Coastal Ventures Limited Partnership: Balancing a Sustainable Investment Strategy with a Social Mission SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Coastal Ventures Limited Partnership: Balancing a Sustainable Investment Strategy with a Social Mission
Nat Henshaw, president of CEI Ventures Inc. (CVI) a subsidiary of the nonprofit Coastal Enterprises Inc. (CEI), was involved in a balancing act. He was a manager of a for-profit venture capital fund, Coastal Ventures Limited Partnership (CVLP), with a social mission that valued good-quality jobs, employee ownership, and a concern for the environment. Henshaw and his board of directors were also thinking about the next venture capital fund, which they wanted to have in place when they began to wind down the investment activity of the current fund. Did they have the right balance between profit and social mission? Could they invest the remaining 60% of CVLP's funds in the next two years in a manner that struck the right balance? And did they have a good enough track record to attract investment into a new fund? Many students will be unfamiliar with this type of institution and the case provides sufficient details on the institutional structure of a community development venture capital fund and the way it operates to serve as an introduction to this subject. It demonstrates the way in which both institutionally and operationally the fund is designed to promote both profitable investments and a social mission. Nevertheless, the fund faces considerable problems in maintaining this balance. The case can then serve as a platform for a discussion of the effectiveness of such an institution in promoting community economic development. More generally, this case can be used to teach students about the "double bottom-line," where the bottom line is of a business which is the subsidiary of a nonprofit institution, which set up the business in the first place as part of its efforts to fulfill its mission. Such arrangements are becoming more common in the US nonprofit sector and they raise issues about the legitimacy of for-profit subsidiaries and the blurring of the line between the for-profit and nonprofit world. HKS Case Number 1669.0
Swot Analysis of "Coastal Ventures Limited Partnership: Balancing a Sustainable Investment Strategy with a Social Mission" written by Guy Stuart includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Fund Coastal facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Coastal Ventures Limited Partnership: Balancing a Sustainable Investment Strategy with a Social Mission case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Financial management, Human resource management, International business, Leadership, Strategic planning, Sustainability and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Coastal Ventures Limited Partnership: Balancing a Sustainable Investment Strategy with a Social Mission casestudy better are - – technology disruption, increasing commodity prices, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , there is backlash against globalization, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, wage bills are increasing,
increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Coastal Ventures Limited Partnership: Balancing a Sustainable Investment Strategy with a Social Mission
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Coastal Ventures Limited Partnership: Balancing a Sustainable Investment Strategy with a Social Mission case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Fund Coastal, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Fund Coastal 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 Coastal Ventures Limited Partnership: Balancing a Sustainable Investment Strategy with a Social Mission can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Coastal Ventures Limited Partnership: Balancing a Sustainable Investment Strategy with a Social Mission case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Fund Coastal
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 Fund Coastal
Strengths Coastal Ventures Limited Partnership: Balancing a Sustainable Investment Strategy with a Social Mission | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Fund Coastal in Coastal Ventures Limited Partnership: Balancing a Sustainable Investment Strategy with a Social Mission Harvard Business Review case study are -
Training and development
– Fund Coastal has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Coastal Ventures Limited Partnership: Balancing a Sustainable Investment Strategy with a Social Mission 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Fund Coastal 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 Coastal Ventures Limited Partnership: Balancing a Sustainable Investment Strategy with a Social Mission - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Organizational Resilience of Fund Coastal
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Fund Coastal does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Learning organization
- Fund Coastal 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 Fund Coastal is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Coastal Ventures Limited Partnership: Balancing a Sustainable Investment Strategy with a Social Mission Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
High brand equity
– Fund Coastal has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Fund Coastal to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Fund Coastal has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Fund Coastal 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Fund Coastal is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Coastal Ventures Limited Partnership: Balancing a Sustainable Investment Strategy with a Social Mission 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
– Fund Coastal is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Coastal Ventures Limited Partnership: Balancing a Sustainable Investment Strategy with a Social Mission Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Fund Coastal 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Fund Coastal is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Coastal Ventures Limited Partnership: Balancing a Sustainable Investment Strategy with a Social Mission 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Fund Coastal 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Fund Coastal 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 Coastal Ventures Limited Partnership: Balancing a Sustainable Investment Strategy with a Social Mission HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Weaknesses Coastal Ventures Limited Partnership: Balancing a Sustainable Investment Strategy with a Social Mission | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Coastal Ventures Limited Partnership: Balancing a Sustainable Investment Strategy with a Social Mission are -
