An Overview of the Historical Context for Sustainable Business in the United States, 1960-2000 SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of An Overview of the Historical Context for Sustainable Business in the United States, 1960-2000
The concept of sustainable business is a powerful new perspective on creating value for multiple stakeholders. It links the previously conflicting interests of economic efficiency, social equity, and environmental protection. This technical note describes the historical background that has framed the transition from environmental battles to sustainable business and adds context to the discussion of sustainable business practices in the note "The Path to Sustainable Business: Environmental Frameworks, Practices, and Related Tools" (UVA-ENT-0033) and other environmental cases.
Swot Analysis of "An Overview of the Historical Context for Sustainable Business in the United States, 1960-2000" written by Andrea Larson, Richard Johnson includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Sustainable Environmental facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in An Overview of the Historical Context for Sustainable Business in the United States, 1960-2000 case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Government, Innovation, Sustainability and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the An Overview of the Historical Context for Sustainable Business in the United States, 1960-2000 casestudy better are - – increasing energy prices, wage bills are increasing, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, technology disruption, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%,
talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of An Overview of the Historical Context for Sustainable Business in the United States, 1960-2000
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in An Overview of the Historical Context for Sustainable Business in the United States, 1960-2000 case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Sustainable Environmental, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Sustainable Environmental 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 An Overview of the Historical Context for Sustainable Business in the United States, 1960-2000 can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in An Overview of the Historical Context for Sustainable Business in the United States, 1960-2000 case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Sustainable Environmental
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field.
4. Making a Innovation & Entrepreneurship topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Sustainable Environmental
Strengths An Overview of the Historical Context for Sustainable Business in the United States, 1960-2000 | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Sustainable Environmental in An Overview of the Historical Context for Sustainable Business in the United States, 1960-2000 Harvard Business Review case study are -
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Sustainable Environmental in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Sustainable Environmental 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 An Overview of the Historical Context for Sustainable Business in the United States, 1960-2000 HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry
– An Overview of the Historical Context for Sustainable Business in the United States, 1960-2000 firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Sustainable Environmental to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Sustainable Environmental to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Analytics focus
– Sustainable Environmental 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 Andrea Larson, Richard Johnson 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Sustainable Environmental is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in An Overview of the Historical Context for Sustainable Business in the United States, 1960-2000 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Sustainable Environmental 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Sustainable Environmental 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Sustainable Environmental 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 An Overview of the Historical Context for Sustainable Business in the United States, 1960-2000 - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Sustainable Environmental in the sector have low bargaining power. An Overview of the Historical Context for Sustainable Business in the United States, 1960-2000 has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Sustainable Environmental to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Training and development
– Sustainable Environmental has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in An Overview of the Historical Context for Sustainable Business in the United States, 1960-2000 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.
Organizational Resilience of Sustainable Environmental
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Sustainable Environmental does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Innovation driven organization
– Sustainable Environmental is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in An Overview of the Historical Context for Sustainable Business in the United States, 1960-2000 Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Weaknesses An Overview of the Historical Context for Sustainable Business in the United States, 1960-2000 | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of An Overview of the Historical Context for Sustainable Business in the United States, 1960-2000 are -
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Sustainable Environmental 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.
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 Sustainable Environmental supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - An Overview of the Historical Context for Sustainable Business in the United States, 1960-2000, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Sustainable Environmental vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Sustainable Environmental has created an environment where the organization is dominated by functional specialists rather than management generalist. This has resulted into product oriented approach rather than marketing oriented approach or consumers oriented approach.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the An Overview of the Historical Context for Sustainable Business in the United States, 1960-2000 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 Sustainable Environmental has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Sustainable Environmental 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study An Overview of the Historical Context for Sustainable Business in the United States, 1960-2000, in the dynamic environment Sustainable Environmental has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Sustainable Environmental has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study An Overview of the Historical Context for Sustainable Business in the United States, 1960-2000, it seems that the employees of Sustainable Environmental 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Sustainable Environmental is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment. Sustainable Environmental needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Sustainable Environmental to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study An Overview of the Historical Context for Sustainable Business in the United States, 1960-2000 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 An Overview of the Historical Context for Sustainable Business in the United States, 1960-2000 can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Sustainable Environmental is planning to shift buying processes online.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Andrea Larson, Richard Johnson suggests that, Sustainable Environmental 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study An Overview of the Historical Context for Sustainable Business in the United States, 1960-2000, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Innovation & Entrepreneurship 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.
Opportunities An Overview of the Historical Context for Sustainable Business in the United States, 1960-2000 | 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 An Overview of the Historical Context for Sustainable Business in the United States, 1960-2000 are -
Leveraging digital technologies
– Sustainable Environmental 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.
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 Sustainable Environmental 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Sustainable Environmental 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Sustainable Environmental to increase its market reach. Sustainable Environmental 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.
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 Sustainable Environmental in the consumer business. Now Sustainable Environmental can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Sustainable Environmental in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Sustainable Environmental 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 Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Sustainable Environmental is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. An Overview of the Historical Context for Sustainable Business in the United States, 1960-2000 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Sustainable Environmental 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. Sustainable Environmental 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Sustainable Environmental 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, An Overview of the Historical Context for Sustainable Business in the United States, 1960-2000, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Sustainable Environmental can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Sustainable Environmental operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Sustainable Environmental 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 Sustainable Environmental to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Sustainable Environmental can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Threats An Overview of the Historical Context for Sustainable Business in the United States, 1960-2000 External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study An Overview of the Historical Context for Sustainable Business in the United States, 1960-2000 are -
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.
Environmental challenges
– Sustainable Environmental 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. Sustainable Environmental can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Sustainable Environmental with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Sustainable Environmental is facing in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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 Sustainable Environmental in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Sustainable Environmental 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 An Overview of the Historical Context for Sustainable Business in the United States, 1960-2000 .
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Sustainable Environmental in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The Innovation & Entrepreneurship 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.
Increasing wage structure of Sustainable Environmental
– 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 Sustainable Environmental.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Sustainable Environmental 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.
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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Sustainable Environmental 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Sustainable Environmental 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 Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry regulations.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Sustainable Environmental has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Sustainable Environmental needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of An Overview of the Historical Context for Sustainable Business in the United States, 1960-2000 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 An Overview of the Historical Context for Sustainable Business in the United States, 1960-2000 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 An Overview of the Historical Context for Sustainable Business in the United States, 1960-2000 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 An Overview of the Historical Context for Sustainable Business in the United States, 1960-2000 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 An Overview of the Historical Context for Sustainable Business in the United States, 1960-2000 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 Sustainable Environmental needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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