Unilever and Oxfam: Understanding the Impacts of Business on Poverty (B) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Unilever and Oxfam: Understanding the Impacts of Business on Poverty (B)
In 2003, Unilever and Oxfam embarked on a groundbreaking "learning project" designed to better understand the impacts of business on poverty. Developing countries were seen as an essential component of Unilever's corporate strategy, with developing and emerging markets forecast to account for 90% of the world's population by 2010. Unilever had long been present in many of these markets and was increasingly aware that its future growth would depend upon its ability to address issues of social and economic development in developing countries, including poverty. Oxfam, one of the world's most prominent nongovernmental organisations (NGOs), was focused in its campaigning and other activities on the alleviation of poverty. Thus, despite the often adversarial relationship between corporations and NGOs, the two organisations shared a common interest which formed the basis for their collaboration. The goal was to examine the role of business in poverty reduction, specifically by studying Unilever's operations in Indonesia. Case A describes how this collaboration came about and provides background on Unilever, Unilever Indonesia (UI), and Oxfam, including its campaigns against the pharmaceutical and coffee industries. It also examines the role of NGOs, the challenge of tackling poverty in developing countries, the Millennium Development Goals, and the UN Global Compact. The case ithe difficulties inherent in better understanding the role of MNCs in poverty alleviation as well as in forging effective collaboration between corporations and NGOs.
Swot Analysis of "Unilever and Oxfam: Understanding the Impacts of Business on Poverty (B)" written by Crawford Robert, N. Craig Smith includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Poverty Oxfam facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Unilever and Oxfam: Understanding the Impacts of Business on Poverty (B) case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Emerging markets and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Unilever and Oxfam: Understanding the Impacts of Business on Poverty (B) casestudy better are - – there is increasing trade war between United States & China, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings,
increasing commodity prices, wage bills are increasing, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Unilever and Oxfam: Understanding the Impacts of Business on Poverty (B)
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Unilever and Oxfam: Understanding the Impacts of Business on Poverty (B) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Poverty Oxfam, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Poverty Oxfam 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 Unilever and Oxfam: Understanding the Impacts of Business on Poverty (B) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Unilever and Oxfam: Understanding the Impacts of Business on Poverty (B) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Poverty Oxfam
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 Poverty Oxfam
Strengths Unilever and Oxfam: Understanding the Impacts of Business on Poverty (B) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Poverty Oxfam in Unilever and Oxfam: Understanding the Impacts of Business on Poverty (B) Harvard Business Review case study are -
Learning organization
- Poverty Oxfam 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 Poverty Oxfam is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Unilever and Oxfam: Understanding the Impacts of Business on Poverty (B) Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Innovation driven organization
– Poverty Oxfam is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Unilever and Oxfam: Understanding the Impacts of Business on Poverty (B) Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Poverty Oxfam 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
– Poverty Oxfam has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Poverty Oxfam to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– Unilever and Oxfam: Understanding the Impacts of Business on Poverty (B) firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Poverty Oxfam to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Poverty Oxfam to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Poverty Oxfam in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Poverty Oxfam digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Poverty Oxfam 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Poverty Oxfam 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.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Poverty Oxfam 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 Poverty Oxfam in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Unilever and Oxfam: Understanding the Impacts of Business on Poverty (B) 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.
Analytics focus
– Poverty Oxfam 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 Crawford Robert, N. Craig Smith 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
– Poverty Oxfam is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Unilever and Oxfam: Understanding the Impacts of Business on Poverty (B) 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.
Weaknesses Unilever and Oxfam: Understanding the Impacts of Business on Poverty (B) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Unilever and Oxfam: Understanding the Impacts of Business on Poverty (B) are -
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Poverty Oxfam is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Poverty Oxfam needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Poverty Oxfam to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Poverty Oxfam, firm in the HBR case study Unilever and Oxfam: Understanding the Impacts of Business on Poverty (B) needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Lack of clear differentiation of Poverty Oxfam products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Poverty Oxfam needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Crawford Robert, N. Craig Smith suggests that, Poverty Oxfam 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Poverty Oxfam 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Unilever and Oxfam: Understanding the Impacts of Business on Poverty (B), in the dynamic environment Poverty Oxfam has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Poverty Oxfam has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Unilever and Oxfam: Understanding the Impacts of Business on Poverty (B), is just above the industry average. Poverty Oxfam 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Poverty Oxfam 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. Poverty Oxfam 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.
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 Poverty Oxfam supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Unilever and Oxfam: Understanding the Impacts of Business on Poverty (B), it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Poverty Oxfam vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Unilever and Oxfam: Understanding the Impacts of Business on Poverty (B), it seems that the employees of Poverty Oxfam 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Poverty Oxfam is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Unilever and Oxfam: Understanding the Impacts of Business on Poverty (B) can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Opportunities Unilever and Oxfam: Understanding the Impacts of Business on Poverty (B) | 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 Unilever and Oxfam: Understanding the Impacts of Business on Poverty (B) are -
Developing new processes and practices
– Poverty Oxfam 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Poverty Oxfam 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, Poverty Oxfam is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Unilever and Oxfam: Understanding the Impacts of Business on Poverty (B) 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Poverty Oxfam 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 Unilever and Oxfam: Understanding the Impacts of Business on Poverty (B) - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Poverty Oxfam to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
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 Poverty Oxfam 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Poverty Oxfam 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Poverty Oxfam 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, Unilever and Oxfam: Understanding the Impacts of Business on Poverty (B), to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Poverty Oxfam to increase its market reach. Poverty Oxfam 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Poverty Oxfam 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.
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 Poverty Oxfam in the consumer business. Now Poverty Oxfam can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
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. Poverty Oxfam can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
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. Poverty Oxfam can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Loyalty marketing
– Poverty Oxfam has focused on building a highly responsive customer relationship management platform. This platform is built on in-house data and driven by analytics and artificial intelligence. The customer analytics can help the organization to fine tune its loyalty marketing efforts, increase the wallet share of the organization, reduce wastage on mainstream advertising spending, build better pricing strategies using personalization, etc.
Threats Unilever and Oxfam: Understanding the Impacts of Business on Poverty (B) External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Unilever and Oxfam: Understanding the Impacts of Business on Poverty (B) are -
Consumer confidence and its impact on Poverty Oxfam 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.
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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Poverty Oxfam 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
– Poverty Oxfam 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.
Increasing wage structure of Poverty Oxfam
– 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 Poverty Oxfam.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Poverty Oxfam 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.
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. Poverty Oxfam needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Poverty Oxfam 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 Unilever and Oxfam: Understanding the Impacts of Business on Poverty (B) .
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 Poverty Oxfam in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Environmental challenges
– Poverty Oxfam 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. Poverty Oxfam can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Unilever and Oxfam: Understanding the Impacts of Business on Poverty (B), Poverty Oxfam 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. Poverty Oxfam 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Unilever and Oxfam: Understanding the Impacts of Business on Poverty (B) 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 Unilever and Oxfam: Understanding the Impacts of Business on Poverty (B) 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 Unilever and Oxfam: Understanding the Impacts of Business on Poverty (B) 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 Unilever and Oxfam: Understanding the Impacts of Business on Poverty (B) 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 Unilever and Oxfam: Understanding the Impacts of Business on Poverty (B) 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 Poverty Oxfam needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.