Champion International Corp.: Timber, Trade, and the Northern Spotted Owl SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Global Business
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Champion International Corp.: Timber, Trade, and the Northern Spotted Owl
Champion's forest products division owns timberlands, sawmills, and plywood mills in the Pacific Northwest. The listing of the northern spotted owl as an endangered species, and restrictions on exports of logs from state-owned lands, have disrupted the stumpage, log and product markets in which Champion competes. Tag Edwards, executive V.P. for forest products, needs to decide how to respond to these regulatory changes, using economic data and political information.
Swot Analysis of "Champion International Corp.: Timber, Trade, and the Northern Spotted Owl" written by Forest Reinhardt includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Owl Spotted facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Champion International Corp.: Timber, Trade, and the Northern Spotted Owl case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Decision making, Economics, Government, Marketing, Risk management, Sustainability and Global Business.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Champion International Corp.: Timber, Trade, and the Northern Spotted Owl casestudy better are - – challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, wage bills are increasing, geopolitical disruptions, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs,
digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, technology disruption, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Champion International Corp.: Timber, Trade, and the Northern Spotted Owl
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Champion International Corp.: Timber, Trade, and the Northern Spotted Owl case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Owl Spotted, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Owl Spotted 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 Champion International Corp.: Timber, Trade, and the Northern Spotted Owl can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Champion International Corp.: Timber, Trade, and the Northern Spotted Owl case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Owl Spotted
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 Owl Spotted
Strengths Champion International Corp.: Timber, Trade, and the Northern Spotted Owl | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Owl Spotted in Champion International Corp.: Timber, Trade, and the Northern Spotted Owl Harvard Business Review case study are -
Successful track record of launching new products
– Owl Spotted has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Owl Spotted 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Owl Spotted 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 Champion International Corp.: Timber, Trade, and the Northern Spotted Owl - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Ability to lead change in Global Business field
– Owl Spotted 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 Owl Spotted in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Innovation driven organization
– Owl Spotted is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Champion International Corp.: Timber, Trade, and the Northern Spotted Owl Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Learning organization
- Owl Spotted 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 Owl Spotted is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Champion International Corp.: Timber, Trade, and the Northern Spotted Owl Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
High brand equity
– Owl Spotted has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Owl Spotted to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Owl Spotted 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 Champion International Corp.: Timber, Trade, and the Northern Spotted Owl HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Training and development
– Owl Spotted has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Champion International Corp.: Timber, Trade, and the Northern Spotted Owl 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Owl Spotted in the sector have low bargaining power. Champion International Corp.: Timber, Trade, and the Northern Spotted Owl has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Owl Spotted to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Organizational Resilience of Owl Spotted
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Owl Spotted does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Diverse revenue streams
– Owl Spotted is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Champion International Corp.: Timber, Trade, and the Northern Spotted Owl case study a diverse revenue stream that has helped it to survive disruptions such as global pandemic in Covid-19, financial disruption of 2008, and supply chain disruption of 2021.
Analytics focus
– Owl Spotted 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 Forest Reinhardt 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.
Weaknesses Champion International Corp.: Timber, Trade, and the Northern Spotted Owl | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Champion International Corp.: Timber, Trade, and the Northern Spotted Owl are -
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Owl Spotted 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Champion International Corp.: Timber, Trade, and the Northern Spotted Owl HBR case study mentions - Owl Spotted 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Owl Spotted 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 decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Owl Spotted 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. Owl Spotted 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Owl Spotted 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Owl Spotted 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 - Champion International Corp.: Timber, Trade, and the Northern Spotted Owl should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Lack of clear differentiation of Owl Spotted products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Owl Spotted needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Champion International Corp.: Timber, Trade, and the Northern Spotted Owl, 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Owl Spotted 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Champion International Corp.: Timber, Trade, and the Northern Spotted Owl, is just above the industry average. Owl Spotted needs to redesign the compensation structure and incentives to increase the revenue per employees. Some of the steps that it can take are – hiring more specialists on project basis, etc.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Owl Spotted, firm in the HBR case study Champion International Corp.: Timber, Trade, and the Northern Spotted Owl needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Opportunities Champion International Corp.: Timber, Trade, and the Northern Spotted Owl | 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 Champion International Corp.: Timber, Trade, and the Northern Spotted Owl are -
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 Owl Spotted 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Owl Spotted 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.
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. Owl Spotted can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Owl Spotted 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, Champion International Corp.: Timber, Trade, and the Northern Spotted Owl, 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
– Owl Spotted 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 Champion International Corp.: Timber, Trade, and the Northern Spotted Owl - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Owl Spotted to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
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. Owl Spotted 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. Owl Spotted 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Owl Spotted 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Owl Spotted 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Owl Spotted to increase its market reach. Owl Spotted 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 Owl Spotted 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 Owl Spotted to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Owl Spotted 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Owl Spotted 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, Owl Spotted can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Owl Spotted operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Global Business sector.
Threats Champion International Corp.: Timber, Trade, and the Northern Spotted Owl External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Champion International Corp.: Timber, Trade, and the Northern Spotted Owl are -
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 Owl Spotted business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Owl Spotted 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.
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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Owl Spotted 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.
Environmental challenges
– Owl Spotted 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. Owl Spotted can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Global Business industry.
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 Owl Spotted.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Owl Spotted is facing in Global Business sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Owl Spotted has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Global Business industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Owl Spotted 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.
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.
Increasing wage structure of Owl Spotted
– 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 Owl Spotted.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Owl Spotted 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 Owl Spotted 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Champion International Corp.: Timber, Trade, and the Northern Spotted Owl, Owl Spotted 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 Champion International Corp.: Timber, Trade, and the Northern Spotted Owl 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 Champion International Corp.: Timber, Trade, and the Northern Spotted Owl 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 Champion International Corp.: Timber, Trade, and the Northern Spotted Owl 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 Champion International Corp.: Timber, Trade, and the Northern Spotted Owl 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 Champion International Corp.: Timber, Trade, and the Northern Spotted Owl 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 Owl Spotted needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
