Unilever South Africa: Contextual Leadership of Culture for Inclusive Growth SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Organizational Development
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Unilever South Africa: Contextual Leadership of Culture for Inclusive Growth
On December 5, 2017, Tony Mun-Gavin, the business unit head for Personal Care at Unilever South Africa, was leading an immersion experience for new team members in the Soweto township of Johannesburg. The immersion was part of an effort to continuously embed a culture of inclusive growth with new employees, and it aligned with the corporate social responsibility commitment of the parent company, Unilever Pty. Ltd. Mun-Gavin faced a conflict in marketing the company's personal care brand, Lux, which had always been associated with glamorous female celebrities but that was no longer in line with the company's commitments to sustainability, inclusive growth, and women's empowerment. His team had to work to re-position the brand to celebrate the diverse roles of women in the 21st century. Would the re-positioning work, and would it be consistent with the company's goals of embedding a culture of inclusive growth and ensuring sustainability across the organization? Caren Scheepers and Natalie Van der Veen are affiliated with University of Pretoria.
Swot Analysis of "Unilever South Africa: Contextual Leadership of Culture for Inclusive Growth" written by Caren Scheepers, Natalie Van der Veen includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Inclusive Gavin facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Unilever South Africa: Contextual Leadership of Culture for Inclusive Growth case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Leadership, Manufacturing, Organizational culture and Organizational Development.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Unilever South Africa: Contextual Leadership of Culture for Inclusive Growth casestudy better are - – increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing household debt because of falling income levels, geopolitical disruptions, increasing commodity prices, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models,
digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Unilever South Africa: Contextual Leadership of Culture for Inclusive Growth
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Unilever South Africa: Contextual Leadership of Culture for Inclusive Growth case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Inclusive Gavin, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Inclusive Gavin 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 Unilever South Africa: Contextual Leadership of Culture for Inclusive Growth can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Unilever South Africa: Contextual Leadership of Culture for Inclusive Growth case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Inclusive Gavin
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Organizational Development field.
4. Making a Organizational Development topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Inclusive Gavin
Strengths Unilever South Africa: Contextual Leadership of Culture for Inclusive Growth | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Inclusive Gavin in Unilever South Africa: Contextual Leadership of Culture for Inclusive Growth Harvard Business Review case study are -
Learning organization
- Inclusive Gavin 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 Inclusive Gavin is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Unilever South Africa: Contextual Leadership of Culture for Inclusive Growth Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Inclusive Gavin has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Inclusive Gavin 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Inclusive Gavin 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 Unilever South Africa: Contextual Leadership of Culture for Inclusive Growth HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Diverse revenue streams
– Inclusive Gavin is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Unilever South Africa: Contextual Leadership of Culture for Inclusive Growth 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Inclusive Gavin in the sector have low bargaining power. Unilever South Africa: Contextual Leadership of Culture for Inclusive Growth has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Inclusive Gavin to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Inclusive Gavin 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 Unilever South Africa: Contextual Leadership of Culture for Inclusive Growth - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Analytics focus
– Inclusive Gavin 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 Caren Scheepers, Natalie Van der Veen 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Organizational Development industry
– Unilever South Africa: Contextual Leadership of Culture for Inclusive Growth firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Inclusive Gavin to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Organizational Development industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Inclusive Gavin to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Training and development
– Inclusive Gavin has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Unilever South Africa: Contextual Leadership of Culture for Inclusive Growth 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Inclusive Gavin 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Inclusive Gavin 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
– Inclusive Gavin is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Unilever South Africa: Contextual Leadership of Culture for Inclusive Growth Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Weaknesses Unilever South Africa: Contextual Leadership of Culture for Inclusive Growth | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Unilever South Africa: Contextual Leadership of Culture for Inclusive Growth are -
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Unilever South Africa: Contextual Leadership of Culture for Inclusive Growth 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 Inclusive Gavin has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Inclusive Gavin 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Inclusive Gavin 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Inclusive Gavin 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. Inclusive Gavin 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Inclusive Gavin 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 - Unilever South Africa: Contextual Leadership of Culture for Inclusive Growth should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Unilever South Africa: Contextual Leadership of Culture for Inclusive Growth HBR case study mentions - Inclusive Gavin 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Unilever South Africa: Contextual Leadership of Culture for Inclusive Growth, is just above the industry average. Inclusive Gavin 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Inclusive Gavin 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 existing supply chain
– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of Inclusive Gavin supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Unilever South Africa: Contextual Leadership of Culture for Inclusive Growth, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Inclusive Gavin vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Unilever South Africa: Contextual Leadership of Culture for Inclusive Growth 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 Inclusive Gavin 's lucrative customers.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Inclusive Gavin is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Unilever South Africa: Contextual Leadership of Culture for Inclusive Growth can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Opportunities Unilever South Africa: Contextual Leadership of Culture for Inclusive Growth | 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 Unilever South Africa: Contextual Leadership of Culture for Inclusive Growth are -
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Inclusive Gavin can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Inclusive Gavin has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Inclusive Gavin to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Unilever South Africa: Contextual Leadership of Culture for Inclusive Growth case study. Inclusive Gavin can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Organizational Development industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Inclusive Gavin 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. Inclusive Gavin 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 Inclusive Gavin to increase its market reach. Inclusive Gavin 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.
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 Inclusive Gavin in the consumer business. Now Inclusive Gavin can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Inclusive Gavin 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 Unilever South Africa: Contextual Leadership of Culture for Inclusive Growth - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Inclusive Gavin to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Manufacturing automation
– Inclusive Gavin can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Organizational Development 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Inclusive Gavin 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Inclusive Gavin in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Organizational Development segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Inclusive Gavin 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Organizational Development industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Inclusive Gavin can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Inclusive Gavin 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 Inclusive Gavin to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Inclusive Gavin can build a diversified supply chain model across various countries in - South East Asia, India, and other parts of the world. This reconfiguration of global supply chain can help, as suggested in case study, Unilever South Africa: Contextual Leadership of Culture for Inclusive Growth, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Threats Unilever South Africa: Contextual Leadership of Culture for Inclusive Growth External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Unilever South Africa: Contextual Leadership of Culture for Inclusive Growth are -
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 Inclusive Gavin in the Organizational Development sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Increasing wage structure of Inclusive Gavin
– 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 Inclusive Gavin.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Unilever South Africa: Contextual Leadership of Culture for Inclusive Growth, Inclusive Gavin may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Organizational Development .
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Inclusive Gavin is facing in Organizational Development sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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 Inclusive Gavin business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Inclusive Gavin has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Organizational Development industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Inclusive Gavin needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Organizational Development 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.
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.
Regulatory challenges
– Inclusive Gavin 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 Organizational Development industry regulations.
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 Inclusive Gavin.
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. Inclusive Gavin needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Organizational Development industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Inclusive Gavin 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Inclusive Gavin 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 Unilever South Africa: Contextual Leadership of Culture for Inclusive Growth .
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Inclusive Gavin with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Unilever South Africa: Contextual Leadership of Culture for Inclusive Growth 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 Unilever South Africa: Contextual Leadership of Culture for Inclusive Growth 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 Unilever South Africa: Contextual Leadership of Culture for Inclusive Growth 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 Unilever South Africa: Contextual Leadership of Culture for Inclusive Growth 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 Unilever South Africa: Contextual Leadership of Culture for Inclusive Growth 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 Inclusive Gavin needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
