Gardens Without Borders: Creating Corporate-Social Enterprise Collaborations for Sustainability SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution

Case Study Description of Gardens Without Borders: Creating Corporate-Social Enterprise Collaborations for Sustainability

The case examines a social enterprise that is at a turning point in its development. After a successful start-up phase, Gardens Without Borders (GWB) aspires to achieve long-term financial viability. The case describes various projects carried out by GWB to promote sustainable agriculture around the world before addressing the challenge it now faces: achieving financial sustainability by collaborating with the private sector. Specifically, GWB wishes to develop customizable proposals for partnerships with two corporations known for their commitment to corporate social responsibility. By studying this case, students are expected to gain an in-depth understanding of real-life challenges faced by social enterprise start-ups and develop strategic decision-making capabilities for creating corporate-social enterprise collaborations for sustainability.

Authors :: Joseph El-Khoury, Anna Kim

Topics :: Leadership & Managing People

Tags :: Ethics, Social enterprise, Social responsibility, Sustainability, SWOT Analysis, SWOT Matrix, TOWS, Weighted SWOT Analysis

Swot Analysis of "Gardens Without Borders: Creating Corporate-Social Enterprise Collaborations for Sustainability" written by Joseph El-Khoury, Anna Kim includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Gwb Gardens facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Gardens Without Borders: Creating Corporate-Social Enterprise Collaborations for Sustainability case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Ethics, Social enterprise, Social responsibility, Sustainability and Leadership & Managing People.

Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Gardens Without Borders: Creating Corporate-Social Enterprise Collaborations for Sustainability casestudy better are - – there is increasing trade war between United States & China, wage bills are increasing, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, technology disruption, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing commodity prices, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, etc

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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Gardens Without Borders: Creating Corporate-Social Enterprise Collaborations for Sustainability

SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Gardens Without Borders: Creating Corporate-Social Enterprise Collaborations for Sustainability case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Gwb Gardens, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Gwb Gardens 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.

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SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix

SWOT analysis of Gardens Without Borders: Creating Corporate-Social Enterprise Collaborations for Sustainability can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Gardens Without Borders: Creating Corporate-Social Enterprise Collaborations for Sustainability case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Gwb Gardens
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Leadership & Managing People field.
4. Making a Leadership & Managing People topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Gwb Gardens

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Strengths Gardens Without Borders: Creating Corporate-Social Enterprise Collaborations for Sustainability | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Gwb Gardens in Gardens Without Borders: Creating Corporate-Social Enterprise Collaborations for Sustainability Harvard Business Review case study are -

Analytics focus

– Gwb Gardens 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 Joseph El-Khoury, Anna Kim 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.

Learning organization

- Gwb Gardens 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 Gwb Gardens is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Gardens Without Borders: Creating Corporate-Social Enterprise Collaborations for Sustainability Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.

Effective Research and Development (R&D)

– Gwb Gardens 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 Gardens Without Borders: Creating Corporate-Social Enterprise Collaborations for Sustainability - 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 Leadership & Managing People field

– Gwb Gardens 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 Gwb Gardens 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 Gwb Gardens in the sector have low bargaining power. Gardens Without Borders: Creating Corporate-Social Enterprise Collaborations for Sustainability has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Gwb Gardens to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.

Strong track record of project management

– Gwb Gardens is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.

Diverse revenue streams

– Gwb Gardens is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Gardens Without Borders: Creating Corporate-Social Enterprise Collaborations for Sustainability 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.

Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment

- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Gwb Gardens digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Gwb Gardens has successfully integrated the four key components of digital transformation – digital integration in processes, digital integration in marketing and customer relationship management, digital integration into the value chain, and using technology to explore new products and market opportunities.

Organizational Resilience of Gwb Gardens

– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Gwb Gardens does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.

Highly skilled collaborators

– Gwb Gardens 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 Gardens Without Borders: Creating Corporate-Social Enterprise Collaborations for Sustainability HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.

High brand equity

– Gwb Gardens has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Gwb Gardens to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.

Operational resilience

– The operational resilience strategy in the Gardens Without Borders: Creating Corporate-Social Enterprise Collaborations for Sustainability 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.

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Weaknesses Gardens Without Borders: Creating Corporate-Social Enterprise Collaborations for Sustainability | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of Gardens Without Borders: Creating Corporate-Social Enterprise Collaborations for Sustainability are -

Slow decision making process

– As mentioned earlier in the report, Gwb Gardens 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. Gwb Gardens 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, Gwb Gardens 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.

