Monsanto: Leadership in a New Environment SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Global Business
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Monsanto: Leadership in a New Environment
To maximize their effectiveness, color cases should be printed in color.Monsanto is the biotechnology leader in agriculture. How does it use its leadership in Round Up to fund long-term research and development in biotechnology that is acceptable to the priority system of consumers in different parts of the world? Includes color exhibits. This case is available in only hard copy format (HBP does not have digital distribution rights to the content). As a result, a digital Educator Copy of the case is not available through this web site.
Swot Analysis of "Monsanto: Leadership in a New Environment" written by Ray A. Goldberg includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Biotechnology Color.monsanto facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Monsanto: Leadership in a New Environment case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Corporate governance, Customers, Disruptive innovation, Entrepreneurship, Government, Internet, Leadership, Research & development and Global Business.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Monsanto: Leadership in a New Environment casestudy better are - – increasing commodity prices, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google,
wage bills are increasing, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Monsanto: Leadership in a New Environment
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Monsanto: Leadership in a New Environment case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Biotechnology Color.monsanto, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Biotechnology Color.monsanto 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 Monsanto: Leadership in a New Environment can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Monsanto: Leadership in a New Environment case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Biotechnology Color.monsanto
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 Biotechnology Color.monsanto
Strengths Monsanto: Leadership in a New Environment | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Biotechnology Color.monsanto in Monsanto: Leadership in a New Environment Harvard Business Review case study are -
Innovation driven organization
– Biotechnology Color.monsanto is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Monsanto: Leadership in a New Environment Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Biotechnology Color.monsanto has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Biotechnology Color.monsanto 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.
Training and development
– Biotechnology Color.monsanto has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Monsanto: Leadership in a New Environment 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Biotechnology Color.monsanto 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 Monsanto: Leadership in a New Environment - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Biotechnology Color.monsanto 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.
Learning organization
- Biotechnology Color.monsanto 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 Biotechnology Color.monsanto is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Monsanto: Leadership in a New Environment Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Biotechnology Color.monsanto in the sector have low bargaining power. Monsanto: Leadership in a New Environment has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Biotechnology Color.monsanto to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Monsanto: Leadership in a New Environment 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.
Ability to lead change in Global Business field
– Biotechnology Color.monsanto 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 Biotechnology Color.monsanto in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Biotechnology Color.monsanto in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
High brand equity
– Biotechnology Color.monsanto has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Biotechnology Color.monsanto to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Organizational Resilience of Biotechnology Color.monsanto
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Biotechnology Color.monsanto does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Weaknesses Monsanto: Leadership in a New Environment | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Monsanto: Leadership in a New Environment are -
Need for greater diversity
– Biotechnology Color.monsanto has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Monsanto: Leadership in a New Environment, 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 dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Monsanto: Leadership in a New Environment 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 Biotechnology Color.monsanto has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Biotechnology Color.monsanto is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Global Business segment. Biotechnology Color.monsanto needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Biotechnology Color.monsanto to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Monsanto: Leadership in a New Environment 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 Biotechnology Color.monsanto 's lucrative customers.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Monsanto: Leadership in a New Environment HBR case study mentions - Biotechnology Color.monsanto 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Biotechnology Color.monsanto 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. Biotechnology Color.monsanto 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Biotechnology Color.monsanto 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Biotechnology Color.monsanto 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Biotechnology Color.monsanto 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 - Monsanto: Leadership in a New Environment should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Monsanto: Leadership in a New Environment, it seems that the employees of Biotechnology Color.monsanto 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.
Opportunities Monsanto: Leadership in a New Environment | 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 Monsanto: Leadership in a New Environment are -
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. Biotechnology Color.monsanto 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. Biotechnology Color.monsanto 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Biotechnology Color.monsanto 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 Monsanto: Leadership in a New Environment - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Biotechnology Color.monsanto to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Biotechnology Color.monsanto can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Biotechnology Color.monsanto operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Global Business sector.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Biotechnology Color.monsanto to increase its market reach. Biotechnology Color.monsanto 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.
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 Biotechnology Color.monsanto 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Biotechnology Color.monsanto 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Biotechnology Color.monsanto 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Biotechnology Color.monsanto can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Biotechnology Color.monsanto 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, Biotechnology Color.monsanto is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Monsanto: Leadership in a New Environment 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Biotechnology Color.monsanto 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, Monsanto: Leadership in a New Environment, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Biotechnology Color.monsanto can still utilize the low interest rates to borrow money for capital investment. Secondly it can also use the increase of government spending in infrastructure projects to get new business.
Manufacturing automation
– Biotechnology Color.monsanto 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.
Threats Monsanto: Leadership in a New Environment External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Monsanto: Leadership in a New Environment are -
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Biotechnology Color.monsanto 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Biotechnology Color.monsanto has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Global Business industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Biotechnology Color.monsanto 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.
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. Biotechnology Color.monsanto 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.
Increasing wage structure of Biotechnology Color.monsanto
– 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 Biotechnology Color.monsanto.
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 Biotechnology Color.monsanto.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Biotechnology Color.monsanto 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 Monsanto: Leadership in a New Environment .
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Biotechnology Color.monsanto is facing in Global Business sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Environmental challenges
– Biotechnology Color.monsanto 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. Biotechnology Color.monsanto can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Global Business industry.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Biotechnology Color.monsanto with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Biotechnology Color.monsanto 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 Biotechnology Color.monsanto business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Monsanto: Leadership in a New Environment, Biotechnology Color.monsanto 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 .
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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Monsanto: Leadership in a New Environment 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 Monsanto: Leadership in a New Environment 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 Monsanto: Leadership in a New Environment 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 Monsanto: Leadership in a New Environment 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 Monsanto: Leadership in a New Environment 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 Biotechnology Color.monsanto needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.