmental 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Generic Environmental 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 Generic Environmental.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Generic Environmental with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Environmental challenges
– Generic Environmental 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. Generic Environmental can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Generic Environmental 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Competitive Environmental Strategies: When Does It Pay to Be Green? 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 Competitive Environmental Strategies: When Does It Pay to Be Green? 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 Competitive Environmental Strategies: When Does It Pay to Be Green? 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 Competitive Environmental Strategies: When Does It Pay to Be Green? 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 Competitive Environmental Strategies: When Does It Pay to Be Green? 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 Generic Environmental needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
