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Innovation at Timberland: Thinking Outside the Shoe Box SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution

Case Study Description of Innovation at Timberland: Thinking Outside the Shoe Box


Innovation was linked to Timberland's heritage. In 2005, CEO Jeff Swartz and COO Ken Pucker hoped the Invention Factory, an advanced concept lab, would develop new breakthrough products and reinvigorate the company's culture of innovation. Since the 1960s, Timberland had relied on innovation, developing the world's first waterproof boot and, in the 1980s, category-defining boat shoes and day hiking boots. Creating variations of these core products, along with expansion into apparel, had sustained Timberland's business for more than 30 years. Timberland's growth in the past six years was due to increased international sales and new customer segments. As Timberland's leaders looked to the future, they hoped Doug Clark, a biomechanist, and his Invention Factory team would bring a scientific approach toward building the next generation of Timberland products and ideas. The team had to convince those in the mainstream business to accept their new ideas and integrate them back into the product line.

Authors :: Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Ryan Raffaelli

Topics :: Innovation & Entrepreneurship

Tags :: Growth strategy, Leadership, Organizational culture, Product development, SWOT Analysis, SWOT Matrix, TOWS, Weighted SWOT Analysis

Swot Analysis of "Innovation at Timberland: Thinking Outside the Shoe Box" written by Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Ryan Raffaelli includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Timberland's Timberland facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Innovation at Timberland: Thinking Outside the Shoe Box case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Growth strategy, Leadership, Organizational culture, Product development and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.


Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Innovation at Timberland: Thinking Outside the Shoe Box casestudy better are - – increasing energy prices, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, wage bills are increasing, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing commodity prices, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, etc



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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Innovation at Timberland: Thinking Outside the Shoe Box


SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Innovation at Timberland: Thinking Outside the Shoe Box case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Timberland's Timberland, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Timberland's Timberland 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 Innovation at Timberland: Thinking Outside the Shoe Box can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Innovation at Timberland: Thinking Outside the Shoe Box case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Timberland's Timberland
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 Timberland's Timberland




Strengths Innovation at Timberland: Thinking Outside the Shoe Box | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Timberland's Timberland in Innovation at Timberland: Thinking Outside the Shoe Box Harvard Business Review case study are -

High brand equity

– Timberland's Timberland has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Timberland's Timberland to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.

Cross disciplinary teams

– Horizontal connected teams at the Timberland's Timberland 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.

Ability to recruit top talent

– Timberland's Timberland is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Innovation at Timberland: Thinking Outside the Shoe Box are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.

Training and development

– Timberland's Timberland has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Innovation at Timberland: Thinking Outside the Shoe Box 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.

Operational resilience

– The operational resilience strategy in the Innovation at Timberland: Thinking Outside the Shoe Box 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.

Ability to lead change in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field

– Timberland's Timberland 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 Timberland's Timberland in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.

Diverse revenue streams

– Timberland's Timberland is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Innovation at Timberland: Thinking Outside the Shoe Box 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.

Digital Transformation in Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment

- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Timberland's Timberland digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Timberland's Timberland 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.

Sustainable margins compare to other players in Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry

– Innovation at Timberland: Thinking Outside the Shoe Box firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Timberland's Timberland to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Timberland's Timberland to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.

High switching costs

– The high switching costs that Timberland's Timberland 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.

Strong track record of project management

– Timberland's Timberland is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.

Highly skilled collaborators

– Timberland's Timberland 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 Innovation at Timberland: Thinking Outside the Shoe Box HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.






Weaknesses Innovation at Timberland: Thinking Outside the Shoe Box | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of Innovation at Timberland: Thinking Outside the Shoe Box are -

High cash cycle compare to competitors

Timberland's Timberland 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.

Need for greater diversity

– Timberland's Timberland 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.

No frontier risks strategy

– After analyzing the HBR case study Innovation at Timberland: Thinking Outside the Shoe Box, 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.

