Role and Relevance of Refocused Inventory: Supply Chain Management Solutions SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Technology & Operations
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Role and Relevance of Refocused Inventory: Supply Chain Management Solutions
Practitioners and academics continue to note that there is no shortage of inventory in many, if not most, supply chains. Rather, the historical notion holds true: the right product is not in the right place at the right time to meet demand. For positive supply chain performance, it is necessary to re-address inventory's role and relevance with respect to the development, maintenance, and control of product flows. Suggests that examining such flows from a three-fold perspective can provide a framework to assess efforts to achieve lowest total cost and meet customer service expectations.
Swot Analysis of "Role and Relevance of Refocused Inventory: Supply Chain Management Solutions" written by Robert Frankel includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Relevance Supply facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Role and Relevance of Refocused Inventory: Supply Chain Management Solutions case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Supply chain and Technology & Operations.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Role and Relevance of Refocused Inventory: Supply Chain Management Solutions casestudy better are - – digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, there is backlash against globalization, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion,
wage bills are increasing, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Role and Relevance of Refocused Inventory: Supply Chain Management Solutions
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Role and Relevance of Refocused Inventory: Supply Chain Management Solutions case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Relevance Supply, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Relevance Supply 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 Role and Relevance of Refocused Inventory: Supply Chain Management Solutions can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Role and Relevance of Refocused Inventory: Supply Chain Management Solutions case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Relevance Supply
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 Relevance Supply
Strengths Role and Relevance of Refocused Inventory: Supply Chain Management Solutions | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Relevance Supply in Role and Relevance of Refocused Inventory: Supply Chain Management Solutions Harvard Business Review case study are -
Successful track record of launching new products
– Relevance Supply has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Relevance Supply 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 Relevance Supply 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 Technology & Operations field
– Relevance Supply 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 Relevance Supply in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Training and development
– Relevance Supply has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Role and Relevance of Refocused Inventory: Supply Chain Management Solutions 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Relevance Supply is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Role and Relevance of Refocused Inventory: Supply Chain Management Solutions Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Relevance Supply has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in, as mentioned in case study Role and Relevance of Refocused Inventory: Supply Chain Management Solutions - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Relevance Supply 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 Role and Relevance of Refocused Inventory: Supply Chain Management Solutions HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Diverse revenue streams
– Relevance Supply is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Role and Relevance of Refocused Inventory: Supply Chain Management Solutions case study a diverse revenue stream that has helped it to survive disruptions such as global pandemic in Covid-19, financial disruption of 2008, and supply chain disruption of 2021.
High brand equity
– Relevance Supply has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Relevance Supply to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Strong track record of project management
– Relevance Supply is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Learning organization
- Relevance Supply 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 Relevance Supply is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Role and Relevance of Refocused Inventory: Supply Chain Management Solutions Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Relevance Supply in the sector have low bargaining power. Role and Relevance of Refocused Inventory: Supply Chain Management Solutions has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Relevance Supply to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Weaknesses Role and Relevance of Refocused Inventory: Supply Chain Management Solutions | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Role and Relevance of Refocused Inventory: Supply Chain Management Solutions are -
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Role and Relevance of Refocused Inventory: Supply Chain Management Solutions 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 Relevance Supply has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Robert Frankel suggests that, Relevance Supply 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Relevance Supply products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Relevance Supply needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Relevance Supply is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Technology & Operations segment. Relevance Supply needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Relevance Supply 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, Relevance Supply 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 operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Role and Relevance of Refocused Inventory: Supply Chain Management Solutions 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 Relevance Supply 's lucrative customers.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Role and Relevance of Refocused Inventory: Supply Chain Management Solutions 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 Role and Relevance of Refocused Inventory: Supply Chain Management Solutions can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Relevance Supply is planning to shift buying processes online.
Need for greater diversity
– Relevance Supply 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, Relevance Supply 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 Relevance Supply supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Role and Relevance of Refocused Inventory: Supply Chain Management Solutions, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Relevance Supply vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Role and Relevance of Refocused Inventory: Supply Chain Management Solutions, in the dynamic environment Relevance Supply has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Relevance Supply has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Opportunities Role and Relevance of Refocused Inventory: Supply Chain Management Solutions | 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 Role and Relevance of Refocused Inventory: Supply Chain Management Solutions are -
Developing new processes and practices
– Relevance Supply 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.
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 Relevance Supply in the consumer business. Now Relevance Supply can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Loyalty marketing
– Relevance Supply 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Relevance Supply can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Role and Relevance of Refocused Inventory: Supply Chain Management Solutions 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Relevance Supply has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Relevance Supply to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Role and Relevance of Refocused Inventory: Supply Chain Management Solutions case study. Relevance Supply can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Relevance Supply to expand its talent hiring zone. According to McKinsey Global Institute, 20% of the high end workforce in fields such as finance, information technology, can continously work from remote local post Covid-19. This presents a really great opportunity for Relevance Supply to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Relevance Supply 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Relevance Supply 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Relevance Supply can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Technology & Operations 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Relevance Supply 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Relevance Supply 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, Role and Relevance of Refocused Inventory: Supply Chain Management Solutions, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Relevance Supply can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Technology & Operations industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Relevance Supply 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. Relevance Supply 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.
Threats Role and Relevance of Refocused Inventory: Supply Chain Management Solutions External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Role and Relevance of Refocused Inventory: Supply Chain Management Solutions are -
Consumer confidence and its impact on Relevance Supply demand
– There is a high probability of declining consumer confidence, given – high inflammation rate, rise of gig economy, lower job stability, increasing cost of living, higher interest rates, and aging demography. All the factors contribute to people saving higher rate of their income, resulting in lower consumer demand in the industry and other sectors.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Relevance Supply 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 Role and Relevance of Refocused Inventory: Supply Chain Management Solutions .
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. Relevance Supply needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Technology & Operations industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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. Relevance Supply can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Relevance Supply with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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.
Increasing wage structure of Relevance Supply
– 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 Relevance Supply.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Relevance Supply is facing in Technology & Operations sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Environmental challenges
– Relevance Supply 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. Relevance Supply can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Technology & Operations industry.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Relevance Supply 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Relevance Supply 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.
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. Relevance Supply 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.
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 Relevance Supply business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Role and Relevance of Refocused Inventory: Supply Chain Management Solutions 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 Role and Relevance of Refocused Inventory: Supply Chain Management Solutions 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 Role and Relevance of Refocused Inventory: Supply Chain Management Solutions 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 Role and Relevance of Refocused Inventory: Supply Chain Management Solutions 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 Role and Relevance of Refocused Inventory: Supply Chain Management Solutions 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 Relevance Supply needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.