CCL Industries Inc.: Building and Maintaining an Effective Board SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Strategy & Execution
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of CCL Industries Inc.: Building and Maintaining an Effective Board
CCL Industries Inc. is one of the top packagers of consumer products in the world. Over its 50-year history the company had grown from a small room to a multinational firm employing 7,500 people with over $1.6 billon in sales. CCL faces an uncertain environment that had already led to a major strategic reorientation when its plan to sell its largest division was cancelled. A global economic slowdown and lower consumer confidence coupled with extensive international operations, significantly increased the risk to CCL's sales and already slim profits. In the past, the company prospered through product diversification gained through acquisition. The economic slowdown and increased uncertainty meant that this strategy may not be appropriate in the future. The chief executive officer recognizes the time, attention, advice, composition and operations of the board of directors would likely have to be altered to reflect this new reality.
Swot Analysis of "CCL Industries Inc.: Building and Maintaining an Effective Board" written by Lawrence G. Tapp, Trevor Hunter includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Ccl Slowdown facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in CCL Industries Inc.: Building and Maintaining an Effective Board case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Manufacturing, Strategy and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the CCL Industries Inc.: Building and Maintaining an Effective Board casestudy better are - – supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing commodity prices, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing energy prices, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation,
challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, geopolitical disruptions, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of CCL Industries Inc.: Building and Maintaining an Effective Board
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in CCL Industries Inc.: Building and Maintaining an Effective Board case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Ccl Slowdown, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Ccl Slowdown 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 CCL Industries Inc.: Building and Maintaining an Effective Board can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in CCL Industries Inc.: Building and Maintaining an Effective Board case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Ccl Slowdown
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 Ccl Slowdown
Strengths CCL Industries Inc.: Building and Maintaining an Effective Board | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Ccl Slowdown in CCL Industries Inc.: Building and Maintaining an Effective Board Harvard Business Review case study are -
High brand equity
– Ccl Slowdown has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Ccl Slowdown to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Ccl Slowdown 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 CCL Industries Inc.: Building and Maintaining an Effective Board 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 CCL Industries Inc.: Building and Maintaining an Effective Board 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Ccl Slowdown has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Ccl Slowdown 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Ccl Slowdown has built up over years in its products and services combo offer has resulted in high retention of customers, lower marketing costs, and greater ability of the firm to focus on its customers.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Ccl Slowdown 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.
Analytics focus
– Ccl Slowdown 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 Lawrence G. Tapp, Trevor Hunter 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.
Organizational Resilience of Ccl Slowdown
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Ccl Slowdown does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Strategy & Execution industry
– CCL Industries Inc.: Building and Maintaining an Effective Board firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Ccl Slowdown to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Ccl Slowdown to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Learning organization
- Ccl Slowdown 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 Ccl Slowdown is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in CCL Industries Inc.: Building and Maintaining an Effective Board Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Training and development
– Ccl Slowdown has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in CCL Industries Inc.: Building and Maintaining an Effective Board 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.
Ability to lead change in Strategy & Execution field
– Ccl Slowdown 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 Ccl Slowdown in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Weaknesses CCL Industries Inc.: Building and Maintaining an Effective Board | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of CCL Industries Inc.: Building and Maintaining an Effective Board are -
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study CCL Industries Inc.: Building and Maintaining an Effective Board 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 CCL Industries Inc.: Building and Maintaining an Effective Board can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Ccl Slowdown is planning to shift buying processes online.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Ccl Slowdown 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, Ccl Slowdown is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study CCL Industries Inc.: Building and Maintaining an Effective Board can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study CCL Industries Inc.: Building and Maintaining an Effective Board, it seems that the employees of Ccl Slowdown 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Ccl Slowdown products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Ccl Slowdown needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study CCL Industries Inc.: Building and Maintaining an Effective Board, is just above the industry average. Ccl Slowdown 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 CCL Industries Inc.: Building and Maintaining an Effective Board 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 Ccl Slowdown has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As CCL Industries Inc.: Building and Maintaining an Effective Board HBR case study mentions - Ccl Slowdown 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 operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study CCL Industries Inc.: Building and Maintaining an Effective Board 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 Ccl Slowdown 's lucrative customers.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Ccl Slowdown 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.
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 Ccl Slowdown supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - CCL Industries Inc.: Building and Maintaining an Effective Board, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Ccl Slowdown vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Opportunities CCL Industries Inc.: Building and Maintaining an Effective Board | 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 CCL Industries Inc.: Building and Maintaining an Effective Board are -
Buying journey improvements
– Ccl Slowdown can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. CCL Industries Inc.: Building and Maintaining an Effective Board 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Ccl Slowdown can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Ccl Slowdown operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Strategy & Execution sector.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Ccl Slowdown is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. CCL Industries Inc.: Building and Maintaining an Effective Board 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.
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. Ccl Slowdown can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Ccl Slowdown can make experimentation a productive activity and build a culture of innovation using approaches such as – mining transaction data, A/B testing of websites and selling platforms, engaging potential customers over various needs, and building on small ideas in the Strategy & Execution segment.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Ccl Slowdown in the consumer business. Now Ccl Slowdown can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Ccl Slowdown 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Ccl Slowdown 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Ccl Slowdown 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.
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. Ccl Slowdown 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. Ccl Slowdown 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Ccl Slowdown has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Ccl Slowdown to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the CCL Industries Inc.: Building and Maintaining an Effective Board case study. Ccl Slowdown can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Ccl Slowdown 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Ccl Slowdown 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.
Threats CCL Industries Inc.: Building and Maintaining an Effective Board External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study CCL Industries Inc.: Building and Maintaining an Effective Board are -
Increasing wage structure of Ccl Slowdown
– 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 Ccl Slowdown.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Ccl Slowdown 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.
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.
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 Ccl Slowdown business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Ccl Slowdown is facing in Strategy & Execution sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, 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. Ccl Slowdown 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Ccl Slowdown has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Strategy & Execution industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Ccl Slowdown 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Ccl Slowdown 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study CCL Industries Inc.: Building and Maintaining an Effective Board, Ccl Slowdown 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 .
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Ccl Slowdown with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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 Ccl Slowdown.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Ccl Slowdown 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 CCL Industries Inc.: Building and Maintaining an Effective Board .
Environmental challenges
– Ccl Slowdown 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. Ccl Slowdown can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of CCL Industries Inc.: Building and Maintaining an Effective Board 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 CCL Industries Inc.: Building and Maintaining an Effective Board 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 CCL Industries Inc.: Building and Maintaining an Effective Board 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 CCL Industries Inc.: Building and Maintaining an Effective Board 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 CCL Industries Inc.: Building and Maintaining an Effective Board 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 Ccl Slowdown needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
