Sakhizwe Con Roux Construction: Building the Nation (1965-2004) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Sakhizwe Con Roux Construction: Building the Nation (1965-2004)
After 39 years in business, Con Roux Construction finally collapsed in 2004, after having transitioned from the white-rule apartheid to the black-rule ANC government. For a medium-size, family-owned business the decade proved to be particularly difficult. Deals with the final chapter (liquidation) of the business and the reflections of senior management on what had come to pass.
Swot Analysis of "Sakhizwe Con Roux Construction: Building the Nation (1965-2004)" written by Ted Black, Paddy Miller includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Roux Con facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Sakhizwe Con Roux Construction: Building the Nation (1965-2004) case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Competitive strategy and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Sakhizwe Con Roux Construction: Building the Nation (1965-2004) casestudy better are - – geopolitical disruptions, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, technology disruption, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, wage bills are increasing, increasing energy prices,
increasing transportation and logistics costs, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Sakhizwe Con Roux Construction: Building the Nation (1965-2004)
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Sakhizwe Con Roux Construction: Building the Nation (1965-2004) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Roux Con, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Roux Con 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 Sakhizwe Con Roux Construction: Building the Nation (1965-2004) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Sakhizwe Con Roux Construction: Building the Nation (1965-2004) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Roux Con
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 Roux Con
Strengths Sakhizwe Con Roux Construction: Building the Nation (1965-2004) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Roux Con in Sakhizwe Con Roux Construction: Building the Nation (1965-2004) Harvard Business Review case study are -
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Sakhizwe Con Roux Construction: Building the Nation (1965-2004) 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Roux Con is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Roux Con in the sector have low bargaining power. Sakhizwe Con Roux Construction: Building the Nation (1965-2004) has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Roux Con to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Diverse revenue streams
– Roux Con is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Sakhizwe Con Roux Construction: Building the Nation (1965-2004) case study a diverse revenue stream that has helped it to survive disruptions such as global pandemic in Covid-19, financial disruption of 2008, and supply chain disruption of 2021.
Innovation driven organization
– Roux Con is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Sakhizwe Con Roux Construction: Building the Nation (1965-2004) Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Roux Con 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 Sakhizwe Con Roux Construction: Building the Nation (1965-2004) HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Analytics focus
– Roux Con 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 Ted Black, Paddy Miller 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.
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Roux Con digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Roux Con 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.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Roux Con 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 Roux Con in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Roux Con 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Roux Con has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Roux Con 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.
High brand equity
– Roux Con has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Roux Con to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Weaknesses Sakhizwe Con Roux Construction: Building the Nation (1965-2004) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Sakhizwe Con Roux Construction: Building the Nation (1965-2004) are -
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Roux Con is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Sakhizwe Con Roux Construction: Building the Nation (1965-2004) can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Roux Con, firm in the HBR case study Sakhizwe Con Roux Construction: Building the Nation (1965-2004) needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Roux Con 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 operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Sakhizwe Con Roux Construction: Building the Nation (1965-2004) 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 Roux Con 's lucrative customers.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Sakhizwe Con Roux Construction: Building the Nation (1965-2004), in the dynamic environment Roux Con has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Roux Con has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Sakhizwe Con Roux Construction: Building the Nation (1965-2004), it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Leadership & Managing People 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Sakhizwe Con Roux Construction: Building the Nation (1965-2004) HBR case study mentions - Roux Con 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Roux Con is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Roux Con needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Roux Con to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Lack of clear differentiation of Roux Con products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Roux Con needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Roux Con 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 bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Ted Black, Paddy Miller suggests that, Roux Con 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 Sakhizwe Con Roux Construction: Building the Nation (1965-2004) | 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 Sakhizwe Con Roux Construction: Building the Nation (1965-2004) are -
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Roux Con 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Leadership & Managing People industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Roux Con 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. Roux Con 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Roux Con can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Roux Con operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
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. Roux Con can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Roux Con 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, Roux Con is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Sakhizwe Con Roux Construction: Building the Nation (1965-2004) 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
– Roux Con 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Roux Con 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Roux Con can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Sakhizwe Con Roux Construction: Building the Nation (1965-2004) 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Roux Con can develop new processes and procedures in Leadership & Managing People industry using technology such as automation using artificial intelligence, real time transportation and products tracking, 3D modeling for concept development and new products pilot testing etc.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Roux Con has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Roux Con to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Sakhizwe Con Roux Construction: Building the Nation (1965-2004) case study. Roux Con can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
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 Roux Con 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Roux Con 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.
Threats Sakhizwe Con Roux Construction: Building the Nation (1965-2004) External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Sakhizwe Con Roux Construction: Building the Nation (1965-2004) are -
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Roux Con 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Roux Con 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 Sakhizwe Con Roux Construction: Building the Nation (1965-2004) .
Environmental challenges
– Roux Con 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. Roux Con can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Roux Con is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Increasing wage structure of Roux Con
– 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 Roux Con.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Sakhizwe Con Roux Construction: Building the Nation (1965-2004), Roux Con 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 .
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. Roux Con 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Roux Con 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.
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 Roux Con in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Roux Con with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Regulatory challenges
– Roux Con 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.
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 Roux Con business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Sakhizwe Con Roux Construction: Building the Nation (1965-2004) 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 Sakhizwe Con Roux Construction: Building the Nation (1965-2004) 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 Sakhizwe Con Roux Construction: Building the Nation (1965-2004) 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 Sakhizwe Con Roux Construction: Building the Nation (1965-2004) 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 Sakhizwe Con Roux Construction: Building the Nation (1965-2004) 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 Roux Con needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.