DO & CO: Gourmet Entertainment SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Strategy & Execution
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of DO & CO: Gourmet Entertainment
This case is about a global catering, restaurant, and hospitality company, DO & CO, growing geographically with its existing businesses while also adding new brands to its portfolio. The company had $1 billion in revenues in 2015 from its three divisions: airline catering; international event catering; and restaurants, lounges, hotels, and retail. DO & CO had limitless opportunities to grow along three dimensions. It had operations in only 10 countries, while its competitors in airline catering were active in up to 50 countries. Thus, geographic expansion was one of the key growth options. DO & CO could also offer more to its existing clients in existing markets, providing vertical growth opportunities. It could also pursue an added-value approach by bringing new formats to existing markets. The last avenue of growth was more opportunistic and came from acquiring new brands in existing or new markets. However, the company had a policy of promoting from within, particularly with its chefs, and it took time to develop the necessary talent. Now DO & CO faced a decision: What type of growth should it pursue, and at what pace?
Swot Analysis of "DO & CO: Gourmet Entertainment" written by Juan Alcacer, Esel Cekin includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Catering Existing facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in DO & CO: Gourmet Entertainment case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Competition, Globalization, Growth strategy, Leading teams, Supply chain, Talent management and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the DO & CO: Gourmet Entertainment casestudy better are - – digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing transportation and logistics costs, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, there is backlash against globalization, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%,
talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of DO & CO: Gourmet Entertainment
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in DO & CO: Gourmet Entertainment case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Catering Existing, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Catering Existing 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 DO & CO: Gourmet Entertainment can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in DO & CO: Gourmet Entertainment case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Catering Existing
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 Catering Existing
Strengths DO & CO: Gourmet Entertainment | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Catering Existing in DO & CO: Gourmet Entertainment Harvard Business Review case study are -
Successful track record of launching new products
– Catering Existing has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Catering Existing 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.
Organizational Resilience of Catering Existing
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Catering Existing does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Innovation driven organization
– Catering Existing is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in DO & CO: Gourmet Entertainment Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Strategy & Execution industry
– DO & CO: Gourmet Entertainment firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Catering Existing to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Catering Existing to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Learning organization
- Catering Existing 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 Catering Existing is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in DO & CO: Gourmet Entertainment Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Strong track record of project management
– Catering Existing is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Catering Existing is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the DO & CO: Gourmet Entertainment are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Catering Existing in the sector have low bargaining power. DO & CO: Gourmet Entertainment has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Catering Existing to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Catering Existing 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 DO & CO: Gourmet Entertainment - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Catering Existing 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
– Catering Existing is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in DO & CO: Gourmet Entertainment 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.
Training and development
– Catering Existing has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in DO & CO: Gourmet Entertainment 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.
Weaknesses DO & CO: Gourmet Entertainment | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of DO & CO: Gourmet Entertainment are -
Products dominated business model
– Even though Catering Existing 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 - DO & CO: Gourmet Entertainment should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study DO & CO: Gourmet Entertainment 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 DO & CO: Gourmet Entertainment can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Catering Existing is planning to shift buying processes online.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As DO & CO: Gourmet Entertainment HBR case study mentions - Catering Existing 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study DO & CO: Gourmet Entertainment, is just above the industry average. Catering Existing 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Catering Existing, firm in the HBR case study DO & CO: Gourmet Entertainment needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study DO & CO: Gourmet Entertainment, 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study DO & CO: Gourmet Entertainment, in the dynamic environment Catering Existing has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Catering Existing 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, Catering Existing 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Catering Existing products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Catering Existing needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Catering Existing 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Catering Existing 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.
Opportunities DO & CO: Gourmet Entertainment | 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 DO & CO: Gourmet Entertainment are -
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Catering Existing 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.
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. Catering Existing can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Catering Existing 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Catering Existing 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 DO & CO: Gourmet Entertainment - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Catering Existing to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Catering Existing is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. DO & CO: Gourmet Entertainment 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Strategy & Execution industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Catering Existing can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
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 Catering Existing in the consumer business. Now Catering Existing can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Catering Existing 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Catering Existing 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 Catering Existing to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Catering Existing has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Catering Existing to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the DO & CO: Gourmet Entertainment case study. Catering Existing can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Catering Existing can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Catering Existing can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Catering Existing operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Strategy & Execution sector.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Catering Existing to increase its market reach. Catering Existing 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.
Threats DO & CO: Gourmet Entertainment External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study DO & CO: Gourmet Entertainment 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. Catering Existing 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Catering Existing 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 DO & CO: Gourmet Entertainment .
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Catering Existing has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Strategy & Execution industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Catering Existing 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Catering Existing 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
– Catering Existing 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
– Catering Existing 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. Catering Existing 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. Catering Existing needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Strategy & Execution industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study DO & CO: Gourmet Entertainment, Catering Existing 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 .
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Catering Existing with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Regulatory challenges
– Catering Existing 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.
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.
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 Catering Existing.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Catering Existing 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of DO & CO: Gourmet Entertainment 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 DO & CO: Gourmet Entertainment 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 DO & CO: Gourmet Entertainment 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 DO & CO: Gourmet Entertainment 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 DO & CO: Gourmet Entertainment 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 Catering Existing needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.