TriCiclos: The Challenge of Scaling Recycling in Latin America SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of TriCiclos: The Challenge of Scaling Recycling in Latin America
TriCiclos, a recycling company in Chile, and the first B Corporation in Latin America, is innovating the way business is understood and conducted. The chief executive officer is excited about the financial future of the company, including expansion into new geographic markets in Latin America. Nevertheless, different geographic markets bring a new set of challenges for a sustainable business: foreign governments with different laws and regulations for recycling and partnering with clients and recyclers, the need to establish partnerships with local recycling plants and, more importantly, how these variables affect the company's organizational mission and culture. Chris Laszlo is affiliated with Case Western Reserve University. Katherine Gullett is affiliated with Case Western Reserve University, Weatherhead School of Management.
Authors :: Chris Laszlo, Katherine Gullett, Ignacio Pavez, Maria Bello
Swot Analysis of "TriCiclos: The Challenge of Scaling Recycling in Latin America" written by Chris Laszlo, Katherine Gullett, Ignacio Pavez, Maria Bello includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Recycling Triciclos facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in TriCiclos: The Challenge of Scaling Recycling in Latin America case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Sustainability and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the TriCiclos: The Challenge of Scaling Recycling in Latin America casestudy better are - – increasing transportation and logistics costs, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, there is backlash against globalization, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies,
increasing commodity prices, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of TriCiclos: The Challenge of Scaling Recycling in Latin America
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in TriCiclos: The Challenge of Scaling Recycling in Latin America case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Recycling Triciclos, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Recycling Triciclos 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 TriCiclos: The Challenge of Scaling Recycling in Latin America can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in TriCiclos: The Challenge of Scaling Recycling in Latin America case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Recycling Triciclos
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 Recycling Triciclos
Strengths TriCiclos: The Challenge of Scaling Recycling in Latin America | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Recycling Triciclos in TriCiclos: The Challenge of Scaling Recycling in Latin America Harvard Business Review case study are -
Innovation driven organization
– Recycling Triciclos is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in TriCiclos: The Challenge of Scaling Recycling in Latin America Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Analytics focus
– Recycling Triciclos 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 Chris Laszlo, Katherine Gullett, Ignacio Pavez, Maria Bello 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Recycling Triciclos is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in TriCiclos: The Challenge of Scaling Recycling in Latin America 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 Leadership & Managing People industry
– TriCiclos: The Challenge of Scaling Recycling in Latin America firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Recycling Triciclos to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Recycling Triciclos to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Recycling Triciclos 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 TriCiclos: The Challenge of Scaling Recycling in Latin America HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Recycling Triciclos is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the TriCiclos: The Challenge of Scaling Recycling in Latin America are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Recycling Triciclos in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Learning organization
- Recycling Triciclos 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 Recycling Triciclos is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in TriCiclos: The Challenge of Scaling Recycling in Latin America Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Recycling Triciclos 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 Recycling Triciclos in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Strong track record of project management
– Recycling Triciclos 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 Recycling Triciclos in the sector have low bargaining power. TriCiclos: The Challenge of Scaling Recycling in Latin America has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Recycling Triciclos to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Recycling Triciclos 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.
Weaknesses TriCiclos: The Challenge of Scaling Recycling in Latin America | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of TriCiclos: The Challenge of Scaling Recycling in Latin America are -
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study TriCiclos: The Challenge of Scaling Recycling in Latin America, 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study TriCiclos: The Challenge of Scaling Recycling in Latin America, in the dynamic environment Recycling Triciclos has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Recycling Triciclos has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Recycling Triciclos 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the TriCiclos: The Challenge of Scaling Recycling in Latin America 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 Recycling Triciclos has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Recycling Triciclos has created an environment where the organization is dominated by functional specialists rather than management generalist. This has resulted into product oriented approach rather than marketing oriented approach or consumers oriented approach.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Recycling Triciclos 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. Recycling Triciclos 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Recycling Triciclos is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Recycling Triciclos needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Recycling Triciclos to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
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 Recycling Triciclos supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - TriCiclos: The Challenge of Scaling Recycling in Latin America, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Recycling Triciclos vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Recycling Triciclos 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study TriCiclos: The Challenge of Scaling Recycling in Latin America 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 TriCiclos: The Challenge of Scaling Recycling in Latin America can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Recycling Triciclos is planning to shift buying processes online.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study TriCiclos: The Challenge of Scaling Recycling in Latin America, it seems that the employees of Recycling Triciclos 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.
Opportunities TriCiclos: The Challenge of Scaling Recycling in Latin America | 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 TriCiclos: The Challenge of Scaling Recycling in Latin America are -
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. Recycling Triciclos can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Recycling Triciclos has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Recycling Triciclos to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the TriCiclos: The Challenge of Scaling Recycling in Latin America case study. Recycling Triciclos 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 Recycling Triciclos 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.
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. Recycling Triciclos 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. Recycling Triciclos 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Recycling Triciclos has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in the sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled, as illustrated in the Harvard case study TriCiclos: The Challenge of Scaling Recycling in Latin America - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Recycling Triciclos to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Buying journey improvements
– Recycling Triciclos can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. TriCiclos: The Challenge of Scaling Recycling in Latin America 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Recycling Triciclos 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Leadership & Managing People industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Recycling Triciclos can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Recycling Triciclos to increase its market reach. Recycling Triciclos 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Recycling Triciclos 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 Recycling Triciclos 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Recycling Triciclos can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Recycling Triciclos operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Recycling Triciclos 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 Recycling Triciclos to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Threats TriCiclos: The Challenge of Scaling Recycling in Latin America External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study TriCiclos: The Challenge of Scaling Recycling in Latin America are -
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Recycling Triciclos 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 TriCiclos: The Challenge of Scaling Recycling in Latin America .
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Recycling Triciclos 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.
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 Recycling Triciclos.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study TriCiclos: The Challenge of Scaling Recycling in Latin America, Recycling Triciclos 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 .
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Recycling Triciclos 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
– Recycling Triciclos 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Recycling Triciclos with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Environmental challenges
– Recycling Triciclos 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. Recycling Triciclos can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Recycling Triciclos 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.
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.
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. Recycling Triciclos needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Recycling Triciclos 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 Recycling Triciclos
– 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 Recycling Triciclos.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of TriCiclos: The Challenge of Scaling Recycling in Latin America 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 TriCiclos: The Challenge of Scaling Recycling in Latin America 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 TriCiclos: The Challenge of Scaling Recycling in Latin America 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 TriCiclos: The Challenge of Scaling Recycling in Latin America 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 TriCiclos: The Challenge of Scaling Recycling in Latin America 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 Recycling Triciclos needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.