Jane's Short & Sweet: Purpose, People, and Profit SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Sales & Marketing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Jane's Short & Sweet: Purpose, People, and Profit
In 2015, jane's short & sweet, a United States-based for-profit business, regularly dedicated 25 per cent of its revenue to charities supporting its mission of improving the education and healthcare of marginalized women. The company also engaged in some environmental practices with respect to its use of resources. jane's short & sweet's owner understood that she would have to make some trade-offs between people and profit while still attempting to remain consistent with her company's social purpose and contribute to the resolution of its current problem-finding a way to fill a customer order that exceeded the company's production capacity. While addressing the company's new labour needs, the owner needed to evaluate how the trade-off between mission and money would affect the company's labour source, hourly wages, pricing strategy, product price, and organizational goals. To do so, the owner had to identify and evaluate the options that would enable her to better fulfill her company's role as a social sustainable enterprise. Kelly Ann Irvin is affiliated with Rollins College. Mary Conway Dato-on is affiliated with Rollins College.
Swot Analysis of "Jane's Short & Sweet: Purpose, People, and Profit" written by Kelly Ann Irvin, Mary Conway Dato-on includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Jane's Sweet facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Jane's Short & Sweet: Purpose, People, and Profit case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Marketing, Pricing, Social enterprise, Sustainability and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Jane's Short & Sweet: Purpose, People, and Profit casestudy better are - – challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing transportation and logistics costs, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing commodity prices, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google,
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 Jane's Short & Sweet: Purpose, People, and Profit
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Jane's Short & Sweet: Purpose, People, and Profit case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Jane's Sweet, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Jane's Sweet 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 Jane's Short & Sweet: Purpose, People, and Profit can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Jane's Short & Sweet: Purpose, People, and Profit case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Jane's Sweet
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 Jane's Sweet
Strengths Jane's Short & Sweet: Purpose, People, and Profit | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Jane's Sweet in Jane's Short & Sweet: Purpose, People, and Profit Harvard Business Review case study are -
Organizational Resilience of Jane's Sweet
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Jane's Sweet does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Analytics focus
– Jane's Sweet 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 Kelly Ann Irvin, Mary Conway Dato-on 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Jane's Sweet is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Digital Transformation in Sales & Marketing segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Jane's Sweet digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Jane's Sweet 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Jane's Sweet 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.
Training and development
– Jane's Sweet has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Jane's Short & Sweet: Purpose, People, and Profit 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Jane's Sweet is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Jane's Short & Sweet: Purpose, People, and Profit 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
– Jane's Sweet 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 Jane's Sweet in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Jane's Short & Sweet: Purpose, People, and Profit 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Jane's Sweet is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Jane's Short & Sweet: Purpose, People, and Profit Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Jane's Sweet 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
– Jane's Sweet is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Jane's Short & Sweet: Purpose, People, and Profit are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Weaknesses Jane's Short & Sweet: Purpose, People, and Profit | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Jane's Short & Sweet: Purpose, People, and Profit are -
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Jane's Short & Sweet: Purpose, People, and Profit, it seems that the employees of Jane's Sweet 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Jane's Short & Sweet: Purpose, People, and Profit, is just above the industry average. Jane's Sweet 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Jane's Sweet 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 to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Jane's Sweet is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Jane's Short & Sweet: Purpose, People, and Profit can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Need for greater diversity
– Jane's Sweet 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Jane's Sweet 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Jane's Sweet 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Jane's Short & Sweet: Purpose, People, and Profit HBR case study mentions - Jane's Sweet 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Jane's Short & Sweet: Purpose, People, and Profit, in the dynamic environment Jane's Sweet has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Jane's Sweet has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Kelly Ann Irvin, Mary Conway Dato-on suggests that, Jane's Sweet 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Jane's Sweet, firm in the HBR case study Jane's Short & Sweet: Purpose, People, and Profit needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Opportunities Jane's Short & Sweet: Purpose, People, and Profit | 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 Jane's Short & Sweet: Purpose, People, and Profit are -
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Jane's Sweet in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Sales & Marketing segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Jane's Sweet 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, Jane's Short & Sweet: Purpose, People, and Profit, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Jane's Sweet can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Jane's Sweet operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Sales & Marketing sector.
Buying journey improvements
– Jane's Sweet can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Jane's Short & Sweet: Purpose, People, and Profit 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.
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 Jane's Sweet in the consumer business. Now Jane's Sweet can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Jane's Sweet 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Jane's Sweet can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Sales & Marketing segment. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Jane's Sweet 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Jane's Sweet 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Jane's Sweet 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Jane's Sweet has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Jane's Sweet to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Jane's Short & Sweet: Purpose, People, and Profit case study. Jane's Sweet can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Jane's Sweet can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Loyalty marketing
– Jane's Sweet 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.
Threats Jane's Short & Sweet: Purpose, People, and Profit External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Jane's Short & Sweet: Purpose, People, and Profit are -
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. Jane's Sweet 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 Jane's Sweet 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.
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 Jane's Sweet business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Aging population
– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.
Environmental challenges
– Jane's Sweet 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. Jane's Sweet can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Jane's Sweet 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, Jane's Sweet 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 Jane's Short & Sweet: Purpose, People, and Profit .
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Jane's Short & Sweet: Purpose, People, and Profit, Jane's Sweet 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 .
Regulatory challenges
– Jane's Sweet 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Jane's Sweet 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.
Increasing wage structure of Jane's Sweet
– 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 Jane's Sweet.
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 Jane's Sweet in the Sales & Marketing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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. Jane's Sweet 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Jane's Short & Sweet: Purpose, People, and Profit 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 Jane's Short & Sweet: Purpose, People, and Profit 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 Jane's Short & Sweet: Purpose, People, and Profit 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 Jane's Short & Sweet: Purpose, People, and Profit 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 Jane's Short & Sweet: Purpose, People, and Profit 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 Jane's Sweet needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
