Swot Analysis of "Unilever's New Global Strategy: Competing through Sustainability, Video Supplement" written by Christopher A. Bartlett includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that 916414 Unilever's facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Unilever's New Global Strategy: Competing through Sustainability, Video Supplement case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Global Business.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Unilever's New Global Strategy: Competing through Sustainability, Video Supplement casestudy better are - – geopolitical disruptions, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, technology disruption, there is backlash against globalization, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google,
increasing commodity prices, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Unilever's New Global Strategy: Competing through Sustainability, Video Supplement
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Unilever's New Global Strategy: Competing through Sustainability, Video Supplement case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the 916414 Unilever's, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which 916414 Unilever'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 Unilever's New Global Strategy: Competing through Sustainability, Video Supplement can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Unilever's New Global Strategy: Competing through Sustainability, Video Supplement case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of 916414 Unilever'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 916414 Unilever's
Strengths Unilever's New Global Strategy: Competing through Sustainability, Video Supplement | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of 916414 Unilever's in Unilever's New Global Strategy: Competing through Sustainability, Video Supplement Harvard Business Review case study are -
Training and development
– 916414 Unilever's has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Unilever's New Global Strategy: Competing through Sustainability, Video Supplement 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the 916414 Unilever'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.
Diverse revenue streams
– 916414 Unilever's is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Unilever's New Global Strategy: Competing through Sustainability, Video Supplement 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.
Organizational Resilience of 916414 Unilever's
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that 916414 Unilever's does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Analytics focus
– 916414 Unilever'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 Christopher A. Bartlett 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– 916414 Unilever'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 Unilever's New Global Strategy: Competing through Sustainability, Video Supplement 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
– 916414 Unilever's has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. 916414 Unilever's 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.
High brand equity
– 916414 Unilever's has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled 916414 Unilever's to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Ability to lead change in Global Business field
– 916414 Unilever's 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 916414 Unilever's in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of 916414 Unilever's in the sector have low bargaining power. Unilever's New Global Strategy: Competing through Sustainability, Video Supplement has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps 916414 Unilever's to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Global Business industry
– Unilever's New Global Strategy: Competing through Sustainability, Video Supplement firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled 916414 Unilever's to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Global Business industry. The sustainable margins have also helped 916414 Unilever's to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Learning organization
- 916414 Unilever'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 916414 Unilever's is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Unilever's New Global Strategy: Competing through Sustainability, Video Supplement Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Weaknesses Unilever's New Global Strategy: Competing through Sustainability, Video Supplement | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Unilever's New Global Strategy: Competing through Sustainability, Video Supplement are -
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, 916414 Unilever's is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Unilever's New Global Strategy: Competing through Sustainability, Video Supplement can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Unilever's New Global Strategy: Competing through Sustainability, Video Supplement 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 916414 Unilever's 's lucrative customers.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Unilever's New Global Strategy: Competing through Sustainability, Video Supplement 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 916414 Unilever's has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Products dominated business model
– Even though 916414 Unilever's 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 - Unilever's New Global Strategy: Competing through Sustainability, Video Supplement should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, 916414 Unilever's 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, 916414 Unilever's 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Unilever's New Global Strategy: Competing through Sustainability, Video Supplement, it seems that the employees of 916414 Unilever's don’t have comprehensive understanding of the firm’s strategy. This is reflected in number of promotional campaigns over the last few years that had mixed messaging and competing priorities. Some of the strategic activities and services promoted in the promotional campaigns were not consistent with the organization’s strategy.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Unilever's New Global Strategy: Competing through Sustainability, Video Supplement, in the dynamic environment 916414 Unilever's has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. 916414 Unilever's has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Unilever's New Global Strategy: Competing through Sustainability, Video Supplement, 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of 916414 Unilever's, firm in the HBR case study Unilever's New Global Strategy: Competing through Sustainability, Video Supplement needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Christopher A. Bartlett suggests that, 916414 Unilever's is facing high bargaining power of the channel partners. So far it has not able to streamline the operations to reduce the bargaining power of the value chain partners in the industry.
Opportunities Unilever's New Global Strategy: Competing through Sustainability, Video Supplement | 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 Unilever's New Global Strategy: Competing through Sustainability, Video Supplement are -
Developing new processes and practices
– 916414 Unilever's 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.
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 916414 Unilever's 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.
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. 916414 Unilever's 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 916414 Unilever's in the consumer business. Now 916414 Unilever's can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of 916414 Unilever's has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help 916414 Unilever's to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Unilever's New Global Strategy: Competing through Sustainability, Video Supplement case study. 916414 Unilever's can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Buying journey improvements
– 916414 Unilever's can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Unilever's New Global Strategy: Competing through Sustainability, Video Supplement 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for 916414 Unilever'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 916414 Unilever's to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help 916414 Unilever's to increase its market reach. 916414 Unilever's will be able to reach out to new customers. Secondly 5G will also provide technology framework to build new tools and products that can help more immersive consumer experience and faster consumer journey.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– 916414 Unilever'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 Unilever's New Global Strategy: Competing through Sustainability, Video Supplement - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help 916414 Unilever's to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for 916414 Unilever'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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for 916414 Unilever'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.
Loyalty marketing
– 916414 Unilever'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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, 916414 Unilever's can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that 916414 Unilever's operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Global Business sector.
Threats Unilever's New Global Strategy: Competing through Sustainability, Video Supplement External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Unilever's New Global Strategy: Competing through Sustainability, Video Supplement are -
Regulatory challenges
– 916414 Unilever's 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– 916414 Unilever'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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on 916414 Unilever's 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.
Increasing wage structure of 916414 Unilever'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 916414 Unilever's.
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. 916414 Unilever'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.
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. 916414 Unilever's can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents 916414 Unilever's with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Environmental challenges
– 916414 Unilever'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. 916414 Unilever's 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for 916414 Unilever'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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– 916414 Unilever's has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Global Business industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, 916414 Unilever'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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Unilever's New Global Strategy: Competing through Sustainability, Video Supplement, 916414 Unilever'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 .
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 916414 Unilever's business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Unilever's New Global Strategy: Competing through Sustainability, Video Supplement 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 Unilever's New Global Strategy: Competing through Sustainability, Video Supplement 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 Unilever's New Global Strategy: Competing through Sustainability, Video Supplement 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 Unilever's New Global Strategy: Competing through Sustainability, Video Supplement 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 Unilever's New Global Strategy: Competing through Sustainability, Video Supplement 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 916414 Unilever's needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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