Rating Environmental Performance in the Building Industry: Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Technology & Operations
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Rating Environmental Performance in the Building Industry: Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)
Environmentally preferable or "green" building uses optimal and innovative design to provide economic, health, environmental, and social benefits. In 1993 the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) was formed by a broad range of building industry stakeholders from the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. It is a committee-based, member-driven, and consensus-focused nonprofit coalition leading a national effort to promote high-performance buildings that are environmentally responsible, profitable, and healthy places to live and work. In 2000, USGBC created the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system. That voluntary standard was intended to transform the building market by providing guidelines, certification, and education for green building. LEED is a comprehensive, transparent, and market-driven framework for assessing buildings' environmental performance. Compared to standard practice, "green" buildings can provide greater economic and social benefits over the life of the structures, reduce or eliminate adverse human health effects, and even contribute to improved air and water quality. Opportunities for reducing both costs and environmental impact include low-disturbance land use techniques, improved lighting design, high performance water fixtures, careful materials selection, energy efficient appliances and heating and cooling systems, and on-site water treatment and recycling. Less familiar innovations include natural ventilation and cooling without fans and air conditioners, vegetative roofing systems that provide wildlife habitat and reduce storm water runoff, and constructed wetlands that help preserve water quality while reducing water treatment costs.
Authors :: Andrea Larson, Chris Lotspeich, Stephen Keach
Swot Analysis of "Rating Environmental Performance in the Building Industry: Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)" written by Andrea Larson, Chris Lotspeich, Stephen Keach includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Water Leed facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Rating Environmental Performance in the Building Industry: Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Technology & Operations.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Rating Environmental Performance in the Building Industry: Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) casestudy better are - – increasing transportation and logistics costs, wage bills are increasing, increasing commodity prices, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, there is increasing trade war between United States & China,
increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Rating Environmental Performance in the Building Industry: Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Rating Environmental Performance in the Building Industry: Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Water Leed, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Water Leed 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 Rating Environmental Performance in the Building Industry: Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Rating Environmental Performance in the Building Industry: Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Water Leed
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 Water Leed
Strengths Rating Environmental Performance in the Building Industry: Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Water Leed in Rating Environmental Performance in the Building Industry: Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Harvard Business Review case study are -
Highly skilled collaborators
– Water Leed 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 Rating Environmental Performance in the Building Industry: Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Ability to lead change in Technology & Operations field
– Water Leed 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 Water Leed in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Rating Environmental Performance in the Building Industry: Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) 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 Water Leed 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Water Leed is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Rating Environmental Performance in the Building Industry: Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Organizational Resilience of Water Leed
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Water Leed does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Strong track record of project management
– Water Leed is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Technology & Operations industry
– Rating Environmental Performance in the Building Industry: Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Water Leed to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Technology & Operations industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Water Leed to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Training and development
– Water Leed has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Rating Environmental Performance in the Building Industry: Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) 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 recruit top talent
– Water Leed is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Rating Environmental Performance in the Building Industry: Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Learning organization
- Water Leed 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 Water Leed is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Rating Environmental Performance in the Building Industry: Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Water Leed in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Weaknesses Rating Environmental Performance in the Building Industry: Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Rating Environmental Performance in the Building Industry: Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) are -
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Rating Environmental Performance in the Building Industry: Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) 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 Water Leed has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Water Leed has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the industry over the last five years. Water Leed even though has strong showing on digital transformation primary two stages, it has struggled to capitalize the power of digital transformation in marketing efforts and new venture efforts.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Water Leed 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Water Leed 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Water Leed 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Rating Environmental Performance in the Building Industry: Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) HBR case study mentions - Water Leed 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Rating Environmental Performance in the Building Industry: Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) 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 Rating Environmental Performance in the Building Industry: Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Water Leed is planning to shift buying processes online.
Need for greater diversity
– Water Leed 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Water Leed is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Technology & Operations segment. Water Leed needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Water Leed to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Water Leed 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Andrea Larson, Chris Lotspeich, Stephen Keach suggests that, Water Leed is facing high bargaining power of the channel partners. So far it has not able to streamline the operations to reduce the bargaining power of the value chain partners in the industry.
Opportunities Rating Environmental Performance in the Building Industry: Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) | 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 Rating Environmental Performance in the Building Industry: Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) are -
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Technology & Operations industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Water Leed 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 Water Leed 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Water Leed 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Water Leed is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Rating Environmental Performance in the Building Industry: Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Water Leed 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 Rating Environmental Performance in the Building Industry: Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Water Leed to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Water Leed can leverage digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate the production process, customer analytics to get better insights into consumer behavior, realtime digital dashboards to get better sales tracking, logistics and transportation, product tracking, etc.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Water Leed in the consumer business. Now Water Leed can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Loyalty marketing
– Water Leed 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Water Leed 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, Rating Environmental Performance in the Building Industry: Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Water Leed 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Water Leed 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Water Leed can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Water Leed operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Technology & Operations sector.
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 Water Leed 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 Rating Environmental Performance in the Building Industry: Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Rating Environmental Performance in the Building Industry: Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) are -
Regulatory challenges
– Water Leed 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 Technology & Operations industry regulations.
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. Water Leed can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Water Leed 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.
Aging population
– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Water Leed with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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 Water Leed 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. Water Leed needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Technology & Operations industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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 Water Leed in the Technology & Operations sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Rating Environmental Performance in the Building Industry: Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), Water Leed may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Technology & Operations .
Environmental challenges
– Water Leed 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. Water Leed can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Technology & Operations industry.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Water Leed 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Water Leed is facing in Technology & Operations sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Rating Environmental Performance in the Building Industry: Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) 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 Rating Environmental Performance in the Building Industry: Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) 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 Rating Environmental Performance in the Building Industry: Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) 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 Rating Environmental Performance in the Building Industry: Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) 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 Rating Environmental Performance in the Building Industry: Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) 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 Water Leed needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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