Managing the Competition: Category Captaincy on the Frozen Food Aisle SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Sales & Marketing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Managing the Competition: Category Captaincy on the Frozen Food Aisle
An executive at Freezer Foods, a manufacturer of ready-to-eat frozen meals, has just been told by a major customer, a retail supermarket chain, that it wants one of its two suppliers of frozen food to take over as category captain. A category captain is a third party, usually a manufacturer, who manages a category of goods for a retailer. The executive needs to think through the objectives of category captaincy from the retailer's perspective and develop an attractive bid to win the category captaincy. In doing so, the executive develops an opinion on the benefits and challenges associated with category captaincy from the point of view of four parties: the retailer, the winning category captain, the manufacturer whose rival becomes the category captain, and consumers.
Swot Analysis of "Managing the Competition: Category Captaincy on the Frozen Food Aisle" written by Madhu Viswanathan, Neil Bendle includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Category Captaincy facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Managing the Competition: Category Captaincy on the Frozen Food Aisle case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Managing the Competition: Category Captaincy on the Frozen Food Aisle casestudy better are - – supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing energy prices, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, there is backlash against globalization, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models,
increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, wage bills are increasing, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Managing the Competition: Category Captaincy on the Frozen Food Aisle
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Managing the Competition: Category Captaincy on the Frozen Food Aisle case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Category Captaincy, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Category Captaincy 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 Managing the Competition: Category Captaincy on the Frozen Food Aisle can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Managing the Competition: Category Captaincy on the Frozen Food Aisle case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Category Captaincy
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 Category Captaincy
Strengths Managing the Competition: Category Captaincy on the Frozen Food Aisle | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Category Captaincy in Managing the Competition: Category Captaincy on the Frozen Food Aisle Harvard Business Review case study are -
Digital Transformation in Sales & Marketing segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Category Captaincy digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Category Captaincy 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Category Captaincy is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Managing the Competition: Category Captaincy on the Frozen Food Aisle Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Category Captaincy in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Category Captaincy 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 Managing the Competition: Category Captaincy on the Frozen Food Aisle - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Analytics focus
– Category Captaincy 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 Madhu Viswanathan, Neil Bendle 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Category Captaincy is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Managing the Competition: Category Captaincy on the Frozen Food Aisle 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Category Captaincy 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Category Captaincy 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.
Organizational Resilience of Category Captaincy
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Category Captaincy does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Category Captaincy in the sector have low bargaining power. Managing the Competition: Category Captaincy on the Frozen Food Aisle has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Category Captaincy to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
High brand equity
– Category Captaincy has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Category Captaincy to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Category Captaincy 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 Managing the Competition: Category Captaincy on the Frozen Food Aisle HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Weaknesses Managing the Competition: Category Captaincy on the Frozen Food Aisle | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Managing the Competition: Category Captaincy on the Frozen Food Aisle are -
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 Category Captaincy supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Managing the Competition: Category Captaincy on the Frozen Food Aisle, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Category Captaincy vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Category Captaincy 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Category Captaincy 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Madhu Viswanathan, Neil Bendle suggests that, Category Captaincy 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Category Captaincy 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 - Managing the Competition: Category Captaincy on the Frozen Food Aisle should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Category Captaincy 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Category Captaincy 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Category Captaincy is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Managing the Competition: Category Captaincy on the Frozen Food Aisle can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Category Captaincy 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. Category Captaincy 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Managing the Competition: Category Captaincy on the Frozen Food Aisle 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 Managing the Competition: Category Captaincy on the Frozen Food Aisle can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Category Captaincy is planning to shift buying processes online.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Managing the Competition: Category Captaincy on the Frozen Food Aisle, in the dynamic environment Category Captaincy has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Category Captaincy has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Opportunities Managing the Competition: Category Captaincy on the Frozen Food Aisle | 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 Managing the Competition: Category Captaincy on the Frozen Food Aisle are -
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 Category Captaincy in the consumer business. Now Category Captaincy can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Category Captaincy 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 Managing the Competition: Category Captaincy on the Frozen Food Aisle - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Category Captaincy to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Category Captaincy 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Category Captaincy 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 Category Captaincy to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Manufacturing automation
– Category Captaincy 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Category Captaincy can leverage digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate the production process, customer analytics to get better insights into consumer behavior, realtime digital dashboards to get better sales tracking, logistics and transportation, product tracking, etc.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Category Captaincy is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Managing the Competition: Category Captaincy on the Frozen Food Aisle 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Category Captaincy 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Category Captaincy can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Managing the Competition: Category Captaincy on the Frozen Food Aisle 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Category Captaincy to increase its market reach. Category Captaincy 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Category Captaincy 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.
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. Category Captaincy 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. Category Captaincy 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Category Captaincy 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.
Threats Managing the Competition: Category Captaincy on the Frozen Food Aisle External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Managing the Competition: Category Captaincy on the Frozen Food Aisle are -
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Category Captaincy 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.
Environmental challenges
– Category Captaincy 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. Category Captaincy can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Managing the Competition: Category Captaincy on the Frozen Food Aisle, Category Captaincy 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.
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 Category Captaincy business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Category Captaincy 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 acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Category Captaincy has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Sales & Marketing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Category Captaincy 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Category Captaincy is facing in Sales & Marketing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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 Category Captaincy.
Regulatory challenges
– Category Captaincy 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.
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.
High level of anxiety and lack of motivation
– the Great Resignation in United States is the sign of broader dissatisfaction among the workforce in United States. Category Captaincy needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Sales & Marketing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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 Category Captaincy in the Sales & Marketing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Managing the Competition: Category Captaincy on the Frozen Food Aisle 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 Managing the Competition: Category Captaincy on the Frozen Food Aisle 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 Managing the Competition: Category Captaincy on the Frozen Food Aisle 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 Managing the Competition: Category Captaincy on the Frozen Food Aisle 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 Managing the Competition: Category Captaincy on the Frozen Food Aisle 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 Category Captaincy needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.