Goldfinger: Charles W. Engelhard Jr. and Apartheid-era South Africa SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Global Business
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Goldfinger: Charles W. Engelhard Jr. and Apartheid-era South Africa
This case considers the strategies of Charles W. Engelhard, an American mining magnate who made large investments in apartheid-era South Africa. Engelhard was widely believed to have been the model for the James Bond villan Auric Goldfinger. During the 1950s and 1960s Engelhard, who was well-connected with the leadership of the Democratic Party in the United States including President Lyndon B. Johnson, was one of the largest American investors in that country. His close relationship with Harry Oppenheimer, the head of the Anglo-American Corporation, gave him substantial influence within the South African business system. The case starts with anti-apartheid demonstrators protesting outside a ceremony awarding him a prize in Newark, New Jersey. It provides an opportunity to debate the political and ethical responsibilities of businesses in repressive regimes, and the challenges faced by entrepreneurs operating in countries with different value systems and political regimes.
Swot Analysis of "Goldfinger: Charles W. Engelhard Jr. and Apartheid-era South Africa" written by Geoffrey G. Jones, Elliot R. Benton includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Engelhard Apartheid facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Goldfinger: Charles W. Engelhard Jr. and Apartheid-era South Africa case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Ethics, Globalization, Government, Social responsibility and Global Business.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Goldfinger: Charles W. Engelhard Jr. and Apartheid-era South Africa casestudy better are - – increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing energy prices, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing commodity prices,
increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Goldfinger: Charles W. Engelhard Jr. and Apartheid-era South Africa
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Goldfinger: Charles W. Engelhard Jr. and Apartheid-era South Africa case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Engelhard Apartheid, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Engelhard Apartheid 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 Goldfinger: Charles W. Engelhard Jr. and Apartheid-era South Africa can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Goldfinger: Charles W. Engelhard Jr. and Apartheid-era South Africa case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Engelhard Apartheid
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 Engelhard Apartheid
Strengths Goldfinger: Charles W. Engelhard Jr. and Apartheid-era South Africa | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Engelhard Apartheid in Goldfinger: Charles W. Engelhard Jr. and Apartheid-era South Africa Harvard Business Review case study are -
Ability to lead change in Global Business field
– Engelhard Apartheid 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 Engelhard Apartheid in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Analytics focus
– Engelhard Apartheid 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 Geoffrey G. Jones, Elliot R. Benton 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Engelhard Apartheid is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Goldfinger: Charles W. Engelhard Jr. and Apartheid-era South Africa are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Engelhard Apartheid 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Engelhard Apartheid 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 Goldfinger: Charles W. Engelhard Jr. and Apartheid-era South Africa - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Learning organization
- Engelhard Apartheid 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 Engelhard Apartheid is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Goldfinger: Charles W. Engelhard Jr. and Apartheid-era South Africa Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Strong track record of project management
– Engelhard Apartheid is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Organizational Resilience of Engelhard Apartheid
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Engelhard Apartheid does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Diverse revenue streams
– Engelhard Apartheid is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Goldfinger: Charles W. Engelhard Jr. and Apartheid-era South Africa 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.
High brand equity
– Engelhard Apartheid has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Engelhard Apartheid to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Global Business industry
– Goldfinger: Charles W. Engelhard Jr. and Apartheid-era South Africa firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Engelhard Apartheid to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Global Business industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Engelhard Apartheid to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Goldfinger: Charles W. Engelhard Jr. and Apartheid-era South Africa 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.
