Green Innovation Games: Value-Creation Strategies for Corporate Sustainability SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Green Innovation Games: Value-Creation Strategies for Corporate Sustainability
This study builds on insights from 49 sustainability leaders in the U.S. by examining green innovation from the game perspective. It explores how corporate sustainability can advance environmentally friendly innovations, and what managerial roles and activities are required to enable the transformation. It identifies four green innovation games characterized by different underlying value creation logics and organizational and mental barriers. The article suggests ways that can help managers to overcome these barriers and incorporate three decisive managerial roles into their corporate agenda and culture to advance corporate sustainability.
Authors :: Tommi Lampikoski, Mika Westerlund, Risto Rajala, Kristian Moller
Swot Analysis of "Green Innovation Games: Value-Creation Strategies for Corporate Sustainability" written by Tommi Lampikoski, Mika Westerlund, Risto Rajala, Kristian Moller includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Sustainability Green facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Green Innovation Games: Value-Creation Strategies for Corporate Sustainability case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Social responsibility, Sustainability and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Green Innovation Games: Value-Creation Strategies for Corporate Sustainability casestudy better are - – challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing commodity prices, increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing energy prices, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google,
central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Green Innovation Games: Value-Creation Strategies for Corporate Sustainability
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Green Innovation Games: Value-Creation Strategies for Corporate Sustainability case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Sustainability Green, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Sustainability Green 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 Green Innovation Games: Value-Creation Strategies for Corporate Sustainability can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Green Innovation Games: Value-Creation Strategies for Corporate Sustainability case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Sustainability Green
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 Sustainability Green
Strengths Green Innovation Games: Value-Creation Strategies for Corporate Sustainability | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Sustainability Green in Green Innovation Games: Value-Creation Strategies for Corporate Sustainability Harvard Business Review case study are -
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Sustainability Green 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 Green Innovation Games: Value-Creation Strategies for Corporate Sustainability - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Ability to lead change in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field
– Sustainability Green 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 Sustainability Green in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Diverse revenue streams
– Sustainability Green is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Green Innovation Games: Value-Creation Strategies for Corporate Sustainability 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry
– Green Innovation Games: Value-Creation Strategies for Corporate Sustainability firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Sustainability Green to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Sustainability Green to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Sustainability Green has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Sustainability Green has effective processes in place that helps in exploring new product needs, doing quick pilot testing, and then launching the products quickly using its extensive distribution network.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Sustainability Green 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.
Training and development
– Sustainability Green has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Green Innovation Games: Value-Creation Strategies for Corporate Sustainability 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Sustainability Green 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.
Organizational Resilience of Sustainability Green
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Sustainability Green does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Sustainability Green in the sector have low bargaining power. Green Innovation Games: Value-Creation Strategies for Corporate Sustainability has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Sustainability Green to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Green Innovation Games: Value-Creation Strategies for Corporate Sustainability 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.
Analytics focus
– Sustainability Green 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 Tommi Lampikoski, Mika Westerlund, Risto Rajala, Kristian Moller 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 Green Innovation Games: Value-Creation Strategies for Corporate Sustainability | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Green Innovation Games: Value-Creation Strategies for Corporate Sustainability are -
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Sustainability Green 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Sustainability Green 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. Sustainability Green 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 dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Green Innovation Games: Value-Creation Strategies for Corporate Sustainability 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 Sustainability Green has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Sustainability Green 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Green Innovation Games: Value-Creation Strategies for Corporate Sustainability, in the dynamic environment Sustainability Green has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Sustainability Green has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Sustainability Green 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 - Green Innovation Games: Value-Creation Strategies for Corporate Sustainability should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Green Innovation Games: Value-Creation Strategies for Corporate Sustainability 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 Sustainability Green 's lucrative customers.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Sustainability Green, firm in the HBR case study Green Innovation Games: Value-Creation Strategies for Corporate Sustainability needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Sustainability Green is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Green Innovation Games: Value-Creation Strategies for Corporate Sustainability can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Green Innovation Games: Value-Creation Strategies for Corporate Sustainability, it seems that the employees of Sustainability Green 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 cash cycle compare to competitors
Sustainability Green 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.
Opportunities Green Innovation Games: Value-Creation Strategies for Corporate Sustainability | 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 Green Innovation Games: Value-Creation Strategies for Corporate Sustainability are -
Leveraging digital technologies
– Sustainability Green 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Sustainability Green can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Sustainability Green operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Sustainability Green 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 Sustainability Green to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Loyalty marketing
– Sustainability Green 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. Sustainability Green 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. Sustainability Green 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 Sustainability Green 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Sustainability Green is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Green Innovation Games: Value-Creation Strategies for Corporate Sustainability 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Sustainability Green 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.
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 Sustainability Green 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Sustainability Green 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Sustainability Green has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Sustainability Green to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Green Innovation Games: Value-Creation Strategies for Corporate Sustainability case study. Sustainability Green can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
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. Sustainability Green can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Buying journey improvements
– Sustainability Green can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Green Innovation Games: Value-Creation Strategies for Corporate Sustainability 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.
Threats Green Innovation Games: Value-Creation Strategies for Corporate Sustainability External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Green Innovation Games: Value-Creation Strategies for Corporate Sustainability are -
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 Sustainability Green.
Increasing wage structure of Sustainability Green
– 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 Sustainability Green.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Sustainability Green 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
– Sustainability Green has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Sustainability Green 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Sustainability Green 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 Green Innovation Games: Value-Creation Strategies for Corporate Sustainability .
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Sustainability Green 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Sustainability Green is facing in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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. Sustainability Green needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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.
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 Sustainability Green business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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. Sustainability Green can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Green Innovation Games: Value-Creation Strategies for Corporate Sustainability, Sustainability Green 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 .
Environmental challenges
– Sustainability Green 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. Sustainability Green can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Green Innovation Games: Value-Creation Strategies for Corporate Sustainability 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 Green Innovation Games: Value-Creation Strategies for Corporate Sustainability 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 Green Innovation Games: Value-Creation Strategies for Corporate Sustainability 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 Green Innovation Games: Value-Creation Strategies for Corporate Sustainability 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 Green Innovation Games: Value-Creation Strategies for Corporate Sustainability 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 Sustainability Green needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
