Atera NYC (C): New Leadership in the Cuisine SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Strategy & Execution
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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 - – talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, there is backlash against globalization, geopolitical disruptions,
competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing energy prices, 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 -
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.
Ability to lead change in Strategy & Execution field
– Restaurant Chef 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 Restaurant Chef in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
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.
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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Restaurant Chef is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Atera NYC (C): New Leadership in the Cuisine are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
High brand equity
– Restaurant Chef has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Restaurant Chef to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Digital Transformation in Strategy & Execution segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Restaurant Chef digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Restaurant Chef 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.
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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Restaurant Chef 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.
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.
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.
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.
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 -
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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Atera NYC (C): New Leadership in the Cuisine 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 Restaurant Chef has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Restaurant Chef has borrowed money from the capital market at higher rates. It needs to restructure the interest payment and costs so that it can compete better and improve profitability.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Atera NYC (C): New Leadership in the Cuisine, it seems that the employees of Restaurant Chef 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.
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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Benoit Leleux, George Kohlrieser, Ole Borregaard suggests that, Restaurant Chef 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.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Restaurant Chef 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 - Atera NYC (C): New Leadership in the Cuisine should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Atera NYC (C): New Leadership in the Cuisine, in the dynamic environment Restaurant Chef has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Restaurant Chef has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
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.
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 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 Restaurant Chef supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Atera NYC (C): New Leadership in the Cuisine, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Restaurant Chef vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
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 -
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Restaurant Chef has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Restaurant Chef to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Atera NYC (C): New Leadership in the Cuisine case study. Restaurant Chef can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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. Restaurant Chef can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Restaurant Chef in the consumer business. Now Restaurant Chef can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 -
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 Restaurant Chef 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 Restaurant Chef business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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.
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.
Technology disruption because of hacks, piracy etc
– The colonial pipeline illustrated, how vulnerable modern organization are to international hackers, miscreants, and disruptors. The cyber security interruption, data leaks, etc can seriously jeopardize the future growth of the organization.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Restaurant Chef 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 Atera NYC (C): New Leadership in the Cuisine .
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.
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.
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.