Case Study Description of Creating a Growth Portfolio
This technical note is the fourth in a series focusing on business growth. It addresses how to create a diversified Growth Portfolio based on the Learning Launch experiments. The note covers how growth requires several key elements-the right individuals and organizational mindsets, the right internal enabling system, and the right processes, which include experimental learning and creating and managing Growth Portfolios.
Swot Analysis of "Creating a Growth Portfolio" written by Edward D. Hess includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Growth Portfolio facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Creating a Growth Portfolio case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Growth strategy and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Creating a Growth Portfolio casestudy better are - – cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing commodity prices, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , there is backlash against globalization,
central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing energy prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Creating a Growth Portfolio
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Creating a Growth Portfolio case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Growth Portfolio, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Growth Portfolio 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 Creating a Growth Portfolio can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Creating a Growth Portfolio case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Growth Portfolio
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 Growth Portfolio
Strengths Creating a Growth Portfolio | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Growth Portfolio in Creating a Growth Portfolio Harvard Business Review case study are -
Digital Transformation in Strategy & Execution segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Growth Portfolio digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Growth Portfolio 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
– Growth Portfolio 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 Creating a Growth Portfolio HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Growth Portfolio has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Growth Portfolio 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.
Learning organization
- Growth Portfolio 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 Growth Portfolio is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Creating a Growth Portfolio Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Ability to lead change in Strategy & Execution field
– Growth Portfolio 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 Growth Portfolio in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Training and development
– Growth Portfolio has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Creating a Growth Portfolio 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Creating a Growth Portfolio 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Growth Portfolio in the sector have low bargaining power. Creating a Growth Portfolio has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Growth Portfolio to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Strong track record of project management
– Growth Portfolio is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Growth Portfolio 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 Creating a Growth Portfolio - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Diverse revenue streams
– Growth Portfolio is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Creating a Growth Portfolio 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
– Growth Portfolio has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Growth Portfolio to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Weaknesses Creating a Growth Portfolio | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Creating a Growth Portfolio are -
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Growth Portfolio 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Creating a Growth Portfolio 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 Creating a Growth Portfolio can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Growth Portfolio 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 Creating a Growth Portfolio, in the dynamic environment Growth Portfolio has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Growth Portfolio has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Growth Portfolio is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Strategy & Execution segment. Growth Portfolio needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Growth Portfolio to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Growth Portfolio, firm in the HBR case study Creating a Growth Portfolio needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Growth Portfolio 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Creating a Growth Portfolio, is just above the industry average. Growth Portfolio 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 dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Creating a Growth Portfolio 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 Growth Portfolio has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Creating a Growth Portfolio, it seems that the employees of Growth Portfolio 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Growth Portfolio 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Creating a Growth Portfolio, 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.
Opportunities Creating a Growth Portfolio | 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 Creating a Growth Portfolio are -
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Growth Portfolio is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Creating a Growth Portfolio 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 Growth Portfolio has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Growth Portfolio to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Creating a Growth Portfolio case study. Growth Portfolio can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Growth Portfolio to increase its market reach. Growth Portfolio 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.
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. Growth Portfolio 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. Growth Portfolio 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Growth Portfolio 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 Creating a Growth Portfolio - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Growth Portfolio to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Growth Portfolio can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Growth Portfolio 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, Creating a Growth Portfolio, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
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. Growth Portfolio can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Manufacturing automation
– Growth Portfolio 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Growth Portfolio 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 Growth Portfolio to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Developing new processes and practices
– Growth Portfolio 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Growth Portfolio can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Creating a Growth Portfolio 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Growth Portfolio 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.
Threats Creating a Growth Portfolio External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Creating a Growth Portfolio 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 Growth Portfolio business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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. Growth Portfolio 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Growth Portfolio is facing in Strategy & Execution sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Growth Portfolio 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 Creating a Growth Portfolio, Growth Portfolio 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 .
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Growth Portfolio 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.
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 Growth Portfolio.
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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Growth Portfolio 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.
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. Growth Portfolio can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Increasing wage structure of Growth Portfolio
– 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 Growth Portfolio.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Growth Portfolio with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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. Growth Portfolio needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Strategy & Execution industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Creating a Growth Portfolio 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 Creating a Growth Portfolio 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 Creating a Growth Portfolio 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 Creating a Growth Portfolio 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 Creating a Growth Portfolio 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 Growth Portfolio needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.