Toxic Chemicals: Responding to Challenges and Opportunities SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Toxic Chemicals: Responding to Challenges and Opportunities
The growing impact of toxic chemical use is a major issue corporations face in the 21st century. This note offers an overview of the effects of toxins on human health and the natural environment: Cancer, nervous system disorders caused by workplace exposure. Impaired endocrine, reproductive, and immune systems. Impeded physical nad intellectual development. All are attributed to toxic exposure-sometimes even at very low levels. Toxic chemicals-ubiquitous in industrial processes and consumer products-represent both challenges and opportunities for business. One approach reduces a company's use of chemicals identified as problematic for human and ecosystem health. A second approach designs hazardous materials out of products or recaptures toxins in closed-loop cycles to be productively used again. Companies moving from a reactive stance to the redesign of products and processes not only reduce liability but differentiate their products and brands for competitive advantage.
Swot Analysis of "Toxic Chemicals: Responding to Challenges and Opportunities" written by Andrea Larson includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Toxic Toxins facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Toxic Chemicals: Responding to Challenges and Opportunities case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Health, Innovation, Regulation, Social responsibility, Sustainability and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Toxic Chemicals: Responding to Challenges and Opportunities casestudy better are - – talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, there is backlash against globalization,
wage bills are increasing, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Toxic Chemicals: Responding to Challenges and Opportunities
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Toxic Chemicals: Responding to Challenges and Opportunities case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Toxic Toxins, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Toxic Toxins 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 Toxic Chemicals: Responding to Challenges and Opportunities can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Toxic Chemicals: Responding to Challenges and Opportunities case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Toxic Toxins
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 Toxic Toxins
Strengths Toxic Chemicals: Responding to Challenges and Opportunities | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Toxic Toxins in Toxic Chemicals: Responding to Challenges and Opportunities Harvard Business Review case study are -
Strong track record of project management
– Toxic Toxins is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Toxic Toxins is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Toxic Chemicals: Responding to Challenges and Opportunities are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Toxic Toxins in the sector have low bargaining power. Toxic Chemicals: Responding to Challenges and Opportunities has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Toxic Toxins to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Toxic Toxins 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Toxic Toxins in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Innovation driven organization
– Toxic Toxins is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Toxic Chemicals: Responding to Challenges and Opportunities Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Toxic Toxins 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 Toxic Chemicals: Responding to Challenges and Opportunities HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
High brand equity
– Toxic Toxins has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Toxic Toxins to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Ability to lead change in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field
– Toxic Toxins 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 Toxic Toxins in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Toxic Toxins 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 Toxic Chemicals: Responding to Challenges and Opportunities - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Organizational Resilience of Toxic Toxins
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Toxic Toxins does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry
– Toxic Chemicals: Responding to Challenges and Opportunities firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Toxic Toxins to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Toxic Toxins to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Weaknesses Toxic Chemicals: Responding to Challenges and Opportunities | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Toxic Chemicals: Responding to Challenges and Opportunities are -
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Toxic Chemicals: Responding to Challenges and Opportunities, is just above the industry average. Toxic Toxins 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Toxic Toxins 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 star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Toxic Chemicals: Responding to Challenges and Opportunities 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 Toxic Toxins has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Lack of clear differentiation of Toxic Toxins products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Toxic Toxins needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Toxic Toxins 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 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 Toxic Toxins supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Toxic Chemicals: Responding to Challenges and Opportunities, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Toxic Toxins vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Toxic Chemicals: Responding to Challenges and Opportunities HBR case study mentions - Toxic Toxins 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Toxic Toxins is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment. Toxic Toxins needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Toxic Toxins to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Toxic Chemicals: Responding to Challenges and Opportunities 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 Toxic Chemicals: Responding to Challenges and Opportunities can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Toxic Toxins is planning to shift buying processes online.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Toxic Toxins 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 Toxic Chemicals: Responding to Challenges and Opportunities, in the dynamic environment Toxic Toxins has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Toxic Toxins has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Opportunities Toxic Chemicals: Responding to Challenges and Opportunities | 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 Toxic Chemicals: Responding to Challenges and Opportunities are -
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Toxic Toxins 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Toxic Toxins to increase its market reach. Toxic Toxins 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Toxic Toxins can develop new processes and procedures in Innovation & Entrepreneurship 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Toxic Toxins 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Toxic Toxins 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Toxic Toxins 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Toxic Toxins is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Toxic Chemicals: Responding to Challenges and Opportunities 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Toxic Toxins can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Innovation & Entrepreneurship 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Toxic Toxins 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, Toxic Chemicals: Responding to Challenges and Opportunities, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Buying journey improvements
– Toxic Toxins can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Toxic Chemicals: Responding to Challenges and Opportunities suggest that firm can provide automated chats to help consumers solve their own problems, provide online suggestions to get maximum out of the products and services, and help consumers to build a community where they can interact with each other to develop new features and uses.
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. Toxic Toxins can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Toxic Toxins 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 Toxic Toxins to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Loyalty marketing
– Toxic Toxins 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.
Threats Toxic Chemicals: Responding to Challenges and Opportunities External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Toxic Chemicals: Responding to Challenges and Opportunities are -
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Toxic Toxins with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Toxic Toxins 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.
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 international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Toxic Toxins 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 Toxic Chemicals: Responding to Challenges and Opportunities .
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 Toxic Toxins.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Toxic Toxins 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
– Toxic Toxins has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Toxic Toxins 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Toxic Toxins 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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Toxic Toxins can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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. Toxic Toxins 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 Toxic Chemicals: Responding to Challenges and Opportunities, Toxic Toxins may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Innovation & Entrepreneurship .
Increasing wage structure of Toxic Toxins
– 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 Toxic Toxins.
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 Toxic Toxins in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Toxic Chemicals: Responding to Challenges and Opportunities 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 Toxic Chemicals: Responding to Challenges and Opportunities 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 Toxic Chemicals: Responding to Challenges and Opportunities 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 Toxic Chemicals: Responding to Challenges and Opportunities 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 Toxic Chemicals: Responding to Challenges and Opportunities 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 Toxic Toxins needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
