Swot Analysis of "Milwaukee (B1): Dean Amhaus, President, Water Council" written by Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Matthew Bird includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Amhaus Milwaukee facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Milwaukee (B1): Dean Amhaus, President, Water Council case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Growth strategy and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Milwaukee (B1): Dean Amhaus, President, Water Council casestudy better are - – geopolitical disruptions, increasing transportation and logistics costs, technology disruption, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, there is increasing trade war between United States & China,
increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Milwaukee (B1): Dean Amhaus, President, Water Council
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Milwaukee (B1): Dean Amhaus, President, Water Council case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Amhaus Milwaukee, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Amhaus Milwaukee 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 Milwaukee (B1): Dean Amhaus, President, Water Council can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Milwaukee (B1): Dean Amhaus, President, Water Council case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Amhaus Milwaukee
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 Amhaus Milwaukee
Strengths Milwaukee (B1): Dean Amhaus, President, Water Council | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Amhaus Milwaukee in Milwaukee (B1): Dean Amhaus, President, Water Council Harvard Business Review case study are -
Ability to recruit top talent
– Amhaus Milwaukee is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Milwaukee (B1): Dean Amhaus, President, Water Council 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
– Amhaus Milwaukee is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Milwaukee (B1): Dean Amhaus, President, Water Council Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Amhaus Milwaukee has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Amhaus Milwaukee 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.
Learning organization
- Amhaus Milwaukee 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 Amhaus Milwaukee is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Milwaukee (B1): Dean Amhaus, President, Water Council Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Diverse revenue streams
– Amhaus Milwaukee is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Milwaukee (B1): Dean Amhaus, President, Water Council 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Amhaus Milwaukee has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in, as mentioned in case study Milwaukee (B1): Dean Amhaus, President, Water Council - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Amhaus Milwaukee 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Amhaus Milwaukee in the sector have low bargaining power. Milwaukee (B1): Dean Amhaus, President, Water Council has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Amhaus Milwaukee to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Amhaus Milwaukee 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 Amhaus Milwaukee in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– Milwaukee (B1): Dean Amhaus, President, Water Council firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Amhaus Milwaukee to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Amhaus Milwaukee to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Analytics focus
– Amhaus Milwaukee 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 Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Matthew Bird 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Milwaukee (B1): Dean Amhaus, President, Water Council 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.
Weaknesses Milwaukee (B1): Dean Amhaus, President, Water Council | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Milwaukee (B1): Dean Amhaus, President, Water Council are -
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Amhaus Milwaukee 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Amhaus Milwaukee 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. Amhaus Milwaukee even though has strong showing on digital transformation primary two stages, it has struggled to capitalize the power of digital transformation in marketing efforts and new venture efforts.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Milwaukee (B1): Dean Amhaus, President, Water Council HBR case study mentions - Amhaus Milwaukee 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Amhaus Milwaukee 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Milwaukee (B1): Dean Amhaus, President, Water Council, is just above the industry average. Amhaus Milwaukee 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Milwaukee (B1): Dean Amhaus, President, Water Council 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 Amhaus Milwaukee 's lucrative customers.
Need for greater diversity
– Amhaus Milwaukee 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Milwaukee (B1): Dean Amhaus, President, Water Council 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 Milwaukee (B1): Dean Amhaus, President, Water Council can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Amhaus Milwaukee is planning to shift buying processes online.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Amhaus Milwaukee 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Milwaukee (B1): Dean Amhaus, President, Water Council, 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Milwaukee (B1): Dean Amhaus, President, Water Council 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 Amhaus Milwaukee has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Opportunities Milwaukee (B1): Dean Amhaus, President, Water Council | 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 Milwaukee (B1): Dean Amhaus, President, Water Council are -
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Amhaus Milwaukee 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 Amhaus Milwaukee to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Amhaus Milwaukee 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, Milwaukee (B1): Dean Amhaus, President, Water Council, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Amhaus Milwaukee is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Milwaukee (B1): Dean Amhaus, President, Water Council 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.
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 Amhaus Milwaukee in the consumer business. Now Amhaus Milwaukee can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
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. Amhaus Milwaukee 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. Amhaus Milwaukee 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Amhaus Milwaukee can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Amhaus Milwaukee to increase its market reach. Amhaus Milwaukee 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.
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 Amhaus Milwaukee 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Amhaus Milwaukee 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Amhaus Milwaukee 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
– Amhaus Milwaukee 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 Milwaukee (B1): Dean Amhaus, President, Water Council - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Amhaus Milwaukee to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
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. Amhaus Milwaukee can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Manufacturing automation
– Amhaus Milwaukee 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 Milwaukee (B1): Dean Amhaus, President, Water Council External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Milwaukee (B1): Dean Amhaus, President, Water Council are -
Consumer confidence and its impact on Amhaus Milwaukee 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.
Environmental challenges
– Amhaus Milwaukee 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. Amhaus Milwaukee can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Amhaus Milwaukee 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Milwaukee (B1): Dean Amhaus, President, Water Council, Amhaus Milwaukee 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 .
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 Amhaus Milwaukee in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Amhaus Milwaukee 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.
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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Amhaus Milwaukee is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Amhaus Milwaukee 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Amhaus Milwaukee with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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. Amhaus Milwaukee needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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. Amhaus Milwaukee 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.
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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Milwaukee (B1): Dean Amhaus, President, Water Council 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 Milwaukee (B1): Dean Amhaus, President, Water Council 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 Milwaukee (B1): Dean Amhaus, President, Water Council 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 Milwaukee (B1): Dean Amhaus, President, Water Council 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 Milwaukee (B1): Dean Amhaus, President, Water Council 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 Amhaus Milwaukee needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
