InterGen and the Quezon Power Project: Building Infrastructure in Emerging Markets SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution

Case Study Description of InterGen and the Quezon Power Project: Building Infrastructure in Emerging Markets

Examines InterGen's breakthrough Quezon power project, located in the Philippines. Explores how InterGen evaluates and manages project risk through partner selection, the use of operating contracts, and project finance techniques.

Authors :: Robert E. Kennedy

Topics :: Global Business

Tags :: Project management, Risk management, SWOT Analysis, SWOT Matrix, TOWS, Weighted SWOT Analysis

Swot Analysis of "InterGen and the Quezon Power Project: Building Infrastructure in Emerging Markets" written by Robert E. Kennedy includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Intergen Quezon facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in InterGen and the Quezon Power Project: Building Infrastructure in Emerging Markets case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Project management, Risk management and Global Business.

Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the InterGen and the Quezon Power Project: Building Infrastructure in Emerging Markets casestudy better are - – challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, there is backlash against globalization, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing energy prices, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, etc

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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of InterGen and the Quezon Power Project: Building Infrastructure in Emerging Markets

SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in InterGen and the Quezon Power Project: Building Infrastructure in Emerging Markets case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Intergen Quezon, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Intergen Quezon 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 InterGen and the Quezon Power Project: Building Infrastructure in Emerging Markets can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in InterGen and the Quezon Power Project: Building Infrastructure in Emerging Markets case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Intergen Quezon
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 Intergen Quezon

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Strengths InterGen and the Quezon Power Project: Building Infrastructure in Emerging Markets | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Intergen Quezon in InterGen and the Quezon Power Project: Building Infrastructure in Emerging Markets Harvard Business Review case study are -

High switching costs

– The high switching costs that Intergen Quezon 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.

Highly skilled collaborators

– Intergen Quezon 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 InterGen and the Quezon Power Project: Building Infrastructure in Emerging Markets HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.

Successful track record of launching new products

– Intergen Quezon has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Intergen Quezon has effective processes in place that helps in exploring new product needs, doing quick pilot testing, and then launching the products quickly using its extensive distribution network.

Low bargaining power of suppliers

– Suppliers of Intergen Quezon in the sector have low bargaining power. InterGen and the Quezon Power Project: Building Infrastructure in Emerging Markets has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Intergen Quezon to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.

Superior customer experience

– The customer experience strategy of Intergen Quezon in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.

Ability to recruit top talent

– Intergen Quezon is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the InterGen and the Quezon Power Project: Building Infrastructure in Emerging Markets are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.

Effective Research and Development (R&D)

– Intergen Quezon 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 InterGen and the Quezon Power Project: Building Infrastructure in Emerging Markets - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.

Cross disciplinary teams

– Horizontal connected teams at the Intergen Quezon 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.

Organizational Resilience of Intergen Quezon

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

Analytics focus

– Intergen Quezon 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 Robert E. Kennedy 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.

High brand equity

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

Operational resilience

– The operational resilience strategy in the InterGen and the Quezon Power Project: Building Infrastructure in Emerging Markets 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 InterGen and the Quezon Power Project: Building Infrastructure in Emerging Markets | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of InterGen and the Quezon Power Project: Building Infrastructure in Emerging Markets are -

High dependence on star products

– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the InterGen and the Quezon Power Project: Building Infrastructure in Emerging Markets 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 Intergen Quezon has relatively successful track record of launching new products.

Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy

– From the instances in the HBR case study InterGen and the Quezon Power Project: Building Infrastructure in Emerging Markets, it seems that the employees of Intergen Quezon 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.

Need for greater diversity

– Intergen Quezon has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.

Products dominated business model

– Even though Intergen Quezon 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 - InterGen and the Quezon Power Project: Building Infrastructure in Emerging Markets should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.

Compensation and incentives

– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study InterGen and the Quezon Power Project: Building Infrastructure in Emerging Markets, is just above the industry average. Intergen Quezon 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.

Slow decision making process

– As mentioned earlier in the report, Intergen Quezon 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. Intergen Quezon 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.

Low market penetration in new markets

– Outside its home market of Intergen Quezon, firm in the HBR case study InterGen and the Quezon Power Project: Building Infrastructure in Emerging Markets needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.

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 Intergen Quezon supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - InterGen and the Quezon Power Project: Building Infrastructure in Emerging Markets, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Intergen Quezon vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.

Capital Spending Reduction

– Even during the low interest decade, Intergen Quezon 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.

Skills based hiring

– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Intergen Quezon 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.

Workers concerns about automation

– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Intergen Quezon 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.

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Opportunities InterGen and the Quezon Power Project: Building Infrastructure in Emerging Markets | 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 InterGen and the Quezon Power Project: Building Infrastructure in Emerging Markets 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. Intergen Quezon can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.

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 Intergen Quezon 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.

Building a culture of innovation

– managers at Intergen Quezon 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 Global Business segment.

Increase in government spending

– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Intergen Quezon can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Intergen Quezon operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Global Business sector.

Low interest rates

– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Intergen Quezon 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.

Leveraging digital technologies

– Intergen Quezon 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

– Intergen Quezon 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.

Redefining models of collaboration and team work

– As explained in the weaknesses section, Intergen Quezon is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. InterGen and the Quezon Power Project: Building Infrastructure in Emerging Markets 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, Intergen Quezon 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, InterGen and the Quezon Power Project: Building Infrastructure in Emerging Markets, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.

Reforming the budgeting process

- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Intergen Quezon can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.

Manufacturing automation

– Intergen Quezon 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.

Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities

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

Learning at scale

– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Intergen Quezon 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.

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Threats InterGen and the Quezon Power Project: Building Infrastructure in Emerging Markets External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The threats mentioned in the HBR case study InterGen and the Quezon Power Project: Building Infrastructure in Emerging Markets are -

Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins

– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Intergen Quezon 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 InterGen and the Quezon Power Project: Building Infrastructure in Emerging Markets .

Trade war between China and United States

– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Intergen Quezon 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.

Stagnating economy with rate increase

– Intergen Quezon 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.

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.

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. Intergen Quezon can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.

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.

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. Intergen Quezon 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.

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. Intergen Quezon 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 Intergen Quezon in the Global Business sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.

Shortening product life cycle

– it is one of the major threat that Intergen Quezon is facing in Global Business sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.

High dependence on third party suppliers

– Intergen Quezon high dependence on third party suppliers can disrupt its processes and delivery mechanism. For example -the current troubles of car makers because of chip shortage is because the chip companies started producing chips for electronic companies rather than car manufacturers.

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 Intergen Quezon business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.

Learning curve for new practices

– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study InterGen and the Quezon Power Project: Building Infrastructure in Emerging Markets, Intergen Quezon 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 .

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Weighted SWOT Analysis of InterGen and the Quezon Power Project: Building Infrastructure in Emerging Markets 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 InterGen and the Quezon Power Project: Building Infrastructure in Emerging Markets 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 InterGen and the Quezon Power Project: Building Infrastructure in Emerging Markets 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 InterGen and the Quezon Power Project: Building Infrastructure in Emerging Markets 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 InterGen and the Quezon Power Project: Building Infrastructure in Emerging Markets 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 Intergen Quezon needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.

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