Walking the Walk: Putting Social Responsibility into Action at the White Dog Cafe SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Walking the Walk: Putting Social Responsibility into Action at the White Dog Cafe
This case is designed to examine the issue of corporate social responsibility in a small firm. The key issue is how a small organization can maintain its strong social responsibility philosophy when (a) the organization is growing, (b) the environment in which the organization exists is extremely competitive, and (c) the entrepreneurial visionary who started the firm is getting ready to step down. The case describes the dilemma the owner of White Dog Cafe has regarding the transition of current management to the new management team and the development of the White Dog Cafe's social responsibility philosophy, the challenges that other socially responsible organizations have had as they have grown, and the strategies that the company has used to successfully keep its philosophies and goals at the forefront of its business operations.
Swot Analysis of "Walking the Walk: Putting Social Responsibility into Action at the White Dog Cafe" written by Jason Keith Phillips, Diane Phillips includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Dog White facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Walking the Walk: Putting Social Responsibility into Action at the White Dog Cafe case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Ethics, Marketing, Social responsibility, Sustainability and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Walking the Walk: Putting Social Responsibility into Action at the White Dog Cafe casestudy better are - – supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing commodity prices, there is backlash against globalization, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing transportation and logistics costs, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy,
talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Walking the Walk: Putting Social Responsibility into Action at the White Dog Cafe
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Walking the Walk: Putting Social Responsibility into Action at the White Dog Cafe case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Dog White, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Dog White 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 Walking the Walk: Putting Social Responsibility into Action at the White Dog Cafe can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Walking the Walk: Putting Social Responsibility into Action at the White Dog Cafe case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Dog White
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 Dog White
Strengths Walking the Walk: Putting Social Responsibility into Action at the White Dog Cafe | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Dog White in Walking the Walk: Putting Social Responsibility into Action at the White Dog Cafe Harvard Business Review case study are -
Organizational Resilience of Dog White
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Dog White does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Ability to lead change in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field
– Dog White 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 Dog White in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Dog White 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 Walking the Walk: Putting Social Responsibility into Action at the White Dog Cafe HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Dog White is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Walking the Walk: Putting Social Responsibility into Action at the White Dog Cafe 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 Dog White in the sector have low bargaining power. Walking the Walk: Putting Social Responsibility into Action at the White Dog Cafe has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Dog White to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Dog White 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.
Learning organization
- Dog White 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 Dog White is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Walking the Walk: Putting Social Responsibility into Action at the White Dog Cafe Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Analytics focus
– Dog White 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 Jason Keith Phillips, Diane Phillips 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
– Dog White has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Walking the Walk: Putting Social Responsibility into Action at the White Dog Cafe 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Dog White is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Diverse revenue streams
– Dog White is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Walking the Walk: Putting Social Responsibility into Action at the White Dog Cafe 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
– Dog White is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Walking the Walk: Putting Social Responsibility into Action at the White Dog Cafe Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Weaknesses Walking the Walk: Putting Social Responsibility into Action at the White Dog Cafe | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Walking the Walk: Putting Social Responsibility into Action at the White Dog Cafe are -
Need for greater diversity
– Dog White 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Dog White is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Walking the Walk: Putting Social Responsibility into Action at the White Dog Cafe can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Dog White 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Walking the Walk: Putting Social Responsibility into Action at the White Dog Cafe, it seems that the employees of Dog White 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Walking the Walk: Putting Social Responsibility into Action at the White Dog Cafe 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 Dog White has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Walking the Walk: Putting Social Responsibility into Action at the White Dog Cafe, in the dynamic environment Dog White has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Dog White has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
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 Dog White supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Walking the Walk: Putting Social Responsibility into Action at the White Dog Cafe, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Dog White vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Lack of clear differentiation of Dog White products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Dog White needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Dog White 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 - Walking the Walk: Putting Social Responsibility into Action at the White Dog Cafe should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Jason Keith Phillips, Diane Phillips suggests that, Dog White is facing high bargaining power of the channel partners. So far it has not able to streamline the operations to reduce the bargaining power of the value chain partners in the industry.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Walking the Walk: Putting Social Responsibility into Action at the White Dog Cafe, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Innovation & Entrepreneurship strategy. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.
Opportunities Walking the Walk: Putting Social Responsibility into Action at the White Dog Cafe | 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 Walking the Walk: Putting Social Responsibility into Action at the White Dog Cafe are -
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Dog White 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Dog White can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
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. Dog White can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Loyalty marketing
– Dog White 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.
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. Dog White 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. Dog White 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Dog White 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 Dog White to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Dog White to increase its market reach. Dog White 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.
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 Dog White 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.
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. Dog White 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, Dog White can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Dog White operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Dog White 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, Walking the Walk: Putting Social Responsibility into Action at the White Dog Cafe, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Dog White 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Dog White 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 Walking the Walk: Putting Social Responsibility into Action at the White Dog Cafe - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Dog White to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Threats Walking the Walk: Putting Social Responsibility into Action at the White Dog Cafe External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Walking the Walk: Putting Social Responsibility into Action at the White Dog Cafe are -
Environmental challenges
– Dog White 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. Dog White can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry.
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. Dog White needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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 Dog White business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Dog White 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 Walking the Walk: Putting Social Responsibility into Action at the White Dog Cafe .
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Dog White has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Dog White 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.
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. Dog White 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Dog White is facing in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Dog White 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Dog White 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.
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.
Regulatory challenges
– Dog White 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Dog White 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 Dog White in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Walking the Walk: Putting Social Responsibility into Action at the White Dog Cafe 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 Walking the Walk: Putting Social Responsibility into Action at the White Dog Cafe 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 Walking the Walk: Putting Social Responsibility into Action at the White Dog Cafe 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 Walking the Walk: Putting Social Responsibility into Action at the White Dog Cafe 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 Walking the Walk: Putting Social Responsibility into Action at the White Dog Cafe 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 Dog White needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.