Eat Me: The World on Small Plates SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Strategy & Execution
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Eat Me: The World on Small Plates
As Serena Shamash opened the doors to her newly renovated restaurant, the last thing she was expecting to see was two inches of water covering the floor of the bar. Yet, this was just another day in the life of an entrepreneur. She had overcome many obstacles over the emotionally charged three years it took to give birth to her business dream - Eat Me, The World on Small PlatesA?. Now that she had achieved this goal, what was next? Her main preoccupation recently was how to extract herself from the day-to-day operations of the restaurant in order to start the next phase of her business. Eat Me was expected to reach operating breakeven at the end of the year, a major milestone in its short life. Did Eat Me still require her full attention? Or was it time to move beyond the first unit and consider scaling up? What about launching a new concept? She had already started developing new ideas and was getting anxious not to get stuck in the daily grind of this industry. But how would she decide on which direction to pursue? Learning objectives: Entrepreneurial careers, starting a restaurant, affinity financing, managing growth in a service industry, managing relationships while starting a company, setting strategy, creating a value proposition in the restaurant industry, personnel management, key success factors in hospitality.
Swot Analysis of "Eat Me: The World on Small Plates" written by Benoit Leleux, Vikas Menon, Garrett DeCock, Hoi Wah Ma includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Eat Restaurant facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Eat Me: The World on Small Plates case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Entrepreneurship, Leadership and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Eat Me: The World on Small Plates casestudy better are - – technology disruption, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing commodity prices, geopolitical disruptions, increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, wage bills are increasing,
central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Eat Me: The World on Small Plates
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Eat Me: The World on Small Plates case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Eat Restaurant, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Eat Restaurant 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 Eat Me: The World on Small Plates can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Eat Me: The World on Small Plates case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Eat Restaurant
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 Eat Restaurant
Strengths Eat Me: The World on Small Plates | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Eat Restaurant in Eat Me: The World on Small Plates Harvard Business Review case study are -
Successful track record of launching new products
– Eat Restaurant has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Eat Restaurant 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
- Eat Restaurant 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 Eat Restaurant is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Eat Me: The World on Small Plates Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Eat Me: The World on Small Plates 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Strategy & Execution industry
– Eat Me: The World on Small Plates firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Eat Restaurant to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Eat Restaurant to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Eat Restaurant in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Diverse revenue streams
– Eat Restaurant is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Eat Me: The World on Small Plates 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.
Digital Transformation in Strategy & Execution segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Eat Restaurant digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Eat Restaurant 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Eat Restaurant 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 Eat Me: The World on Small Plates - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Eat Restaurant 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 Eat Me: The World on Small Plates HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Eat Restaurant is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Eat Me: The World on Small Plates are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Strong track record of project management
– Eat Restaurant is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Innovation driven organization
– Eat Restaurant is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Eat Me: The World on Small Plates Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Weaknesses Eat Me: The World on Small Plates | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Eat Me: The World on Small Plates are -
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Eat Me: The World on Small Plates 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 Eat Restaurant has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Eat Me: The World on Small Plates, it seems that the employees of Eat Restaurant 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Benoit Leleux, Vikas Menon, Garrett DeCock, Hoi Wah Ma suggests that, Eat Restaurant 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Eat Restaurant 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Eat Restaurant 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 - Eat Me: The World on Small Plates should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Eat Me: The World on Small Plates, is just above the industry average. Eat Restaurant 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Eat Restaurant 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. Eat Restaurant 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Eat Restaurant, firm in the HBR case study Eat Me: The World on Small Plates needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Eat Me: The World on Small Plates, in the dynamic environment Eat Restaurant has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Eat Restaurant has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Eat Restaurant is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Strategy & Execution segment. Eat Restaurant needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Eat Restaurant to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Eat Me: The World on Small Plates has high operating costs in the. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Eat Restaurant 's lucrative customers.
Opportunities Eat Me: The World on Small Plates | 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 Eat Me: The World on Small Plates are -
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Eat Restaurant to increase its market reach. Eat Restaurant 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 Eat Restaurant 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Eat Restaurant can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Eat Restaurant operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Strategy & Execution sector.
Loyalty marketing
– Eat Restaurant 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Eat Restaurant has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Eat Restaurant to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Eat Me: The World on Small Plates case study. Eat Restaurant can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Eat Restaurant 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 Eat Restaurant to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
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 Eat Restaurant 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Eat Restaurant can develop new processes and procedures in Strategy & Execution 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Eat Restaurant 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Eat Restaurant 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, Eat Me: The World on Small Plates, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
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. Eat Restaurant 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. Eat Restaurant 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Eat Restaurant can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Buying journey improvements
– Eat Restaurant can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Eat Me: The World on Small Plates 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.
Threats Eat Me: The World on Small Plates External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Eat Me: The World on Small Plates are -
Regulatory challenges
– Eat Restaurant 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
– Eat Restaurant 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. Eat Restaurant can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry.
New competition
– After the dotcom bust of 2001, financial crisis of 2008-09, the business formation in US economy had declined. But in 2020 alone, there are more than 1.5 million new business applications in United States. This can lead to greater competition for Eat Restaurant in the Strategy & Execution sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Eat Restaurant 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.
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. Eat Restaurant 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.
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.
Increasing wage structure of Eat Restaurant
– 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 Eat Restaurant.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Eat Restaurant has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Strategy & Execution industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Eat Restaurant 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Eat Me: The World on Small Plates, Eat Restaurant may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Strategy & Execution .
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 Eat Restaurant.
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. Eat Restaurant needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Strategy & Execution industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Eat Restaurant 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Eat Restaurant in the Strategy & Execution industry. The Strategy & Execution 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Eat Me: The World on Small Plates 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 Eat Me: The World on Small Plates 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 Eat Me: The World on Small Plates 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 Eat Me: The World on Small Plates 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 Eat Me: The World on Small Plates 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 Eat Restaurant needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.