Rewarding Consumers for Recycling Packaging: Kimberly-Clark Seeks Shared Value SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Rewarding Consumers for Recycling Packaging: Kimberly-Clark Seeks Shared Value
This case describes how Kimberly-Clark is working to encourage consumer recycling of flexible plastic film packaging, which is wrapped around many of its products, including paper towels, toilet paper, and more. An infrastructure already exists for consumers to return this film to retail stores for recycling, but estimated return rates remain low. Furthermore, Kimberly-Clark is not directly involved in the recycling transaction; retail stores collect the packaging and sell it to recycling companies. Kimberly-Clark is considering developing a consumer rewards program to incentivize store return of the packaging. Funding such a program will likely require Kimberly-Clark to identify new sources of value throughout the film-packaging lifecycle.
Authors :: Sara L. Beckman, Stefanie Robinson, Seren Pendleton-Knoll
Swot Analysis of "Rewarding Consumers for Recycling Packaging: Kimberly-Clark Seeks Shared Value" written by Sara L. Beckman, Stefanie Robinson, Seren Pendleton-Knoll includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Kimberly Clark facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Rewarding Consumers for Recycling Packaging: Kimberly-Clark Seeks Shared Value case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Customers, Growth strategy, Joint ventures, Social responsibility, Sustainability and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Rewarding Consumers for Recycling Packaging: Kimberly-Clark Seeks Shared Value casestudy better are - – increasing transportation and logistics costs, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, geopolitical disruptions, increasing energy prices, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies,
technology disruption, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Rewarding Consumers for Recycling Packaging: Kimberly-Clark Seeks Shared Value
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Rewarding Consumers for Recycling Packaging: Kimberly-Clark Seeks Shared Value case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Kimberly Clark, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Kimberly Clark 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 Rewarding Consumers for Recycling Packaging: Kimberly-Clark Seeks Shared Value can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Rewarding Consumers for Recycling Packaging: Kimberly-Clark Seeks Shared Value case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Kimberly Clark
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 Kimberly Clark
Strengths Rewarding Consumers for Recycling Packaging: Kimberly-Clark Seeks Shared Value | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Kimberly Clark in Rewarding Consumers for Recycling Packaging: Kimberly-Clark Seeks Shared Value Harvard Business Review case study are -
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Rewarding Consumers for Recycling Packaging: Kimberly-Clark Seeks Shared Value 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.
Digital Transformation in Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Kimberly Clark digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Kimberly Clark 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.
Analytics focus
– Kimberly Clark 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 Sara L. Beckman, Stefanie Robinson, Seren Pendleton-Knoll 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Kimberly Clark is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Kimberly Clark 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.
Learning organization
- Kimberly Clark 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 Kimberly Clark is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Rewarding Consumers for Recycling Packaging: Kimberly-Clark Seeks Shared Value Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Kimberly Clark is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Rewarding Consumers for Recycling Packaging: Kimberly-Clark Seeks Shared Value 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 Kimberly Clark in the sector have low bargaining power. Rewarding Consumers for Recycling Packaging: Kimberly-Clark Seeks Shared Value has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Kimberly Clark to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Diverse revenue streams
– Kimberly Clark is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Rewarding Consumers for Recycling Packaging: Kimberly-Clark Seeks Shared Value 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Kimberly Clark is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Rewarding Consumers for Recycling Packaging: Kimberly-Clark Seeks Shared Value 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 Kimberly Clark
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Kimberly Clark 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
– Rewarding Consumers for Recycling Packaging: Kimberly-Clark Seeks Shared Value firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Kimberly Clark to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Kimberly Clark to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Weaknesses Rewarding Consumers for Recycling Packaging: Kimberly-Clark Seeks Shared Value | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Rewarding Consumers for Recycling Packaging: Kimberly-Clark Seeks Shared Value are -
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Kimberly Clark 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Kimberly Clark 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Kimberly Clark is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment. Kimberly Clark needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Kimberly Clark to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Kimberly Clark 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 - Rewarding Consumers for Recycling Packaging: Kimberly-Clark Seeks Shared Value should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Kimberly Clark 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Rewarding Consumers for Recycling Packaging: Kimberly-Clark Seeks Shared Value, it seems that the employees of Kimberly Clark 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Kimberly Clark has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the industry over the last five years. Kimberly Clark even though has strong showing on digital transformation primary two stages, it has struggled to capitalize the power of digital transformation in marketing efforts and new venture efforts.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Sara L. Beckman, Stefanie Robinson, Seren Pendleton-Knoll suggests that, Kimberly Clark 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Kimberly Clark products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Kimberly Clark needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Rewarding Consumers for Recycling Packaging: Kimberly-Clark Seeks Shared Value, 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Kimberly Clark 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.
Opportunities Rewarding Consumers for Recycling Packaging: Kimberly-Clark Seeks Shared Value | 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 Rewarding Consumers for Recycling Packaging: Kimberly-Clark Seeks Shared Value are -
Reconfiguring business model
– The expansion of digital payment system, the bringing down of international transactions costs using Bitcoin and other blockchain based currencies, etc can help Kimberly Clark to reconfigure its entire business model. For example it can used blockchain based technologies to reduce piracy of its products in the big markets such as China. Secondly it can use the popularity of e-commerce in various developing markets to build a Direct to Customer business model rather than the current Channel Heavy distribution network.
Loyalty marketing
– Kimberly Clark 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Kimberly Clark has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Kimberly Clark to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Rewarding Consumers for Recycling Packaging: Kimberly-Clark Seeks Shared Value case study. Kimberly Clark can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Kimberly Clark to increase its market reach. Kimberly Clark 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Kimberly Clark 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.
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 Kimberly Clark in the consumer business. Now Kimberly Clark can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Kimberly Clark 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.
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. Kimberly Clark can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Kimberly Clark 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 Kimberly Clark to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Kimberly Clark can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Kimberly Clark operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Kimberly Clark 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 Rewarding Consumers for Recycling Packaging: Kimberly-Clark Seeks Shared Value - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Kimberly Clark to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Developing new processes and practices
– Kimberly Clark 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 Kimberly Clark 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.
Threats Rewarding Consumers for Recycling Packaging: Kimberly-Clark Seeks Shared Value External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Rewarding Consumers for Recycling Packaging: Kimberly-Clark Seeks Shared Value are -
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Kimberly Clark 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.
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 Kimberly Clark.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Rewarding Consumers for Recycling Packaging: Kimberly-Clark Seeks Shared Value, Kimberly Clark 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 .
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Kimberly Clark is facing in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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
– Kimberly Clark 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
– Kimberly Clark has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Kimberly Clark 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Kimberly Clark 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Kimberly Clark with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Increasing wage structure of Kimberly Clark
– 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 Kimberly Clark.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Kimberly Clark 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.
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 Kimberly Clark 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. Kimberly Clark can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Rewarding Consumers for Recycling Packaging: Kimberly-Clark Seeks Shared Value 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 Rewarding Consumers for Recycling Packaging: Kimberly-Clark Seeks Shared Value 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 Rewarding Consumers for Recycling Packaging: Kimberly-Clark Seeks Shared Value 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 Rewarding Consumers for Recycling Packaging: Kimberly-Clark Seeks Shared Value 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 Rewarding Consumers for Recycling Packaging: Kimberly-Clark Seeks Shared Value 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 Kimberly Clark needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
