Corporations, Communities, and Conservation: The Mountain Institute and Antamina Mining Co. SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Technology & Operations
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Corporations, Communities, and Conservation: The Mountain Institute and Antamina Mining Co.
In the late 1990s, The Mountain Institute (a small, nonprofit environmental organization) began working with the Antamina Mining Co. (one of the world's largest mining companies) to help it revise its plans for a large zinc and copper mine. The collaboration produced a road design that not only protected a fragile ecosystem, but was more cost effective than the firm's original plan. This article explains the important role that financial institutions played in enabling The Mountain Institute to engage Antamina's attention and establish its credibility as a source of objective expertise for and a valuable partner in the mine planning and development process. Raises issues that corporations, government policymakers, and environmental organizations must resolve for such collaborations to succeed over the long term.
Swot Analysis of "Corporations, Communities, and Conservation: The Mountain Institute and Antamina Mining Co." written by D. Jane Pratt includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Mountain Antamina facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Corporations, Communities, and Conservation: The Mountain Institute and Antamina Mining Co. case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Sustainability and Technology & Operations.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Corporations, Communities, and Conservation: The Mountain Institute and Antamina Mining Co. casestudy better are - – increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, technology disruption, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing energy prices, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, there is backlash against globalization, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google,
increasing transportation and logistics costs, geopolitical disruptions, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Corporations, Communities, and Conservation: The Mountain Institute and Antamina Mining Co.
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Corporations, Communities, and Conservation: The Mountain Institute and Antamina Mining Co. case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Mountain Antamina, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Mountain Antamina 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 Corporations, Communities, and Conservation: The Mountain Institute and Antamina Mining Co. can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Corporations, Communities, and Conservation: The Mountain Institute and Antamina Mining Co. case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Mountain Antamina
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Technology & Operations field.
4. Making a Technology & Operations topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Mountain Antamina
Strengths Corporations, Communities, and Conservation: The Mountain Institute and Antamina Mining Co. | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Mountain Antamina in Corporations, Communities, and Conservation: The Mountain Institute and Antamina Mining Co. Harvard Business Review case study are -
Ability to recruit top talent
– Mountain Antamina is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Corporations, Communities, and Conservation: The Mountain Institute and Antamina Mining Co. are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Training and development
– Mountain Antamina has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Corporations, Communities, and Conservation: The Mountain Institute and Antamina Mining Co. 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Mountain Antamina 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Mountain Antamina is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Corporations, Communities, and Conservation: The Mountain Institute and Antamina Mining Co. 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Mountain Antamina has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Mountain Antamina 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
- Mountain Antamina 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 Mountain Antamina is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Corporations, Communities, and Conservation: The Mountain Institute and Antamina Mining Co. Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Organizational Resilience of Mountain Antamina
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Mountain Antamina does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Strong track record of project management
– Mountain Antamina is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
High brand equity
– Mountain Antamina has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Mountain Antamina to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Analytics focus
– Mountain Antamina 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 D. Jane Pratt 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Mountain Antamina 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 Corporations, Communities, and Conservation: The Mountain Institute and Antamina Mining Co. HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Mountain Antamina in the sector have low bargaining power. Corporations, Communities, and Conservation: The Mountain Institute and Antamina Mining Co. has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Mountain Antamina to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Weaknesses Corporations, Communities, and Conservation: The Mountain Institute and Antamina Mining Co. | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Corporations, Communities, and Conservation: The Mountain Institute and Antamina Mining Co. are -
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Corporations, Communities, and Conservation: The Mountain Institute and Antamina Mining Co. 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 Corporations, Communities, and Conservation: The Mountain Institute and Antamina Mining Co. can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Mountain Antamina is planning to shift buying processes online.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Corporations, Communities, and Conservation: The Mountain Institute and Antamina Mining Co., it seems that the employees of Mountain Antamina 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Mountain Antamina 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 - Corporations, Communities, and Conservation: The Mountain Institute and Antamina Mining Co. should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Mountain Antamina 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Corporations, Communities, and Conservation: The Mountain Institute and Antamina Mining Co., is just above the industry average. Mountain Antamina 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 operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Corporations, Communities, and Conservation: The Mountain Institute and Antamina Mining Co. 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 Mountain Antamina 's lucrative customers.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Corporations, Communities, and Conservation: The Mountain Institute and Antamina Mining Co., it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Technology & Operations 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Mountain Antamina 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Mountain Antamina products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Mountain Antamina needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Mountain Antamina is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Technology & Operations segment. Mountain Antamina needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Mountain Antamina to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Corporations, Communities, and Conservation: The Mountain Institute and Antamina Mining Co. HBR case study mentions - Mountain Antamina 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.
Opportunities Corporations, Communities, and Conservation: The Mountain Institute and Antamina Mining Co. | 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 Corporations, Communities, and Conservation: The Mountain Institute and Antamina Mining Co. are -
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Mountain Antamina is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Corporations, Communities, and Conservation: The Mountain Institute and Antamina Mining Co. 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Mountain Antamina 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Mountain Antamina 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.
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. Mountain Antamina can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Mountain Antamina has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Mountain Antamina to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Corporations, Communities, and Conservation: The Mountain Institute and Antamina Mining Co. case study. Mountain Antamina can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Mountain Antamina 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Mountain Antamina can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Corporations, Communities, and Conservation: The Mountain Institute and Antamina Mining Co. 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Mountain Antamina in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Technology & Operations segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Mountain Antamina 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 Technology & Operations 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 Mountain Antamina in the consumer business. Now Mountain Antamina can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Mountain Antamina can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Developing new processes and practices
– Mountain Antamina can develop new processes and procedures in Technology & Operations 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Mountain Antamina 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, Corporations, Communities, and Conservation: The Mountain Institute and Antamina Mining Co., to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Threats Corporations, Communities, and Conservation: The Mountain Institute and Antamina Mining Co. External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Corporations, Communities, and Conservation: The Mountain Institute and Antamina Mining Co. are -
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. Mountain Antamina needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Technology & Operations industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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 Mountain Antamina.
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 Mountain Antamina in the Technology & Operations sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Mountain Antamina with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Mountain Antamina 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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Technology & Operations field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Mountain Antamina can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Mountain Antamina 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 Corporations, Communities, and Conservation: The Mountain Institute and Antamina Mining Co. .
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Mountain Antamina is facing in Technology & Operations sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Mountain Antamina in the Technology & Operations industry. The Technology & Operations 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.
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. Mountain Antamina 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.
Environmental challenges
– Mountain Antamina 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. Mountain Antamina can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Technology & Operations industry.
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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Mountain Antamina 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Corporations, Communities, and Conservation: The Mountain Institute and Antamina Mining Co. 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 Corporations, Communities, and Conservation: The Mountain Institute and Antamina Mining Co. 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 Corporations, Communities, and Conservation: The Mountain Institute and Antamina Mining Co. 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 Corporations, Communities, and Conservation: The Mountain Institute and Antamina Mining Co. 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 Corporations, Communities, and Conservation: The Mountain Institute and Antamina Mining Co. 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 Mountain Antamina needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
Feel free to connect with us if you need business research.
You can download Excel Template of Case Study Solution & Analysis of Corporations, Communities, and Conservation: The Mountain Institute and Antamina Mining Co.
