Case Study Description of Strategic Activism: The Rainforest Action Network
The Rainforest Action Network (RAN) worked "to protect the Earth's rainforests and support the rights of their inhabitants through education, grassroots organizing, and nonviolent direct action." RAN accomplished its mission by organizing campaigns to redirect corporations away from the destruction and exploitation of nonsustainable forest resources. RAN worked with other nongovernmental organizations, student groups, and indigenous forest communities. Founded in 1985, RAN had 10,000 members and an annual budget of $2 million in 2003. Over time, the scope of RAN's campaigns had broadened. RAN sought to stop the logging of old growth forests, protect fragile ecosystems, and reduce the threat to forests and the environment due to climate change. RAN's three campaigns in 2004--the Old Growth Campaign, the Global Finance Campaign, and Jumpstart Ford--focused on these objectives. In April 2003, RAN's board of directors appointed as executive director Michael Brune, the former campaigns director for the organization. Brune and the board of directors began a review of RAN's strategy and mission in light of the expanded scope of RAN's campaigns. RAN had limited resources and was stretched to conduct three campaigns. What changes to RAN's strategy, structure, and resource base would be required if it were to expand its mission, for example, to include natural systems such as clean air, clean water, and the climate?
Authors :: David P. Baron, David S. Barlow, Ann M. Barlow, Erin Yurday
Swot Analysis of "Strategic Activism: The Rainforest Action Network" written by David P. Baron, David S. Barlow, Ann M. Barlow, Erin Yurday includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Ran's Ran facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Strategic Activism: The Rainforest Action Network case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Corporate governance, Joint ventures, Policy, Social responsibility and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Strategic Activism: The Rainforest Action Network casestudy better are - – increasing commodity prices, there is backlash against globalization, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing energy prices, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%,
increasing transportation and logistics costs, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Strategic Activism: The Rainforest Action Network
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Strategic Activism: The Rainforest Action Network case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Ran's Ran, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Ran's Ran 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 Strategic Activism: The Rainforest Action Network can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Strategic Activism: The Rainforest Action Network case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Ran's Ran
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 Ran's Ran
Strengths Strategic Activism: The Rainforest Action Network | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Ran's Ran in Strategic Activism: The Rainforest Action Network Harvard Business Review case study are -
Strong track record of project management
– Ran's Ran is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Training and development
– Ran's Ran has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Strategic Activism: The Rainforest Action Network 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Ran's Ran in the sector have low bargaining power. Strategic Activism: The Rainforest Action Network has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Ran's Ran to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
High brand equity
– Ran's Ran has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Ran's Ran to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Diverse revenue streams
– Ran's Ran is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Strategic Activism: The Rainforest Action Network 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Strategic Activism: The Rainforest Action Network 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 switching costs
– The high switching costs that Ran's Ran 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.
Ability to lead change in Strategy & Execution field
– Ran's Ran 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 Ran's Ran in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Ran's Ran in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Analytics focus
– Ran's Ran 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 David P. Baron, David S. Barlow, Ann M. Barlow, Erin Yurday 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.
Learning organization
- Ran's Ran 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 Ran's Ran is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Strategic Activism: The Rainforest Action Network Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Ran's Ran 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.
Weaknesses Strategic Activism: The Rainforest Action Network | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Strategic Activism: The Rainforest Action Network are -
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Strategic Activism: The Rainforest Action Network 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 Ran's Ran has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Strategic Activism: The Rainforest Action Network, is just above the industry average. Ran's Ran 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Ran's Ran 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Ran's Ran 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 cash cycle compare to competitors
Ran's Ran 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 Strategic Activism: The Rainforest Action Network 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 Strategic Activism: The Rainforest Action Network can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Ran's Ran is planning to shift buying processes online.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Ran's Ran is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Strategic Activism: The Rainforest Action Network can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Ran's Ran 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 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 Ran's Ran supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Strategic Activism: The Rainforest Action Network, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Ran's Ran vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Strategic Activism: The Rainforest Action Network, 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Ran's Ran has some of the most successful products in the industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. firm in the HBR case study - Strategic Activism: The Rainforest Action Network should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Opportunities Strategic Activism: The Rainforest Action Network | 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 Strategic Activism: The Rainforest Action Network are -
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. Ran's Ran can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Ran's Ran 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Ran's Ran 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.
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. Ran's Ran can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Ran's Ran 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, Ran's Ran 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, Strategic Activism: The Rainforest Action Network, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Manufacturing automation
– Ran's Ran 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Ran's Ran 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 Strategic Activism: The Rainforest Action Network - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Ran's Ran to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
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. Ran's Ran 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. Ran's Ran 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Ran's Ran 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
– Ran's Ran can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Strategic Activism: The Rainforest Action Network 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Ran's Ran 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.
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 Ran's Ran 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.
Threats Strategic Activism: The Rainforest Action Network External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Strategic Activism: The Rainforest Action Network are -
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 Ran's Ran in the Strategy & Execution sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Regulatory challenges
– Ran's Ran 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 Strategic Activism: The Rainforest Action Network, Ran's Ran 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 .
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. Ran's Ran 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 Ran's Ran
– 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 Ran's Ran.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Ran's Ran 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.
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 Ran's Ran business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, 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. Ran's Ran needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Strategy & Execution industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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. Ran's Ran 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Ran's Ran 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Ran's Ran has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Strategy & Execution industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Ran's Ran 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Ran's Ran 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.
Environmental challenges
– Ran's Ran 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. Ran's Ran can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Strategic Activism: The Rainforest Action Network 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 Strategic Activism: The Rainforest Action Network 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 Strategic Activism: The Rainforest Action Network 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 Strategic Activism: The Rainforest Action Network 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 Strategic Activism: The Rainforest Action Network 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 Ran's Ran needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
