Negotiation Exercise on Tradeable Pollution Allowances: Group C, Utility #2 SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Global Business
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Negotiation Exercise on Tradeable Pollution Allowances: Group C, Utility #2
Describes the position of Utility #2 in negotiating Group C with respect to 1) its SO emissions reduction requirements; 2) the costs of its alternative compliance strategies; and 3) the nature of its state regulatory environment.
Swot Analysis of "Negotiation Exercise on Tradeable Pollution Allowances: Group C, Utility #2" written by Willis Emmons includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Utility 2 facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Negotiation Exercise on Tradeable Pollution Allowances: Group C, Utility #2 case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Decision making, Negotiations, Sustainability and Global Business.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Negotiation Exercise on Tradeable Pollution Allowances: Group C, Utility #2 casestudy better are - – there is backlash against globalization, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, technology disruption, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy,
cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Negotiation Exercise on Tradeable Pollution Allowances: Group C, Utility #2
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Negotiation Exercise on Tradeable Pollution Allowances: Group C, Utility #2 case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Utility 2, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Utility 2 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 Negotiation Exercise on Tradeable Pollution Allowances: Group C, Utility #2 can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Negotiation Exercise on Tradeable Pollution Allowances: Group C, Utility #2 case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Utility 2
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Global Business field.
4. Making a Global Business topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Utility 2
Strengths Negotiation Exercise on Tradeable Pollution Allowances: Group C, Utility #2 | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Utility 2 in Negotiation Exercise on Tradeable Pollution Allowances: Group C, Utility #2 Harvard Business Review case study are -
Strong track record of project management
– Utility 2 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)
– Utility 2 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 Negotiation Exercise on Tradeable Pollution Allowances: Group C, Utility #2 - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Utility 2 in the sector have low bargaining power. Negotiation Exercise on Tradeable Pollution Allowances: Group C, Utility #2 has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Utility 2 to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Learning organization
- Utility 2 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 Utility 2 is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Negotiation Exercise on Tradeable Pollution Allowances: Group C, Utility #2 Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Utility 2 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Negotiation Exercise on Tradeable Pollution Allowances: Group C, Utility #2 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.
Organizational Resilience of Utility 2
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Utility 2 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 Utility 2 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Utility 2 is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Negotiation Exercise on Tradeable Pollution Allowances: Group C, Utility #2 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Utility 2 is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Negotiation Exercise on Tradeable Pollution Allowances: Group C, Utility #2 Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Ability to lead change in Global Business field
– Utility 2 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 Utility 2 in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Utility 2 in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Weaknesses Negotiation Exercise on Tradeable Pollution Allowances: Group C, Utility #2 | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Negotiation Exercise on Tradeable Pollution Allowances: Group C, Utility #2 are -
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Utility 2, firm in the HBR case study Negotiation Exercise on Tradeable Pollution Allowances: Group C, Utility #2 needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Negotiation Exercise on Tradeable Pollution Allowances: Group C, Utility #2, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Global Business strategy. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Utility 2 is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Negotiation Exercise on Tradeable Pollution Allowances: Group C, Utility #2 can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Negotiation Exercise on Tradeable Pollution Allowances: Group C, Utility #2 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 Utility 2 's lucrative customers.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Negotiation Exercise on Tradeable Pollution Allowances: Group C, Utility #2, it seems that the employees of Utility 2 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Negotiation Exercise on Tradeable Pollution Allowances: Group C, Utility #2 HBR case study mentions - Utility 2 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Utility 2 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Utility 2 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Utility 2 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 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 Utility 2 supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Negotiation Exercise on Tradeable Pollution Allowances: Group C, Utility #2, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Utility 2 vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Negotiation Exercise on Tradeable Pollution Allowances: Group C, Utility #2 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 Utility 2 has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Opportunities Negotiation Exercise on Tradeable Pollution Allowances: Group C, Utility #2 | 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 Negotiation Exercise on Tradeable Pollution Allowances: Group C, Utility #2 are -
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Utility 2 has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Utility 2 to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Negotiation Exercise on Tradeable Pollution Allowances: Group C, Utility #2 case study. Utility 2 can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Utility 2 is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Negotiation Exercise on Tradeable Pollution Allowances: Group C, Utility #2 case study suggests that firm can utilize new technology to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Utility 2 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, Negotiation Exercise on Tradeable Pollution Allowances: Group C, Utility #2, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Global Business industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Utility 2 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 Global Business industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Utility 2 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. Utility 2 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.
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 Utility 2 in the consumer business. Now Utility 2 can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Developing new processes and practices
– Utility 2 can develop new processes and procedures in Global Business 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
– Utility 2 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Utility 2 can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Utility 2 to conduct training and development for its employees across the world. This will result in not only reducing the cost of training but also help employees in different part of the world to integrate with the headquarter work culture, ethos, and standards.
Loyalty marketing
– Utility 2 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Utility 2 in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Global Business segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Utility 2 can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Utility 2 operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Global Business sector.
Threats Negotiation Exercise on Tradeable Pollution Allowances: Group C, Utility #2 External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Negotiation Exercise on Tradeable Pollution Allowances: Group C, Utility #2 are -
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 Utility 2.
Regulatory challenges
– Utility 2 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 Global Business industry regulations.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Utility 2 in the Global Business industry. The Global Business industry is already at various protected from local competition in China, with the rise of trade war the protection levels may go up. This presents a clear threat of current business model in Chinese market.
Technology disruption because of hacks, piracy etc
– The colonial pipeline illustrated, how vulnerable modern organization are to international hackers, miscreants, and disruptors. The cyber security interruption, data leaks, etc can seriously jeopardize the future growth of the organization.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Utility 2 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 Utility 2
– 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 Utility 2.
Environmental challenges
– Utility 2 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. Utility 2 can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Global Business industry.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Utility 2 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.
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.
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. Utility 2 needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Global Business industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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 Utility 2 in the Global Business sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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 Utility 2 business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Global Business field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Utility 2 can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Negotiation Exercise on Tradeable Pollution Allowances: Group C, Utility #2 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 Negotiation Exercise on Tradeable Pollution Allowances: Group C, Utility #2 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 Negotiation Exercise on Tradeable Pollution Allowances: Group C, Utility #2 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 Negotiation Exercise on Tradeable Pollution Allowances: Group C, Utility #2 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 Negotiation Exercise on Tradeable Pollution Allowances: Group C, Utility #2 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 Utility 2 needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
