GreenWood Resources: A Global Sustainable Venture in the Making SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Global Business
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of GreenWood Resources: A Global Sustainable Venture in the Making
GreenWood Resources Inc. was founded in 1998 by Jeff Nuss, a bio-resources engineer. It was a Portland, Oregon, USA-based investment and asset management company with a worldwide focus on high-yield and fast-growing tree farms. In spite of its global vision, value proposition and pursuit of environmental stewardship and social responsibility, GreenWood had struggled for almost 10 years to obtain significant investment funds until 2007-2008. Through persistent effort, GreenWood built the key elements (people, resources and business networks) for a successful venture despite the serious early financial constraints. GreenWood entered and navigated the Chinese market, deciding to establish its China operation with only a fraction of the funds it needed. Jeff seized an opportunity to organize a US$175 million private equity fund through his connections with the timber investment community to acquire a large poplar plantation in Oregon. The expanded scale and personnel resulting from the acquisition enabled GreenWood to become a visible player in the tree plantation industry and facilitated its securing an additional commitment of US$200 million of capital for use in the Chinese market. Notwithstanding the availability of the capital and its cumulative knowledge of the Chinese market, the investment screening and negotiation process in China turned out to be complex due to the differences in business approaches and culturally embedded mindsets. In June 2010, Jeff and his team were weighing the pros and cons of two potential projects. They felt that GreenWood needed to proceed carefully to ensure its criteria of sustainable business (in terms of economic performance, social responsibility and environmental stewardship) were met in China but also realized the company should show some progress to its major investor in China, Oriental Timber Fund Limited. Jeff and his senior management team needed to decide whether they should recommend investing in one of the two projects.
Swot Analysis of "GreenWood Resources: A Global Sustainable Venture in the Making" written by Lei Li, Howard Feldman, Alan Eisner includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Greenwood Jeff facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in GreenWood Resources: A Global Sustainable Venture in the Making case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Social responsibility, Sustainability and Global Business.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the GreenWood Resources: A Global Sustainable Venture in the Making casestudy better are - – there is increasing trade war between United States & China, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, wage bills are increasing, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing transportation and logistics costs,
challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of GreenWood Resources: A Global Sustainable Venture in the Making
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in GreenWood Resources: A Global Sustainable Venture in the Making case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Greenwood Jeff, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Greenwood Jeff 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 GreenWood Resources: A Global Sustainable Venture in the Making can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in GreenWood Resources: A Global Sustainable Venture in the Making case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Greenwood Jeff
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 Greenwood Jeff
Strengths GreenWood Resources: A Global Sustainable Venture in the Making | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Greenwood Jeff in GreenWood Resources: A Global Sustainable Venture in the Making Harvard Business Review case study are -
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Greenwood Jeff has built up over years in its products and services combo offer has resulted in high retention of customers, lower marketing costs, and greater ability of the firm to focus on its customers.
Organizational Resilience of Greenwood Jeff
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Greenwood Jeff does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Greenwood Jeff 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 GreenWood Resources: A Global Sustainable Venture in the Making - 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 Greenwood Jeff 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.
Ability to lead change in Global Business field
– Greenwood Jeff 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 Greenwood Jeff in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Training and development
– Greenwood Jeff has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in GreenWood Resources: A Global Sustainable Venture in the Making 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Greenwood Jeff 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 GreenWood Resources: A Global Sustainable Venture in the Making HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Digital Transformation in Global Business segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Greenwood Jeff digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Greenwood Jeff 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.
Analytics focus
– Greenwood Jeff 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 Lei Li, Howard Feldman, Alan Eisner 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Global Business industry
– GreenWood Resources: A Global Sustainable Venture in the Making firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Greenwood Jeff to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Global Business industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Greenwood Jeff to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Greenwood Jeff in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Greenwood Jeff has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Greenwood Jeff 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.
Weaknesses GreenWood Resources: A Global Sustainable Venture in the Making | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of GreenWood Resources: A Global Sustainable Venture in the Making are -
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 Greenwood Jeff supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - GreenWood Resources: A Global Sustainable Venture in the Making, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Greenwood Jeff vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Greenwood Jeff 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As GreenWood Resources: A Global Sustainable Venture in the Making HBR case study mentions - Greenwood Jeff 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Greenwood Jeff 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study GreenWood Resources: A Global Sustainable Venture in the Making, 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study GreenWood Resources: A Global Sustainable Venture in the Making 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 GreenWood Resources: A Global Sustainable Venture in the Making can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Greenwood Jeff is planning to shift buying processes online.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Lei Li, Howard Feldman, Alan Eisner suggests that, Greenwood Jeff 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study GreenWood Resources: A Global Sustainable Venture in the Making, it seems that the employees of Greenwood Jeff 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the GreenWood Resources: A Global Sustainable Venture in the Making 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 Greenwood Jeff has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Greenwood Jeff 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Greenwood Jeff 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.
Opportunities GreenWood Resources: A Global Sustainable Venture in the Making | 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 GreenWood Resources: A Global Sustainable Venture in the Making are -
Identify volunteer opportunities
– Covid-19 has impacted working population in two ways – it has led to people soul searching about their professional choices, resulting in mass resignation. Secondly it has encouraged people to do things that they are passionate about. This has opened opportunities for businesses to build volunteer oriented socially driven projects. Greenwood Jeff can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Greenwood Jeff 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Greenwood Jeff can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Greenwood Jeff operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Global Business sector.
Loyalty marketing
– Greenwood Jeff 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Greenwood Jeff to increase its market reach. Greenwood Jeff 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Greenwood Jeff is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. GreenWood Resources: A Global Sustainable Venture in the Making 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Greenwood Jeff 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 Greenwood Jeff to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Greenwood Jeff has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Greenwood Jeff to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the GreenWood Resources: A Global Sustainable Venture in the Making case study. Greenwood Jeff can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Developing new processes and practices
– Greenwood Jeff 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Greenwood Jeff 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 GreenWood Resources: A Global Sustainable Venture in the Making - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Greenwood Jeff to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Greenwood Jeff 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Greenwood Jeff 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, GreenWood Resources: A Global Sustainable Venture in the Making, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Greenwood Jeff 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.
Threats GreenWood Resources: A Global Sustainable Venture in the Making External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study GreenWood Resources: A Global Sustainable Venture in the Making are -
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Greenwood Jeff 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.
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. Greenwood Jeff needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Global Business industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Environmental challenges
– Greenwood Jeff 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. Greenwood Jeff can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Global Business industry.
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. Greenwood Jeff 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study GreenWood Resources: A Global Sustainable Venture in the Making, Greenwood Jeff 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 .
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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Greenwood Jeff is facing in Global Business sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Greenwood Jeff 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
– Greenwood Jeff has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Global Business industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Greenwood Jeff 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Greenwood Jeff with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Greenwood Jeff 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 GreenWood Resources: A Global Sustainable Venture in the Making .
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.
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 Greenwood Jeff in the Global Business sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of GreenWood Resources: A Global Sustainable Venture in the Making 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 GreenWood Resources: A Global Sustainable Venture in the Making 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 GreenWood Resources: A Global Sustainable Venture in the Making 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 GreenWood Resources: A Global Sustainable Venture in the Making 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 GreenWood Resources: A Global Sustainable Venture in the Making 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 Greenwood Jeff needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
