Case Study Description of Allied-Signal: Managing the Hazardous Waste Liability Risk
Allied-Signal, Inc., one of the world's oldest chemical companies and today a diversified conglomerate, is liable for clean-up costs of old hazardous waste sites. These costs are substantial: reserves grew to nearly $500 million in 1991. Attempting to avoid further set-asides, and anticipating U.S.-style liability laws in Europe, environmental managers undertake a review of the company's three-part environmental control policy. With extensive programs for disposal-site inspection, auditing for compliance, and hazardous waste reduction, the managers try to optimize costs and liabilities by balancing waste disposal and reduction. The case recounts the formation of the control policy in response to legislation such as RCTA, Superfund, and the Toxics Release Inventory. Examines in detail the implementation of the three hazardous waste programs, analyzing the experiences of two plants. Exhibits include internal control documentation.
Swot Analysis of "Allied-Signal: Managing the Hazardous Waste Liability Risk" written by Richard H.K. Vietor, Edward Prewitt includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Hazardous Waste facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Allied-Signal: Managing the Hazardous Waste Liability Risk case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Sustainability and Global Business.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Allied-Signal: Managing the Hazardous Waste Liability Risk casestudy better are - – increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, technology disruption, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing transportation and logistics costs, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation,
customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Allied-Signal: Managing the Hazardous Waste Liability Risk
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Allied-Signal: Managing the Hazardous Waste Liability Risk case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Hazardous Waste, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Hazardous Waste 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 Allied-Signal: Managing the Hazardous Waste Liability Risk can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Allied-Signal: Managing the Hazardous Waste Liability Risk case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Hazardous Waste
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 Hazardous Waste
Strengths Allied-Signal: Managing the Hazardous Waste Liability Risk | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Hazardous Waste in Allied-Signal: Managing the Hazardous Waste Liability Risk Harvard Business Review case study are -
Analytics focus
– Hazardous Waste 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, Edward Prewitt 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 Allied-Signal: Managing the Hazardous Waste Liability Risk 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
– Hazardous Waste is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Allied-Signal: Managing the Hazardous Waste Liability Risk Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Hazardous Waste 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 Allied-Signal: Managing the Hazardous Waste Liability Risk - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Ability to lead change in Global Business field
– Hazardous Waste 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 Hazardous Waste in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Hazardous Waste 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.
Training and development
– Hazardous Waste has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Allied-Signal: Managing the Hazardous Waste Liability Risk 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Hazardous Waste is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Learning organization
- Hazardous Waste 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 Hazardous Waste is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Allied-Signal: Managing the Hazardous Waste Liability Risk Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Organizational Resilience of Hazardous Waste
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Hazardous Waste does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Hazardous Waste 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
– Hazardous Waste 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 Allied-Signal: Managing the Hazardous Waste Liability Risk HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Weaknesses Allied-Signal: Managing the Hazardous Waste Liability Risk | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Allied-Signal: Managing the Hazardous Waste Liability Risk are -
Lack of clear differentiation of Hazardous Waste products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Hazardous Waste needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Hazardous Waste is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Global Business segment. Hazardous Waste needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Hazardous Waste to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Allied-Signal: Managing the Hazardous Waste Liability Risk 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 Allied-Signal: Managing the Hazardous Waste Liability Risk can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Hazardous Waste is planning to shift buying processes online.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Hazardous Waste is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Allied-Signal: Managing the Hazardous Waste Liability Risk can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Allied-Signal: Managing the Hazardous Waste Liability Risk, 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Allied-Signal: Managing the Hazardous Waste Liability Risk, in the dynamic environment Hazardous Waste has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Hazardous Waste has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Hazardous Waste 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 - Allied-Signal: Managing the Hazardous Waste Liability Risk should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
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 Hazardous Waste supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Allied-Signal: Managing the Hazardous Waste Liability Risk, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Hazardous Waste vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Hazardous Waste 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Hazardous Waste, firm in the HBR case study Allied-Signal: Managing the Hazardous Waste Liability Risk needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Allied-Signal: Managing the Hazardous Waste Liability Risk 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 Hazardous Waste has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Opportunities Allied-Signal: Managing the Hazardous Waste Liability Risk | 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 Allied-Signal: Managing the Hazardous Waste Liability Risk are -
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Hazardous Waste can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Hazardous Waste operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Global Business sector.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Hazardous Waste 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Hazardous Waste 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Hazardous Waste 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 Allied-Signal: Managing the Hazardous Waste Liability Risk - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Hazardous Waste to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Buying journey improvements
– Hazardous Waste can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Allied-Signal: Managing the Hazardous Waste Liability Risk 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.
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. Hazardous Waste can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
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 Hazardous Waste in the consumer business. Now Hazardous Waste can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
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. Hazardous Waste can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Developing new processes and practices
– Hazardous Waste 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Hazardous Waste 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 Hazardous Waste to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Hazardous Waste 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
– Hazardous Waste 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Hazardous Waste is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Allied-Signal: Managing the Hazardous Waste Liability Risk 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.
Threats Allied-Signal: Managing the Hazardous Waste Liability Risk External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Allied-Signal: Managing the Hazardous Waste Liability Risk are -
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. Hazardous Waste 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Hazardous Waste demand
– There is a high probability of declining consumer confidence, given – high inflammation rate, rise of gig economy, lower job stability, increasing cost of living, higher interest rates, and aging demography. All the factors contribute to people saving higher rate of their income, resulting in lower consumer demand in the industry and other sectors.
Regulatory challenges
– Hazardous Waste 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Hazardous Waste has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Global Business industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Hazardous Waste 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Hazardous Waste 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Allied-Signal: Managing the Hazardous Waste Liability Risk, Hazardous Waste 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 .
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Hazardous Waste 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.
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 Hazardous Waste business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Hazardous Waste with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Environmental challenges
– Hazardous Waste 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. Hazardous Waste can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Global Business industry.
Increasing wage structure of Hazardous Waste
– 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 Hazardous Waste.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Hazardous Waste 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.
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 Hazardous Waste in the Global Business sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Allied-Signal: Managing the Hazardous Waste Liability Risk 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 Allied-Signal: Managing the Hazardous Waste Liability Risk 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 Allied-Signal: Managing the Hazardous Waste Liability Risk 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 Allied-Signal: Managing the Hazardous Waste Liability Risk 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 Allied-Signal: Managing the Hazardous Waste Liability Risk 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 Hazardous Waste needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.