Bill Nichol Negotiates with Walmart: Hard Bargains over Soft Goods (B) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Strategy & Execution
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Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Bill Nichol Negotiates with Walmart: Hard Bargains over Soft Goods (B)
This case describes the multi-prong negotiating approach that Bill Nichol, Kentucky Derby Hosiery Co. CEO, took to deal with an ultimatum from his largest customer, as well as the outcome of this process. It concludes with a number of Nichol's observations about supplier-retailer negotiations.
Swot Analysis of "Bill Nichol Negotiates with Walmart: Hard Bargains over Soft Goods (B)" written by James K. Sebenius, Ellen Knebel includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Nichol Bill facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Bill Nichol Negotiates with Walmart: Hard Bargains over Soft Goods (B) case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Negotiations and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Bill Nichol Negotiates with Walmart: Hard Bargains over Soft Goods (B) casestudy better are - – increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, geopolitical disruptions, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing energy prices,
technology disruption, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Bill Nichol Negotiates with Walmart: Hard Bargains over Soft Goods (B)
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Bill Nichol Negotiates with Walmart: Hard Bargains over Soft Goods (B) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Nichol Bill, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Nichol Bill 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 Bill Nichol Negotiates with Walmart: Hard Bargains over Soft Goods (B) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Bill Nichol Negotiates with Walmart: Hard Bargains over Soft Goods (B) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Nichol Bill
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 Nichol Bill
Strengths Bill Nichol Negotiates with Walmart: Hard Bargains over Soft Goods (B) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Nichol Bill in Bill Nichol Negotiates with Walmart: Hard Bargains over Soft Goods (B) Harvard Business Review case study are -
Digital Transformation in Strategy & Execution segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Nichol Bill digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Nichol Bill 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.
Analytics focus
– Nichol Bill 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 James K. Sebenius, Ellen Knebel 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.
Training and development
– Nichol Bill has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Bill Nichol Negotiates with Walmart: Hard Bargains over Soft Goods (B) 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Nichol Bill 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Nichol Bill has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Nichol Bill 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
– Nichol Bill is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Bill Nichol Negotiates with Walmart: Hard Bargains over Soft Goods (B) Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Nichol Bill is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Bill Nichol Negotiates with Walmart: Hard Bargains over Soft Goods (B) are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Ability to lead change in Strategy & Execution field
– Nichol Bill is one of the leading players in its industry. Over the years it has not only transformed the business landscape in its segment but also across the whole industry. The ability to lead change has enabled Nichol Bill in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
High brand equity
– Nichol Bill has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Nichol Bill to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Learning organization
- Nichol Bill 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 Nichol Bill is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Bill Nichol Negotiates with Walmart: Hard Bargains over Soft Goods (B) Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Nichol Bill 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Nichol Bill in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Weaknesses Bill Nichol Negotiates with Walmart: Hard Bargains over Soft Goods (B) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Bill Nichol Negotiates with Walmart: Hard Bargains over Soft Goods (B) are -
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Bill Nichol Negotiates with Walmart: Hard Bargains over Soft Goods (B), it seems that the employees of Nichol Bill 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Nichol Bill 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 Nichol Bill 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 - Bill Nichol Negotiates with Walmart: Hard Bargains over Soft Goods (B) should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Need for greater diversity
– Nichol Bill 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Bill Nichol Negotiates with Walmart: Hard Bargains over Soft Goods (B) 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 Nichol Bill has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Bill Nichol Negotiates with Walmart: Hard Bargains over Soft Goods (B), 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Nichol Bill 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Nichol Bill is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Bill Nichol Negotiates with Walmart: Hard Bargains over Soft Goods (B) can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Bill Nichol Negotiates with Walmart: Hard Bargains over Soft Goods (B) HBR case study mentions - Nichol Bill 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Nichol Bill is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Strategy & Execution segment. Nichol Bill needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Nichol Bill to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Bill Nichol Negotiates with Walmart: Hard Bargains over Soft Goods (B) 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 Bill Nichol Negotiates with Walmart: Hard Bargains over Soft Goods (B) can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Nichol Bill is planning to shift buying processes online.
Opportunities Bill Nichol Negotiates with Walmart: Hard Bargains over Soft Goods (B) | 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 Bill Nichol Negotiates with Walmart: Hard Bargains over Soft Goods (B) are -
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. Nichol Bill 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. Nichol Bill 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Nichol Bill 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Nichol Bill 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Nichol Bill 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 Bill Nichol Negotiates with Walmart: Hard Bargains over Soft Goods (B) - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Nichol Bill to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Nichol Bill can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Nichol Bill operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Strategy & Execution sector.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Nichol Bill 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Nichol Bill 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Nichol Bill can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Nichol Bill 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, Bill Nichol Negotiates with Walmart: Hard Bargains over Soft Goods (B), to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
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 Nichol Bill 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Nichol Bill has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Nichol Bill to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Bill Nichol Negotiates with Walmart: Hard Bargains over Soft Goods (B) case study. Nichol Bill can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Buying journey improvements
– Nichol Bill can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Bill Nichol Negotiates with Walmart: Hard Bargains over Soft Goods (B) 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.
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 Nichol Bill in the consumer business. Now Nichol Bill can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Threats Bill Nichol Negotiates with Walmart: Hard Bargains over Soft Goods (B) External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Bill Nichol Negotiates with Walmart: Hard Bargains over Soft Goods (B) are -
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Nichol Bill has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Strategy & Execution industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Nichol Bill 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.
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. Nichol Bill can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Nichol Bill 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.
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 Nichol Bill.
Increasing wage structure of Nichol Bill
– 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 Nichol Bill.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Nichol Bill 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. Nichol Bill will face different problems in different parts of Europe. For example it will face inflationary pressures in UK, France, and Germany, balance sheet expansion and demand challenges in Southern European countries, and geopolitical instability in the Eastern Europe.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Nichol Bill is facing in Strategy & Execution sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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. Nichol Bill needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Strategy & Execution industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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 Nichol Bill in the Strategy & Execution sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Nichol Bill 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 Bill Nichol Negotiates with Walmart: Hard Bargains over Soft Goods (B) .
Backlash against dominant players
– US Congress and other legislative arms of the government are getting tough on big business especially technology companies. The digital arm of Nichol Bill business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Nichol Bill 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 Bill Nichol Negotiates with Walmart: Hard Bargains over Soft Goods (B) 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 Bill Nichol Negotiates with Walmart: Hard Bargains over Soft Goods (B) 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 Bill Nichol Negotiates with Walmart: Hard Bargains over Soft Goods (B) 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 Bill Nichol Negotiates with Walmart: Hard Bargains over Soft Goods (B) 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 Bill Nichol Negotiates with Walmart: Hard Bargains over Soft Goods (B) 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 Nichol Bill needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.