Swot Analysis of "Chilli Beans: Peace, Love, and Sunglasses" written by Jose B. Alvarez, Robert Mackalski, Andrew Otazo includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Chilli Sunglasses facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Chilli Beans: Peace, Love, and Sunglasses case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Design, Entrepreneurship, Financial markets, Growth strategy, International business, Leadership, Manufacturing, Organizational culture, Supply chain and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Chilli Beans: Peace, Love, and Sunglasses casestudy better are - – banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing commodity prices, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing transportation and logistics costs, technology disruption, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion,
customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Chilli Beans: Peace, Love, and Sunglasses
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Chilli Beans: Peace, Love, and Sunglasses case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Chilli Sunglasses, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Chilli Sunglasses 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 Chilli Beans: Peace, Love, and Sunglasses can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Chilli Beans: Peace, Love, and Sunglasses case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Chilli Sunglasses
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 Chilli Sunglasses
Strengths Chilli Beans: Peace, Love, and Sunglasses | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Chilli Sunglasses in Chilli Beans: Peace, Love, and Sunglasses Harvard Business Review case study are -
Innovation driven organization
– Chilli Sunglasses is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Chilli Beans: Peace, Love, and Sunglasses Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Organizational Resilience of Chilli Sunglasses
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Chilli Sunglasses does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Analytics focus
– Chilli Sunglasses 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 Jose B. Alvarez, Robert Mackalski, Andrew Otazo 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Chilli Sunglasses has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Chilli Sunglasses 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Chilli Sunglasses is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Chilli Beans: Peace, Love, and Sunglasses 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.
Ability to lead change in Sales & Marketing field
– Chilli Sunglasses 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 Chilli Sunglasses in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Training and development
– Chilli Sunglasses has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Chilli Beans: Peace, Love, and Sunglasses 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Chilli Sunglasses 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Chilli Sunglasses 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 Chilli Beans: Peace, Love, and Sunglasses - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Sales & Marketing industry
– Chilli Beans: Peace, Love, and Sunglasses firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Chilli Sunglasses to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Chilli Sunglasses to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Chilli Sunglasses is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Chilli Beans: Peace, Love, and Sunglasses are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Digital Transformation in Sales & Marketing segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Chilli Sunglasses digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Chilli Sunglasses has successfully integrated the four key components of digital transformation – digital integration in processes, digital integration in marketing and customer relationship management, digital integration into the value chain, and using technology to explore new products and market opportunities.
Weaknesses Chilli Beans: Peace, Love, and Sunglasses | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Chilli Beans: Peace, Love, and Sunglasses are -
Lack of clear differentiation of Chilli Sunglasses products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Chilli Sunglasses needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
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 Chilli Sunglasses supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Chilli Beans: Peace, Love, and Sunglasses, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Chilli Sunglasses vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Chilli Sunglasses, firm in the HBR case study Chilli Beans: Peace, Love, and Sunglasses needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Chilli Sunglasses is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Chilli Beans: Peace, Love, and Sunglasses 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 operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Chilli Beans: Peace, Love, and Sunglasses 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 Chilli Sunglasses 's lucrative customers.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Chilli Sunglasses 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Chilli Beans: Peace, Love, and Sunglasses, it seems that the employees of Chilli Sunglasses 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Chilli Sunglasses 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Chilli Beans: Peace, Love, and Sunglasses, 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 to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Chilli Beans: Peace, Love, and Sunglasses HBR case study mentions - Chilli Sunglasses takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the industry in last five years.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Chilli Sunglasses needs to come up with a strategy to reduce the workers concern regarding automation. Without a clear strategy, it could lead to disruption and uncertainty within the organization.
Opportunities Chilli Beans: Peace, Love, and Sunglasses | 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 Chilli Beans: Peace, Love, and Sunglasses are -
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Chilli Sunglasses has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Chilli Sunglasses to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Chilli Beans: Peace, Love, and Sunglasses case study. Chilli Sunglasses can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Chilli Sunglasses 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 Chilli Sunglasses to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
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. Chilli Sunglasses 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 Chilli Sunglasses can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Chilli Sunglasses to increase its market reach. Chilli Sunglasses 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Chilli Sunglasses 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Chilli Sunglasses 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 Chilli Sunglasses 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
– Chilli Sunglasses 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.
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 Chilli Sunglasses in the consumer business. Now Chilli Sunglasses can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
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. Chilli Sunglasses can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Developing new processes and practices
– Chilli Sunglasses 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Chilli Sunglasses is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Chilli Beans: Peace, Love, and Sunglasses 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.
Threats Chilli Beans: Peace, Love, and Sunglasses External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Chilli Beans: Peace, Love, and Sunglasses are -
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Chilli Sunglasses is facing in Sales & Marketing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Chilli Sunglasses 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 Chilli Beans: Peace, Love, and Sunglasses .
Environmental challenges
– Chilli Sunglasses 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. Chilli Sunglasses can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.
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 Chilli Sunglasses in the Sales & Marketing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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 Chilli Sunglasses.
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 Chilli Sunglasses business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Chilli Sunglasses with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Increasing wage structure of Chilli Sunglasses
– 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 Chilli Sunglasses.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Chilli Sunglasses 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 acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Chilli Sunglasses has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Sales & Marketing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Chilli Sunglasses 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Chilli Sunglasses 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Chilli Beans: Peace, Love, and Sunglasses, Chilli Sunglasses 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 .
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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Chilli Beans: Peace, Love, and Sunglasses 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 Chilli Beans: Peace, Love, and Sunglasses 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 Chilli Beans: Peace, Love, and Sunglasses 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 Chilli Beans: Peace, Love, and Sunglasses 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 Chilli Beans: Peace, Love, and Sunglasses 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 Chilli Sunglasses needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.