Distribution Management at World Peace Industrial Group SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Global Business
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Distribution Management at World Peace Industrial Group
In November 2005, World Peace Industrial Group was at an important milestone as it prepared to join two other major electronics components distributors to form the WPG Holdings and become a dominant player in its industry. As its chief executive officer prepared for the merger, it became apparent that the company's financial position was threatened by inventory management and forecasting problems. Although sales and market share were increasing, profit margins were dropping as a result of increasing inventory costs. The chief executive officer asked the director of the Business Effective Promotion Group to resolve the worsening problem. How would the director identify the sources of weakness and recommend a plan of action as soon as possible?
Swot Analysis of "Distribution Management at World Peace Industrial Group" written by Chris J. Piper, Shwu-Min Horng includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Peace Prepared facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Distribution Management at World Peace Industrial Group case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Managing organizations, Operations management and Global Business.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Distribution Management at World Peace Industrial Group casestudy better are - – increasing commodity prices, increasing transportation and logistics costs, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google,
increasing energy prices, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Distribution Management at World Peace Industrial Group
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Distribution Management at World Peace Industrial Group case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Peace Prepared, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Peace Prepared 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 Distribution Management at World Peace Industrial Group can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Distribution Management at World Peace Industrial Group case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Peace Prepared
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 Peace Prepared
Strengths Distribution Management at World Peace Industrial Group | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Peace Prepared in Distribution Management at World Peace Industrial Group Harvard Business Review case study are -
Digital Transformation in Global Business segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Peace Prepared digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Peace Prepared has successfully integrated the four key components of digital transformation – digital integration in processes, digital integration in marketing and customer relationship management, digital integration into the value chain, and using technology to explore new products and market opportunities.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Distribution Management at World Peace Industrial Group 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Peace Prepared 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Peace Prepared has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Peace Prepared 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.
Ability to lead change in Global Business field
– Peace Prepared 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 Peace Prepared in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Peace Prepared 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 Distribution Management at World Peace Industrial Group HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Peace Prepared in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Training and development
– Peace Prepared has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Distribution Management at World Peace Industrial Group 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
– Peace Prepared is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Distribution Management at World Peace Industrial Group are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Organizational Resilience of Peace Prepared
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Peace Prepared 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
– Distribution Management at World Peace Industrial Group firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Peace Prepared to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Global Business industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Peace Prepared to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Peace Prepared 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 Distribution Management at World Peace Industrial Group - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Weaknesses Distribution Management at World Peace Industrial Group | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Distribution Management at World Peace Industrial Group are -
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Peace Prepared 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. Peace Prepared 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Distribution Management at World Peace Industrial Group, it seems that the employees of Peace Prepared 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Peace Prepared has not been able to do capital spending to the tune of the competition. This has resulted into fewer innovations and company facing stiff competition from both existing competitors and new entrants who are disrupting the industry using digital technology.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Peace Prepared has created an environment where the organization is dominated by functional specialists rather than management generalist. This has resulted into product oriented approach rather than marketing oriented approach or consumers oriented approach.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Distribution Management at World Peace Industrial Group 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 Peace Prepared has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Peace Prepared, firm in the HBR case study Distribution Management at World Peace Industrial Group needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Peace Prepared is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Global Business segment. Peace Prepared needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Peace Prepared to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Distribution Management at World Peace Industrial Group HBR case study mentions - Peace Prepared 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Distribution Management at World Peace Industrial Group 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 Distribution Management at World Peace Industrial Group can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Peace Prepared is planning to shift buying processes online.
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 Peace Prepared supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Distribution Management at World Peace Industrial Group, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Peace Prepared vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Peace Prepared 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.
Opportunities Distribution Management at World Peace Industrial Group | 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 Distribution Management at World Peace Industrial Group are -
Loyalty marketing
– Peace Prepared 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Peace Prepared 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Peace Prepared 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Peace Prepared 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.
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. Peace Prepared 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. Peace Prepared 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Peace Prepared has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Peace Prepared to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Distribution Management at World Peace Industrial Group case study. Peace Prepared can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, 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, Peace Prepared can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Peace Prepared operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Global Business sector.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Peace Prepared 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 Peace Prepared to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
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 Peace Prepared in the consumer business. Now Peace Prepared can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Buying journey improvements
– Peace Prepared can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Distribution Management at World Peace Industrial Group 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.
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 Peace Prepared 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Peace Prepared 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, Distribution Management at World Peace Industrial Group, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Peace Prepared 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 Distribution Management at World Peace Industrial Group - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Peace Prepared to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Threats Distribution Management at World Peace Industrial Group External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Distribution Management at World Peace Industrial Group 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. Peace Prepared 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Peace Prepared is facing in Global Business sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Regulatory challenges
– Peace Prepared 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.
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 Peace Prepared.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Peace Prepared has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Global Business industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Peace Prepared 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Peace Prepared 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 Distribution Management at World Peace Industrial Group .
Increasing wage structure of Peace Prepared
– 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 Peace Prepared.
Environmental challenges
– Peace Prepared 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. Peace Prepared 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.
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. Peace Prepared 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 Peace Prepared with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Distribution Management at World Peace Industrial Group, Peace Prepared 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 .
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Distribution Management at World Peace Industrial Group 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 Distribution Management at World Peace Industrial Group 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 Distribution Management at World Peace Industrial Group 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 Distribution Management at World Peace Industrial Group 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 Distribution Management at World Peace Industrial Group 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 Peace Prepared needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
