Case Study Description of Nurturing Green: The Growth Dilemma (C)
Nurturing Green is a three-year-old private company that is trying to change the gift-giving culture of India by offering attractively packaged potted plants in place of the traditional candy or cut flower bouquets presented on special occasions to friends, family and business associates. The founder of the start-up is a young, passionate entrepreneur who is risking much in order to grow his company. To realize the idea of "green gifting" to help the environment, he has accepted funding from a venture capitalist firm in exchange for giving up 25 per cent equity in his business. Now, it is time to revisit that agreement and, although the company has been very successful, the owner is concerned that the investors will demand more control and a faster growth focus than he is willing or able to meet. He is also worried about the sales forecast, return on investment for the short and the long term, monthly cash flows and employee motivation and performance reviews. Should he respond to the many requests to franchise the business or should he concentrate on developing the brand in new markets? How can he expand business-to-business sales while also opening more stores in malls in all parts of the country to sell directly to customers? Will the new website develop more online sales? As he prepares for a meeting with the auditors and investors, the owner looks for a solution to continue growing while retaining control over his company. Deepak Pandit is affiliated with Management Development Institute. Arun Sahay is affiliated with Birla Institute of Management Technology.
Swot Analysis of "Nurturing Green: The Growth Dilemma (C)" written by Deepak Pandit, Arun Sahay includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Nurturing Green facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Nurturing Green: The Growth Dilemma (C) case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, International business, Strategy and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Nurturing Green: The Growth Dilemma (C) casestudy better are - – wage bills are increasing, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, there is backlash against globalization, increasing commodity prices, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, geopolitical disruptions, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies,
increasing energy prices, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Nurturing Green: The Growth Dilemma (C)
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Nurturing Green: The Growth Dilemma (C) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Nurturing Green, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Nurturing Green 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 Nurturing Green: The Growth Dilemma (C) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Nurturing Green: The Growth Dilemma (C) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Nurturing Green
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 Nurturing Green
Strengths Nurturing Green: The Growth Dilemma (C) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Nurturing Green in Nurturing Green: The Growth Dilemma (C) Harvard Business Review case study are -
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Nurturing Green: The Growth Dilemma (C) 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
– Nurturing Green is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Nurturing Green: The Growth Dilemma (C) 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.
Learning organization
- Nurturing Green 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 Nurturing Green is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Nurturing Green: The Growth Dilemma (C) Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Innovation driven organization
– Nurturing Green is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Nurturing Green: The Growth Dilemma (C) Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Nurturing Green 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 Nurturing Green in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Nurturing Green has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Nurturing Green 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.
Training and development
– Nurturing Green has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Nurturing Green: The Growth Dilemma (C) 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Nurturing Green in the sector have low bargaining power. Nurturing Green: The Growth Dilemma (C) has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Nurturing Green to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Strong track record of project management
– Nurturing Green is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Nurturing Green 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 Nurturing Green: The Growth Dilemma (C) HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Nurturing Green 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 Nurturing Green digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Nurturing Green 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.
Weaknesses Nurturing Green: The Growth Dilemma (C) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Nurturing Green: The Growth Dilemma (C) are -
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Nurturing Green: The Growth Dilemma (C), 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Nurturing Green is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Nurturing Green: The Growth Dilemma (C) can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Nurturing Green: The Growth Dilemma (C), it seems that the employees of Nurturing Green 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Nurturing Green 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Nurturing Green 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. Nurturing Green 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Nurturing Green: The Growth Dilemma (C), in the dynamic environment Nurturing Green has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Nurturing Green 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 Nurturing Green: The Growth Dilemma (C), is just above the industry average. Nurturing Green 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Nurturing Green 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Nurturing Green: The Growth Dilemma (C) 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 Nurturing Green has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Deepak Pandit, Arun Sahay suggests that, Nurturing Green 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Nurturing Green 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.
Opportunities Nurturing Green: The Growth Dilemma (C) | 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 Nurturing Green: The Growth Dilemma (C) are -
Buying journey improvements
– Nurturing Green can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Nurturing Green: The Growth Dilemma (C) 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Nurturing Green to increase its market reach. Nurturing Green 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Nurturing Green 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, Nurturing Green: The Growth Dilemma (C), to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Nurturing Green can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Nurturing Green operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
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. Nurturing Green can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Nurturing Green 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Nurturing Green 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Nurturing Green 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
– Nurturing Green 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
– Nurturing Green 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 Nurturing Green: The Growth Dilemma (C) - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Nurturing Green to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Nurturing Green is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Nurturing Green: The Growth Dilemma (C) 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.
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. Nurturing Green can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Nurturing Green can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Threats Nurturing Green: The Growth Dilemma (C) External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Nurturing Green: The Growth Dilemma (C) are -
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Nurturing Green 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 Nurturing Green with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Environmental challenges
– Nurturing Green 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. Nurturing Green can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Nurturing Green 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.
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 Nurturing Green business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Nurturing Green is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Nurturing Green 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 international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Nurturing Green 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 Nurturing Green: The Growth Dilemma (C) .
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Nurturing Green 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.
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. Nurturing Green can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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 Nurturing Green in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Nurturing Green: The Growth Dilemma (C) 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 Nurturing Green: The Growth Dilemma (C) 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 Nurturing Green: The Growth Dilemma (C) 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 Nurturing Green: The Growth Dilemma (C) 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 Nurturing Green: The Growth Dilemma (C) 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 Nurturing Green needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
