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 - – increasing transportation and logistics costs, wage bills are increasing, geopolitical disruptions, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, technology disruption, there is backlash against globalization, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models,
digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, 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 -
Analytics focus
– Toxic Toxins 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 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.
Training and development
– Toxic Toxins has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Toxic Chemicals: Responding to Challenges and Opportunities 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.
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.
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.
Learning organization
- Toxic Toxins 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 Toxic Toxins is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Toxic Chemicals: Responding to Challenges and Opportunities Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Toxic Toxins has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Toxic Toxins 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Toxic Chemicals: Responding to Challenges and Opportunities Harvard Business Review case study comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the industry, building diversified operations across different geographies so that disruption in one part of the world doesn’t impact the overall performance of the firm, and integrating the various business operations and processes through its digital transformation drive.
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.
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 -
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.
Need for greater diversity
– Toxic Toxins 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.
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.
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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Toxic Chemicals: Responding to Challenges and Opportunities has high operating costs in the. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Toxic Toxins 's lucrative customers.
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.
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.
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.
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 cash cycle compare to competitors
Toxic Toxins 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Andrea Larson suggests that, Toxic Toxins 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.
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 -
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 Toxic Toxins in the consumer business. Now Toxic Toxins can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Toxic Toxins has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Toxic Toxins to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Toxic Chemicals: Responding to Challenges and Opportunities case study. Toxic Toxins can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Toxic Toxins 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.
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.
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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Toxic Toxins can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
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.
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. Toxic Toxins can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Toxic Toxins can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Toxic Toxins operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Toxic Toxins 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 Toxic Chemicals: Responding to Challenges and Opportunities - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Toxic Toxins to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
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.
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.
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 -
Regulatory challenges
– Toxic Toxins 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Toxic Toxins 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.
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.
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.
Environmental challenges
– Toxic Toxins 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. Toxic Toxins can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry.
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 .
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.
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.
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 .
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.