The Tesco.com Experience: Is Success at Hand? SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Strategy & Execution
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of The Tesco.com Experience: Is Success at Hand?
The case focuses on opportunities and challenges for a traditional, bricks-and-mortar retailer to use the Internet as an added channel. A major implementation issue, which raised a heated debate among retailers, concerns Tesco.com's order fulfilment approach, based on in-store picked (rather than dedicated warehouses). It also insists on how can one make Internet retailing a profit-making story.
Authors :: Enders Albrecht, Tawfik Jelassi, Charles Waldman
Swot Analysis of "The Tesco.com Experience: Is Success at Hand?" written by Enders Albrecht, Tawfik Jelassi, Charles Waldman includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Tesco.com Tesco.com's facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in The Tesco.com Experience: Is Success at Hand? case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Customer service, Internet, Operations management and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the The Tesco.com Experience: Is Success at Hand? casestudy better are - – talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, wage bills are increasing, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing transportation and logistics costs, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings,
increasing household debt because of falling income levels, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of The Tesco.com Experience: Is Success at Hand?
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in The Tesco.com Experience: Is Success at Hand? case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Tesco.com Tesco.com's, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Tesco.com Tesco.com's 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 The Tesco.com Experience: Is Success at Hand? can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in The Tesco.com Experience: Is Success at Hand? case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Tesco.com Tesco.com's
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 Tesco.com Tesco.com's
Strengths The Tesco.com Experience: Is Success at Hand? | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Tesco.com Tesco.com's in The Tesco.com Experience: Is Success at Hand? Harvard Business Review case study are -
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Tesco.com Tesco.com's 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 Tesco.com Tesco.com's in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Tesco.com Tesco.com's is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the The Tesco.com Experience: Is Success at Hand? are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Tesco.com Tesco.com's 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 The Tesco.com Experience: Is Success at Hand? - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Tesco.com Tesco.com's 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Strategy & Execution industry
– The Tesco.com Experience: Is Success at Hand? firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Tesco.com Tesco.com's to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Tesco.com Tesco.com's to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Innovation driven organization
– Tesco.com Tesco.com's is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in The Tesco.com Experience: Is Success at Hand? Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
High brand equity
– Tesco.com Tesco.com's has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Tesco.com Tesco.com's to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the The Tesco.com Experience: Is Success at Hand? 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Tesco.com Tesco.com's 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 The Tesco.com Experience: Is Success at Hand? HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Organizational Resilience of Tesco.com Tesco.com's
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Tesco.com Tesco.com's does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Tesco.com Tesco.com's in the sector have low bargaining power. The Tesco.com Experience: Is Success at Hand? has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Tesco.com Tesco.com's to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Weaknesses The Tesco.com Experience: Is Success at Hand? | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of The Tesco.com Experience: Is Success at Hand? are -
Need for greater diversity
– Tesco.com Tesco.com's 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Tesco.com Tesco.com's 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study The Tesco.com Experience: Is Success at Hand?, it seems that the employees of Tesco.com Tesco.com's 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Tesco.com Tesco.com's, firm in the HBR case study The Tesco.com Experience: Is Success at Hand? needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Tesco.com Tesco.com's 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 - The Tesco.com Experience: Is Success at Hand? should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the The Tesco.com Experience: Is Success at Hand? 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 Tesco.com Tesco.com's has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study The Tesco.com Experience: Is Success at Hand? 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 The Tesco.com Experience: Is Success at Hand? can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Tesco.com Tesco.com's is planning to shift buying processes online.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Tesco.com Tesco.com's 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Tesco.com Tesco.com's 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.
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 Tesco.com Tesco.com's supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - The Tesco.com Experience: Is Success at Hand?, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Tesco.com Tesco.com's vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study The Tesco.com Experience: Is Success at Hand?, 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.
Opportunities The Tesco.com Experience: Is Success at Hand? | 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 The Tesco.com Experience: Is Success at Hand? are -
Loyalty marketing
– Tesco.com Tesco.com's 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Tesco.com Tesco.com's 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Tesco.com Tesco.com's to increase its market reach. Tesco.com Tesco.com's 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Tesco.com Tesco.com's 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.
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 Tesco.com Tesco.com's in the consumer business. Now Tesco.com Tesco.com's can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Buying journey improvements
– Tesco.com Tesco.com's can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. The Tesco.com Experience: Is Success at Hand? 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.
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 Tesco.com Tesco.com's 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Tesco.com Tesco.com's 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.
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. Tesco.com Tesco.com's can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Tesco.com Tesco.com's 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Tesco.com Tesco.com's 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, The Tesco.com Experience: Is Success at Hand?, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Tesco.com Tesco.com's has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Tesco.com Tesco.com's to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the The Tesco.com Experience: Is Success at Hand? case study. Tesco.com Tesco.com's can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Developing new processes and practices
– Tesco.com Tesco.com's 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.
Threats The Tesco.com Experience: Is Success at Hand? External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study The Tesco.com Experience: Is Success at Hand? are -
Consumer confidence and its impact on Tesco.com Tesco.com's 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.
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 Tesco.com Tesco.com's 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 Tesco.com Tesco.com's business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Tesco.com Tesco.com's 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.
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 Tesco.com Tesco.com's.
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. Tesco.com Tesco.com's can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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. Tesco.com Tesco.com's needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Strategy & Execution industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Tesco.com Tesco.com's has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Strategy & Execution industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Tesco.com Tesco.com's 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.
Increasing wage structure of Tesco.com Tesco.com's
– 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 Tesco.com Tesco.com's.
Regulatory challenges
– Tesco.com Tesco.com's 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.
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. Tesco.com Tesco.com's 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.
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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of The Tesco.com Experience: Is Success at Hand? 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 The Tesco.com Experience: Is Success at Hand? 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 The Tesco.com Experience: Is Success at Hand? 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 The Tesco.com Experience: Is Success at Hand? 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 The Tesco.com Experience: Is Success at Hand? 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 Tesco.com Tesco.com's needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
