Creating Business Value: Arcor Group and Sustainability, Spanish Version SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Strategy & Execution
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Creating Business Value: Arcor Group and Sustainability, Spanish Version
Founded in 1951 in Argentina, Arcor Group consolidated as an industry leader in the manufacturing of food, candy, crackers, cookies, chocolates, and ice-cream for consumers in over 120 countries across all five continents. This case focuses on the process carried out by Arcor Group to introduce and institutionalize sustainability in its management and strategy, describing how the process unfolded and highlighting the challenges that were faced, particularly revolving around the decisions that the company had to make to integrate sustainability to its day-to-day business management and to engage employees in this endeavor in late 2010. "Creating Business Value: Arcor Group and Sustainability" includes two documents: the case itself and its epilogue, which provides information on later developments. Universidad de San AndrA?s' case collection
Swot Analysis of "Creating Business Value: Arcor Group and Sustainability, Spanish Version" written by Gabriel Berger, Carolina Agrest includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Arcor Sustainability facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Creating Business Value: Arcor Group and Sustainability, Spanish Version case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Corporate governance, Social responsibility, Strategic planning, Sustainability and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Creating Business Value: Arcor Group and Sustainability, Spanish Version casestudy better are - – geopolitical disruptions, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing commodity prices, increasing transportation and logistics costs, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, wage bills are increasing, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings,
increasing energy prices, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Creating Business Value: Arcor Group and Sustainability, Spanish Version
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Creating Business Value: Arcor Group and Sustainability, Spanish Version case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Arcor Sustainability, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Arcor Sustainability 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 Creating Business Value: Arcor Group and Sustainability, Spanish Version can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Creating Business Value: Arcor Group and Sustainability, Spanish Version case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Arcor Sustainability
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 Arcor Sustainability
Strengths Creating Business Value: Arcor Group and Sustainability, Spanish Version | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Arcor Sustainability in Creating Business Value: Arcor Group and Sustainability, Spanish Version Harvard Business Review case study are -
Digital Transformation in Strategy & Execution segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Arcor Sustainability digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Arcor Sustainability 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Arcor Sustainability 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Arcor Sustainability 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Arcor Sustainability is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Analytics focus
– Arcor Sustainability 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 Gabriel Berger, Carolina Agrest 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.
Organizational Resilience of Arcor Sustainability
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Arcor Sustainability does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Creating Business Value: Arcor Group and Sustainability, Spanish Version Harvard Business Review case study comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the industry, building diversified operations across different geographies so that disruption in one part of the world doesn’t impact the overall performance of the firm, and integrating the various business operations and processes through its digital transformation drive.
Diverse revenue streams
– Arcor Sustainability is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Creating Business Value: Arcor Group and Sustainability, Spanish Version case study a diverse revenue stream that has helped it to survive disruptions such as global pandemic in Covid-19, financial disruption of 2008, and supply chain disruption of 2021.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Arcor Sustainability has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Arcor Sustainability 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Arcor Sustainability is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Creating Business Value: Arcor Group and Sustainability, Spanish Version 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 Arcor Sustainability in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Arcor Sustainability in the sector have low bargaining power. Creating Business Value: Arcor Group and Sustainability, Spanish Version has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Arcor Sustainability to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Weaknesses Creating Business Value: Arcor Group and Sustainability, Spanish Version | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Creating Business Value: Arcor Group and Sustainability, Spanish Version are -
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Arcor Sustainability 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Arcor Sustainability 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Creating Business Value: Arcor Group and Sustainability, Spanish Version 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 Arcor Sustainability 's lucrative customers.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Creating Business Value: Arcor Group and Sustainability, Spanish Version, 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.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Arcor Sustainability has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Creating Business Value: Arcor Group and Sustainability, Spanish Version, it seems that the employees of Arcor Sustainability 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Creating Business Value: Arcor Group and Sustainability, Spanish Version, in the dynamic environment Arcor Sustainability has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Arcor Sustainability has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Creating Business Value: Arcor Group and Sustainability, Spanish Version that the firm needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department in the case Creating Business Value: Arcor Group and Sustainability, Spanish Version can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Arcor Sustainability is planning to shift buying processes online.