China (C): Energy and the Environment SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Global Business
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of China (C): Energy and the Environment
Describes energy and environmental policy in China during the period 1980-1993. China has implemented ambitious plans for electrification and the substitution of fossil fuels (mostly coal) for biomass. The environmental consequences of these changes, at the local and regional levels, have been pronounced; the long-term global consequences of Chinese energy development are also thought to be significant. Chinese environmental policy has been aimed largely at mitigating the worst local and regional impacts. Raises several questions: the degree to which energy shortages or environmental problems will constrain China's future growth; the degree to which environmental quality is an important objective of Chinese policy; and the possible roles that Western governments and firms might play in developing and implementing sound energy strategies for China. Teaching Objective: To analyze the effects of governmental energy policies on local air pollution and on global atmospheric problems, to think about problems of environment and development, and to analyze the relationships between host governments and foreign firms in the energy sector.
Authors :: Richard H.K. Vietor, Fiona E.S. Murray, Celine Loo
Swot Analysis of "China (C): Energy and the Environment" written by Richard H.K. Vietor, Fiona E.S. Murray, Celine Loo includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Energy Environmental facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in China (C): Energy and the Environment case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Government, Sustainability and Global Business.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the China (C): Energy and the Environment casestudy better are - – talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing commodity prices, wage bills are increasing, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models,
competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of China (C): Energy and the Environment
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in China (C): Energy and the Environment case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Energy Environmental, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Energy Environmental 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 China (C): Energy and the Environment can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in China (C): Energy and the Environment case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Energy Environmental
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 Energy Environmental
Strengths China (C): Energy and the Environment | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Energy Environmental in China (C): Energy and the Environment Harvard Business Review case study are -
Successful track record of launching new products
– Energy Environmental has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Energy Environmental 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Energy Environmental 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 China (C): Energy and the Environment HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Energy Environmental 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
– Energy Environmental is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in China (C): Energy and the Environment 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the China (C): Energy and the Environment 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Energy Environmental is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in China (C): Energy and the Environment Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Analytics focus
– Energy Environmental 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 Richard H.K. Vietor, Fiona E.S. Murray, Celine Loo 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.
Organizational Resilience of Energy Environmental
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Energy Environmental does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Global Business industry
– China (C): Energy and the Environment firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Energy Environmental to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Global Business industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Energy Environmental to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Training and development
– Energy Environmental has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in China (C): Energy and the Environment 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Energy Environmental is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the China (C): Energy and the Environment are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Energy Environmental in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Weaknesses China (C): Energy and the Environment | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of China (C): Energy and the Environment are -
Need for greater diversity
– Energy Environmental 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Energy Environmental is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Global Business segment. Energy Environmental needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Energy Environmental to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study China (C): Energy and the Environment, is just above the industry average. Energy Environmental 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the China (C): Energy and the Environment 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 Energy Environmental has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Energy Environmental 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study China (C): Energy and the Environment, it seems that the employees of Energy Environmental 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Energy Environmental 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 - China (C): Energy and the Environment should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study China (C): Energy and the Environment that the firm needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department in the case China (C): Energy and the Environment can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Energy Environmental is planning to shift buying processes online.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Energy Environmental 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Energy Environmental 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. Energy Environmental 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.
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 Energy Environmental supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - China (C): Energy and the Environment, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Energy Environmental vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Opportunities China (C): Energy and the Environment | 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 China (C): Energy and the Environment are -
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Energy Environmental has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Energy Environmental to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the China (C): Energy and the Environment case study. Energy Environmental can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
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. Energy Environmental 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. Energy Environmental 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.
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. Energy Environmental can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Energy Environmental is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. China (C): Energy and the Environment 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Energy Environmental 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 Energy Environmental to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Buying journey improvements
– Energy Environmental can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. China (C): Energy and the Environment 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Energy Environmental 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Energy Environmental 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
– Energy Environmental 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Energy Environmental has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in the sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled, as illustrated in the Harvard case study China (C): Energy and the Environment - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Energy Environmental to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
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 Energy Environmental in the consumer business. Now Energy Environmental can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Energy Environmental 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, China (C): Energy and the Environment, 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. Energy Environmental can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Threats China (C): Energy and the Environment External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study China (C): Energy and the Environment are -
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Energy Environmental with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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 Energy Environmental 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 Energy Environmental 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 China (C): Energy and the Environment, Energy Environmental 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 .
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Energy Environmental 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.
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. Energy Environmental 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 wage structure of Energy Environmental
– 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 Energy Environmental.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Energy Environmental is facing in Global Business sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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.
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 Energy Environmental.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Energy Environmental 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 China (C): Energy and the Environment .
Environmental challenges
– Energy Environmental 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. Energy Environmental can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Global Business 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of China (C): Energy and the Environment 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 China (C): Energy and the Environment 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 China (C): Energy and the Environment 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 China (C): Energy and the Environment 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 China (C): Energy and the Environment 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 Energy Environmental needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.