Sarah Talley and Frey Farms Produce: Negotiating with Wal-Mart (A) SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Strategy & Execution
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Sarah Talley and Frey Farms Produce: Negotiating with Wal-Mart (A)
Describes the retailer-supplier negotiations of Frey Farms Produce in its growth from a small local produce supplier to becoming a supplier for Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer. The (A) case sets up three negotiations led by Sarah Talley of Frey Farms Produce in order to sell produce to Wal-Mart, manage price expectations during a difficult growing season, and deal with issues of co-management. The (B) case describes strategies, tactics, and the results of these negotiations, along with broader insights from the protagonist into a general approach to retailer-supplier negotiations.
Swot Analysis of "Sarah Talley and Frey Farms Produce: Negotiating with Wal-Mart (A)" written by James K. Sebenius, Ellen Knebel includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Frey Produce facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Sarah Talley and Frey Farms Produce: Negotiating with Wal-Mart (A) case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Entrepreneurship, Negotiations and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Sarah Talley and Frey Farms Produce: Negotiating with Wal-Mart (A) casestudy better are - – there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing commodity prices, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, technology disruption, there is backlash against globalization, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, geopolitical disruptions,
increasing energy prices, increasing transportation and logistics costs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Sarah Talley and Frey Farms Produce: Negotiating with Wal-Mart (A)
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Sarah Talley and Frey Farms Produce: Negotiating with Wal-Mart (A) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Frey Produce, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Frey Produce 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 Sarah Talley and Frey Farms Produce: Negotiating with Wal-Mart (A) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Sarah Talley and Frey Farms Produce: Negotiating with Wal-Mart (A) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Frey Produce
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 Frey Produce
Strengths Sarah Talley and Frey Farms Produce: Negotiating with Wal-Mart (A) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Frey Produce in Sarah Talley and Frey Farms Produce: Negotiating with Wal-Mart (A) Harvard Business Review case study are -
Innovation driven organization
– Frey Produce is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Sarah Talley and Frey Farms Produce: Negotiating with Wal-Mart (A) Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Ability to lead change in Strategy & Execution field
– Frey Produce 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 Frey Produce in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Training and development
– Frey Produce has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Sarah Talley and Frey Farms Produce: Negotiating with Wal-Mart (A) 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Frey Produce has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Frey Produce 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.
Digital Transformation in Strategy & Execution segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Frey Produce digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Frey Produce 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Frey Produce is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Frey Produce 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 Sarah Talley and Frey Farms Produce: Negotiating with Wal-Mart (A) HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Frey Produce in the sector have low bargaining power. Sarah Talley and Frey Farms Produce: Negotiating with Wal-Mart (A) has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Frey Produce to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Diverse revenue streams
– Frey Produce is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Sarah Talley and Frey Farms Produce: Negotiating with Wal-Mart (A) 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Sarah Talley and Frey Farms Produce: Negotiating with Wal-Mart (A) 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Frey Produce in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Organizational Resilience of Frey Produce
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Frey Produce does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Weaknesses Sarah Talley and Frey Farms Produce: Negotiating with Wal-Mart (A) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Sarah Talley and Frey Farms Produce: Negotiating with Wal-Mart (A) are -
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Sarah Talley and Frey Farms Produce: Negotiating with Wal-Mart (A), 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 dependence on existing supply chain
– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of Frey Produce supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Sarah Talley and Frey Farms Produce: Negotiating with Wal-Mart (A), it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Frey Produce vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Lack of clear differentiation of Frey Produce products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Frey Produce needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Sarah Talley and Frey Farms Produce: Negotiating with Wal-Mart (A), it seems that the employees of Frey Produce 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Frey Produce 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, James K. Sebenius, Ellen Knebel suggests that, Frey Produce is facing high bargaining power of the channel partners. So far it has not able to streamline the operations to reduce the bargaining power of the value chain partners in the industry.
Need for greater diversity
– Frey Produce 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Sarah Talley and Frey Farms Produce: Negotiating with Wal-Mart (A) HBR case study mentions - Frey Produce 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Frey Produce, firm in the HBR case study Sarah Talley and Frey Farms Produce: Negotiating with Wal-Mart (A) needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Frey Produce is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Sarah Talley and Frey Farms Produce: Negotiating with Wal-Mart (A) can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Sarah Talley and Frey Farms Produce: Negotiating with Wal-Mart (A) 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 Sarah Talley and Frey Farms Produce: Negotiating with Wal-Mart (A) can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Frey Produce is planning to shift buying processes online.
Opportunities Sarah Talley and Frey Farms Produce: Negotiating with Wal-Mart (A) | 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 Sarah Talley and Frey Farms Produce: Negotiating with Wal-Mart (A) are -
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Frey Produce has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Frey Produce to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Sarah Talley and Frey Farms Produce: Negotiating with Wal-Mart (A) case study. Frey Produce can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Frey Produce is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Sarah Talley and Frey Farms Produce: Negotiating with Wal-Mart (A) 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Frey Produce 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.
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. Frey Produce can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Frey Produce 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Frey Produce 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Frey Produce 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Frey Produce 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Frey Produce 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 Sarah Talley and Frey Farms Produce: Negotiating with Wal-Mart (A) - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Frey Produce to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Frey Produce 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 Frey Produce to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Manufacturing automation
– Frey Produce 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.
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. Frey Produce 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. Frey Produce 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.
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. Frey Produce can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Threats Sarah Talley and Frey Farms Produce: Negotiating with Wal-Mart (A) External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Sarah Talley and Frey Farms Produce: Negotiating with Wal-Mart (A) are -
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Sarah Talley and Frey Farms Produce: Negotiating with Wal-Mart (A), Frey Produce 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 .
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. Frey Produce needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Strategy & Execution industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Frey Produce 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 Frey Produce in the Strategy & Execution sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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 Frey Produce business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Environmental challenges
– Frey Produce 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. Frey Produce can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Frey Produce 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 Frey Produce
– 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 Frey Produce.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Frey Produce is facing in Strategy & Execution sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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 Frey Produce.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Frey Produce 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Frey Produce 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Frey Produce has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Strategy & Execution industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Frey Produce 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Sarah Talley and Frey Farms Produce: Negotiating with Wal-Mart (A) 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 Sarah Talley and Frey Farms Produce: Negotiating with Wal-Mart (A) 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 Sarah Talley and Frey Farms Produce: Negotiating with Wal-Mart (A) 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 Sarah Talley and Frey Farms Produce: Negotiating with Wal-Mart (A) 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 Sarah Talley and Frey Farms Produce: Negotiating with Wal-Mart (A) 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 Frey Produce needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.