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Arcor Sustainability is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Strategy & Execution segment. Arcor Sustainability needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Arcor Sustainability to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Arcor Sustainability 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 - Creating Business Value: Arcor Group and Sustainability, Spanish Version should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Creating Business Value: Arcor Group and Sustainability, Spanish Version HBR case study still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Arcor Sustainability has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Opportunities Creating Business Value: Arcor Group and Sustainability, Spanish Version | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities highlighted in the Harvard Business Review case study Creating Business Value: Arcor Group and Sustainability, Spanish Version are -
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Arcor Sustainability 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Arcor Sustainability 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Arcor Sustainability 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 Creating Business Value: Arcor Group and Sustainability, Spanish Version - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Arcor Sustainability 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 Arcor Sustainability 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Arcor Sustainability 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Arcor Sustainability 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Arcor Sustainability 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, Creating Business Value: Arcor Group and Sustainability, Spanish Version, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Manufacturing automation
– Arcor Sustainability 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.
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. Arcor Sustainability can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
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. Arcor Sustainability can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Arcor Sustainability has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Arcor Sustainability to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Creating Business Value: Arcor Group and Sustainability, Spanish Version case study. Arcor Sustainability can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Loyalty marketing
– Arcor Sustainability 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Arcor Sustainability can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Arcor Sustainability operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Strategy & Execution sector.
Threats Creating Business Value: Arcor Group and Sustainability, Spanish Version External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Creating Business Value: Arcor Group and Sustainability, Spanish Version 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. Arcor Sustainability 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, Arcor Sustainability 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 Creating Business Value: Arcor Group and Sustainability, Spanish Version .
Consumer confidence and its impact on Arcor Sustainability 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Arcor Sustainability 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.
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 Arcor Sustainability in the Strategy & Execution sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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 Arcor Sustainability.
Environmental challenges
– Arcor Sustainability 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. Arcor Sustainability can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Strategy & Execution 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 Creating Business Value: Arcor Group and Sustainability, Spanish Version, Arcor Sustainability 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 .
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. Arcor Sustainability can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Arcor Sustainability has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Strategy & Execution industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Arcor Sustainability 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.
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. Arcor Sustainability needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Strategy & Execution industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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 Arcor Sustainability
– 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 Arcor Sustainability.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Creating Business Value: Arcor Group and Sustainability, Spanish Version Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers in the HBR case study Creating Business Value: Arcor Group and Sustainability, Spanish Version needs to zero down on the relative importance of each factor mentioned in the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants.
We can provide the relative importance to each factor by assigning relative weights. Weighted SWOT analysis process is a three stage process –
First stage for doing weighted SWOT analysis of the case study Creating Business Value: Arcor Group and Sustainability, Spanish Version is to rank the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. This will help you to assess the most important strengths and weaknesses of the firm and which one of the strengths and weaknesses mentioned in the initial lists are marginal and can be left out.
Second stage for conducting weighted SWOT analysis of the Harvard case study Creating Business Value: Arcor Group and Sustainability, Spanish Version is to give probabilities to the external strategic factors thus better understanding the opportunities and threats arising out of macro environment changes and developments.
Third stage of constructing weighted SWOT analysis of Creating Business Value: Arcor Group and Sustainability, Spanish Version is to provide strategic recommendations includes – joining likelihood of external strategic factors such as opportunities and threats to the internal strategic factors – strengths and weaknesses. You should start with external factors as they will provide the direction of the overall industry. Secondly by joining probabilities with internal strategic factors can help the company not only strategic fit but also the most probably strategic trade-off that Arcor Sustainability needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
