Developers Jonathan Rose and Adam Weinstein were trying to determine which of three proposals to submit to the city of New York in response to a RFP to create an affordable housing project in the South Bronx. The site, referred to as Via Verde, was a 1.5-acre triangular brownfield in one of the poorest neighborhoods in New York City. It was 2006 and the housing market was peaking but had not yet crashed. Both Rose and Weinstein were experienced developers of low-income housing, the former as CEO of the Jonathan Rose Companies, a national developer, and the latter as CEO of Phipps Houses, the largest non-profit developer and manager of low-income housing in NYC. The three proposal options differed in their risk and return profiles for the developers, and differed in how much they incorporated health-oriented, mixed-income living for the residents.
Authors :: Arthur I Segel, Nicolas P. Retsinas, Philip Berkman, Sean Liu
Swot Analysis of "Via Verde" written by Arthur I Segel, Nicolas P. Retsinas, Philip Berkman, Sean Liu includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Housing Weinstein facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Via Verde case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Financial management and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Via Verde casestudy better are - – supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing commodity prices, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, geopolitical disruptions, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, wage bills are increasing, increasing transportation and logistics costs,
technology disruption, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, etc
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Via Verde case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Housing Weinstein, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Housing Weinstein 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 Via Verde can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Via Verde case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Housing Weinstein
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 Housing Weinstein
Strengths Via Verde | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Housing Weinstein in Via Verde Harvard Business Review case study are -
Ability to lead change in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field
– Housing Weinstein 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 Housing Weinstein in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Training and development
– Housing Weinstein has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Via Verde 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Housing Weinstein 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 Via Verde - 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 brand equity
– Housing Weinstein has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Housing Weinstein to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Organizational Resilience of Housing Weinstein
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Housing Weinstein does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Digital Transformation in Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Housing Weinstein digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Housing Weinstein has successfully integrated the four key components of digital transformation – digital integration in processes, digital integration in marketing and customer relationship management, digital integration into the value chain, and using technology to explore new products and market opportunities.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Housing Weinstein in the sector have low bargaining power. Via Verde has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Housing Weinstein to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Learning organization
- Housing Weinstein 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 Housing Weinstein is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Via Verde Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Housing Weinstein 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 Via Verde HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Innovation driven organization
– Housing Weinstein is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Via Verde Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry
– Via Verde firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Housing Weinstein to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Housing Weinstein to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Analytics focus
– Housing Weinstein 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 Arthur I Segel, Nicolas P. Retsinas, Philip Berkman, Sean Liu 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 Via Verde | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Via Verde are -
High dependence on existing supply chain
– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of Housing Weinstein supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Via Verde, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Housing Weinstein vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Via Verde 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 Via Verde can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Housing Weinstein is planning to shift buying processes online.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Housing Weinstein 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 - Via Verde should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Need for greater diversity
– Housing Weinstein 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Housing Weinstein has borrowed money from the capital market at higher rates. It needs to restructure the interest payment and costs so that it can compete better and improve profitability.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Via Verde, 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Housing Weinstein 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 operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Via Verde 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 Housing Weinstein 's lucrative customers.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Arthur I Segel, Nicolas P. Retsinas, Philip Berkman, Sean Liu suggests that, Housing Weinstein 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Via Verde HBR case study mentions - Housing Weinstein 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 dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Via Verde 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 Housing Weinstein has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Opportunities Via Verde | 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 Via Verde are -
Manufacturing automation
– Housing Weinstein 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Housing Weinstein can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Housing Weinstein can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Housing Weinstein operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Housing Weinstein 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Housing Weinstein 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 Via Verde - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Housing Weinstein to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
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. Housing Weinstein can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
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. Housing Weinstein can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Housing Weinstein 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Housing Weinstein 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.
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 Housing Weinstein 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Housing Weinstein 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Housing Weinstein can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Via Verde 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.
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. Housing Weinstein 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. Housing Weinstein 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.
Threats Via Verde External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Via Verde 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.
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.
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 Housing Weinstein in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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. Housing Weinstein can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
High level of anxiety and lack of motivation
– the Great Resignation in United States is the sign of broader dissatisfaction among the workforce in United States. Housing Weinstein needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Increasing wage structure of Housing Weinstein
– 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 Housing Weinstein.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Housing Weinstein is facing in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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. Housing Weinstein 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.
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 Housing Weinstein business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Regulatory challenges
– Housing Weinstein 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
– Housing Weinstein 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
– Housing Weinstein has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Housing Weinstein 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Housing Weinstein 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Via Verde 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 Via Verde 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 Via Verde 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 Via Verde 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 Via Verde 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 Housing Weinstein needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
