Copeland Corp.: Evolution of a Manufacturing Strategy--1975-82 (B) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
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Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Copeland Corp.: Evolution of a Manufacturing Strategy--1975-82 (B)
In the (A) case, Copeland had to choose between focusing its Sidney plant by product line or by manufacturing process. Now that it has made that decision, a plant layout must be selected from two alternatives.
Swot Analysis of "Copeland Corp.: Evolution of a Manufacturing Strategy--1975-82 (B)" written by David A. Garvin, Artemis March includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Copeland Sidney facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Copeland Corp.: Evolution of a Manufacturing Strategy--1975-82 (B) case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Manufacturing, Strategy execution and Technology & Operations.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Copeland Corp.: Evolution of a Manufacturing Strategy--1975-82 (B) casestudy better are - – increasing transportation and logistics costs, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, wage bills are increasing, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, there is backlash against globalization, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation,
cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing energy prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Copeland Corp.: Evolution of a Manufacturing Strategy--1975-82 (B)
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Copeland Corp.: Evolution of a Manufacturing Strategy--1975-82 (B) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Copeland Sidney, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Copeland Sidney 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 Copeland Corp.: Evolution of a Manufacturing Strategy--1975-82 (B) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Copeland Corp.: Evolution of a Manufacturing Strategy--1975-82 (B) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Copeland Sidney
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 Copeland Sidney
Strengths Copeland Corp.: Evolution of a Manufacturing Strategy--1975-82 (B) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Copeland Sidney in Copeland Corp.: Evolution of a Manufacturing Strategy--1975-82 (B) Harvard Business Review case study are -
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Copeland Sidney 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.
Training and development
– Copeland Sidney has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Copeland Corp.: Evolution of a Manufacturing Strategy--1975-82 (B) 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Copeland Corp.: Evolution of a Manufacturing Strategy--1975-82 (B) 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Copeland Sidney is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Copeland Corp.: Evolution of a Manufacturing Strategy--1975-82 (B) are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Technology & Operations industry
– Copeland Corp.: Evolution of a Manufacturing Strategy--1975-82 (B) firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Copeland Sidney to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Technology & Operations industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Copeland Sidney to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Strong track record of project management
– Copeland Sidney is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Innovation driven organization
– Copeland Sidney is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Copeland Corp.: Evolution of a Manufacturing Strategy--1975-82 (B) Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Learning organization
- Copeland Sidney 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 Copeland Sidney is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Copeland Corp.: Evolution of a Manufacturing Strategy--1975-82 (B) Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Copeland Sidney in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Copeland Sidney 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 Copeland Corp.: Evolution of a Manufacturing Strategy--1975-82 (B) - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Ability to lead change in Technology & Operations field
– Copeland Sidney 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 Copeland Sidney in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Copeland Sidney in the sector have low bargaining power. Copeland Corp.: Evolution of a Manufacturing Strategy--1975-82 (B) has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Copeland Sidney to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Weaknesses Copeland Corp.: Evolution of a Manufacturing Strategy--1975-82 (B) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Copeland Corp.: Evolution of a Manufacturing Strategy--1975-82 (B) are -
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Copeland Corp.: Evolution of a Manufacturing Strategy--1975-82 (B), in the dynamic environment Copeland Sidney has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Copeland Sidney has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Need for greater diversity
– Copeland Sidney 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Copeland Corp.: Evolution of a Manufacturing Strategy--1975-82 (B), it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Technology & Operations strategy. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Copeland Sidney 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 bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, David A. Garvin, Artemis March suggests that, Copeland Sidney 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Copeland Sidney has some of the most successful products in the industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. firm in the HBR case study - Copeland Corp.: Evolution of a Manufacturing Strategy--1975-82 (B) should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Copeland Corp.: Evolution of a Manufacturing Strategy--1975-82 (B), is just above the industry average. Copeland Sidney 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Copeland Sidney products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Copeland Sidney needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Copeland Corp.: Evolution of a Manufacturing Strategy--1975-82 (B) 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 Copeland Sidney 's lucrative customers.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Copeland Sidney is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Copeland Corp.: Evolution of a Manufacturing Strategy--1975-82 (B) can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Copeland Corp.: Evolution of a Manufacturing Strategy--1975-82 (B) HBR case study mentions - Copeland Sidney 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 Copeland Corp.: Evolution of a Manufacturing Strategy--1975-82 (B) | 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 Copeland Corp.: Evolution of a Manufacturing Strategy--1975-82 (B) are -
Leveraging digital technologies
– Copeland Sidney 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Copeland Sidney to increase its market reach. Copeland Sidney 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Copeland Sidney can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Copeland Corp.: Evolution of a Manufacturing Strategy--1975-82 (B) 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Copeland Sidney 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.
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 Copeland Sidney in the consumer business. Now Copeland Sidney can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Copeland Sidney can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Copeland Sidney operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Technology & Operations sector.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Copeland Sidney 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Copeland Sidney can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
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. Copeland Sidney can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Developing new processes and practices
– Copeland Sidney 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.
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. Copeland Sidney 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. Copeland Sidney 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Copeland Sidney 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Copeland Sidney is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Copeland Corp.: Evolution of a Manufacturing Strategy--1975-82 (B) 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.
Threats Copeland Corp.: Evolution of a Manufacturing Strategy--1975-82 (B) External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Copeland Corp.: Evolution of a Manufacturing Strategy--1975-82 (B) are -
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Copeland Sidney has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Technology & Operations industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Copeland Sidney 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Copeland Sidney 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 Copeland Sidney is facing in Technology & Operations sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Increasing wage structure of Copeland Sidney
– 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 Copeland Sidney.
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 Copeland Sidney business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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 Copeland Sidney in the Technology & Operations sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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. Copeland Sidney can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Regulatory challenges
– Copeland Sidney 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.
Environmental challenges
– Copeland Sidney 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. Copeland Sidney can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Technology & Operations industry.
Aging population
– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.
High 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. Copeland Sidney 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, Copeland Sidney 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 Copeland Corp.: Evolution of a Manufacturing Strategy--1975-82 (B) .
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Copeland Sidney 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Copeland Corp.: Evolution of a Manufacturing Strategy--1975-82 (B) 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 Copeland Corp.: Evolution of a Manufacturing Strategy--1975-82 (B) 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 Copeland Corp.: Evolution of a Manufacturing Strategy--1975-82 (B) 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 Copeland Corp.: Evolution of a Manufacturing Strategy--1975-82 (B) 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 Copeland Corp.: Evolution of a Manufacturing Strategy--1975-82 (B) 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 Copeland Sidney needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.