Case Study Description of Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream (Abridged)
In June 1998, the senior management team at Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream was figuring out how to address the most challenging problems ever facing the company. Problems were wide ranging, including aggressive discounting by competitors, waning demand of Dreyer's high-margin Better-For-You products, and Ben & Jerry's severing its distribution contract. Dreyer's management had put considerable time and effort into crafting the company culture and counted it as one of Dreyer's strengths. Realizing that a financial restructuring was mandatory, the management team had to decide on the best way to make difficult changes and whether to continue adhering to the company culture.
Authors :: Glenn Carroll, Jennifer Chatman, Victoria Chang
Swot Analysis of "Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream (Abridged)" written by Glenn Carroll, Jennifer Chatman, Victoria Chang includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Dreyer's Cream facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream (Abridged) case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Conflict, Crisis management, Customers, Downsizing, Financial management, Human resource management, Motivating people, Organizational culture and Organizational Development.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream (Abridged) casestudy better are - – banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, wage bills are increasing, there is backlash against globalization, technology disruption, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing commodity prices,
digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream (Abridged)
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream (Abridged) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Dreyer's Cream, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Dreyer's Cream 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 Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream (Abridged) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream (Abridged) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Dreyer's Cream
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 Dreyer's Cream
Strengths Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream (Abridged) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Dreyer's Cream in Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream (Abridged) Harvard Business Review case study are -
Highly skilled collaborators
– Dreyer's Cream 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 Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream (Abridged) HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Innovation driven organization
– Dreyer's Cream is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream (Abridged) 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
– Dreyer's Cream is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Organizational Resilience of Dreyer's Cream
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Dreyer's Cream does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Dreyer's Cream 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 Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream (Abridged) - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Dreyer's Cream has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Dreyer's Cream 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.
Learning organization
- Dreyer's Cream 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 Dreyer's Cream is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream (Abridged) Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Dreyer's Cream in the sector have low bargaining power. Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream (Abridged) has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Dreyer's Cream to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
High brand equity
– Dreyer's Cream has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Dreyer's Cream to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Analytics focus
– Dreyer's Cream 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 Glenn Carroll, Jennifer Chatman, Victoria Chang 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 Organizational Development segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Dreyer's Cream digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Dreyer's Cream 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Dreyer's Cream in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Weaknesses Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream (Abridged) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream (Abridged) are -
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream (Abridged) 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 Dreyer's Cream 's lucrative customers.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Dreyer's Cream, firm in the HBR case study Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream (Abridged) needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Dreyer's Cream 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream (Abridged), is just above the industry average. Dreyer's Cream 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.
High dependence on existing supply chain
– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of Dreyer's Cream supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream (Abridged), it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Dreyer's Cream vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Dreyer's Cream is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Organizational Development segment. Dreyer's Cream needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Dreyer's Cream to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Dreyer's Cream 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Dreyer's Cream 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream (Abridged) 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 Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream (Abridged) can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Dreyer's Cream is planning to shift buying processes online.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream (Abridged) 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 Dreyer's Cream has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Dreyer's Cream 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 - Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream (Abridged) should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Opportunities Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream (Abridged) | 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 Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream (Abridged) are -
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Dreyer's Cream has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Dreyer's Cream to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream (Abridged) case study. Dreyer's Cream can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Dreyer's Cream 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Dreyer's Cream can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Dreyer's Cream operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Organizational Development sector.
Buying journey improvements
– Dreyer's Cream can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream (Abridged) 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Dreyer's Cream can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Developing new processes and practices
– Dreyer's Cream 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Dreyer's Cream 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 Dreyer's Cream to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Dreyer's Cream 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, Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream (Abridged), to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Dreyer's Cream 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 Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream (Abridged) - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Dreyer's Cream to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Dreyer's Cream 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Dreyer's Cream to increase its market reach. Dreyer's Cream 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Dreyer's Cream is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream (Abridged) 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.
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. Dreyer's Cream can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Threats Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream (Abridged) External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream (Abridged) are -
Regulatory challenges
– Dreyer's Cream 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.
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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Dreyer's Cream with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream (Abridged), Dreyer's Cream 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 Dreyer's Cream business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Dreyer's Cream is facing in Organizational Development sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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 Dreyer's Cream.
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. Dreyer's Cream 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.
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. Dreyer's Cream needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Organizational Development industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Increasing wage structure of Dreyer's Cream
– 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 Dreyer's Cream.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Dreyer's Cream 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.
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. Dreyer's Cream can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream (Abridged) 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 Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream (Abridged) 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 Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream (Abridged) 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 Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream (Abridged) 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 Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream (Abridged) 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 Dreyer's Cream needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.