Swot Analysis of "Alessi: Evolution of an Italian Design Factory (C), Spanish Version" written by Youngme Moon, Vincent Dessain, Anders Sjoman includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Alessi Italian facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Alessi: Evolution of an Italian Design Factory (C), Spanish Version case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Design, Product development, Sales and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Alessi: Evolution of an Italian Design Factory (C), Spanish Version casestudy better are - – central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, wage bills are increasing, increasing commodity prices, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing transportation and logistics costs,
digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, there is backlash against globalization, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Alessi: Evolution of an Italian Design Factory (C), Spanish Version
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Alessi: Evolution of an Italian Design Factory (C), Spanish Version case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Alessi Italian, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Alessi Italian 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 Alessi: Evolution of an Italian Design Factory (C), Spanish Version can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Alessi: Evolution of an Italian Design Factory (C), Spanish Version case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Alessi Italian
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 Alessi Italian
Strengths Alessi: Evolution of an Italian Design Factory (C), Spanish Version | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Alessi Italian in Alessi: Evolution of an Italian Design Factory (C), Spanish Version Harvard Business Review case study are -
Ability to recruit top talent
– Alessi Italian is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Alessi: Evolution of an Italian Design Factory (C), Spanish Version 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 Alessi: Evolution of an Italian Design Factory (C), Spanish Version 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Alessi Italian is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Alessi Italian has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Alessi Italian 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
– Alessi Italian 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 Youngme Moon, Vincent Dessain, Anders Sjoman 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.
Training and development
– Alessi Italian has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Alessi: Evolution of an Italian Design Factory (C), Spanish Version 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Sales & Marketing industry
– Alessi: Evolution of an Italian Design Factory (C), Spanish Version firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Alessi Italian to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Alessi Italian to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Alessi Italian in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Alessi Italian in the sector have low bargaining power. Alessi: Evolution of an Italian Design Factory (C), Spanish Version has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Alessi Italian to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Digital Transformation in Sales & Marketing segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Alessi Italian digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Alessi Italian 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.
Ability to lead change in Sales & Marketing field
– Alessi Italian 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 Alessi Italian in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Diverse revenue streams
– Alessi Italian is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Alessi: Evolution of an Italian Design Factory (C), Spanish Version 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.
Weaknesses Alessi: Evolution of an Italian Design Factory (C), Spanish Version | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Alessi: Evolution of an Italian Design Factory (C), Spanish Version are -
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Alessi: Evolution of an Italian Design Factory (C), Spanish Version, it seems that the employees of Alessi Italian 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Alessi Italian is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Sales & Marketing segment. Alessi Italian needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Alessi Italian to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Alessi Italian, firm in the HBR case study Alessi: Evolution of an Italian Design Factory (C), Spanish Version needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Alessi: Evolution of an Italian Design Factory (C), Spanish Version, is just above the industry average. Alessi Italian 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 dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Alessi: Evolution of an Italian Design Factory (C), Spanish Version 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 Alessi Italian has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Alessi: Evolution of an Italian Design Factory (C), Spanish Version, 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Alessi: Evolution of an Italian Design Factory (C), Spanish Version, in the dynamic environment Alessi Italian has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Alessi Italian has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Alessi Italian 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Alessi Italian 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Alessi: Evolution of an Italian Design Factory (C), Spanish Version 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 Alessi: Evolution of an Italian Design Factory (C), Spanish Version can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Alessi Italian is planning to shift buying processes online.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Alessi Italian 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 - Alessi: Evolution of an Italian Design Factory (C), Spanish Version should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Opportunities Alessi: Evolution of an Italian Design Factory (C), Spanish Version | 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 Alessi: Evolution of an Italian Design Factory (C), Spanish Version are -
Leveraging digital technologies
– Alessi Italian 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Alessi Italian can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Alessi: Evolution of an Italian Design Factory (C), Spanish Version 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Alessi Italian 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Alessi Italian 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 Alessi Italian can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
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 Alessi Italian in the consumer business. Now Alessi Italian can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
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 Alessi Italian 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Alessi Italian 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 Alessi Italian to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Alessi Italian has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Alessi Italian to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Alessi: Evolution of an Italian Design Factory (C), Spanish Version case study. Alessi Italian can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Alessi Italian 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 Alessi: Evolution of an Italian Design Factory (C), Spanish Version - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Alessi Italian to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
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. Alessi Italian 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. Alessi Italian 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.
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. Alessi Italian can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Loyalty marketing
– Alessi Italian 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 Alessi: Evolution of an Italian Design Factory (C), Spanish Version External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Alessi: Evolution of an Italian Design Factory (C), Spanish Version are -
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Alessi Italian 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.
Environmental challenges
– Alessi Italian 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. Alessi Italian can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Alessi Italian 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.
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.
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. Alessi Italian 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.
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. Alessi Italian can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Alessi: Evolution of an Italian Design Factory (C), Spanish Version, Alessi Italian 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 .
Increasing wage structure of Alessi Italian
– 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 Alessi Italian.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Alessi Italian high dependence on third party suppliers can disrupt its processes and delivery mechanism. For example -the current troubles of car makers because of chip shortage is because the chip companies started producing chips for electronic companies rather than car manufacturers.
New competition
– After the dotcom bust of 2001, financial crisis of 2008-09, the business formation in US economy had declined. But in 2020 alone, there are more than 1.5 million new business applications in United States. This can lead to greater competition for Alessi Italian in the Sales & Marketing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Alessi Italian is facing in Sales & Marketing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Alessi Italian with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Alessi: Evolution of an Italian Design Factory (C), Spanish Version 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 Alessi: Evolution of an Italian Design Factory (C), Spanish Version 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 Alessi: Evolution of an Italian Design Factory (C), Spanish Version 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 Alessi: Evolution of an Italian Design Factory (C), Spanish Version 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 Alessi: Evolution of an Italian Design Factory (C), Spanish Version 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 Alessi Italian needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
