BrightView Plumbing and Heating: A New Business Model SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Technology & Operations
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of BrightView Plumbing and Heating: A New Business Model
BrightView Plumbing and Heating (BrightView) was founded in 1997 to provide plumbing services for both residential and commercial customers. The founder's son joined the company in 2008 and implemented a new operational strategy. However, he soon discovered problems in the process and procedures. Although he was able to apply an effective system for warehousing products internally, by 2015, the day-to-day policies and operational activities were not proving to be efficient, and the cost of goods sold was rising at a higher rate than the increase in sales. The company encountered miscommunication between the appointment scheduling (dispatching) and the availability of parts. BrightView needed to resolve the issues by analyzing the current situation and developing recommendations for improvement. Kenneth Sousa is affiliated with Bryant University.
Swot Analysis of "BrightView Plumbing and Heating: A New Business Model" written by Kenneth Sousa includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Brightview Plumbing facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in BrightView Plumbing and Heating: A New Business Model case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Operations management, Project management and Technology & Operations.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the BrightView Plumbing and Heating: A New Business Model casestudy better are - – competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing transportation and logistics costs, geopolitical disruptions, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%,
increasing energy prices, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of BrightView Plumbing and Heating: A New Business Model
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in BrightView Plumbing and Heating: A New Business Model case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Brightview Plumbing, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Brightview Plumbing 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 BrightView Plumbing and Heating: A New Business Model can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in BrightView Plumbing and Heating: A New Business Model case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Brightview Plumbing
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 Brightview Plumbing
Strengths BrightView Plumbing and Heating: A New Business Model | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Brightview Plumbing in BrightView Plumbing and Heating: A New Business Model Harvard Business Review case study are -
High brand equity
– Brightview Plumbing has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Brightview Plumbing to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Brightview Plumbing 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.
Learning organization
- Brightview Plumbing 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 Brightview Plumbing is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in BrightView Plumbing and Heating: A New Business Model Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Analytics focus
– Brightview Plumbing 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 Kenneth Sousa 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the BrightView Plumbing and Heating: A New Business Model 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Brightview Plumbing 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.
Ability to lead change in Technology & Operations field
– Brightview Plumbing 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 Brightview Plumbing in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Strong track record of project management
– Brightview Plumbing is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Technology & Operations industry
– BrightView Plumbing and Heating: A New Business Model firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Brightview Plumbing to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Technology & Operations industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Brightview Plumbing to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Brightview Plumbing 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 BrightView Plumbing and Heating: A New Business Model HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Brightview Plumbing in the sector have low bargaining power. BrightView Plumbing and Heating: A New Business Model has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Brightview Plumbing to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Brightview Plumbing 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 BrightView Plumbing and Heating: A New Business Model - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Weaknesses BrightView Plumbing and Heating: A New Business Model | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of BrightView Plumbing and Heating: A New Business Model are -
Products dominated business model
– Even though Brightview Plumbing 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 - BrightView Plumbing and Heating: A New Business Model should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study BrightView Plumbing and Heating: A New Business Model, it seems that the employees of Brightview Plumbing don’t have comprehensive understanding of the firm’s strategy. This is reflected in number of promotional campaigns over the last few years that had mixed messaging and competing priorities. Some of the strategic activities and services promoted in the promotional campaigns were not consistent with the organization’s strategy.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Kenneth Sousa suggests that, Brightview Plumbing 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Brightview Plumbing 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Brightview Plumbing 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the BrightView Plumbing and Heating: A New Business Model 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 Brightview Plumbing has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Brightview Plumbing 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study BrightView Plumbing and Heating: A New Business Model, in the dynamic environment Brightview Plumbing has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Brightview Plumbing has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Brightview Plumbing is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study BrightView Plumbing and Heating: A New Business Model can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Brightview Plumbing 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Brightview Plumbing is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Technology & Operations segment. Brightview Plumbing needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Brightview Plumbing to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Opportunities BrightView Plumbing and Heating: A New Business Model | 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 BrightView Plumbing and Heating: A New Business Model are -
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Brightview Plumbing can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Brightview Plumbing can make experimentation a productive activity and build a culture of innovation using approaches such as – mining transaction data, A/B testing of websites and selling platforms, engaging potential customers over various needs, and building on small ideas in the Technology & Operations segment.
Developing new processes and practices
– Brightview Plumbing 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 Brightview Plumbing in the consumer business. Now Brightview Plumbing can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
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. Brightview Plumbing 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. Brightview Plumbing 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Brightview Plumbing 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Brightview Plumbing can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. BrightView Plumbing and Heating: A New Business Model 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Brightview Plumbing 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 Brightview Plumbing to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Brightview Plumbing to increase its market reach. Brightview Plumbing 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Brightview Plumbing can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Brightview Plumbing operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Technology & Operations sector.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Brightview Plumbing 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Brightview Plumbing 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.
Reconfiguring business model
– The expansion of digital payment system, the bringing down of international transactions costs using Bitcoin and other blockchain based currencies, etc can help Brightview Plumbing to reconfigure its entire business model. For example it can used blockchain based technologies to reduce piracy of its products in the big markets such as China. Secondly it can use the popularity of e-commerce in various developing markets to build a Direct to Customer business model rather than the current Channel Heavy distribution network.
Threats BrightView Plumbing and Heating: A New Business Model External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study BrightView Plumbing and Heating: A New Business Model are -
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Brightview Plumbing 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 BrightView Plumbing and Heating: A New Business Model .
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 Brightview Plumbing.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Brightview Plumbing 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 wage structure of Brightview Plumbing
– 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 Brightview Plumbing.
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 Brightview Plumbing business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
High level of anxiety and lack of motivation
– the Great Resignation in United States is the sign of broader dissatisfaction among the workforce in United States. Brightview Plumbing needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Technology & Operations industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Brightview Plumbing 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.
Environmental challenges
– Brightview Plumbing 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. Brightview Plumbing can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Technology & Operations industry.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Brightview Plumbing with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Brightview Plumbing has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Technology & Operations industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Brightview Plumbing 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Brightview Plumbing 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.
Technology disruption because of hacks, piracy etc
– The colonial pipeline illustrated, how vulnerable modern organization are to international hackers, miscreants, and disruptors. The cyber security interruption, data leaks, etc can seriously jeopardize the future growth of the organization.
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 Brightview Plumbing in the Technology & Operations sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of BrightView Plumbing and Heating: A New Business Model 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 BrightView Plumbing and Heating: A New Business Model 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 BrightView Plumbing and Heating: A New Business Model 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 BrightView Plumbing and Heating: A New Business Model 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 BrightView Plumbing and Heating: A New Business Model 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 Brightview Plumbing needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.