Greendust: Revolutionizing the Returns Process SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Technology & Operations
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Greendust: Revolutionizing the Returns Process
GreenDust, a company established in 2009, sold branded, unused, seconds, surplus, and refurbished products at low prices. This traditionally had been an unorganized sector. With increased pressures on the bottom line, rapid changes in technology (and fast obsolescence), strategies of channel cleaning by the competition, and imminent e-waste regulations enforced by the Indian government, GreenDust tried to mitigate these factors by revolutionizing the returns management of consumer goods by streamlining it. While it succeeded in reducing the high costs associated with product returns, the company had to determine whether its business model was sustainable in 2014. Could GreenDust succeed in other emerging markets? How could the firm leverage its strength as an environmentally sustainable business? Mohita Gangwar Sharma is affiliated with FORE School fo Management,. Jitendra K. Das is affiliated with FORE School of Management. K.N. Singh is affiliated with Indian Institute of Management.
Authors :: Mohita Gangwar, Jitendra K. Das, K.N. Singh
Swot Analysis of "Greendust: Revolutionizing the Returns Process" written by Mohita Gangwar, Jitendra K. Das, K.N. Singh includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Greendust Fore facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Greendust: Revolutionizing the Returns Process case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, International business, Manufacturing, Marketing and Technology & Operations.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Greendust: Revolutionizing the Returns Process casestudy better are - – geopolitical disruptions, increasing commodity prices, increasing transportation and logistics costs, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , there is backlash against globalization, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation,
banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Greendust: Revolutionizing the Returns Process
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Greendust: Revolutionizing the Returns Process case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Greendust Fore, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Greendust Fore 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 Greendust: Revolutionizing the Returns Process can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Greendust: Revolutionizing the Returns Process case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Greendust Fore
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 Greendust Fore
Strengths Greendust: Revolutionizing the Returns Process | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Greendust Fore in Greendust: Revolutionizing the Returns Process Harvard Business Review case study are -
Organizational Resilience of Greendust Fore
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Greendust Fore does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Greendust Fore is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Greendust: Revolutionizing the Returns Process are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Strong track record of project management
– Greendust Fore is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Diverse revenue streams
– Greendust Fore is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Greendust: Revolutionizing the Returns Process 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 switching costs
– The high switching costs that Greendust Fore 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
– Greendust Fore 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 Greendust Fore in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Analytics focus
– Greendust Fore 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 Mohita Gangwar, Jitendra K. Das, K.N. Singh 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
– Greendust Fore 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 Greendust: Revolutionizing the Returns Process HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Learning organization
- Greendust Fore 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 Greendust Fore is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Greendust: Revolutionizing the Returns Process Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
High brand equity
– Greendust Fore has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Greendust Fore to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Digital Transformation in Technology & Operations segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Greendust Fore digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Greendust Fore has successfully integrated the four key components of digital transformation – digital integration in processes, digital integration in marketing and customer relationship management, digital integration into the value chain, and using technology to explore new products and market opportunities.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Greendust Fore in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Weaknesses Greendust: Revolutionizing the Returns Process | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Greendust: Revolutionizing the Returns Process are -
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Greendust Fore is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Technology & Operations segment. Greendust Fore needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Greendust Fore to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Need for greater diversity
– Greendust Fore 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Greendust: Revolutionizing the Returns Process 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 Greendust: Revolutionizing the Returns Process can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Greendust Fore is planning to shift buying processes online.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Greendust Fore, firm in the HBR case study Greendust: Revolutionizing the Returns Process needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Greendust Fore 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Greendust Fore 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 Greendust: Revolutionizing the Returns Process, is just above the industry average. Greendust Fore 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 cash cycle compare to competitors
Greendust Fore 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Greendust: Revolutionizing the Returns Process 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 Greendust Fore 's lucrative customers.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Greendust: Revolutionizing the Returns Process 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 Greendust Fore has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Mohita Gangwar, Jitendra K. Das, K.N. Singh suggests that, Greendust Fore 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 Greendust: Revolutionizing the Returns Process | 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 Greendust: Revolutionizing the Returns Process are -
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Greendust Fore 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Greendust Fore 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.
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. Greendust Fore can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Greendust Fore has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Greendust Fore to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Greendust: Revolutionizing the Returns Process case study. Greendust Fore can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Loyalty marketing
– Greendust Fore 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Greendust Fore can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Greendust Fore 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
– Greendust Fore can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Greendust: Revolutionizing the Returns Process 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Greendust Fore 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 Greendust: Revolutionizing the Returns Process - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Greendust Fore to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Greendust Fore 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Greendust Fore 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, Greendust: Revolutionizing the Returns Process, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Greendust Fore to increase its market reach. Greendust Fore will be able to reach out to new customers. Secondly 5G will also provide technology framework to build new tools and products that can help more immersive consumer experience and faster consumer journey.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Greendust Fore 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 Greendust Fore to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Threats Greendust: Revolutionizing the Returns Process External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Greendust: Revolutionizing the Returns Process are -
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Greendust Fore has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Technology & Operations industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Greendust Fore needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Technology & Operations 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Greendust Fore 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Greendust Fore 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 Greendust: Revolutionizing the Returns Process .
Consumer confidence and its impact on Greendust Fore 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Greendust Fore is facing in Technology & Operations sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Greendust: Revolutionizing the Returns Process, Greendust Fore 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 .
Regulatory challenges
– Greendust Fore 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.
Increasing wage structure of Greendust Fore
– 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 Greendust Fore.
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.
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 Greendust Fore business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Greendust Fore 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.
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 Greendust Fore.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Greendust Fore with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Greendust: Revolutionizing the Returns Process 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 Greendust: Revolutionizing the Returns Process 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 Greendust: Revolutionizing the Returns Process 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 Greendust: Revolutionizing the Returns Process 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 Greendust: Revolutionizing the Returns Process 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 Greendust Fore needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
