Atera NYC (C): New Leadership in the Cuisine SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Strategy & Execution
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Atera NYC (C): New Leadership in the Cuisine
Supplement to case IMD818. Atera Restaurant, New York City, February 2015. Jodi Richard closed the door behind her with a ton of questions. She had just come out of the final meeting with Matthew Lightner, the executive chef of her two-Michelin-star restaurant in lower Manhattan. Matthew had just announced he was quitting to "pursue new opportunities." This was the final straw in a long string of events that had unfolded before her eyes. The departure of the multi-starred chef would leave a huge vacuum in the restaurant's organization. Worse, they has agreed that Matthew's departure would be effective very rapidly, by end of March. The situation was critical: finding a new star chef for a fashionable restaurant in the competitive lower-Manhattan food scene was going to be a huge challenge. Several other crucial questions preoccupied Jodi. Should she just close down the restaurant and rent the space out to somebody else? Should she change the restaurant concept completely, moving to something easier like a sushi restaurant? Was a trip to Japan to find a young ambitious chef an option in that respect? How would the staff feel about the chef's departure? Would they follow the exit sign as well?
Authors :: Benoit Leleux, George Kohlrieser, Ole Borregaard
Swot Analysis of "Atera NYC (C): New Leadership in the Cuisine" written by Benoit Leleux, George Kohlrieser, Ole Borregaard includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Restaurant Chef facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Atera NYC (C): New Leadership in the Cuisine case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Crisis management, Entrepreneurship, Leadership, Leading teams, Marketing, Strategy and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Atera NYC (C): New Leadership in the Cuisine casestudy better are - – customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, there is backlash against globalization, geopolitical disruptions, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models,
increasing transportation and logistics costs, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Atera NYC (C): New Leadership in the Cuisine
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Atera NYC (C): New Leadership in the Cuisine case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Restaurant Chef, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Restaurant Chef 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 Atera NYC (C): New Leadership in the Cuisine can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Atera NYC (C): New Leadership in the Cuisine case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Restaurant Chef
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 Restaurant Chef
Strengths Atera NYC (C): New Leadership in the Cuisine | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Restaurant Chef in Atera NYC (C): New Leadership in the Cuisine Harvard Business Review case study are -
Analytics focus
– Restaurant Chef 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 Benoit Leleux, George Kohlrieser, Ole Borregaard 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Restaurant Chef in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Diverse revenue streams
– Restaurant Chef is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Atera NYC (C): New Leadership in the Cuisine 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.
Learning organization
- Restaurant Chef 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 Restaurant Chef is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Atera NYC (C): New Leadership in the Cuisine Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Training and development
– Restaurant Chef has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Atera NYC (C): New Leadership in the Cuisine 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Restaurant Chef 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 Atera NYC (C): New Leadership in the Cuisine HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Atera NYC (C): New Leadership in the Cuisine 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Restaurant Chef is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Atera NYC (C): New Leadership in the Cuisine Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Restaurant Chef 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Restaurant Chef 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 Atera NYC (C): New Leadership in the Cuisine - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Organizational Resilience of Restaurant Chef
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Restaurant Chef does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Strong track record of project management
– Restaurant Chef is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Weaknesses Atera NYC (C): New Leadership in the Cuisine | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Atera NYC (C): New Leadership in the Cuisine are -
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Atera NYC (C): New Leadership in the Cuisine, is just above the industry average. Restaurant Chef 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Restaurant Chef products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Restaurant Chef needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Restaurant Chef is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Strategy & Execution segment. Restaurant Chef needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Restaurant Chef to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Restaurant Chef is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Atera NYC (C): New Leadership in the Cuisine can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Restaurant Chef 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Atera NYC (C): New Leadership in the Cuisine, 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 operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Atera NYC (C): New Leadership in the Cuisine 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 Restaurant Chef 's lucrative customers.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Restaurant Chef 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Restaurant Chef 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 Atera NYC (C): New Leadership in the Cuisine 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 Atera NYC (C): New Leadership in the Cuisine can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Restaurant Chef is planning to shift buying processes online.
Need for greater diversity
– Restaurant Chef 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 Atera NYC (C): New Leadership in the Cuisine | 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 Atera NYC (C): New Leadership in the Cuisine are -
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Restaurant Chef 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 Restaurant Chef 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 Restaurant Chef 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
– Restaurant Chef 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Restaurant Chef can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Atera NYC (C): New Leadership in the Cuisine suggest that firm can provide automated chats to help consumers solve their own problems, provide online suggestions to get maximum out of the products and services, and help consumers to build a community where they can interact with each other to develop new features and uses.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Restaurant Chef to increase its market reach. Restaurant Chef 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Restaurant Chef 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Restaurant Chef can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
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. Restaurant Chef can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Loyalty marketing
– Restaurant Chef 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Restaurant Chef 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Restaurant Chef 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, Restaurant Chef can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Restaurant Chef operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Strategy & Execution sector.
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. Restaurant Chef 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. Restaurant Chef 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.
Threats Atera NYC (C): New Leadership in the Cuisine External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Atera NYC (C): New Leadership in the Cuisine are -
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 Restaurant Chef.
Regulatory challenges
– Restaurant Chef 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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Restaurant Chef 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Restaurant Chef 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.
Increasing wage structure of Restaurant Chef
– 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 Restaurant Chef.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Restaurant Chef has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Strategy & Execution industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Restaurant Chef 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.
Environmental challenges
– Restaurant Chef 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. Restaurant Chef can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Restaurant Chef is facing in Strategy & Execution sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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. Restaurant Chef can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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. Restaurant Chef 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Restaurant Chef 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.
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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Restaurant Chef with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Atera NYC (C): New Leadership in the Cuisine 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 Atera NYC (C): New Leadership in the Cuisine 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 Atera NYC (C): New Leadership in the Cuisine 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 Atera NYC (C): New Leadership in the Cuisine 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 Atera NYC (C): New Leadership in the Cuisine 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 Restaurant Chef needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.