Workers concerns about automation

– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Timberland's Timberland 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.

High dependence on star products

– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Innovation at Timberland: Thinking Outside the Shoe Box 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 Timberland's Timberland has relatively successful track record of launching new products.

Low market penetration in new markets

– Outside its home market of Timberland's Timberland, firm in the HBR case study Innovation at Timberland: Thinking Outside the Shoe Box needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.

Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy

– From the instances in the HBR case study Innovation at Timberland: Thinking Outside the Shoe Box, it seems that the employees of Timberland's Timberland 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.

Skills based hiring

– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Timberland's Timberland 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.

Ability to respond to the competition

– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Innovation at Timberland: Thinking Outside the Shoe Box, in the dynamic environment Timberland's Timberland has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Timberland's Timberland has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.

Capital Spending Reduction

– Even during the low interest decade, Timberland's Timberland has not been able to do capital spending to the tune of the competition. This has resulted into fewer innovations and company facing stiff competition from both existing competitors and new entrants who are disrupting the industry using digital technology.

High bargaining power of channel partners

– Because of the regulatory requirements, Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Ryan Raffaelli suggests that, Timberland's Timberland 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 Innovation at Timberland: Thinking Outside the Shoe Box | 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 Innovation at Timberland: Thinking Outside the Shoe Box 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 Timberland's Timberland in the consumer business. Now Timberland's Timberland can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.

Manufacturing automation

– Timberland's Timberland 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.

Redefining models of collaboration and team work

– As explained in the weaknesses section, Timberland's Timberland is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Innovation at Timberland: Thinking Outside the Shoe Box case study suggests that firm can utilize new technology to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.

Lowering marketing communication costs

– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Timberland's Timberland 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.

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. Timberland's Timberland can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.

Creating value in data economy

– The success of analytics program of Timberland's Timberland has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Timberland's Timberland to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Innovation at Timberland: Thinking Outside the Shoe Box case study. Timberland's Timberland can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, 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. Timberland's Timberland 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. Timberland's Timberland 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.

Learning at scale

– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Timberland's Timberland 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.

Reforming the budgeting process

- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Timberland's Timberland 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 Timberland's Timberland 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 Timberland's Timberland to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.

Loyalty marketing

– Timberland's Timberland 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.

Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains

– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Timberland's Timberland 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, Innovation at Timberland: Thinking Outside the Shoe Box, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.

Low interest rates

– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Timberland's Timberland can still utilize the low interest rates to borrow money for capital investment. Secondly it can also use the increase of government spending in infrastructure projects to get new business.




Threats Innovation at Timberland: Thinking Outside the Shoe Box External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis


The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Innovation at Timberland: Thinking Outside the Shoe Box are -

Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution

– Timberland's Timberland has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Timberland's Timberland 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.

High dependence on third party suppliers

– Timberland's Timberland 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.

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. Timberland's Timberland 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.

Consumer confidence and its impact on Timberland's Timberland 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.

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 Timberland's Timberland.

Learning curve for new practices

– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Innovation at Timberland: Thinking Outside the Shoe Box, Timberland's Timberland 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 .

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 Timberland's Timberland in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.

Environmental challenges

– Timberland's Timberland 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. Timberland's Timberland can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry.

Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins

– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Timberland's Timberland 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 Innovation at Timberland: Thinking Outside the Shoe Box .

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.

Regulatory challenges

– Timberland's Timberland 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.

Trade war between China and United States

– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Timberland's Timberland 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.

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 Timberland's Timberland business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.




Weighted SWOT Analysis of Innovation at Timberland: Thinking Outside the Shoe Box 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 Innovation at Timberland: Thinking Outside the Shoe Box 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 Innovation at Timberland: Thinking Outside the Shoe Box 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 Innovation at Timberland: Thinking Outside the Shoe Box 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 Innovation at Timberland: Thinking Outside the Shoe Box 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 Timberland's Timberland needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.



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