Case Study Description of Fresh Choice Co.: Acquiring and Transferring Knowledge
Fresh Choice, a restaurant in the throes of recovering from substantial financial difficulties, had borrowed ideas on things ranging from restaurant design to recipes from a competitor. That competitor had itself been started as an imitator of the Fresh Choice salad-buffet concept, indicating that there was transfer of practices and knowledge when the firms were competitors. But once Fresh Choice acquired the other firm, in an effort to acquire its intellectual capital as well as some excellent locations, the transfer of knowledge inside the firm occurred with more difficulty. The questions facing Fresh Choice senior management at this point are as follows: What can they learn from the events that have transpired after the acquisition? What might have they done differently? Why did the problems arise? And, most importantly, what might they do differently in the future to realize more of the benefits of acquisitions and mergers?
Swot Analysis of "Fresh Choice Co.: Acquiring and Transferring Knowledge" written by Jeffrey Pfeffer includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Fresh Choice facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Fresh Choice Co.: Acquiring and Transferring Knowledge case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Human resource management, Leadership, Mergers & acquisitions, Organizational culture, Strategy execution and Organizational Development.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Fresh Choice Co.: Acquiring and Transferring Knowledge casestudy better are - – cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, wage bills are increasing, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs,
there is increasing trade war between United States & China, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Fresh Choice Co.: Acquiring and Transferring Knowledge
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Fresh Choice Co.: Acquiring and Transferring Knowledge case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Fresh Choice, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Fresh Choice 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 Fresh Choice Co.: Acquiring and Transferring Knowledge can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Fresh Choice Co.: Acquiring and Transferring Knowledge case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Fresh Choice
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 Fresh Choice
Strengths Fresh Choice Co.: Acquiring and Transferring Knowledge | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Fresh Choice in Fresh Choice Co.: Acquiring and Transferring Knowledge Harvard Business Review case study are -
Training and development
– Fresh Choice has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Fresh Choice Co.: Acquiring and Transferring Knowledge 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.
Organizational Resilience of Fresh Choice
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Fresh Choice does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Digital Transformation in Organizational Development segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Fresh Choice digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Fresh Choice 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.
Learning organization
- Fresh Choice 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 Fresh Choice is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Fresh Choice Co.: Acquiring and Transferring Knowledge Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Innovation driven organization
– Fresh Choice is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Fresh Choice Co.: Acquiring and Transferring Knowledge Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Diverse revenue streams
– Fresh Choice is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Fresh Choice Co.: Acquiring and Transferring Knowledge 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Fresh Choice 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 Fresh Choice Co.: Acquiring and Transferring Knowledge HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
High brand equity
– Fresh Choice has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Fresh Choice to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Fresh Choice 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 Fresh Choice Co.: Acquiring and Transferring Knowledge - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Fresh Choice in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Analytics focus
– Fresh Choice 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 Jeffrey Pfeffer 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Fresh Choice 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.
Weaknesses Fresh Choice Co.: Acquiring and Transferring Knowledge | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Fresh Choice Co.: Acquiring and Transferring Knowledge are -
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Fresh Choice Co.: Acquiring and Transferring Knowledge 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 Fresh Choice 's lucrative customers.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Fresh Choice Co.: Acquiring and Transferring Knowledge, is just above the industry average. Fresh Choice 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 cash cycle compare to competitors
Fresh Choice 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Jeffrey Pfeffer suggests that, Fresh Choice is facing high bargaining power of the channel partners. So far it has not able to streamline the operations to reduce the bargaining power of the value chain partners in the industry.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Fresh Choice 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Fresh Choice Co.: Acquiring and Transferring Knowledge, 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.
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 Fresh Choice supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Fresh Choice Co.: Acquiring and Transferring Knowledge, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Fresh Choice vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Fresh Choice has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the industry over the last five years. Fresh Choice even though has strong showing on digital transformation primary two stages, it has struggled to capitalize the power of digital transformation in marketing efforts and new venture efforts.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Fresh Choice Co.: Acquiring and Transferring Knowledge 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 Fresh Choice has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Fresh Choice 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Fresh Choice Co.: Acquiring and Transferring Knowledge, in the dynamic environment Fresh Choice has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Fresh Choice has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Opportunities Fresh Choice Co.: Acquiring and Transferring Knowledge | 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 Fresh Choice Co.: Acquiring and Transferring Knowledge 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 Fresh Choice in the consumer business. Now Fresh Choice can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Buying journey improvements
– Fresh Choice can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Fresh Choice Co.: Acquiring and Transferring Knowledge 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Fresh Choice 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.
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. Fresh Choice can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Fresh Choice 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, Fresh Choice Co.: Acquiring and Transferring Knowledge, 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
– Fresh Choice 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 Fresh Choice Co.: Acquiring and Transferring Knowledge - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Fresh Choice to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Fresh Choice is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Fresh Choice Co.: Acquiring and Transferring Knowledge 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Fresh Choice can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Fresh Choice operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Organizational Development sector.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Fresh Choice 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Fresh Choice can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
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. Fresh Choice can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Loyalty marketing
– Fresh Choice 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Fresh Choice 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.
Threats Fresh Choice Co.: Acquiring and Transferring Knowledge External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Fresh Choice Co.: Acquiring and Transferring Knowledge are -
Environmental challenges
– Fresh Choice needs to have a robust strategy against the disruptions arising from climate change and energy requirements. EU has identified it as key priority area and spending 30% of its 880 billion Euros European post Covid-19 recovery funds on green technology. Fresh Choice can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Organizational Development industry.
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. Fresh Choice can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Fresh Choice 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.
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 international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Fresh Choice 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 Fresh Choice Co.: Acquiring and Transferring Knowledge .
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Fresh Choice is facing in Organizational Development sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Fresh Choice 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Fresh Choice Co.: Acquiring and Transferring Knowledge, Fresh Choice 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 .
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. Fresh Choice 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.
Increasing wage structure of Fresh Choice
– 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 Fresh Choice.
Regulatory challenges
– Fresh Choice 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Fresh Choice has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Organizational Development industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Fresh Choice 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Fresh Choice Co.: Acquiring and Transferring Knowledge 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 Fresh Choice Co.: Acquiring and Transferring Knowledge 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 Fresh Choice Co.: Acquiring and Transferring Knowledge 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 Fresh Choice Co.: Acquiring and Transferring Knowledge 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 Fresh Choice Co.: Acquiring and Transferring Knowledge 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 Fresh Choice needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
