Fish Friendly Farming: Water, Wine, and Fish- Sustainable Agriculture for a Thirsty World SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Fish Friendly Farming: Water, Wine, and Fish- Sustainable Agriculture for a Thirsty World
This case study focuses on Fish Friendly Farming, part of a nonprofit organization, the California Land Stewardship Institute. The FFF program is an example of an innovative model for cooperative public-private environmental collaboration and stewardship. The case provides a history of FFF and its ability to create networks and collaborations between parties that typically find it difficult to work together. This case focuses both on sustainability issues related to land and farming, and on challenges related to scaling up a successful nonprofit organization.
Swot Analysis of "Fish Friendly Farming: Water, Wine, and Fish- Sustainable Agriculture for a Thirsty World" written by Ernest Gundling includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Fish Fff facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Fish Friendly Farming: Water, Wine, and Fish- Sustainable Agriculture for a Thirsty World case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Networking, Sustainability and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Fish Friendly Farming: Water, Wine, and Fish- Sustainable Agriculture for a Thirsty World casestudy better are - – competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, there is backlash against globalization, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic ,
technology disruption, increasing commodity prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Fish Friendly Farming: Water, Wine, and Fish- Sustainable Agriculture for a Thirsty World
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Fish Friendly Farming: Water, Wine, and Fish- Sustainable Agriculture for a Thirsty World case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Fish Fff, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Fish Fff 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 Fish Friendly Farming: Water, Wine, and Fish- Sustainable Agriculture for a Thirsty World can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Fish Friendly Farming: Water, Wine, and Fish- Sustainable Agriculture for a Thirsty World case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Fish Fff
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 Fish Fff
Strengths Fish Friendly Farming: Water, Wine, and Fish- Sustainable Agriculture for a Thirsty World | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Fish Fff in Fish Friendly Farming: Water, Wine, and Fish- Sustainable Agriculture for a Thirsty World Harvard Business Review case study are -
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Fish Fff 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
– Fish Fff is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Fish Friendly Farming: Water, Wine, and Fish- Sustainable Agriculture for a Thirsty World 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Fish Fff is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
High brand equity
– Fish Fff has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Fish Fff to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Fish Fff 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 Fish Friendly Farming: Water, Wine, and Fish- Sustainable Agriculture for a Thirsty World HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Training and development
– Fish Fff has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Fish Friendly Farming: Water, Wine, and Fish- Sustainable Agriculture for a Thirsty World 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– Fish Friendly Farming: Water, Wine, and Fish- Sustainable Agriculture for a Thirsty World firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Fish Fff to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Fish Fff to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Fish Fff 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 Fish Fff in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Fish Fff in the sector have low bargaining power. Fish Friendly Farming: Water, Wine, and Fish- Sustainable Agriculture for a Thirsty World has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Fish Fff to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Learning organization
- Fish Fff 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 Fish Fff is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Fish Friendly Farming: Water, Wine, and Fish- Sustainable Agriculture for a Thirsty World Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Analytics focus
– Fish Fff 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 Ernest Gundling 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.
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Fish Fff digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Fish Fff 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 Fish Friendly Farming: Water, Wine, and Fish- Sustainable Agriculture for a Thirsty World | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Fish Friendly Farming: Water, Wine, and Fish- Sustainable Agriculture for a Thirsty World are -
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Fish Fff 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Fish Fff has created an environment where the organization is dominated by functional specialists rather than management generalist. This has resulted into product oriented approach rather than marketing oriented approach or consumers oriented approach.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Fish Fff has some of the most successful products in the industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. firm in the HBR case study - Fish Friendly Farming: Water, Wine, and Fish- Sustainable Agriculture for a Thirsty World should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Fish Friendly Farming: Water, Wine, and Fish- Sustainable Agriculture for a Thirsty World, it seems that the employees of Fish Fff 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Fish Friendly Farming: Water, Wine, and Fish- Sustainable Agriculture for a Thirsty World 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 Fish Friendly Farming: Water, Wine, and Fish- Sustainable Agriculture for a Thirsty World can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Fish Fff is planning to shift buying processes online.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Fish Fff 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Fish Friendly Farming: Water, Wine, and Fish- Sustainable Agriculture for a Thirsty World, in the dynamic environment Fish Fff has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Fish Fff has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Fish Fff 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Fish Fff 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Fish Fff 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Fish Friendly Farming: Water, Wine, and Fish- Sustainable Agriculture for a Thirsty World HBR case study mentions - Fish Fff 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.
Opportunities Fish Friendly Farming: Water, Wine, and Fish- Sustainable Agriculture for a Thirsty World | 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 Fish Friendly Farming: Water, Wine, and Fish- Sustainable Agriculture for a Thirsty World are -
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 Fish Fff in the consumer business. Now Fish Fff 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. Fish Fff 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. Fish Fff 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Fish Fff can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Fish Fff operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Fish Fff 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Fish Fff has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Fish Fff to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Fish Friendly Farming: Water, Wine, and Fish- Sustainable Agriculture for a Thirsty World case study. Fish Fff can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Leadership & Managing People industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Fish Fff can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
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 Fish Fff 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
– Fish Fff 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Fish Fff 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Fish Fff 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Fish Fff is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Fish Friendly Farming: Water, Wine, and Fish- Sustainable Agriculture for a Thirsty World 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Fish Fff 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 Fish Fff to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Fish Fff can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Threats Fish Friendly Farming: Water, Wine, and Fish- Sustainable Agriculture for a Thirsty World External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Fish Friendly Farming: Water, Wine, and Fish- Sustainable Agriculture for a Thirsty World are -
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Fish Fff 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Fish Fff 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Fish Fff 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Fish Fff 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.
Increasing wage structure of Fish Fff
– 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 Fish Fff.
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 Fish Fff business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Fish Fff has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Fish Fff needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Leadership & Managing People sector. According to Mckinsey study top managers believe that the adoption of technology in operations, communications is 20-25 times faster than what they planned in the beginning of 2019.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Fish Friendly Farming: Water, Wine, and Fish- Sustainable Agriculture for a Thirsty World, Fish Fff 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Fish Fff is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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. Fish Fff can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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. Fish Fff 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 Fish Friendly Farming: Water, Wine, and Fish- Sustainable Agriculture for a Thirsty World 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 Fish Friendly Farming: Water, Wine, and Fish- Sustainable Agriculture for a Thirsty World 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 Fish Friendly Farming: Water, Wine, and Fish- Sustainable Agriculture for a Thirsty World 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 Fish Friendly Farming: Water, Wine, and Fish- Sustainable Agriculture for a Thirsty World 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 Fish Friendly Farming: Water, Wine, and Fish- Sustainable Agriculture for a Thirsty World 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 Fish Fff needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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