Breaking Wood: A Case for Commercial Tree Cloning SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Global Business
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Breaking Wood: A Case for Commercial Tree Cloning
Technological and scientific innovation in recent years has opened many new lines of research and development in the field of cloning. Developments in agriculture and forestry have brought new approaches and methods in crop and forest production, and many more are predicted to emerge in the coming decade. This case looks specifically at developments in tree cloning, looking particularly at the commercial potential of such innovation and the issues and challenges the industry might expect to encounter going forward.
Swot Analysis of "Breaking Wood: A Case for Commercial Tree Cloning" written by Philip Parker, Gabriel Salazar includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Cloning Tree facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Breaking Wood: A Case for Commercial Tree Cloning case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Global Business.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Breaking Wood: A Case for Commercial Tree Cloning casestudy better are - – increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing energy prices, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, geopolitical disruptions,
banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing commodity prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Breaking Wood: A Case for Commercial Tree Cloning
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Breaking Wood: A Case for Commercial Tree Cloning case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Cloning Tree, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Cloning Tree 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 Breaking Wood: A Case for Commercial Tree Cloning can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Breaking Wood: A Case for Commercial Tree Cloning case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Cloning Tree
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 Cloning Tree
Strengths Breaking Wood: A Case for Commercial Tree Cloning | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Cloning Tree in Breaking Wood: A Case for Commercial Tree Cloning Harvard Business Review case study are -
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Global Business industry
– Breaking Wood: A Case for Commercial Tree Cloning firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Cloning Tree to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Global Business industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Cloning Tree to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Cloning Tree has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Cloning Tree has effective processes in place that helps in exploring new product needs, doing quick pilot testing, and then launching the products quickly using its extensive distribution network.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Cloning Tree 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 Breaking Wood: A Case for Commercial Tree Cloning HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Cloning Tree in the sector have low bargaining power. Breaking Wood: A Case for Commercial Tree Cloning has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Cloning Tree to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Digital Transformation in Global Business segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Cloning Tree digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Cloning Tree 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.
Learning organization
- Cloning Tree 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 Cloning Tree is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Breaking Wood: A Case for Commercial Tree Cloning Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Cloning Tree 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.
High brand equity
– Cloning Tree has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Cloning Tree to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Innovation driven organization
– Cloning Tree is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Breaking Wood: A Case for Commercial Tree Cloning Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Strong track record of project management
– Cloning Tree is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Training and development
– Cloning Tree has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Breaking Wood: A Case for Commercial Tree Cloning 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 lead change in Global Business field
– Cloning Tree 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 Cloning Tree in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Weaknesses Breaking Wood: A Case for Commercial Tree Cloning | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Breaking Wood: A Case for Commercial Tree Cloning are -
Products dominated business model
– Even though Cloning Tree 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 - Breaking Wood: A Case for Commercial Tree Cloning should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Cloning Tree 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Breaking Wood: A Case for Commercial Tree Cloning HBR case study mentions - Cloning Tree 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Cloning Tree 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Cloning Tree 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.
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 Cloning Tree supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Breaking Wood: A Case for Commercial Tree Cloning, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Cloning Tree vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Cloning Tree 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. Cloning Tree even though has strong showing on digital transformation primary two stages, it has struggled to capitalize the power of digital transformation in marketing efforts and new venture efforts.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Breaking Wood: A Case for Commercial Tree Cloning 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 Cloning Tree 's lucrative customers.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Breaking Wood: A Case for Commercial Tree Cloning, 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Cloning Tree has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Cloning Tree, firm in the HBR case study Breaking Wood: A Case for Commercial Tree Cloning needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Opportunities Breaking Wood: A Case for Commercial Tree Cloning | 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 Breaking Wood: A Case for Commercial Tree Cloning are -
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Cloning Tree to increase its market reach. Cloning Tree 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Cloning Tree 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 Cloning Tree to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Cloning Tree 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.
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 Cloning Tree in the consumer business. Now Cloning Tree can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Cloning Tree 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 Breaking Wood: A Case for Commercial Tree Cloning - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Cloning Tree 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 Cloning Tree 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Cloning Tree can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Cloning Tree operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Global Business sector.
Buying journey improvements
– Cloning Tree can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Breaking Wood: A Case for Commercial Tree Cloning 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Cloning Tree 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, Breaking Wood: A Case for Commercial Tree Cloning, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Developing new processes and practices
– Cloning Tree 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. Cloning Tree 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. Cloning Tree 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Cloning Tree 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, Cloning Tree is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Breaking Wood: A Case for Commercial Tree Cloning 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 Breaking Wood: A Case for Commercial Tree Cloning External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Breaking Wood: A Case for Commercial Tree Cloning are -
Consumer confidence and its impact on Cloning Tree 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.
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 Cloning Tree.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Cloning Tree 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.
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. Cloning Tree can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
High level of anxiety and lack of motivation
– the Great Resignation in United States is the sign of broader dissatisfaction among the workforce in United States. Cloning Tree needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Global Business industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Cloning Tree 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Cloning Tree with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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 Cloning Tree business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Cloning Tree has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Global Business industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Cloning Tree 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Cloning Tree 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.
Environmental challenges
– Cloning Tree 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. Cloning Tree can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Global Business industry.
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 Cloning Tree in the Global Business sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Cloning Tree 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Breaking Wood: A Case for Commercial Tree Cloning 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 Breaking Wood: A Case for Commercial Tree Cloning 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 Breaking Wood: A Case for Commercial Tree Cloning 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 Breaking Wood: A Case for Commercial Tree Cloning 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 Breaking Wood: A Case for Commercial Tree Cloning 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 Cloning Tree needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.