Diversity and Inclusion at the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
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Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Diversity and Inclusion at the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator
In 2016, the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator undertook formal efforts to improve diversity and inclusion (D&I) efforts with the hire of Estelle Reyes. Reyes built an internal team and external advisors to define and prioritize these efforts in the first year of her tenure. These groups faced numerous challenges as they attempted to increase the diversity of their staff and incubated companies, shift organizational culture to emphasize D&I at all levels, and move beyond diversity to also focus on inclusion.
Swot Analysis of "Diversity and Inclusion at the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator" written by Jill Kickul, Allison Gister, Jacqueline Orr includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Diversity Reyes facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Diversity and Inclusion at the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Diversity, Gender, Race, Sustainability, Venture capital and Communication.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Diversity and Inclusion at the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator casestudy better are - – 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 government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing energy prices, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, there is increasing trade war between United States & China,
increasing transportation and logistics costs, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Diversity and Inclusion at the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Diversity and Inclusion at the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Diversity Reyes, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Diversity Reyes 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 Diversity and Inclusion at the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Diversity and Inclusion at the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Diversity Reyes
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Communication field.
4. Making a Communication topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Diversity Reyes
Strengths Diversity and Inclusion at the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Diversity Reyes in Diversity and Inclusion at the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator Harvard Business Review case study are -
Strong track record of project management
– Diversity Reyes is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Diversity Reyes 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 Diversity and Inclusion at the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator - 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 Communication field
– Diversity Reyes 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 Diversity Reyes in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Diversity Reyes 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.
Organizational Resilience of Diversity Reyes
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Diversity Reyes does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Diverse revenue streams
– Diversity Reyes is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Diversity and Inclusion at the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Diversity Reyes is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Diversity and Inclusion at the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Diversity Reyes 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.
Learning organization
- Diversity Reyes 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 Diversity Reyes is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Diversity and Inclusion at the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Communication industry
– Diversity and Inclusion at the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Diversity Reyes to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Communication industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Diversity Reyes to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Diversity Reyes has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Diversity Reyes 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.
Analytics focus
– Diversity Reyes 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 Jill Kickul, Allison Gister, Jacqueline Orr 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.
Weaknesses Diversity and Inclusion at the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Diversity and Inclusion at the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator are -
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Diversity Reyes 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Diversity Reyes 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Diversity and Inclusion at the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator 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 Diversity Reyes 's lucrative customers.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Diversity Reyes 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. Diversity Reyes 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Diversity Reyes 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 cash cycle compare to competitors
Diversity Reyes 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Diversity and Inclusion at the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator 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 Diversity and Inclusion at the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Diversity Reyes is planning to shift buying processes online.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Jill Kickul, Allison Gister, Jacqueline Orr suggests that, Diversity Reyes 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Diversity Reyes is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Diversity and Inclusion at the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Diversity and Inclusion at the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator, is just above the industry average. Diversity Reyes 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 Diversity Reyes products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Diversity Reyes needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Opportunities Diversity and Inclusion at the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator | 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 Diversity and Inclusion at the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator are -
Loyalty marketing
– Diversity Reyes has focused on building a highly responsive customer relationship management platform. This platform is built on in-house data and driven by analytics and artificial intelligence. The customer analytics can help the organization to fine tune its loyalty marketing efforts, increase the wallet share of the organization, reduce wastage on mainstream advertising spending, build better pricing strategies using personalization, etc.
Buying journey improvements
– Diversity Reyes can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Diversity and Inclusion at the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator 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.
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 Diversity Reyes in the consumer business. Now Diversity Reyes can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Diversity Reyes 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 Diversity and Inclusion at the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Diversity Reyes to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Developing new processes and practices
– Diversity Reyes can develop new processes and procedures in Communication 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Diversity Reyes 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Communication industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Diversity Reyes can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Communication industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Diversity Reyes 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. Diversity Reyes 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Diversity Reyes to increase its market reach. Diversity Reyes 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Diversity Reyes can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Diversity Reyes 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Diversity Reyes 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 Communication segment.
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. Diversity Reyes can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Threats Diversity and Inclusion at the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Diversity and Inclusion at the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator are -
Increasing wage structure of Diversity Reyes
– 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 Diversity Reyes.
Instability in the European markets
– European Union markets are facing three big challenges post Covid – expanded balance sheets, Brexit related business disruption, and aggressive Russia looking to distract the existing security mechanism. Diversity Reyes will face different problems in different parts of Europe. For example it will face inflationary pressures in UK, France, and Germany, balance sheet expansion and demand challenges in Southern European countries, and geopolitical instability in the Eastern Europe.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Diversity Reyes with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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 Diversity Reyes in the Communication sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Diversity Reyes in the Communication industry. The Communication industry is already at various protected from local competition in China, with the rise of trade war the protection levels may go up. This presents a clear threat of current business model in Chinese market.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Diversity Reyes 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.
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 Diversity Reyes business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Regulatory challenges
– Diversity Reyes 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 Communication industry regulations.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Diversity and Inclusion at the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator, Diversity Reyes may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Communication .
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Diversity Reyes is facing in Communication sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Diversity Reyes has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Communication industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Diversity Reyes needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Communication 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Diversity Reyes 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 Diversity and Inclusion at the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator .
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Diversity and Inclusion at the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator 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 Diversity and Inclusion at the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator 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 Diversity and Inclusion at the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator 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 Diversity and Inclusion at the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator 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 Diversity and Inclusion at the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator 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 Diversity Reyes needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.