Entrepreneurial Sales Strategies: Namaste Laboratories Pursues New Markets for Hair Care Products SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
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Case Study Description of Entrepreneurial Sales Strategies: Namaste Laboratories Pursues New Markets for Hair Care Products
The Namaste case is a story of how Kellogg alumni couple Gary and Denise Gardner grow their Namaste-branded hair care line from production at the family's kitchen table into a formidable $80 million empire within a 14-year period. The Gardners come from a longtime hair care business lineage, the Soft Sheen dynasty, started by Gary's father decades earlier. Soft Sheen was ultimately sold to hair care giant L'Oreal for over $100 million. The Gardners claim Namaste's growth occurred through listening to the needs and desires of customers for healing hair care products that reminded them of nourishing household remedies. The hair care line became a leader in its industry but faced the dilemma of how to expand sales in new markets, especially international markets such as South Africa and Nigeria.
Swot Analysis of "Entrepreneurial Sales Strategies: Namaste Laboratories Pursues New Markets for Hair Care Products" written by Cheryl Mayberry-McKissack, Tracey Robinson-English includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Hair Namaste facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Entrepreneurial Sales Strategies: Namaste Laboratories Pursues New Markets for Hair Care Products case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Race, Sales and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Entrepreneurial Sales Strategies: Namaste Laboratories Pursues New Markets for Hair Care Products casestudy better are - – increasing household debt because of falling income levels, technology disruption, increasing energy prices, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%,
customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Entrepreneurial Sales Strategies: Namaste Laboratories Pursues New Markets for Hair Care Products
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Entrepreneurial Sales Strategies: Namaste Laboratories Pursues New Markets for Hair Care Products case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Hair Namaste, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Hair Namaste 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 Entrepreneurial Sales Strategies: Namaste Laboratories Pursues New Markets for Hair Care Products can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Entrepreneurial Sales Strategies: Namaste Laboratories Pursues New Markets for Hair Care Products case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Hair Namaste
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 Hair Namaste
Strengths Entrepreneurial Sales Strategies: Namaste Laboratories Pursues New Markets for Hair Care Products | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Hair Namaste in Entrepreneurial Sales Strategies: Namaste Laboratories Pursues New Markets for Hair Care Products Harvard Business Review case study are -
Organizational Resilience of Hair Namaste
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Hair Namaste does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Hair Namaste 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 Entrepreneurial Sales Strategies: Namaste Laboratories Pursues New Markets for Hair Care Products - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Hair Namaste has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Hair Namaste 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
– Hair Namaste 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 Hair Namaste in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Hair Namaste 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 Entrepreneurial Sales Strategies: Namaste Laboratories Pursues New Markets for Hair Care Products HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Hair Namaste 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.
Digital Transformation in Sales & Marketing segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Hair Namaste digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Hair Namaste 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Sales & Marketing industry
– Entrepreneurial Sales Strategies: Namaste Laboratories Pursues New Markets for Hair Care Products firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Hair Namaste to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Hair Namaste to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Hair Namaste 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Hair Namaste is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Entrepreneurial Sales Strategies: Namaste Laboratories Pursues New Markets for Hair Care Products are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Entrepreneurial Sales Strategies: Namaste Laboratories Pursues New Markets for Hair Care Products 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.
Analytics focus
– Hair Namaste 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 Cheryl Mayberry-McKissack, Tracey Robinson-English 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.
Weaknesses Entrepreneurial Sales Strategies: Namaste Laboratories Pursues New Markets for Hair Care Products | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Entrepreneurial Sales Strategies: Namaste Laboratories Pursues New Markets for Hair Care Products are -
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Hair Namaste 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Entrepreneurial Sales Strategies: Namaste Laboratories Pursues New Markets for Hair Care Products, 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Hair Namaste 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. Hair Namaste 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Hair Namaste 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Hair Namaste, firm in the HBR case study Entrepreneurial Sales Strategies: Namaste Laboratories Pursues New Markets for Hair Care Products needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Entrepreneurial Sales Strategies: Namaste Laboratories Pursues New Markets for Hair Care Products 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 Entrepreneurial Sales Strategies: Namaste Laboratories Pursues New Markets for Hair Care Products can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Hair Namaste is planning to shift buying processes online.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Entrepreneurial Sales Strategies: Namaste Laboratories Pursues New Markets for Hair Care Products 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 Hair Namaste has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Hair Namaste is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Entrepreneurial Sales Strategies: Namaste Laboratories Pursues New Markets for Hair Care Products can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Hair Namaste is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Sales & Marketing segment. Hair Namaste needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Hair Namaste to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Hair Namaste 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Hair Namaste 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 - Entrepreneurial Sales Strategies: Namaste Laboratories Pursues New Markets for Hair Care Products should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Opportunities Entrepreneurial Sales Strategies: Namaste Laboratories Pursues New Markets for Hair Care Products | 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 Entrepreneurial Sales Strategies: Namaste Laboratories Pursues New Markets for Hair Care Products are -
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Hair Namaste 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 Entrepreneurial Sales Strategies: Namaste Laboratories Pursues New Markets for Hair Care Products - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Hair Namaste to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Hair Namaste has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Hair Namaste to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Entrepreneurial Sales Strategies: Namaste Laboratories Pursues New Markets for Hair Care Products case study. Hair Namaste can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Hair Namaste 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Hair Namaste 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 Hair Namaste 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 Hair Namaste to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Hair Namaste can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Hair Namaste operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Sales & Marketing sector.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Hair Namaste is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Entrepreneurial Sales Strategies: Namaste Laboratories Pursues New Markets for Hair Care Products 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.
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. Hair Namaste can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Hair Namaste to increase its market reach. Hair Namaste 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Hair Namaste 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Hair Namaste 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Hair Namaste 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 Hair Namaste can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Threats Entrepreneurial Sales Strategies: Namaste Laboratories Pursues New Markets for Hair Care Products External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Entrepreneurial Sales Strategies: Namaste Laboratories Pursues New Markets for Hair Care Products are -
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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Hair Namaste 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Hair Namaste 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.
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 Hair Namaste in the Sales & Marketing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Hair Namaste 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Hair Namaste 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.
Increasing wage structure of Hair Namaste
– 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 Hair Namaste.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Entrepreneurial Sales Strategies: Namaste Laboratories Pursues New Markets for Hair Care Products, Hair Namaste 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 .
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Hair Namaste has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Sales & Marketing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Hair Namaste 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Hair Namaste with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Hair Namaste 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
– Hair Namaste 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.
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 Hair Namaste business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Entrepreneurial Sales Strategies: Namaste Laboratories Pursues New Markets for Hair Care Products 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 Entrepreneurial Sales Strategies: Namaste Laboratories Pursues New Markets for Hair Care Products 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 Entrepreneurial Sales Strategies: Namaste Laboratories Pursues New Markets for Hair Care Products 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 Entrepreneurial Sales Strategies: Namaste Laboratories Pursues New Markets for Hair Care Products 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 Entrepreneurial Sales Strategies: Namaste Laboratories Pursues New Markets for Hair Care Products 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 Hair Namaste needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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