Case Study Description of General Mills, Inc.: Yoplait Custard-Style Yogurt (A)
Yoplait's director of new product development is evaluating alternative line extensions including custard-style Yoplait. He must determine what additional research to recommend. Options include a mini-market test, a simulated test market and a fully-fledged test market.
Swot Analysis of "General Mills, Inc.: Yoplait Custard-Style Yogurt (A)" written by John A. Quelch, John L. Teopaco includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Custard Yoplait facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in General Mills, Inc.: Yoplait Custard-Style Yogurt (A) case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Product development and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the General Mills, Inc.: Yoplait Custard-Style Yogurt (A) casestudy better are - – increasing transportation and logistics costs, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, technology disruption,
increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, there is backlash against globalization, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of General Mills, Inc.: Yoplait Custard-Style Yogurt (A)
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in General Mills, Inc.: Yoplait Custard-Style Yogurt (A) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Custard Yoplait, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Custard Yoplait 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 General Mills, Inc.: Yoplait Custard-Style Yogurt (A) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in General Mills, Inc.: Yoplait Custard-Style Yogurt (A) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Custard Yoplait
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 Custard Yoplait
Strengths General Mills, Inc.: Yoplait Custard-Style Yogurt (A) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Custard Yoplait in General Mills, Inc.: Yoplait Custard-Style Yogurt (A) Harvard Business Review case study are -
Diverse revenue streams
– Custard Yoplait is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in General Mills, Inc.: Yoplait Custard-Style Yogurt (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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the General Mills, Inc.: Yoplait Custard-Style Yogurt (A) 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Custard Yoplait in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Custard Yoplait 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 General Mills, Inc.: Yoplait Custard-Style Yogurt (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.
Organizational Resilience of Custard Yoplait
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Custard Yoplait does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
High brand equity
– Custard Yoplait has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Custard Yoplait to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Digital Transformation in Sales & Marketing segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Custard Yoplait digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Custard Yoplait 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Custard Yoplait has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Custard Yoplait 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.
Ability to lead change in Sales & Marketing field
– Custard Yoplait 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 Custard Yoplait in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Custard Yoplait in the sector have low bargaining power. General Mills, Inc.: Yoplait Custard-Style Yogurt (A) has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Custard Yoplait to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Custard Yoplait 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 General Mills, Inc.: Yoplait Custard-Style Yogurt (A) HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Strong track record of project management
– Custard Yoplait 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 General Mills, Inc.: Yoplait Custard-Style Yogurt (A) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of General Mills, Inc.: Yoplait Custard-Style Yogurt (A) are -
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Custard Yoplait is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Sales & Marketing segment. Custard Yoplait needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Custard Yoplait to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Custard Yoplait 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study General Mills, Inc.: Yoplait Custard-Style Yogurt (A), in the dynamic environment Custard Yoplait has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Custard Yoplait has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study General Mills, Inc.: Yoplait Custard-Style Yogurt (A), is just above the industry average. Custard Yoplait needs to redesign the compensation structure and incentives to increase the revenue per employees. Some of the steps that it can take are – hiring more specialists on project basis, etc.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As General Mills, Inc.: Yoplait Custard-Style Yogurt (A) HBR case study mentions - Custard Yoplait 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Custard Yoplait 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study General Mills, Inc.: Yoplait Custard-Style Yogurt (A) 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 Custard Yoplait 's lucrative 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 Custard Yoplait supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - General Mills, Inc.: Yoplait Custard-Style Yogurt (A), it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Custard Yoplait vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Custard Yoplait, firm in the HBR case study General Mills, Inc.: Yoplait Custard-Style Yogurt (A) needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study General Mills, Inc.: Yoplait Custard-Style Yogurt (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 cash cycle compare to competitors
Custard Yoplait 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.
Opportunities General Mills, Inc.: Yoplait Custard-Style Yogurt (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 General Mills, Inc.: Yoplait Custard-Style Yogurt (A) are -
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Custard Yoplait 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 General Mills, Inc.: Yoplait Custard-Style Yogurt (A) - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Custard Yoplait to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Custard Yoplait 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, General Mills, Inc.: Yoplait Custard-Style Yogurt (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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Custard Yoplait 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Custard Yoplait is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. General Mills, Inc.: Yoplait Custard-Style Yogurt (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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Custard Yoplait to increase its market reach. Custard Yoplait 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Custard Yoplait 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Custard Yoplait can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Custard Yoplait operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Sales & Marketing sector.
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 Custard Yoplait in the consumer business. Now Custard Yoplait can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Developing new processes and practices
– Custard Yoplait 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Custard Yoplait 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.
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 Custard Yoplait 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Sales & Marketing industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Custard Yoplait can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Custard Yoplait can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Threats General Mills, Inc.: Yoplait Custard-Style Yogurt (A) External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study General Mills, Inc.: Yoplait Custard-Style Yogurt (A) are -
Increasing wage structure of Custard Yoplait
– 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 Custard Yoplait.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Custard Yoplait 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 General Mills, Inc.: Yoplait Custard-Style Yogurt (A) .
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 Custard Yoplait business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Custard Yoplait 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.
New competition
– After the dotcom bust of 2001, financial crisis of 2008-09, the business formation in US economy had declined. But in 2020 alone, there are more than 1.5 million new business applications in United States. This can lead to greater competition for Custard Yoplait in the Sales & Marketing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Regulatory challenges
– Custard Yoplait 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.
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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Custard Yoplait has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Sales & Marketing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Custard Yoplait 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.
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. Custard Yoplait 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.
Environmental challenges
– Custard Yoplait 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. Custard Yoplait can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.
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. Custard Yoplait can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Custard Yoplait in the Sales & Marketing industry. The Sales & Marketing 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Custard Yoplait 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of General Mills, Inc.: Yoplait Custard-Style Yogurt (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 General Mills, Inc.: Yoplait Custard-Style Yogurt (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 General Mills, Inc.: Yoplait Custard-Style Yogurt (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 General Mills, Inc.: Yoplait Custard-Style Yogurt (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 General Mills, Inc.: Yoplait Custard-Style Yogurt (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 Custard Yoplait needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.