Scaling Well by Doing Good: Motivating Talent at b.good SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Organizational Development
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Scaling Well by Doing Good: Motivating Talent at b.good
Boston-based fast-casual chain, b.good, was founded on the idea of healthy food, sourced locally, and prepared in-store. They'd worked to build a value-based business, and worked hard to cultivate a sense of family--among employees, customers and suppliers. In 2015, they had entered a period of substantial growth, with the company doubling in size over the past 12 months, and plans to double again over the coming twelve months. The management felt this purpose and sense of family had served them well, but were worried that growth would water down these key ingredients to their success. As they enter 2016, they are particularly focused on ensuring that they get the "people" systems right.
Authors :: Francesca Gino, Paul Green, Bradley R. Staats
Swot Analysis of "Scaling Well by Doing Good: Motivating Talent at b.good" written by Francesca Gino, Paul Green, Bradley R. Staats includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that B.good Sense facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Scaling Well by Doing Good: Motivating Talent at b.good case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Motivating people, Organizational culture, Supply chain and Organizational Development.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Scaling Well by Doing Good: Motivating Talent at b.good casestudy better are - – supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing energy prices, increasing commodity prices, geopolitical disruptions, technology disruption,
digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Scaling Well by Doing Good: Motivating Talent at b.good
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Scaling Well by Doing Good: Motivating Talent at b.good case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the B.good Sense, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which B.good Sense 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 Scaling Well by Doing Good: Motivating Talent at b.good can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Scaling Well by Doing Good: Motivating Talent at b.good case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of B.good Sense
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 B.good Sense
Strengths Scaling Well by Doing Good: Motivating Talent at b.good | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of B.good Sense in Scaling Well by Doing Good: Motivating Talent at b.good Harvard Business Review case study are -
Ability to lead change in Organizational Development field
– B.good Sense 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 B.good Sense in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Organizational Development industry
– Scaling Well by Doing Good: Motivating Talent at b.good firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled B.good Sense to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Organizational Development industry. The sustainable margins have also helped B.good Sense to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Successful track record of launching new products
– B.good Sense has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. B.good Sense 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
– B.good Sense 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 Scaling Well by Doing Good: Motivating Talent at b.good HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the B.good Sense are driving operational speed, building greater agility, and keeping the organization nimble to compete with new competitors. It helps are organization to ideate new ideas, and execute them swiftly in the marketplace.
High brand equity
– B.good Sense has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled B.good Sense to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Learning organization
- B.good Sense 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 B.good Sense is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Scaling Well by Doing Good: Motivating Talent at b.good Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Analytics focus
– B.good Sense 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 Francesca Gino, Paul Green, Bradley R. Staats 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.
Innovation driven organization
– B.good Sense is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Scaling Well by Doing Good: Motivating Talent at b.good Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of B.good Sense in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Scaling Well by Doing Good: Motivating Talent at b.good Harvard Business Review case study comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the industry, building diversified operations across different geographies so that disruption in one part of the world doesn’t impact the overall performance of the firm, and integrating the various business operations and processes through its digital transformation drive.
Digital Transformation in Organizational Development segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For B.good Sense digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. B.good Sense has successfully integrated the four key components of digital transformation – digital integration in processes, digital integration in marketing and customer relationship management, digital integration into the value chain, and using technology to explore new products and market opportunities.
Weaknesses Scaling Well by Doing Good: Motivating Talent at b.good | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Scaling Well by Doing Good: Motivating Talent at b.good are -
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Scaling Well by Doing Good: Motivating Talent at b.good 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 B.good Sense has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Francesca Gino, Paul Green, Bradley R. Staats suggests that, B.good Sense 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Scaling Well by Doing Good: Motivating Talent at b.good, it seems that the employees of B.good Sense 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, B.good Sense 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of B.good Sense products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, B.good Sense needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at B.good Sense 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Scaling Well by Doing Good: Motivating Talent at b.good HBR case study mentions - B.good Sense 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, B.good Sense 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Scaling Well by Doing Good: Motivating Talent at b.good, in the dynamic environment B.good Sense has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. B.good Sense has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
B.good Sense 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, B.good Sense 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. B.good Sense 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.
Opportunities Scaling Well by Doing Good: Motivating Talent at b.good | 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 Scaling Well by Doing Good: Motivating Talent at b.good are -
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, B.good Sense can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that B.good Sense operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Organizational Development sector.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Organizational Development industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. B.good Sense can take advantage of these changes in consumer behavior to build a far more efficient business model. For example consumer regular ordering of products can reduce both last mile delivery costs and market penetration costs. B.good Sense can further use this consumer data to build better customer loyalty, provide better products and service collection, and improve the value proposition in inflationary times.
Buying journey improvements
– B.good Sense can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Scaling Well by Doing Good: Motivating Talent at b.good 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– B.good Sense 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for B.good Sense 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 B.good Sense to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
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 B.good Sense 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, B.good Sense can still utilize the low interest rates to borrow money for capital investment. Secondly it can also use the increase of government spending in infrastructure projects to get new business.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, B.good Sense is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Scaling Well by Doing Good: Motivating Talent at b.good 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– B.good Sense 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 Scaling Well by Doing Good: Motivating Talent at b.good - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help B.good Sense to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for B.good Sense 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.
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. B.good Sense can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Manufacturing automation
– B.good Sense can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Organizational Development segment. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects B.good Sense can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Threats Scaling Well by Doing Good: Motivating Talent at b.good External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Scaling Well by Doing Good: Motivating Talent at b.good are -
High dependence on third party suppliers
– B.good Sense 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.
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.
Increasing wage structure of B.good Sense
– 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 B.good Sense.
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. B.good Sense 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that B.good Sense is facing in Organizational Development sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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. B.good Sense needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Organizational Development industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Consumer confidence and its impact on B.good Sense 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.
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 B.good Sense business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents B.good Sense with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Scaling Well by Doing Good: Motivating Talent at b.good, B.good Sense 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 .
Regulatory challenges
– B.good Sense 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.
Environmental challenges
– B.good Sense 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. B.good Sense can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Organizational Development industry.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– B.good Sense has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Organizational Development industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, B.good Sense 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 Scaling Well by Doing Good: Motivating Talent at b.good 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 Scaling Well by Doing Good: Motivating Talent at b.good 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 Scaling Well by Doing Good: Motivating Talent at b.good 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 Scaling Well by Doing Good: Motivating Talent at b.good 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 Scaling Well by Doing Good: Motivating Talent at b.good 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 B.good Sense needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.