Weaknesses Goldfinger: Charles W. Engelhard Jr. and Apartheid-era South Africa | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Goldfinger: Charles W. Engelhard Jr. and Apartheid-era South Africa are -
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Goldfinger: Charles W. Engelhard Jr. and Apartheid-era South Africa, it seems that the employees of Engelhard Apartheid 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Goldfinger: Charles W. Engelhard Jr. and Apartheid-era South Africa, in the dynamic environment Engelhard Apartheid has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Engelhard Apartheid has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Engelhard Apartheid, firm in the HBR case study Goldfinger: Charles W. Engelhard Jr. and Apartheid-era South Africa needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Goldfinger: Charles W. Engelhard Jr. and Apartheid-era South Africa 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 Engelhard Apartheid 's lucrative customers.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Goldfinger: Charles W. Engelhard Jr. and Apartheid-era South Africa HBR case study mentions - Engelhard Apartheid 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Engelhard Apartheid 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Goldfinger: Charles W. Engelhard Jr. and Apartheid-era South Africa, 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Engelhard Apartheid 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Engelhard Apartheid is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Global Business segment. Engelhard Apartheid needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Engelhard Apartheid 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 Engelhard Apartheid supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Goldfinger: Charles W. Engelhard Jr. and Apartheid-era South Africa, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Engelhard Apartheid vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Engelhard Apartheid 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. Engelhard Apartheid 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.
Opportunities Goldfinger: Charles W. Engelhard Jr. and Apartheid-era South Africa | 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 Goldfinger: Charles W. Engelhard Jr. and Apartheid-era South Africa are -
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. Engelhard Apartheid can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Loyalty marketing
– Engelhard Apartheid 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Engelhard Apartheid 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 Engelhard Apartheid to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Manufacturing automation
– Engelhard Apartheid can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Global Business 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
– Engelhard Apartheid 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Engelhard Apartheid 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, Goldfinger: Charles W. Engelhard Jr. and Apartheid-era South Africa, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
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 Engelhard Apartheid in the consumer business. Now Engelhard Apartheid can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Engelhard Apartheid can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Engelhard Apartheid operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Global Business sector.
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. Engelhard Apartheid 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. Engelhard Apartheid 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Engelhard Apartheid has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Engelhard Apartheid to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Goldfinger: Charles W. Engelhard Jr. and Apartheid-era South Africa case study. Engelhard Apartheid can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Buying journey improvements
– Engelhard Apartheid can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Goldfinger: Charles W. Engelhard Jr. and Apartheid-era South Africa suggest that firm can provide automated chats to help consumers solve their own problems, provide online suggestions to get maximum out of the products and services, and help consumers to build a community where they can interact with each other to develop new features and uses.
Developing new processes and practices
– Engelhard Apartheid 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.
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. Engelhard Apartheid can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Threats Goldfinger: Charles W. Engelhard Jr. and Apartheid-era South Africa External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Goldfinger: Charles W. Engelhard Jr. and Apartheid-era South Africa are -
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. Engelhard Apartheid needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Global Business industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Regulatory challenges
– Engelhard Apartheid 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Goldfinger: Charles W. Engelhard Jr. and Apartheid-era South Africa, Engelhard Apartheid may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Global Business .
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.
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. Engelhard Apartheid can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Environmental challenges
– Engelhard Apartheid 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. Engelhard Apartheid can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Global Business industry.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Engelhard Apartheid 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 Goldfinger: Charles W. Engelhard Jr. and Apartheid-era South Africa .
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Engelhard Apartheid with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Engelhard Apartheid has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Global Business industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Engelhard Apartheid needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Global Business 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Engelhard Apartheid is facing in Global Business sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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. Engelhard Apartheid 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.
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 Engelhard Apartheid business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Increasing wage structure of Engelhard Apartheid
– 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 Engelhard Apartheid.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Goldfinger: Charles W. Engelhard Jr. and Apartheid-era South Africa 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 Goldfinger: Charles W. Engelhard Jr. and Apartheid-era South Africa 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 Goldfinger: Charles W. Engelhard Jr. and Apartheid-era South Africa 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 Goldfinger: Charles W. Engelhard Jr. and Apartheid-era South Africa 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 Goldfinger: Charles W. Engelhard Jr. and Apartheid-era South Africa 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 Engelhard Apartheid needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
