Toivonen Paper in the U.S.: Human Resource Implications of Foreign Corporate Ownership SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
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Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Toivonen Paper in the U.S.: Human Resource Implications of Foreign Corporate Ownership
The growing globalization of many industries has led many U.S.-based companies to open facilities overseas. In the process, researchers have counseled U.S. companies to adopt many local customs and policies to increase their probability of success in these new locations. During this same time period, many foreign-owned companies have moved into the United States and either purchased existing facilities or started new operations. The purpose of this case is to investigate how a non-American company (Toivonen) has adapted to the U.S. environment. It assesses the role of the parent company culture in the day-to-day operations of the American subsidiary.
Swot Analysis of "Toivonen Paper in the U.S.: Human Resource Implications of Foreign Corporate Ownership" written by Jannifer David, Ahmed Maamoun includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Toivonen U.s facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Toivonen Paper in the U.S.: Human Resource Implications of Foreign Corporate Ownership case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Human resource management, Mergers & acquisitions and Global Business.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Toivonen Paper in the U.S.: Human Resource Implications of Foreign Corporate Ownership casestudy better are - – central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing commodity prices, technology disruption, increasing transportation and logistics costs, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic ,
there is backlash against globalization, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Toivonen Paper in the U.S.: Human Resource Implications of Foreign Corporate Ownership
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Toivonen Paper in the U.S.: Human Resource Implications of Foreign Corporate Ownership case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Toivonen U.s, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Toivonen U.s 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 Toivonen Paper in the U.S.: Human Resource Implications of Foreign Corporate Ownership can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Toivonen Paper in the U.S.: Human Resource Implications of Foreign Corporate Ownership case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Toivonen U.s
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 Toivonen U.s
Strengths Toivonen Paper in the U.S.: Human Resource Implications of Foreign Corporate Ownership | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Toivonen U.s in Toivonen Paper in the U.S.: Human Resource Implications of Foreign Corporate Ownership Harvard Business Review case study are -
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Toivonen U.s 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 Toivonen Paper in the U.S.: Human Resource Implications of Foreign Corporate Ownership - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Toivonen U.s in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Strong track record of project management
– Toivonen U.s is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Toivonen U.s 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Toivonen U.s 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 Toivonen Paper in the U.S.: Human Resource Implications of Foreign Corporate Ownership HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Toivonen U.s 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Toivonen U.s in the sector have low bargaining power. Toivonen Paper in the U.S.: Human Resource Implications of Foreign Corporate Ownership has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Toivonen U.s to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Analytics focus
– Toivonen U.s 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 Jannifer David, Ahmed Maamoun 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Toivonen Paper in the U.S.: Human Resource Implications of Foreign Corporate Ownership 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.
Learning organization
- Toivonen U.s 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 Toivonen U.s is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Toivonen Paper in the U.S.: Human Resource Implications of Foreign Corporate Ownership Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Organizational Resilience of Toivonen U.s
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Toivonen U.s does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Toivonen U.s is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Toivonen Paper in the U.S.: Human Resource Implications of Foreign Corporate Ownership are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Weaknesses Toivonen Paper in the U.S.: Human Resource Implications of Foreign Corporate Ownership | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Toivonen Paper in the U.S.: Human Resource Implications of Foreign Corporate Ownership are -
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Toivonen Paper in the U.S.: Human Resource Implications of Foreign Corporate Ownership HBR case study mentions - Toivonen U.s 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Toivonen U.s 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Toivonen Paper in the U.S.: Human Resource Implications of Foreign Corporate Ownership 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 Toivonen Paper in the U.S.: Human Resource Implications of Foreign Corporate Ownership can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Toivonen U.s is planning to shift buying processes online.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Toivonen Paper in the U.S.: Human Resource Implications of Foreign Corporate Ownership 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 Toivonen U.s has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Toivonen U.s 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. Toivonen U.s 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Toivonen U.s products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Toivonen U.s needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Toivonen Paper in the U.S.: Human Resource Implications of Foreign Corporate Ownership 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 Toivonen U.s 's lucrative customers.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Toivonen U.s is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Toivonen Paper in the U.S.: Human Resource Implications of Foreign Corporate Ownership can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Toivonen U.s 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.
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 Toivonen U.s supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Toivonen Paper in the U.S.: Human Resource Implications of Foreign Corporate Ownership, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Toivonen U.s vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Toivonen U.s, firm in the HBR case study Toivonen Paper in the U.S.: Human Resource Implications of Foreign Corporate Ownership needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Opportunities Toivonen Paper in the U.S.: Human Resource Implications of Foreign Corporate Ownership | 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 Toivonen Paper in the U.S.: Human Resource Implications of Foreign Corporate Ownership are -
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Toivonen U.s has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Toivonen U.s to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Toivonen Paper in the U.S.: Human Resource Implications of Foreign Corporate Ownership case study. Toivonen U.s can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Toivonen U.s 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 Toivonen U.s to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Toivonen U.s 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 Toivonen Paper in the U.S.: Human Resource Implications of Foreign Corporate Ownership - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Toivonen U.s to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
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. Toivonen U.s can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Buying journey improvements
– Toivonen U.s can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Toivonen Paper in the U.S.: Human Resource Implications of Foreign Corporate Ownership 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Toivonen U.s 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Toivonen U.s 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Toivonen U.s can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Loyalty marketing
– Toivonen U.s 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Toivonen U.s 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Toivonen U.s 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Toivonen U.s is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Toivonen Paper in the U.S.: Human Resource Implications of Foreign Corporate Ownership 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.
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. Toivonen U.s can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Threats Toivonen Paper in the U.S.: Human Resource Implications of Foreign Corporate Ownership External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Toivonen Paper in the U.S.: Human Resource Implications of Foreign Corporate Ownership are -
Environmental challenges
– Toivonen U.s 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. Toivonen U.s can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Global Business industry.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Toivonen U.s 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 acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Toivonen U.s has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Global Business industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Toivonen U.s 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Toivonen U.s 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.
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. Toivonen U.s can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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 Toivonen U.s in the Global Business sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Increasing wage structure of Toivonen U.s
– 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 Toivonen U.s.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Toivonen U.s 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Toivonen Paper in the U.S.: Human Resource Implications of Foreign Corporate Ownership, Toivonen U.s 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 .
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. Toivonen U.s 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.
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.
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 Toivonen U.s.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Toivonen U.s is facing in Global Business sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Toivonen Paper in the U.S.: Human Resource Implications of Foreign Corporate Ownership 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 Toivonen Paper in the U.S.: Human Resource Implications of Foreign Corporate Ownership 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 Toivonen Paper in the U.S.: Human Resource Implications of Foreign Corporate Ownership 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 Toivonen Paper in the U.S.: Human Resource Implications of Foreign Corporate Ownership 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 Toivonen Paper in the U.S.: Human Resource Implications of Foreign Corporate Ownership 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 Toivonen U.s needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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