Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream, Inc.: Keeping the Mission(s) Alive SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Organizational Development
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream, Inc.: Keeping the Mission(s) Alive
Ben & Jerry's is an anti-establishment, values-driven company that has become a successful venture. The dominant founder, Ben Cohen, is not an effective manager, but he brings creative marketing and product skills that have been important to the company's success. He also is controlling shareholder and the force behind the company's socially-minded culture. One of the many policies that have reflected Ben's values but which has created difficulty in managing the organization is the 5 to 1 compensation differential between the top and the bottom of the organization. Up to mid 1990, the company was operating in an explosive growth business with relatively weak competitors; this has changed by the time of the case in September 1990. The case opens as Chuck Lacy is taking over as president. He needs to decide what to do about the 5 to 1 rule and the related issues of Ben's role, and the value of the company's counterculture style. Students must consider the difficulty and importance of the general manager's responsibility in reconciling company values with commercial imperatives and to consider the effect of compensation policy on morale and organizational effectiveness.
Swot Analysis of "Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream, Inc.: Keeping the Mission(s) Alive" written by John Theroux includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Ben Ben's facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream, Inc.: Keeping the Mission(s) Alive case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Entrepreneurial management, Motivating people, Organizational culture, Organizational structure, Social responsibility and Organizational Development.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream, Inc.: Keeping the Mission(s) Alive casestudy better are - – there is backlash against globalization, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing household debt because of falling income levels, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing transportation and logistics costs, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google,
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 Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream, Inc.: Keeping the Mission(s) Alive
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream, Inc.: Keeping the Mission(s) Alive case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Ben Ben's, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Ben Ben's 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 Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream, Inc.: Keeping the Mission(s) Alive can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream, Inc.: Keeping the Mission(s) Alive case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Ben Ben's
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Organizational Development field.
4. Making a Organizational Development topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Ben Ben's
Strengths Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream, Inc.: Keeping the Mission(s) Alive | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Ben Ben's in Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream, Inc.: Keeping the Mission(s) Alive Harvard Business Review case study are -
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Ben Ben's in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Ben Ben's in the sector have low bargaining power. Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream, Inc.: Keeping the Mission(s) Alive has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Ben Ben's to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Organizational Development industry
– Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream, Inc.: Keeping the Mission(s) Alive firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Ben Ben's to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Organizational Development industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Ben Ben's to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Ben Ben's 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 Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream, Inc.: Keeping the Mission(s) Alive - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Ben Ben's 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.
Ability to lead change in Organizational Development field
– Ben Ben's 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 Ben Ben's in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Diverse revenue streams
– Ben Ben's is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream, Inc.: Keeping the Mission(s) Alive 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
- Ben Ben's 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 Ben Ben's is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream, Inc.: Keeping the Mission(s) Alive Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Innovation driven organization
– Ben Ben's is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream, Inc.: Keeping the Mission(s) Alive 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
– Ben Ben's has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Ben Ben's 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.
Digital Transformation in Organizational Development segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Ben Ben's digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Ben Ben's 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.
Analytics focus
– Ben Ben's 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 John Theroux 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.
Weaknesses Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream, Inc.: Keeping the Mission(s) Alive | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream, Inc.: Keeping the Mission(s) Alive are -
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Ben Ben's is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream, Inc.: Keeping the Mission(s) Alive can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Lack of clear differentiation of Ben Ben's products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Ben Ben's needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream, Inc.: Keeping the Mission(s) Alive 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 Ben Ben's has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Ben Ben's, firm in the HBR case study Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream, Inc.: Keeping the Mission(s) Alive needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream, Inc.: Keeping the Mission(s) Alive, it seems that the employees of Ben Ben's 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream, Inc.: Keeping the Mission(s) Alive, is just above the industry average. Ben Ben's 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Ben Ben's 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream, Inc.: Keeping the Mission(s) Alive 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 Ben Ben's 's lucrative customers.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream, Inc.: Keeping the Mission(s) Alive, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Organizational Development 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Ben Ben's 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream, Inc.: Keeping the Mission(s) Alive HBR case study mentions - Ben Ben's 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 Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream, Inc.: Keeping the Mission(s) Alive | 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 Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream, Inc.: Keeping the Mission(s) Alive are -
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Ben Ben's 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 Ben Ben's to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Loyalty marketing
– Ben Ben's 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Ben Ben's 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Ben Ben's 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, Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream, Inc.: Keeping the Mission(s) Alive, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Organizational Development industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Ben Ben's can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Buying journey improvements
– Ben Ben's can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream, Inc.: Keeping the Mission(s) Alive 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Ben Ben's 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 Organizational Development segment.
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 Ben Ben's in the consumer business. Now Ben Ben's can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Ben Ben's to increase its market reach. Ben Ben's will be able to reach out to new customers. Secondly 5G will also provide technology framework to build new tools and products that can help more immersive consumer experience and faster consumer journey.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Ben Ben's 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Ben Ben's 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Ben Ben's has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Ben Ben's to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream, Inc.: Keeping the Mission(s) Alive case study. Ben Ben's can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Ben Ben's can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Threats Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream, Inc.: Keeping the Mission(s) Alive External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream, Inc.: Keeping the Mission(s) Alive are -
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Ben Ben's 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.
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 Ben Ben's 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. Ben Ben's needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Organizational Development industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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 Ben Ben's in the Organizational Development sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Increasing wage structure of Ben Ben's
– 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 Ben Ben's.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Ben Ben's 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Ben Ben's 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 Organizational Development industry regulations.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Ben Ben's 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 Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream, Inc.: Keeping the Mission(s) Alive .
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. Ben Ben's 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.
Capital market disruption
– During the Covid-19, Dow Jones has touched record high. The valuations of a number of companies are way beyond their existing business model potential. This can lead to capital market correction which can put a number of suppliers, collaborators, value chain partners in great financial difficulty. It will directly impact the business of Ben Ben's.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream, Inc.: Keeping the Mission(s) Alive, Ben Ben's may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Organizational Development .
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 Ben Ben's business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream, Inc.: Keeping the Mission(s) Alive 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 Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream, Inc.: Keeping the Mission(s) Alive 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 Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream, Inc.: Keeping the Mission(s) Alive 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 Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream, Inc.: Keeping the Mission(s) Alive 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 Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream, Inc.: Keeping the Mission(s) Alive 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 Ben Ben's needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.