Case Study Description of Tricon Restaurants International: Globalization Re-examined
Describes a leading fast food operator/franchiser trying to consolidate and standardize its operations worldwide and focus its efforts on a few key markets. Lends itself to a discussion of how global the fast food industry is, whether Tricon's new international strategy is consistent with industry structure and its competitive position, and, if so, which country markets to focus on.
Swot Analysis of "Tricon Restaurants International: Globalization Re-examined" written by Pankaj Ghemawat, Tarun Khanna includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Tricon's Tricon facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Tricon Restaurants International: Globalization Re-examined case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Globalization, Marketing and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Tricon Restaurants International: Globalization Re-examined casestudy better are - – there is backlash against globalization, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing transportation and logistics costs, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, wage bills are increasing, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing household debt because of falling income levels,
talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Tricon Restaurants International: Globalization Re-examined
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Tricon Restaurants International: Globalization Re-examined case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Tricon's Tricon, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Tricon's Tricon 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 Tricon Restaurants International: Globalization Re-examined can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Tricon Restaurants International: Globalization Re-examined case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Tricon's Tricon
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Strategy & Execution field.
4. Making a Strategy & Execution topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Tricon's Tricon
Strengths Tricon Restaurants International: Globalization Re-examined | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Tricon's Tricon in Tricon Restaurants International: Globalization Re-examined Harvard Business Review case study are -
Organizational Resilience of Tricon's Tricon
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Tricon's Tricon does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Tricon's Tricon in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Tricon's Tricon 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 Tricon Restaurants International: Globalization Re-examined HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Tricon's Tricon 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Tricon's Tricon is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Tricon Restaurants International: Globalization Re-examined 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Tricon's Tricon in the sector have low bargaining power. Tricon Restaurants International: Globalization Re-examined has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Tricon's Tricon to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Tricon's Tricon has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Tricon's Tricon 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.
Learning organization
- Tricon's Tricon is a learning organization. It has inculcated three key characters of learning organization in its processes and operations – exploration, creativity, and expansiveness. The work place at Tricon's Tricon is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Tricon Restaurants International: Globalization Re-examined Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Ability to lead change in Strategy & Execution field
– Tricon's Tricon 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 Tricon's Tricon in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Training and development
– Tricon's Tricon has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Tricon Restaurants International: Globalization Re-examined 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Tricon's Tricon is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Tricon Restaurants International: Globalization Re-examined Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
High brand equity
– Tricon's Tricon has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Tricon's Tricon to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Weaknesses Tricon Restaurants International: Globalization Re-examined | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Tricon Restaurants International: Globalization Re-examined are -
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Tricon's Tricon has not been able to do capital spending to the tune of the competition. This has resulted into fewer innovations and company facing stiff competition from both existing competitors and new entrants who are disrupting the industry using digital technology.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Tricon Restaurants International: Globalization Re-examined 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 Tricon Restaurants International: Globalization Re-examined can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Tricon's Tricon is planning to shift buying processes online.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Tricon Restaurants International: Globalization Re-examined HBR case study mentions - Tricon's Tricon 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Tricon's Tricon 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 - Tricon Restaurants International: Globalization Re-examined should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
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 Tricon's Tricon supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Tricon Restaurants International: Globalization Re-examined, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Tricon's Tricon vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Tricon Restaurants International: Globalization Re-examined, in the dynamic environment Tricon's Tricon has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Tricon's Tricon has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Tricon Restaurants International: Globalization Re-examined 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 Tricon's Tricon has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Pankaj Ghemawat, Tarun Khanna suggests that, Tricon's Tricon 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 Tricon's Tricon, firm in the HBR case study Tricon Restaurants International: Globalization Re-examined needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Tricon's Tricon 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Tricon Restaurants International: Globalization Re-examined, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Strategy & Execution 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.
Opportunities Tricon Restaurants International: Globalization Re-examined | 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 Tricon Restaurants International: Globalization Re-examined are -
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Tricon's Tricon 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 Tricon Restaurants International: Globalization Re-examined - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Tricon's Tricon to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Tricon's Tricon 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 Strategy & Execution segment.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Strategy & Execution industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Tricon's Tricon 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. Tricon's Tricon 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Tricon's Tricon 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, Tricon Restaurants International: Globalization Re-examined, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Tricon's Tricon 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 Tricon's Tricon to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Tricon's Tricon 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Tricon's Tricon can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Strategy & Execution 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Tricon's Tricon has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Tricon's Tricon to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Tricon Restaurants International: Globalization Re-examined case study. Tricon's Tricon can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Tricon's Tricon in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Strategy & Execution segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Tricon's Tricon can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Tricon's Tricon operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Strategy & Execution sector.
Loyalty marketing
– Tricon's Tricon 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
– Tricon's Tricon can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Tricon Restaurants International: Globalization Re-examined 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Tricon's Tricon can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Threats Tricon Restaurants International: Globalization Re-examined External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Tricon Restaurants International: Globalization Re-examined are -
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. Tricon's Tricon 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Tricon's Tricon is facing in Strategy & Execution sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Tricon's Tricon 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Tricon's Tricon 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 Tricon Restaurants International: Globalization Re-examined .
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 Tricon's Tricon in the Strategy & Execution sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Regulatory challenges
– Tricon's Tricon 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 Strategy & Execution industry regulations.
Environmental challenges
– Tricon's Tricon 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. Tricon's Tricon can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry.
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. Tricon's Tricon needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Strategy & Execution industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Strategy & Execution field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Tricon's Tricon can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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 Tricon's Tricon.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Tricon's Tricon has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Strategy & Execution industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Tricon's Tricon needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Strategy & Execution 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Tricon's Tricon demand
– There is a high probability of declining consumer confidence, given – high inflammation rate, rise of gig economy, lower job stability, increasing cost of living, higher interest rates, and aging demography. All the factors contribute to people saving higher rate of their income, resulting in lower consumer demand in the industry and other sectors.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Tricon Restaurants International: Globalization Re-examined 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 Tricon Restaurants International: Globalization Re-examined 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 Tricon Restaurants International: Globalization Re-examined 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 Tricon Restaurants International: Globalization Re-examined 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 Tricon Restaurants International: Globalization Re-examined 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 Tricon's Tricon needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.