Case Study Description of Bacardi Southampton (B): A Continental Paradox
The Bacardi Southampton case series (A - D) follows the transition from a push-based supply chain to an agile, pull-based system. The (B) case demonstrates the paradox in operational thinking and delineates the unique relationship a company has with one of its suppliers and its customer for European exports. Students can see that this agile program cannot exist in isolation from important stakeholders. Discussion about an opposite point of view is enriched by facts in this (B) case.
Swot Analysis of "Bacardi Southampton (B): A Continental Paradox" written by Daniel Zinner, Robert D. Landel includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Bacardi Southampton facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Bacardi Southampton (B): A Continental Paradox case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Supply chain and Technology & Operations.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Bacardi Southampton (B): A Continental Paradox casestudy better are - – increasing household debt because of falling income levels, geopolitical disruptions, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, wage bills are increasing, increasing energy prices, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google,
there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing commodity prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Bacardi Southampton (B): A Continental Paradox
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Bacardi Southampton (B): A Continental Paradox case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Bacardi Southampton, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Bacardi Southampton 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 Bacardi Southampton (B): A Continental Paradox can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Bacardi Southampton (B): A Continental Paradox case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Bacardi Southampton
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Technology & Operations field.
4. Making a Technology & Operations topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Bacardi Southampton
Strengths Bacardi Southampton (B): A Continental Paradox | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Bacardi Southampton in Bacardi Southampton (B): A Continental Paradox Harvard Business Review case study are -
Diverse revenue streams
– Bacardi Southampton is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Bacardi Southampton (B): A Continental Paradox 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 brand equity
– Bacardi Southampton has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Bacardi Southampton to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Organizational Resilience of Bacardi Southampton
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Bacardi Southampton does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Bacardi Southampton has built up over years in its products and services combo offer has resulted in high retention of customers, lower marketing costs, and greater ability of the firm to focus on its customers.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Bacardi Southampton 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 Bacardi Southampton (B): A Continental Paradox - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Bacardi Southampton in the sector have low bargaining power. Bacardi Southampton (B): A Continental Paradox has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Bacardi Southampton to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Innovation driven organization
– Bacardi Southampton is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Bacardi Southampton (B): A Continental Paradox 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
– Bacardi Southampton is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Bacardi Southampton (B): A Continental Paradox are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Bacardi Southampton 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 Bacardi Southampton (B): A Continental Paradox HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Bacardi Southampton 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
– Bacardi Southampton has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Bacardi Southampton 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.
Analytics focus
– Bacardi Southampton 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 Daniel Zinner, Robert D. Landel 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.
Weaknesses Bacardi Southampton (B): A Continental Paradox | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Bacardi Southampton (B): A Continental Paradox are -
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Bacardi Southampton is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Bacardi Southampton (B): A Continental Paradox can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Bacardi Southampton 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Bacardi Southampton is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Technology & Operations segment. Bacardi Southampton needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Bacardi Southampton to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Bacardi Southampton (B): A Continental Paradox HBR case study mentions - Bacardi Southampton 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Bacardi Southampton (B): A Continental Paradox, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Technology & Operations 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Bacardi Southampton 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 bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Daniel Zinner, Robert D. Landel suggests that, Bacardi Southampton 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Bacardi Southampton (B): A Continental Paradox, is just above the industry average. Bacardi Southampton 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Bacardi Southampton 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Bacardi Southampton (B): A Continental Paradox 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 Bacardi Southampton (B): A Continental Paradox can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Bacardi Southampton is planning to shift buying processes online.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Bacardi Southampton (B): A Continental Paradox, it seems that the employees of Bacardi Southampton 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.
Opportunities Bacardi Southampton (B): A Continental Paradox | 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 Bacardi Southampton (B): A Continental Paradox are -
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Bacardi Southampton can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Bacardi Southampton operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Technology & Operations sector.
Loyalty marketing
– Bacardi Southampton 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Bacardi Southampton 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Technology & Operations industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Bacardi Southampton 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. Bacardi Southampton 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Bacardi Southampton in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Technology & Operations segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Bacardi Southampton 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 Bacardi Southampton (B): A Continental Paradox - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Bacardi Southampton to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Technology & Operations industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Bacardi Southampton can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Bacardi Southampton 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 Bacardi Southampton to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Bacardi Southampton 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, Bacardi Southampton (B): A Continental Paradox, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Buying journey improvements
– Bacardi Southampton can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Bacardi Southampton (B): A Continental Paradox 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 Bacardi Southampton 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.
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. Bacardi Southampton can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Bacardi Southampton can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Threats Bacardi Southampton (B): A Continental Paradox External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Bacardi Southampton (B): A Continental Paradox are -
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 Bacardi Southampton in the Technology & Operations sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Environmental challenges
– Bacardi Southampton 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. Bacardi Southampton can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Technology & Operations industry.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Bacardi Southampton 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Bacardi Southampton (B): A Continental Paradox, Bacardi Southampton may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Technology & Operations .
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Bacardi Southampton 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.
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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Technology & Operations field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Bacardi Southampton can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Bacardi Southampton has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Technology & Operations industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Bacardi Southampton needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Technology & Operations 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Bacardi Southampton in the Technology & Operations industry. The Technology & Operations 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.
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. Bacardi Southampton needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Technology & Operations industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Bacardi Southampton 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 Bacardi Southampton (B): A Continental Paradox .
Increasing wage structure of Bacardi Southampton
– 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 Bacardi Southampton.
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 Bacardi Southampton business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Bacardi Southampton (B): A Continental Paradox 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 Bacardi Southampton (B): A Continental Paradox 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 Bacardi Southampton (B): A Continental Paradox 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 Bacardi Southampton (B): A Continental Paradox 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 Bacardi Southampton (B): A Continental Paradox 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 Bacardi Southampton needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
