Case Study Description of Nutricia Middle East: Measuring Sales Force Effectiveness
Nutricia's Middle East and African region is transitioning from a trading to a customer focus. CEO Ernest Vandenbussche must decide how to market infant milk formula most effectively in a region where the information environment is much less rich than in other countries/sectors and in which managers are concerned about measuring the effectiveness of their commercial actions. Among the most immediate decisions they need to make is the size of the salesforce--a decision that must be made in the context of a commercial strategy that is not yet fully defined. As Nutricia defines its strategy, it also has to define the strategic control systems it will use to monitor and fine-tune the strategy moving forward.
Swot Analysis of "Nutricia Middle East: Measuring Sales Force Effectiveness" written by F. Asis Martinez-Jerez, Rachel Sha includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Nutricia Measuring facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Nutricia Middle East: Measuring Sales Force Effectiveness case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Customers, Health, IT, Performance measurement, Sales, Strategy execution and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Nutricia Middle East: Measuring Sales Force Effectiveness casestudy better are - – digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, technology disruption, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing commodity prices, there is backlash against globalization, geopolitical disruptions, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%,
increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Nutricia Middle East: Measuring Sales Force Effectiveness
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Nutricia Middle East: Measuring Sales Force Effectiveness case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Nutricia Measuring, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Nutricia Measuring 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 Nutricia Middle East: Measuring Sales Force Effectiveness can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Nutricia Middle East: Measuring Sales Force Effectiveness case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Nutricia Measuring
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 Nutricia Measuring
Strengths Nutricia Middle East: Measuring Sales Force Effectiveness | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Nutricia Measuring in Nutricia Middle East: Measuring Sales Force Effectiveness Harvard Business Review case study are -
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Nutricia Measuring 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 Nutricia Middle East: Measuring Sales Force Effectiveness - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Training and development
– Nutricia Measuring has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Nutricia Middle East: Measuring Sales Force Effectiveness 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Nutricia Measuring is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Nutricia Measuring is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Nutricia Middle East: Measuring Sales Force Effectiveness are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Innovation driven organization
– Nutricia Measuring is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Nutricia Middle East: Measuring Sales Force Effectiveness Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
High brand equity
– Nutricia Measuring has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Nutricia Measuring to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Sales & Marketing industry
– Nutricia Middle East: Measuring Sales Force Effectiveness firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Nutricia Measuring to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Nutricia Measuring to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Nutricia Measuring in the sector have low bargaining power. Nutricia Middle East: Measuring Sales Force Effectiveness has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Nutricia Measuring to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Nutricia Measuring has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Nutricia Measuring 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.
Analytics focus
– Nutricia Measuring 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 F. Asis Martinez-Jerez, Rachel Sha 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 Nutricia Measuring 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.
Learning organization
- Nutricia Measuring 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 Nutricia Measuring is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Nutricia Middle East: Measuring Sales Force Effectiveness Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Weaknesses Nutricia Middle East: Measuring Sales Force Effectiveness | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Nutricia Middle East: Measuring Sales Force Effectiveness are -
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Nutricia Middle East: Measuring Sales Force Effectiveness, it seems that the employees of Nutricia Measuring 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Nutricia Middle East: Measuring Sales Force Effectiveness that the firm needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department in the case Nutricia Middle East: Measuring Sales Force Effectiveness can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Nutricia Measuring is planning to shift buying processes online.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Nutricia Measuring, firm in the HBR case study Nutricia Middle East: Measuring Sales Force Effectiveness needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, F. Asis Martinez-Jerez, Rachel Sha suggests that, Nutricia Measuring 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Nutricia Measuring is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Sales & Marketing segment. Nutricia Measuring needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Nutricia Measuring to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Nutricia Measuring 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, Nutricia Measuring 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. Nutricia Measuring 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Nutricia Middle East: Measuring Sales Force Effectiveness HBR case study mentions - Nutricia Measuring 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.
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 Nutricia Measuring supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Nutricia Middle East: Measuring Sales Force Effectiveness, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Nutricia Measuring vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Nutricia Measuring 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Nutricia Measuring has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.
Opportunities Nutricia Middle East: Measuring Sales Force Effectiveness | 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 Nutricia Middle East: Measuring Sales Force Effectiveness are -
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. Nutricia Measuring 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. Nutricia Measuring 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Nutricia Measuring 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 Nutricia Measuring can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Nutricia Measuring can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Nutricia Measuring operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Sales & Marketing sector.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Nutricia Measuring 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 Nutricia Middle East: Measuring Sales Force Effectiveness - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Nutricia Measuring to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Nutricia Measuring 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Nutricia Measuring is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Nutricia Middle East: Measuring Sales Force Effectiveness 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.
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 Nutricia Measuring 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Nutricia Measuring can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Nutricia Middle East: Measuring Sales Force Effectiveness 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Nutricia Measuring 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.
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. Nutricia Measuring can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Loyalty marketing
– Nutricia Measuring 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Nutricia Measuring has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Nutricia Measuring to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Nutricia Middle East: Measuring Sales Force Effectiveness case study. Nutricia Measuring can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Threats Nutricia Middle East: Measuring Sales Force Effectiveness External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Nutricia Middle East: Measuring Sales Force Effectiveness are -
Regulatory challenges
– Nutricia Measuring 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Nutricia Measuring with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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. Nutricia Measuring 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. Nutricia Measuring needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Sales & Marketing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Nutricia Measuring 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 Nutricia Middle East: Measuring Sales Force Effectiveness .
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 Nutricia Measuring business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Nutricia Measuring is facing in Sales & Marketing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Nutricia Measuring 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.
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.
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. Nutricia Measuring can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Nutricia Measuring 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Nutricia Measuring has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Sales & Marketing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Nutricia Measuring 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.
Environmental challenges
– Nutricia Measuring 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. Nutricia Measuring can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Nutricia Middle East: Measuring Sales Force Effectiveness 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 Nutricia Middle East: Measuring Sales Force Effectiveness 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 Nutricia Middle East: Measuring Sales Force Effectiveness 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 Nutricia Middle East: Measuring Sales Force Effectiveness 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 Nutricia Middle East: Measuring Sales Force Effectiveness 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 Nutricia Measuring needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
