Case Study Description of Eastern Condiments Private Limited (A)
Eastern Condiments is a three-part case focused on the challenge of distributing spices in Southern India from 2008-2012. Case (A) describes the strategy and tactics that enabled Eastern Condiments to swiftly dominate the local market in Kerala by 2008, yet had poor results in the adjoining state of Karnataka in 2009-2012. Case (B) describes the new strategy to revive business in Karnataka and its consequences. When the market in Kerala starts to stagnate, it also has to revise strategy in its home market. Please copy and paste the following url into a browser http://cases.insead.edu/eastern-condiments/ to access additional teaching material and an introductory video.
Swot Analysis of "Eastern Condiments Private Limited (A)" written by V. Padmanabhan, Indira Pant includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Condiments Eastern facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Eastern Condiments Private Limited (A) case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Marketing, Strategy and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Eastern Condiments Private Limited (A) casestudy better are - – talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, there is backlash against globalization, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , geopolitical disruptions, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google,
technology disruption, increasing commodity prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Eastern Condiments Private Limited (A)
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Eastern Condiments Private Limited (A) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Condiments Eastern, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Condiments Eastern 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 Eastern Condiments Private Limited (A) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Eastern Condiments Private Limited (A) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Condiments Eastern
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Sales & Marketing field.
4. Making a Sales & Marketing topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Condiments Eastern
Strengths Eastern Condiments Private Limited (A) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Condiments Eastern in Eastern Condiments Private Limited (A) Harvard Business Review case study are -
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Condiments Eastern 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Condiments Eastern 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 Eastern Condiments Private Limited (A) - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Condiments Eastern is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Eastern Condiments Private Limited (A) 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
– Condiments Eastern has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Condiments Eastern to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Training and development
– Condiments Eastern has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Eastern Condiments Private Limited (A) 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Condiments Eastern in the sector have low bargaining power. Eastern Condiments Private Limited (A) has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Condiments Eastern to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Diverse revenue streams
– Condiments Eastern is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Eastern Condiments Private Limited (A) 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Condiments Eastern is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Eastern Condiments Private Limited (A) Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Learning organization
- Condiments Eastern 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 Condiments Eastern is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Eastern Condiments Private Limited (A) Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Sales & Marketing industry
– Eastern Condiments Private Limited (A) firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Condiments Eastern to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Condiments Eastern to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Organizational Resilience of Condiments Eastern
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Condiments Eastern does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Strong track record of project management
– Condiments Eastern 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 Eastern Condiments Private Limited (A) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Eastern Condiments Private Limited (A) are -
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Condiments Eastern 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. Condiments Eastern 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Condiments Eastern products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Condiments Eastern needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Condiments Eastern is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Sales & Marketing segment. Condiments Eastern needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Condiments Eastern to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Condiments Eastern 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Condiments Eastern 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 - Eastern Condiments Private Limited (A) should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Condiments Eastern is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Eastern Condiments Private Limited (A) 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 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 Condiments Eastern supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Eastern Condiments Private Limited (A), it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Condiments Eastern vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Eastern Condiments Private Limited (A) 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 Condiments Eastern has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Eastern Condiments Private Limited (A) HBR case study mentions - Condiments Eastern 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Eastern Condiments Private Limited (A), it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Sales & Marketing 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 bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, V. Padmanabhan, Indira Pant suggests that, Condiments Eastern 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.
Opportunities Eastern Condiments Private Limited (A) | 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 Eastern Condiments Private Limited (A) are -
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Condiments Eastern 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, Eastern Condiments Private Limited (A), to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
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. Condiments Eastern can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Condiments Eastern 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Condiments Eastern 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Condiments Eastern to increase its market reach. Condiments Eastern 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Condiments Eastern can develop new processes and procedures in Sales & Marketing 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Condiments Eastern can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Sales & Marketing industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Condiments Eastern 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. Condiments Eastern 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Condiments Eastern 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Condiments Eastern in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Sales & Marketing segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Condiments Eastern is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Eastern Condiments Private Limited (A) 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
– Condiments Eastern 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 Eastern Condiments Private Limited (A) - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Condiments Eastern to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Condiments Eastern can make experimentation a productive activity and build a culture of innovation using approaches such as – mining transaction data, A/B testing of websites and selling platforms, engaging potential customers over various needs, and building on small ideas in the Sales & Marketing segment.
Threats Eastern Condiments Private Limited (A) External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Eastern Condiments Private Limited (A) are -
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Eastern Condiments Private Limited (A), Condiments Eastern may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Sales & Marketing .
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Sales & Marketing field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Condiments Eastern can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Condiments Eastern with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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 Condiments Eastern.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Condiments Eastern 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Condiments Eastern 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 Sales & Marketing industry regulations.
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. Condiments Eastern 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. Condiments Eastern needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Sales & Marketing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Condiments Eastern has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Sales & Marketing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Condiments Eastern needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Sales & Marketing 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Condiments Eastern 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.
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.
Environmental challenges
– Condiments Eastern 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. Condiments Eastern can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.
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 Condiments Eastern business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Eastern Condiments Private Limited (A) 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 Eastern Condiments Private Limited (A) 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 Eastern Condiments Private Limited (A) 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 Eastern Condiments Private Limited (A) 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 Eastern Condiments Private Limited (A) 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 Condiments Eastern needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.