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Responsible Investing Takes Root SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution

Case Study Description of Responsible Investing Takes Root


Responsible investment is moving from being a niche in the asset management universe to increasingly becoming mainstream. In Europe, especially, it appears to be taking off. This article identifies some of the key drivers and the challenges that responsible investment poses to investors and managers as they try to take this novel field and embed it into their institutional practices. Looking to the future, the author highlights three areas that he believes will need close attention: new financial strategies to deal with problematic industries; the role of Chief Sustainability Officer will become increasingly strategic; and the transparency requirements being demanded for public companies will need to apply to private ones, too, otherwise the diffusion of these practices will only be partial and their impact greatly reduced. Though much remains to be done, the author believes this is an opportune moment for institutionalizing responsible investment and ushering in a new, more sustainable age of capitalism.

Authors :: Fabrizio Ferraro

Topics :: Strategy & Execution

Tags :: Financial management, Strategy, Sustainability, SWOT Analysis, SWOT Matrix, TOWS, Weighted SWOT Analysis

Swot Analysis of "Responsible Investing Takes Root" written by Fabrizio Ferraro includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Responsible Believes facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Responsible Investing Takes Root case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Financial management, Strategy, Sustainability and Strategy & Execution.


Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Responsible Investing Takes Root casestudy better are - – technology disruption, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing commodity prices, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing transportation and logistics costs, geopolitical disruptions, etc



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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Responsible Investing Takes Root


SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Responsible Investing Takes Root case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Responsible Believes, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Responsible Believes 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 Responsible Investing Takes Root can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Responsible Investing Takes Root case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Responsible Believes
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 Responsible Believes




Strengths Responsible Investing Takes Root | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Responsible Believes in Responsible Investing Takes Root Harvard Business Review case study are -

Low bargaining power of suppliers

– Suppliers of Responsible Believes in the sector have low bargaining power. Responsible Investing Takes Root has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Responsible Believes to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.

High brand equity

– Responsible Believes has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Responsible Believes to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.

Ability to lead change in Strategy & Execution field

– Responsible Believes 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 Responsible Believes in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.

Successful track record of launching new products

– Responsible Believes has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Responsible Believes 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.

Strong track record of project management

– Responsible Believes is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.

Digital Transformation in Strategy & Execution segment

- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Responsible Believes digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Responsible Believes 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.

Training and development

– Responsible Believes has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Responsible Investing Takes Root 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.

Diverse revenue streams

– Responsible Believes is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Responsible Investing Takes Root 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.

Highly skilled collaborators

– Responsible Believes 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 Responsible Investing Takes Root HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.

Organizational Resilience of Responsible Believes

– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Responsible Believes does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.

Learning organization

- Responsible Believes 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 Responsible Believes is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Responsible Investing Takes Root Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.

Innovation driven organization

– Responsible Believes is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Responsible Investing Takes Root Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.






Weaknesses Responsible Investing Takes Root | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of Responsible Investing Takes Root are -

No frontier risks strategy

– After analyzing the HBR case study Responsible Investing Takes Root, 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.

Capital Spending Reduction

– Even during the low interest decade, Responsible Believes has not been able to do capital spending to the tune of the competition. This has resulted into fewer innovations and company facing stiff competition from both existing competitors and new entrants who are disrupting the industry using digital technology.

Need for greater diversity

– Responsible Believes 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.

Workers concerns about automation

– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Responsible Believes 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.

Aligning sales with marketing

– It come across in the case study Responsible Investing Takes Root 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 Responsible Investing Takes Root can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Responsible Believes is planning to shift buying processes online.

Ability to respond to the competition

– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Responsible Investing Takes Root, in the dynamic environment Responsible Believes has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Responsible Believes has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.

Low market penetration in new markets

– Outside its home market of Responsible Believes, firm in the HBR case study Responsible Investing Takes Root needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.

Lack of clear differentiation of Responsible Believes products

– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Responsible Believes needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.

High operating costs

– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Responsible Investing Takes Root 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 Responsible Believes 's lucrative customers.

High dependence on star products

– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Responsible Investing Takes Root 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 Responsible Believes has relatively successful track record of launching new products.

Interest costs

– Compare to the competition, Responsible Believes 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.




Opportunities Responsible Investing Takes Root | 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 Responsible Investing Takes Root are -

Manufacturing automation

– Responsible Believes 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.

Low interest rates

– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Responsible Believes 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.

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 Responsible Believes 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.

Loyalty marketing

– Responsible Believes 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.

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. Responsible Believes 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. Responsible Believes 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.

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. Responsible Believes can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.

Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities

– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Responsible Believes 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 Responsible Believes to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.

Building a culture of innovation

– managers at Responsible Believes 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.

Leveraging digital technologies

– Responsible Believes 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.

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 Responsible Believes in the consumer business. Now Responsible Believes can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.

Buying journey improvements

– Responsible Believes can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Responsible Investing Takes Root 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.

Redefining models of collaboration and team work

– As explained in the weaknesses section, Responsible Believes is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Responsible Investing Takes Root 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.

Creating value in data economy

– The success of analytics program of Responsible Believes has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Responsible Believes to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Responsible Investing Takes Root case study. Responsible Believes can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.




Threats Responsible Investing Takes Root External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis


The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Responsible Investing Takes Root 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. Responsible Believes 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.

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 Responsible Believes business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, 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 Responsible Believes 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, Responsible Believes 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 Responsible Investing Takes Root .

Stagnating economy with rate increase

– Responsible Believes 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.

Trade war between China and United States

– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Responsible Believes 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.

Environmental challenges

– Responsible Believes 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. Responsible Believes can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry.

Consumer confidence and its impact on Responsible Believes 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.

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 Responsible Believes.

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.

Barriers of entry lowering

– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Responsible Believes with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.

Regulatory challenges

– Responsible Believes 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.

Increasing wage structure of Responsible Believes

– 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 Responsible Believes.




Weighted SWOT Analysis of Responsible Investing Takes Root 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 Responsible Investing Takes Root 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 Responsible Investing Takes Root 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 Responsible Investing Takes Root 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 Responsible Investing Takes Root 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 Responsible Believes needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.



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