Case Study Description of CivicAction (A): Launching a Multi-Stakeholder Initiative
Although much had been accomplished since the members of the Commercial Building Energy Initiative Leadership Council first met in September 2009, the co-chairs were concerned about the local landlords' reluctance to engage in a public race to reduce energy consumption in their respective buildings. As one of three environmental initiatives launched out of CivicAction's Greening Greater Toronto initiative, reducing the energy consumption in commercial office buildings in the Greater Toronto Area was a project that would certainly require the landlords' support and commitment. Use with supplements CivicAction (B): The Target and CivicAction (C): The Awards.
Swot Analysis of "CivicAction (A): Launching a Multi-Stakeholder Initiative" written by Jean-Louis Schaan, Gerard Seijts includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Civicaction Landlords facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in CivicAction (A): Launching a Multi-Stakeholder Initiative case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Corporate governance, Leadership, Strategy and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the CivicAction (A): Launching a Multi-Stakeholder Initiative casestudy better are - – competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing energy prices, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing commodity prices, increasing transportation and logistics costs, there is increasing trade war between United States & China,
central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, technology disruption, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of CivicAction (A): Launching a Multi-Stakeholder Initiative
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in CivicAction (A): Launching a Multi-Stakeholder Initiative case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Civicaction Landlords, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Civicaction Landlords 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 CivicAction (A): Launching a Multi-Stakeholder Initiative can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in CivicAction (A): Launching a Multi-Stakeholder Initiative case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Civicaction Landlords
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 Civicaction Landlords
Strengths CivicAction (A): Launching a Multi-Stakeholder Initiative | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Civicaction Landlords in CivicAction (A): Launching a Multi-Stakeholder Initiative Harvard Business Review case study are -
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Civicaction Landlords 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 Civicaction Landlords 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
– Civicaction Landlords is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Civicaction Landlords digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Civicaction Landlords 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 Civicaction Landlords 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.
High brand equity
– Civicaction Landlords has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Civicaction Landlords to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Civicaction Landlords is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the CivicAction (A): Launching a Multi-Stakeholder Initiative are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Innovation driven organization
– Civicaction Landlords is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in CivicAction (A): Launching a Multi-Stakeholder Initiative 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 Civicaction Landlords in the sector have low bargaining power. CivicAction (A): Launching a Multi-Stakeholder Initiative has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Civicaction Landlords to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Training and development
– Civicaction Landlords has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in CivicAction (A): Launching a Multi-Stakeholder Initiative Harvard Business Review case study by analyzing – employees retention, in-house promotion, loyalty, new venture initiation, lack of conflict, and high level of both employees and customer engagement.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the CivicAction (A): Launching a Multi-Stakeholder Initiative 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Civicaction Landlords is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in CivicAction (A): Launching a Multi-Stakeholder Initiative 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Civicaction Landlords 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.
Weaknesses CivicAction (A): Launching a Multi-Stakeholder Initiative | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of CivicAction (A): Launching a Multi-Stakeholder Initiative are -
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Civicaction Landlords 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Civicaction Landlords has some of the most successful products in the industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. firm in the HBR case study - CivicAction (A): Launching a Multi-Stakeholder Initiative should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Jean-Louis Schaan, Gerard Seijts suggests that, Civicaction Landlords 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Civicaction Landlords has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Civicaction Landlords 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Civicaction Landlords is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Civicaction Landlords needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Civicaction Landlords to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Lack of clear differentiation of Civicaction Landlords products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Civicaction Landlords needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
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 Civicaction Landlords supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - CivicAction (A): Launching a Multi-Stakeholder Initiative, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Civicaction Landlords vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the CivicAction (A): Launching a Multi-Stakeholder Initiative 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 Civicaction Landlords has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Civicaction Landlords is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study CivicAction (A): Launching a Multi-Stakeholder Initiative can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study CivicAction (A): Launching a Multi-Stakeholder Initiative, in the dynamic environment Civicaction Landlords has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Civicaction Landlords has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Opportunities CivicAction (A): Launching a Multi-Stakeholder Initiative | 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 CivicAction (A): Launching a Multi-Stakeholder Initiative are -
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. Civicaction Landlords 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. Civicaction Landlords 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Civicaction Landlords has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Civicaction Landlords to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the CivicAction (A): Launching a Multi-Stakeholder Initiative case study. Civicaction Landlords can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Leadership & Managing People industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Civicaction Landlords can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
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 Civicaction Landlords in the consumer business. Now Civicaction Landlords can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Loyalty marketing
– Civicaction Landlords 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Civicaction Landlords 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 CivicAction (A): Launching a Multi-Stakeholder Initiative - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Civicaction Landlords to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Civicaction Landlords 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Civicaction Landlords 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 Civicaction Landlords to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Civicaction Landlords 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Civicaction Landlords can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. CivicAction (A): Launching a Multi-Stakeholder Initiative 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Civicaction Landlords is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. CivicAction (A): Launching a Multi-Stakeholder Initiative 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Civicaction Landlords 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Civicaction Landlords can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Leadership & Managing People segment. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.
Threats CivicAction (A): Launching a Multi-Stakeholder Initiative External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study CivicAction (A): Launching a Multi-Stakeholder Initiative are -
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.
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. Civicaction Landlords 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 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. Civicaction Landlords needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Increasing wage structure of Civicaction Landlords
– 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 Civicaction Landlords.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Civicaction Landlords 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.
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 Civicaction Landlords in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study CivicAction (A): Launching a Multi-Stakeholder Initiative, Civicaction Landlords 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 Civicaction Landlords 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.
Environmental challenges
– Civicaction Landlords 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. Civicaction Landlords can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
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 Civicaction Landlords business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Civicaction Landlords has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Civicaction Landlords 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Civicaction Landlords 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 CivicAction (A): Launching a Multi-Stakeholder Initiative .
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 Civicaction Landlords.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of CivicAction (A): Launching a Multi-Stakeholder Initiative 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 CivicAction (A): Launching a Multi-Stakeholder Initiative 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 CivicAction (A): Launching a Multi-Stakeholder Initiative 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 CivicAction (A): Launching a Multi-Stakeholder Initiative 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 CivicAction (A): Launching a Multi-Stakeholder Initiative 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 Civicaction Landlords needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
