Case Study Description of Aligning Supply Chain Strategies with Product Uncertainties
Today's supply chain managers have been bombarded with a wide variety of the so-called leading-edge supply chain strategies. New terminologies and initiatives are being developed constantly. However, not all of these initiatives or strategies are appropriate for all firms. Companies need first to understand the uncertainties facing the demand and supply of its products and then try to match these uncertainties with the right supply chain strategies. Based on an analysis of the uncertainties of supply and demand facing the firm, this article develops a framework that can assist managers in developing the right supply chain strategy for their products.
Swot Analysis of "Aligning Supply Chain Strategies with Product Uncertainties" written by Hau Lee includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Supply Uncertainties facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Aligning Supply Chain Strategies with Product Uncertainties case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Economy, Managing uncertainty, Supply chain and Technology & Operations.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Aligning Supply Chain Strategies with Product Uncertainties casestudy better are - – digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing transportation and logistics costs, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models,
increasing commodity prices, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Aligning Supply Chain Strategies with Product Uncertainties
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Aligning Supply Chain Strategies with Product Uncertainties case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Supply Uncertainties, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Supply Uncertainties 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 Aligning Supply Chain Strategies with Product Uncertainties can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Aligning Supply Chain Strategies with Product Uncertainties case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Supply Uncertainties
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 Supply Uncertainties
Strengths Aligning Supply Chain Strategies with Product Uncertainties | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Supply Uncertainties in Aligning Supply Chain Strategies with Product Uncertainties Harvard Business Review case study are -
Learning organization
- Supply Uncertainties 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 Supply Uncertainties is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Aligning Supply Chain Strategies with Product Uncertainties Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Supply Uncertainties in the sector have low bargaining power. Aligning Supply Chain Strategies with Product Uncertainties has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Supply Uncertainties to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Supply Uncertainties 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.
High brand equity
– Supply Uncertainties has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Supply Uncertainties to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Supply Uncertainties is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Aligning Supply Chain Strategies with Product Uncertainties are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Supply Uncertainties 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 Aligning Supply Chain Strategies with Product Uncertainties HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Analytics focus
– Supply Uncertainties 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 Hau Lee 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Supply Uncertainties are driving operational speed, building greater agility, and keeping the organization nimble to compete with new competitors. It helps are organization to ideate new ideas, and execute them swiftly in the marketplace.
Diverse revenue streams
– Supply Uncertainties is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Aligning Supply Chain Strategies with Product Uncertainties 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.
Organizational Resilience of Supply Uncertainties
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Supply Uncertainties does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Strong track record of project management
– Supply Uncertainties is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Supply Uncertainties has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Supply Uncertainties 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.
Weaknesses Aligning Supply Chain Strategies with Product Uncertainties | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Aligning Supply Chain Strategies with Product Uncertainties are -
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Aligning Supply Chain Strategies with Product Uncertainties 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 Supply Uncertainties has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Aligning Supply Chain Strategies with Product Uncertainties, in the dynamic environment Supply Uncertainties has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Supply Uncertainties has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Supply Uncertainties 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Supply Uncertainties 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Supply Uncertainties is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Aligning Supply Chain Strategies with Product Uncertainties can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Supply Uncertainties 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Supply Uncertainties, firm in the HBR case study Aligning Supply Chain Strategies with Product Uncertainties needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Supply Uncertainties is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Technology & Operations segment. Supply Uncertainties needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Supply Uncertainties 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, Supply Uncertainties 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Supply Uncertainties 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. Supply Uncertainties 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Aligning Supply Chain Strategies with Product Uncertainties HBR case study mentions - Supply Uncertainties 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 Aligning Supply Chain Strategies with Product Uncertainties | 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 Aligning Supply Chain Strategies with Product Uncertainties are -
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Supply Uncertainties 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Supply Uncertainties 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Supply Uncertainties 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Supply Uncertainties can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Aligning Supply Chain Strategies with Product Uncertainties 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Supply Uncertainties to increase its market reach. Supply Uncertainties 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Supply Uncertainties 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Supply Uncertainties 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.
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. Supply Uncertainties can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Developing new processes and practices
– Supply Uncertainties 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Supply Uncertainties can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Supply Uncertainties 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 Supply Uncertainties to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
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. Supply Uncertainties 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. Supply Uncertainties 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Supply Uncertainties 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 Aligning Supply Chain Strategies with Product Uncertainties - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Supply Uncertainties to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Threats Aligning Supply Chain Strategies with Product Uncertainties External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Aligning Supply Chain Strategies with Product Uncertainties are -
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Supply Uncertainties is facing in Technology & Operations sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Supply Uncertainties 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 wage structure of Supply Uncertainties
– 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 Supply Uncertainties.
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. Supply Uncertainties needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Technology & Operations industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Supply Uncertainties 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 Aligning Supply Chain Strategies with Product Uncertainties .
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Aligning Supply Chain Strategies with Product Uncertainties, Supply Uncertainties 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 .
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.
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 Supply Uncertainties in the Technology & Operations sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Environmental challenges
– Supply Uncertainties 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. Supply Uncertainties can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Technology & Operations industry.
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 Supply Uncertainties.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Supply Uncertainties 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Supply Uncertainties 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. Supply Uncertainties can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Aligning Supply Chain Strategies with Product Uncertainties 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 Aligning Supply Chain Strategies with Product Uncertainties 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 Aligning Supply Chain Strategies with Product Uncertainties 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 Aligning Supply Chain Strategies with Product Uncertainties 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 Aligning Supply Chain Strategies with Product Uncertainties 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 Supply Uncertainties needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
