The Nature Conservancy: Advocating for and Investing in Sustainable Water Management SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of The Nature Conservancy: Advocating for and Investing in Sustainable Water Management
The Nature Conservancy (TNC) was one of the largest conservation organizations in the world; its mission was to "to conserve the lands and waters on which all life depends." Over time, TNC had expanded its mission to include advocating for sustainable water-management practices, and its numerous water specialists had advised corporations, water ministries, legislatures, and many other organizations. TNC was constantly exploring new ways of advocating sustainable water use and weighing its options to engage new opportunities. Brian Richter, a veteran scientist for TNC who had led its water market strategy for the past few years, was convinced that water markets could be attractive for the market-friendly TNC. But he wondered how TNC could integrate water markets into its water strategy while staying true to its legacy and mission. This case includes an interview with TNC's Brian Richter about some of the tools TNC had at its disposal to realize its conservationist objectives.
Swot Analysis of "The Nature Conservancy: Advocating for and Investing in Sustainable Water Management" written by Peter Debaere, Brian Richter includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Tnc Water facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in The Nature Conservancy: Advocating for and Investing in Sustainable Water Management case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the The Nature Conservancy: Advocating for and Investing in Sustainable Water Management casestudy better are - – increasing commodity prices, increasing energy prices, geopolitical disruptions, increasing transportation and logistics costs, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies,
increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, there is backlash against globalization, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of The Nature Conservancy: Advocating for and Investing in Sustainable Water Management
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in The Nature Conservancy: Advocating for and Investing in Sustainable Water Management case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Tnc Water, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Tnc Water 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 The Nature Conservancy: Advocating for and Investing in Sustainable Water Management can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in The Nature Conservancy: Advocating for and Investing in Sustainable Water Management case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Tnc Water
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Leadership & Managing People field.
4. Making a Leadership & Managing People topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Tnc Water
Strengths The Nature Conservancy: Advocating for and Investing in Sustainable Water Management | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Tnc Water in The Nature Conservancy: Advocating for and Investing in Sustainable Water Management Harvard Business Review case study are -
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Tnc Water digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Tnc Water 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Tnc Water 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the The Nature Conservancy: Advocating for and Investing in Sustainable Water Management 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.
Learning organization
- Tnc Water 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 Tnc Water is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in The Nature Conservancy: Advocating for and Investing in Sustainable Water Management Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Tnc Water 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 The Nature Conservancy: Advocating for and Investing in Sustainable Water Management - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– The Nature Conservancy: Advocating for and Investing in Sustainable Water Management firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Tnc Water to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Tnc Water to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Strong track record of project management
– Tnc Water is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Innovation driven organization
– Tnc Water is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in The Nature Conservancy: Advocating for and Investing in Sustainable Water Management Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Tnc Water in the sector have low bargaining power. The Nature Conservancy: Advocating for and Investing in Sustainable Water Management has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Tnc Water to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Tnc Water 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.
Organizational Resilience of Tnc Water
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Tnc Water does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Tnc Water has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Tnc Water 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.
Weaknesses The Nature Conservancy: Advocating for and Investing in Sustainable Water Management | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of The Nature Conservancy: Advocating for and Investing in Sustainable Water Management are -
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Tnc Water 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. Tnc Water 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Tnc Water is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study The Nature Conservancy: Advocating for and Investing in Sustainable Water Management can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Tnc Water 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 dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the The Nature Conservancy: Advocating for and Investing in Sustainable Water Management 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 Tnc Water has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Tnc Water 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Tnc Water products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Tnc Water needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As The Nature Conservancy: Advocating for and Investing in Sustainable Water Management HBR case study mentions - Tnc Water takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the industry in last five years.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Tnc Water, firm in the HBR case study The Nature Conservancy: Advocating for and Investing in Sustainable Water Management needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Tnc Water 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 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 Tnc Water supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - The Nature Conservancy: Advocating for and Investing in Sustainable Water Management, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Tnc Water vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study The Nature Conservancy: Advocating for and Investing in Sustainable Water Management, is just above the industry average. Tnc Water 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.
Opportunities The Nature Conservancy: Advocating for and Investing in Sustainable Water Management | 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 The Nature Conservancy: Advocating for and Investing in Sustainable Water Management are -
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Tnc Water to increase its market reach. Tnc Water will be able to reach out to new customers. Secondly 5G will also provide technology framework to build new tools and products that can help more immersive consumer experience and faster consumer journey.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Tnc Water in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Leadership & Managing People segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Tnc Water in the consumer business. Now Tnc Water can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Tnc Water can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Tnc Water 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 Leadership & Managing People segment.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Tnc Water is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. The Nature Conservancy: Advocating for and Investing in Sustainable Water Management 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Tnc Water 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Tnc Water can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. The Nature Conservancy: Advocating for and Investing in Sustainable Water Management 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Tnc Water 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Tnc Water can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Tnc Water operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Tnc Water has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Tnc Water to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the The Nature Conservancy: Advocating for and Investing in Sustainable Water Management case study. Tnc Water can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Tnc Water 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 Tnc Water to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Tnc Water 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, The Nature Conservancy: Advocating for and Investing in Sustainable Water Management, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Threats The Nature Conservancy: Advocating for and Investing in Sustainable Water Management External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study The Nature Conservancy: Advocating for and Investing in Sustainable Water Management are -
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Tnc Water has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Tnc Water needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Leadership & Managing People 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. Tnc Water 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 Tnc Water 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.
Increasing wage structure of Tnc Water
– 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 Tnc Water.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Tnc Water in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The Leadership & Managing People 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Tnc Water 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 Leadership & Managing People industry regulations.
Environmental challenges
– Tnc Water 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. Tnc Water can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Tnc Water 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 The Nature Conservancy: Advocating for and Investing in Sustainable Water Management .
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.
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.
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 Tnc Water in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Tnc Water 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study The Nature Conservancy: Advocating for and Investing in Sustainable Water Management, Tnc Water may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Leadership & Managing People .
Weighted SWOT Analysis of The Nature Conservancy: Advocating for and Investing in Sustainable Water Management 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 The Nature Conservancy: Advocating for and Investing in Sustainable Water Management 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 The Nature Conservancy: Advocating for and Investing in Sustainable Water Management 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 The Nature Conservancy: Advocating for and Investing in Sustainable Water Management 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 The Nature Conservancy: Advocating for and Investing in Sustainable Water Management 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 Tnc Water needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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