Ben & Jerry's: Preserving Mission & Brand Within Unilever SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Organizational Development
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Ben & Jerry's: Preserving Mission & Brand Within Unilever
In the months after Ben & Jerry's was acquired by Unilever, Ben & Jerry's head social mission faces challenges and opportunities unique in the company's history, including: how to manage employee morale; whether to include synthetic ingredients to meet consumer preferences; how to preserve the company's tradition of speaking out on public issues; and how to maintain the company's distinctive brand image. Also, depicts an innovative corporate governance model with an external board comprising former Ben & Jerry's executives to advise the new CEO on managing the company's distinctive brand and values.
Swot Analysis of "Ben & Jerry's: Preserving Mission & Brand Within Unilever" written by James E. Austin, James Quinn includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Jerry's Ben facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Ben & Jerry's: Preserving Mission & Brand Within Unilever case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Corporate governance, Innovation, Mergers & acquisitions, Motivating people, Organizational culture, Social enterprise and Organizational Development.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Ben & Jerry's: Preserving Mission & Brand Within Unilever casestudy better are - – banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, technology disruption, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing transportation and logistics costs,
increasing energy prices, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Ben & Jerry's: Preserving Mission & Brand Within Unilever
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Ben & Jerry's: Preserving Mission & Brand Within Unilever case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Jerry's Ben, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Jerry's Ben 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: Preserving Mission & Brand Within Unilever can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Ben & Jerry's: Preserving Mission & Brand Within Unilever case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Jerry's Ben
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 Jerry's Ben
Strengths Ben & Jerry's: Preserving Mission & Brand Within Unilever | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Jerry's Ben in Ben & Jerry's: Preserving Mission & Brand Within Unilever Harvard Business Review case study are -
Ability to recruit top talent
– Jerry's Ben is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Ben & Jerry's: Preserving Mission & Brand Within Unilever are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
High brand equity
– Jerry's Ben has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Jerry's Ben to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Jerry's Ben 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Jerry's Ben has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Jerry's Ben 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Jerry's Ben 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 Ben & Jerry's: Preserving Mission & Brand Within Unilever HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Diverse revenue streams
– Jerry's Ben is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Ben & Jerry's: Preserving Mission & Brand Within Unilever 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.
Training and development
– Jerry's Ben has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Ben & Jerry's: Preserving Mission & Brand Within Unilever 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 Organizational Development industry
– Ben & Jerry's: Preserving Mission & Brand Within Unilever firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Jerry's Ben to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Organizational Development industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Jerry's Ben to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Jerry's Ben in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Jerry's Ben 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: Preserving Mission & Brand Within Unilever - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Innovation driven organization
– Jerry's Ben is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Ben & Jerry's: Preserving Mission & Brand Within Unilever Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Strong track record of project management
– Jerry's Ben is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Weaknesses Ben & Jerry's: Preserving Mission & Brand Within Unilever | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Ben & Jerry's: Preserving Mission & Brand Within Unilever are -
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Ben & Jerry's: Preserving Mission & Brand Within Unilever, it seems that the employees of Jerry's Ben 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Jerry's Ben 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Jerry's Ben 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Jerry's Ben 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Jerry's Ben, firm in the HBR case study Ben & Jerry's: Preserving Mission & Brand Within Unilever needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Ben & Jerry's: Preserving Mission & Brand Within Unilever, is just above the industry average. Jerry's Ben 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Jerry's Ben is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Ben & Jerry's: Preserving Mission & Brand Within Unilever can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Jerry's Ben 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 Jerry's Ben 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Jerry's Ben products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Jerry's Ben needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Ben & Jerry's: Preserving Mission & Brand Within Unilever HBR case study mentions - Jerry's Ben 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: Preserving Mission & Brand Within Unilever | 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: Preserving Mission & Brand Within Unilever are -
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Jerry's Ben in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Organizational Development segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Buying journey improvements
– Jerry's Ben can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Ben & Jerry's: Preserving Mission & Brand Within Unilever 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.
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. Jerry's Ben can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Jerry's Ben 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Jerry's Ben can develop new processes and procedures in Organizational Development 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Jerry's Ben has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Jerry's Ben to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Ben & Jerry's: Preserving Mission & Brand Within Unilever case study. Jerry's Ben can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Jerry's Ben can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Jerry's Ben operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Organizational Development sector.
Loyalty marketing
– Jerry's Ben 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.
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. Jerry's Ben can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
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 Jerry's Ben 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Jerry's Ben is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Ben & Jerry's: Preserving Mission & Brand Within Unilever 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Jerry's Ben can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Jerry's Ben 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 Jerry's Ben to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Threats Ben & Jerry's: Preserving Mission & Brand Within Unilever 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: Preserving Mission & Brand Within Unilever are -
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.
Increasing wage structure of Jerry's Ben
– 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 Jerry's Ben.
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. Jerry's Ben needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Organizational Development industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Instability in the European markets
– European Union markets are facing three big challenges post Covid – expanded balance sheets, Brexit related business disruption, and aggressive Russia looking to distract the existing security mechanism. Jerry's Ben 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.
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 Jerry's Ben business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Jerry's Ben 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: Preserving Mission & Brand Within Unilever .
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Organizational Development field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Jerry's Ben can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Jerry's Ben has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Organizational Development industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Jerry's Ben needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Organizational Development 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 Ben & Jerry's: Preserving Mission & Brand Within Unilever, Jerry's Ben 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 .
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 Jerry's Ben.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Jerry's Ben in the Organizational Development industry. The Organizational Development 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 Jerry's Ben in the Organizational Development sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Jerry's Ben is facing in Organizational Development sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Ben & Jerry's: Preserving Mission & Brand Within Unilever 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: Preserving Mission & Brand Within Unilever 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: Preserving Mission & Brand Within Unilever 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: Preserving Mission & Brand Within Unilever 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: Preserving Mission & Brand Within Unilever 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 Jerry's Ben needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.