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Fund Coastal 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Fund Coastal, firm in the HBR case study Coastal Ventures Limited Partnership: Balancing a Sustainable Investment Strategy with a Social Mission needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Fund Coastal needs to come up with a strategy to reduce the workers concern regarding automation. Without a clear strategy, it could lead to disruption and uncertainty within the organization.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Coastal Ventures Limited Partnership: Balancing a Sustainable Investment Strategy with a Social Mission 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 Fund Coastal has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Fund Coastal 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. Fund Coastal 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 operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Coastal Ventures Limited Partnership: Balancing a Sustainable Investment Strategy with a Social Mission 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 Fund Coastal 's lucrative customers.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Guy Stuart suggests that, Fund Coastal 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Fund Coastal 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Coastal Ventures Limited Partnership: Balancing a Sustainable Investment Strategy with a Social Mission, 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Fund Coastal 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Coastal Ventures Limited Partnership: Balancing a Sustainable Investment Strategy with a Social Mission, in the dynamic environment Fund Coastal has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Fund Coastal has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Opportunities Coastal Ventures Limited Partnership: Balancing a Sustainable Investment Strategy with a Social Mission | 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 Coastal Ventures Limited Partnership: Balancing a Sustainable Investment Strategy with a Social Mission are -
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Fund Coastal 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Fund Coastal to increase its market reach. Fund Coastal 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.
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. Fund Coastal can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Fund Coastal can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Fund Coastal operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Buying journey improvements
– Fund Coastal can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Coastal Ventures Limited Partnership: Balancing a Sustainable Investment Strategy with a Social Mission 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
– Fund Coastal 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.
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. Fund Coastal 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. Fund Coastal 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Fund Coastal 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Fund Coastal 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.
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 Fund Coastal 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Fund Coastal 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, Coastal Ventures Limited Partnership: Balancing a Sustainable Investment Strategy with a Social Mission, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Fund Coastal 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Fund Coastal 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.
Threats Coastal Ventures Limited Partnership: Balancing a Sustainable Investment Strategy with a Social Mission External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Coastal Ventures Limited Partnership: Balancing a Sustainable Investment Strategy with a Social Mission are -
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Leadership & Managing People field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Fund Coastal can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Increasing wage structure of Fund Coastal
– 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 Fund Coastal.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Fund Coastal 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Fund Coastal 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.
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. Fund Coastal needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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 Fund Coastal business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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.
Environmental challenges
– Fund Coastal 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. Fund Coastal 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 Fund Coastal in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The Leadership & Managing People industry is already at various protected from local competition in China, with the rise of trade war the protection levels may go up. This presents a clear threat of current business model in Chinese market.
New competition
– After the dotcom bust of 2001, financial crisis of 2008-09, the business formation in US economy had declined. But in 2020 alone, there are more than 1.5 million new business applications in United States. This can lead to greater competition for Fund Coastal 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 Coastal Ventures Limited Partnership: Balancing a Sustainable Investment Strategy with a Social Mission, Fund Coastal 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 .
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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Fund Coastal with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Coastal Ventures Limited Partnership: Balancing a Sustainable Investment Strategy with a Social Mission 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 Coastal Ventures Limited Partnership: Balancing a Sustainable Investment Strategy with a Social Mission 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 Coastal Ventures Limited Partnership: Balancing a Sustainable Investment Strategy with a Social Mission 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 Coastal Ventures Limited Partnership: Balancing a Sustainable Investment Strategy with a Social Mission 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 Coastal Ventures Limited Partnership: Balancing a Sustainable Investment Strategy with a Social Mission 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 Fund Coastal needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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