Products dominated business model

– Even though Gwb Gardens 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 - Gardens Without Borders: Creating Corporate-Social Enterprise Collaborations for Sustainability should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.

Aligning sales with marketing

– It come across in the case study Gardens Without Borders: Creating Corporate-Social Enterprise Collaborations for Sustainability 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 Gardens Without Borders: Creating Corporate-Social Enterprise Collaborations for Sustainability can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Gwb Gardens is planning to shift buying processes online.

Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy

– From the instances in the HBR case study Gardens Without Borders: Creating Corporate-Social Enterprise Collaborations for Sustainability, it seems that the employees of Gwb Gardens 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.

Workers concerns about automation

– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Gwb Gardens needs to come up with a strategy to reduce the workers concern regarding automation. Without a clear strategy, it could lead to disruption and uncertainty within the organization.

High cash cycle compare to competitors

Gwb Gardens 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, Gwb Gardens 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 bargaining power of channel partners

– Because of the regulatory requirements, Joseph El-Khoury, Anna Kim suggests that, Gwb Gardens 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.

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 Gwb Gardens supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Gardens Without Borders: Creating Corporate-Social Enterprise Collaborations for Sustainability, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Gwb Gardens vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.

Increasing silos among functional specialists

– The organizational structure of Gwb Gardens is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Gwb Gardens needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Gwb Gardens to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.

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Opportunities Gardens Without Borders: Creating Corporate-Social Enterprise Collaborations for Sustainability | 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 Gardens Without Borders: Creating Corporate-Social Enterprise Collaborations for Sustainability are -

Using analytics as competitive advantage

– Gwb Gardens 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 Gardens Without Borders: Creating Corporate-Social Enterprise Collaborations for Sustainability - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Gwb Gardens 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

– Gwb Gardens can develop new processes and procedures in Leadership & Managing People 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 Gwb Gardens in the consumer business. Now Gwb Gardens can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.

Finding new ways to collaborate

– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Leadership & Managing People industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Gwb Gardens can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.

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 Gwb Gardens 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.

Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19

– Consumer behavior has changed in the Leadership & Managing People industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Gwb Gardens 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. Gwb Gardens 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.

Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains

– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Gwb Gardens 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, Gardens Without Borders: Creating Corporate-Social Enterprise Collaborations for Sustainability, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.

Leveraging digital technologies

– Gwb Gardens can leverage digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate the production process, customer analytics to get better insights into consumer behavior, realtime digital dashboards to get better sales tracking, logistics and transportation, product tracking, etc.

Loyalty marketing

– Gwb Gardens 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.

Reforming the budgeting process

- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Gwb Gardens 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, Gwb Gardens 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 Gwb Gardens 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 Leadership & Managing People segment.

Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities

– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Gwb Gardens 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 Gwb Gardens to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.

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Threats Gardens Without Borders: Creating Corporate-Social Enterprise Collaborations for Sustainability External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Gardens Without Borders: Creating Corporate-Social Enterprise Collaborations for Sustainability are -

Increasing wage structure of Gwb Gardens

– 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 Gwb Gardens.

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 Gwb Gardens business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.

Easy access to finance

– Easy access to finance in Leadership & Managing People field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Gwb Gardens can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.

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 Gwb Gardens.

Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution

– Gwb Gardens has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Gwb Gardens needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Leadership & Managing People 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.

Barriers of entry lowering

– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Gwb Gardens with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.

Stagnating economy with rate increase

– Gwb Gardens 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.

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 Gwb Gardens in the Leadership & Managing People 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 Gwb Gardens in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The Leadership & Managing People 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.

Regulatory challenges

– Gwb Gardens 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 Leadership & Managing People industry regulations.

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. Gwb Gardens needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.

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.

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Weighted SWOT Analysis of Gardens Without Borders: Creating Corporate-Social Enterprise Collaborations for Sustainability 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 Gardens Without Borders: Creating Corporate-Social Enterprise Collaborations for Sustainability 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 Gardens Without Borders: Creating Corporate-Social Enterprise Collaborations for Sustainability 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 Gardens Without Borders: Creating Corporate-Social Enterprise Collaborations for Sustainability 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 Gardens Without Borders: Creating Corporate-Social Enterprise Collaborations for Sustainability 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 Gwb Gardens needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.

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