Dow Chemical Polyolefins and Elastomers R&D: Sustaining High Performance (Abridged) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Dow Chemical Polyolefins and Elastomers R&D: Sustaining High Performance (Abridged)
Once considered a candidate for divesture, Dow Chemical Polyolefins and Elastomers has had 12 successful years in a row. The company has set the standard of excellence for new-product innovation, having launched an average of one new-product line each year with 10 of the 11 launches being a success. After winning awards and receiving recognition for his speed in developing and launching chemical products, the company's COO now had a new concern to address: how will the company sustain its high performance over the long haul?
Swot Analysis of "Dow Chemical Polyolefins and Elastomers R&D: Sustaining High Performance (Abridged)" written by Alexander Horniman, Thomas Cross includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Elastomers Polyolefins facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Dow Chemical Polyolefins and Elastomers R&D: Sustaining High Performance (Abridged) case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Product development and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Dow Chemical Polyolefins and Elastomers R&D: Sustaining High Performance (Abridged) casestudy better are - – there is increasing trade war between United States & China, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies,
talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing transportation and logistics costs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Dow Chemical Polyolefins and Elastomers R&D: Sustaining High Performance (Abridged)
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Dow Chemical Polyolefins and Elastomers R&D: Sustaining High Performance (Abridged) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Elastomers Polyolefins, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Elastomers Polyolefins 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 Dow Chemical Polyolefins and Elastomers R&D: Sustaining High Performance (Abridged) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Dow Chemical Polyolefins and Elastomers R&D: Sustaining High Performance (Abridged) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Elastomers Polyolefins
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 Elastomers Polyolefins
Strengths Dow Chemical Polyolefins and Elastomers R&D: Sustaining High Performance (Abridged) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Elastomers Polyolefins in Dow Chemical Polyolefins and Elastomers R&D: Sustaining High Performance (Abridged) Harvard Business Review case study are -
Organizational Resilience of Elastomers Polyolefins
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Elastomers Polyolefins 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
– Elastomers Polyolefins 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 Elastomers Polyolefins in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Elastomers Polyolefins 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Elastomers Polyolefins in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Elastomers Polyolefins in the sector have low bargaining power. Dow Chemical Polyolefins and Elastomers R&D: Sustaining High Performance (Abridged) has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Elastomers Polyolefins to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Elastomers Polyolefins 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
– Elastomers Polyolefins is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Elastomers Polyolefins has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Elastomers Polyolefins 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.
Analytics focus
– Elastomers Polyolefins 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 Alexander Horniman, Thomas Cross 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Elastomers Polyolefins is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Dow Chemical Polyolefins and Elastomers R&D: Sustaining High Performance (Abridged) Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Dow Chemical Polyolefins and Elastomers R&D: Sustaining High Performance (Abridged) 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 Elastomers Polyolefins digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Elastomers Polyolefins 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.
Weaknesses Dow Chemical Polyolefins and Elastomers R&D: Sustaining High Performance (Abridged) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Dow Chemical Polyolefins and Elastomers R&D: Sustaining High Performance (Abridged) are -
High dependence on existing supply chain
– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of Elastomers Polyolefins supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Dow Chemical Polyolefins and Elastomers R&D: Sustaining High Performance (Abridged), it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Elastomers Polyolefins vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Dow Chemical Polyolefins and Elastomers R&D: Sustaining High Performance (Abridged), it seems that the employees of Elastomers Polyolefins 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Elastomers Polyolefins is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment. Elastomers Polyolefins needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Elastomers Polyolefins to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Dow Chemical Polyolefins and Elastomers R&D: Sustaining High Performance (Abridged), is just above the industry average. Elastomers Polyolefins needs to redesign the compensation structure and incentives to increase the revenue per employees. Some of the steps that it can take are – hiring more specialists on project basis, etc.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Elastomers Polyolefins 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Elastomers Polyolefins, firm in the HBR case study Dow Chemical Polyolefins and Elastomers R&D: Sustaining High Performance (Abridged) needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Elastomers Polyolefins 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Dow Chemical Polyolefins and Elastomers R&D: Sustaining High Performance (Abridged) that the firm needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department in the case Dow Chemical Polyolefins and Elastomers R&D: Sustaining High Performance (Abridged) can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Elastomers Polyolefins is planning to shift buying processes online.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Elastomers Polyolefins is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Dow Chemical Polyolefins and Elastomers R&D: Sustaining High Performance (Abridged) 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
Elastomers Polyolefins 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Dow Chemical Polyolefins and Elastomers R&D: Sustaining High Performance (Abridged), in the dynamic environment Elastomers Polyolefins has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Elastomers Polyolefins has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Opportunities Dow Chemical Polyolefins and Elastomers R&D: Sustaining High Performance (Abridged) | 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 Dow Chemical Polyolefins and Elastomers R&D: Sustaining High Performance (Abridged) are -
Leveraging digital technologies
– Elastomers Polyolefins 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Elastomers Polyolefins has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Elastomers Polyolefins to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Dow Chemical Polyolefins and Elastomers R&D: Sustaining High Performance (Abridged) case study. Elastomers Polyolefins can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Elastomers Polyolefins 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, Dow Chemical Polyolefins and Elastomers R&D: Sustaining High Performance (Abridged), to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Elastomers Polyolefins 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Elastomers Polyolefins 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 Elastomers Polyolefins can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
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. Elastomers Polyolefins 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 Elastomers Polyolefins 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 Elastomers Polyolefins 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, Elastomers Polyolefins can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Elastomers Polyolefins operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector.
Buying journey improvements
– Elastomers Polyolefins can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Dow Chemical Polyolefins and Elastomers R&D: Sustaining High Performance (Abridged) suggest that firm can provide automated chats to help consumers solve their own problems, provide online suggestions to get maximum out of the products and services, and help consumers to build a community where they can interact with each other to develop new features and uses.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Elastomers Polyolefins 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. Elastomers Polyolefins 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Elastomers Polyolefins is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Dow Chemical Polyolefins and Elastomers R&D: Sustaining High Performance (Abridged) 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Elastomers Polyolefins 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.
Threats Dow Chemical Polyolefins and Elastomers R&D: Sustaining High Performance (Abridged) External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Dow Chemical Polyolefins and Elastomers R&D: Sustaining High Performance (Abridged) are -
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. Elastomers Polyolefins needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Elastomers Polyolefins 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Elastomers Polyolefins 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Elastomers Polyolefins 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.
Environmental challenges
– Elastomers Polyolefins 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. Elastomers Polyolefins can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry.
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. Elastomers Polyolefins 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Elastomers Polyolefins 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.
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. Elastomers Polyolefins can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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 Elastomers Polyolefins in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Elastomers Polyolefins is facing in Innovation & Entrepreneurship sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Regulatory challenges
– Elastomers Polyolefins 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.
Increasing wage structure of Elastomers Polyolefins
– 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 Elastomers Polyolefins.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Dow Chemical Polyolefins and Elastomers R&D: Sustaining High Performance (Abridged) 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 Dow Chemical Polyolefins and Elastomers R&D: Sustaining High Performance (Abridged) 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 Dow Chemical Polyolefins and Elastomers R&D: Sustaining High Performance (Abridged) 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 Dow Chemical Polyolefins and Elastomers R&D: Sustaining High Performance (Abridged) 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 Dow Chemical Polyolefins and Elastomers R&D: Sustaining High Performance (Abridged) 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 Elastomers Polyolefins needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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