Case Study Description of Wilderness Safaris: Ecotourism Entrepreneurship
Wilderness Safaris sees itself as a conservation company that is built on a business model of providing high-end, premium-priced wildlife safaris in various locations in Africa. Dependent on functioning, healthy ecosystems for its long-term survivability as a business, it invests heavily in conservation efforts, both directly, with communities and governments, and with partners and competitors. It may be reaching saturation of the high-cost, high-priced, low-volume, luxury travel product in its existing locations, so to continue its growth it is now trying to expand into East Africa, where the traditional safari approach by most providers has been a high-volume, low-cost, low-priced product. As a publicly- listed company, can Wilderness Safaris find a sustainable growth path that will allow it to profitably expand its business and meet its shareholder's interests while still achieving its priority purposes of protecting and investing in the ecosystems and communities on which its services are based?
Authors :: James E. Austin, Megan Epler Wood, Herman B. Leonard
Topics :: Strategy & Execution
Tags :: Social enterprise, Social responsibility, Strategic planning, Sustainability, SWOT Analysis, SWOT Matrix, TOWS, Weighted SWOT Analysis
Swot Analysis of "Wilderness Safaris: Ecotourism Entrepreneurship" written by James E. Austin, Megan Epler Wood, Herman B. Leonard includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Safaris Wilderness facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Wilderness Safaris: Ecotourism Entrepreneurship case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Social enterprise, Social responsibility, Strategic planning, Sustainability and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Wilderness Safaris: Ecotourism Entrepreneurship casestudy better are - – cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, wage bills are increasing, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, technology disruption, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion,
increasing household debt because of falling income levels, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Wilderness Safaris: Ecotourism Entrepreneurship
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Wilderness Safaris: Ecotourism Entrepreneurship case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Safaris Wilderness, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Safaris Wilderness 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 Wilderness Safaris: Ecotourism Entrepreneurship can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Wilderness Safaris: Ecotourism Entrepreneurship case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Safaris Wilderness
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Strategy & Execution field.
4. Making a Strategy & Execution topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Safaris Wilderness
Strengths Wilderness Safaris: Ecotourism Entrepreneurship | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Safaris Wilderness in Wilderness Safaris: Ecotourism Entrepreneurship Harvard Business Review case study are -
Analytics focus
– Safaris Wilderness 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 James E. Austin, Megan Epler Wood, Herman B. Leonard 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.
Training and development
– Safaris Wilderness has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Wilderness Safaris: Ecotourism Entrepreneurship 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.
Learning organization
- Safaris Wilderness 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 Safaris Wilderness is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Wilderness Safaris: Ecotourism Entrepreneurship Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
High brand equity
– Safaris Wilderness has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Safaris Wilderness to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Strong track record of project management
– Safaris Wilderness is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Wilderness Safaris: Ecotourism Entrepreneurship 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Safaris Wilderness in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Organizational Resilience of Safaris Wilderness
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Safaris Wilderness does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Safaris Wilderness 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Safaris Wilderness in the sector have low bargaining power. Wilderness Safaris: Ecotourism Entrepreneurship has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Safaris Wilderness to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Innovation driven organization
– Safaris Wilderness is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Wilderness Safaris: Ecotourism Entrepreneurship Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Diverse revenue streams
– Safaris Wilderness is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Wilderness Safaris: Ecotourism Entrepreneurship 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.
Weaknesses Wilderness Safaris: Ecotourism Entrepreneurship | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Wilderness Safaris: Ecotourism Entrepreneurship are -
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Safaris Wilderness is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Strategy & Execution segment. Safaris Wilderness needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Safaris Wilderness to focus more on services rather than just following the product 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 Safaris Wilderness supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Wilderness Safaris: Ecotourism Entrepreneurship, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Safaris Wilderness vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Wilderness Safaris: Ecotourism Entrepreneurship HBR case study mentions - Safaris Wilderness 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 Wilderness Safaris: Ecotourism Entrepreneurship, is just above the industry average. Safaris Wilderness 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Safaris Wilderness, firm in the HBR case study Wilderness Safaris: Ecotourism Entrepreneurship needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, James E. Austin, Megan Epler Wood, Herman B. Leonard suggests that, Safaris Wilderness 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Safaris Wilderness products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Safaris Wilderness needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Safaris Wilderness 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 Wilderness Safaris: Ecotourism Entrepreneurship 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 Safaris Wilderness 's lucrative customers.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Wilderness Safaris: Ecotourism Entrepreneurship, it seems that the employees of Safaris Wilderness 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 cash cycle compare to competitors
Safaris Wilderness 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.
Opportunities Wilderness Safaris: Ecotourism Entrepreneurship | 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 Wilderness Safaris: Ecotourism Entrepreneurship are -
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 Safaris Wilderness 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Safaris Wilderness can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Safaris Wilderness 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Safaris Wilderness can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Strategy & Execution 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.
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 Safaris Wilderness in the consumer business. Now Safaris Wilderness 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 Strategy & Execution industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Safaris Wilderness can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Safaris Wilderness to increase its market reach. Safaris Wilderness 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Safaris Wilderness has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Safaris Wilderness to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Wilderness Safaris: Ecotourism Entrepreneurship case study. Safaris Wilderness can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Safaris Wilderness 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Safaris Wilderness 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.
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. Safaris Wilderness can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Safaris Wilderness 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 Strategy & Execution segment.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Safaris Wilderness 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.
Threats Wilderness Safaris: Ecotourism Entrepreneurship External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Wilderness Safaris: Ecotourism Entrepreneurship are -
Environmental challenges
– Safaris Wilderness 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. Safaris Wilderness can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry.
Aging population
– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Wilderness Safaris: Ecotourism Entrepreneurship, Safaris Wilderness may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Strategy & Execution .
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Safaris Wilderness is facing in Strategy & Execution sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Safaris Wilderness 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.
Increasing wage structure of Safaris Wilderness
– 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 Safaris Wilderness.
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. Safaris Wilderness needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Strategy & Execution industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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 Safaris Wilderness.
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. Safaris Wilderness 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Safaris Wilderness 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 Wilderness Safaris: Ecotourism Entrepreneurship .
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Safaris Wilderness has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Strategy & Execution industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Safaris Wilderness needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Strategy & Execution 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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Strategy & Execution field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Safaris Wilderness can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Safaris Wilderness in the Strategy & Execution industry. The Strategy & Execution industry is already at various protected from local competition in China, with the rise of trade war the protection levels may go up. This presents a clear threat of current business model in Chinese market.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Wilderness Safaris: Ecotourism Entrepreneurship 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 Wilderness Safaris: Ecotourism Entrepreneurship 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 Wilderness Safaris: Ecotourism Entrepreneurship 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 Wilderness Safaris: Ecotourism Entrepreneurship 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 Wilderness Safaris: Ecotourism Entrepreneurship 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 Safaris Wilderness needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
