Swot Analysis of "Au Bon Pain: A Presentation by Gary Aronson and Brian McEvoy, Video" written by W. Earl Sasser Jr., Christopher W.L. Hart, Lucy N. Lytle includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Au Bon facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Au Bon Pain: A Presentation by Gary Aronson and Brian McEvoy, Video case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Human resource management and Technology & Operations.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Au Bon Pain: A Presentation by Gary Aronson and Brian McEvoy, Video casestudy better are - – technology disruption, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, there is backlash against globalization, increasing commodity prices, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies,
digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, increasing transportation and logistics costs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Au Bon Pain: A Presentation by Gary Aronson and Brian McEvoy, Video
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Au Bon Pain: A Presentation by Gary Aronson and Brian McEvoy, Video case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Au Bon, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Au Bon 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 Au Bon Pain: A Presentation by Gary Aronson and Brian McEvoy, Video can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Au Bon Pain: A Presentation by Gary Aronson and Brian McEvoy, Video case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Au Bon
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 Au Bon
Strengths Au Bon Pain: A Presentation by Gary Aronson and Brian McEvoy, Video | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Au Bon in Au Bon Pain: A Presentation by Gary Aronson and Brian McEvoy, Video Harvard Business Review case study are -
Organizational Resilience of Au Bon
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Au Bon does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Analytics focus
– Au Bon 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 W. Earl Sasser Jr., Christopher W.L. Hart, Lucy N. Lytle 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Technology & Operations industry
– Au Bon Pain: A Presentation by Gary Aronson and Brian McEvoy, Video firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Au Bon to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Technology & Operations industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Au Bon to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Strong track record of project management
– Au Bon is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Innovation driven organization
– Au Bon is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Au Bon Pain: A Presentation by Gary Aronson and Brian McEvoy, Video Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Au Bon 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 Au Bon Pain: A Presentation by Gary Aronson and Brian McEvoy, Video - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Au Bon 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 Au Bon Pain: A Presentation by Gary Aronson and Brian McEvoy, Video HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Au Bon has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Au Bon 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Au Bon in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Au Bon Pain: A Presentation by Gary Aronson and Brian McEvoy, Video 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Au Bon in the sector have low bargaining power. Au Bon Pain: A Presentation by Gary Aronson and Brian McEvoy, Video has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Au Bon to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Au Bon 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.
Weaknesses Au Bon Pain: A Presentation by Gary Aronson and Brian McEvoy, Video | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Au Bon Pain: A Presentation by Gary Aronson and Brian McEvoy, Video are -
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Au Bon Pain: A Presentation by Gary Aronson and Brian McEvoy, Video has high operating costs in the. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Au Bon 's lucrative customers.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Au Bon Pain: A Presentation by Gary Aronson and Brian McEvoy, Video 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 Au Bon has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Au Bon Pain: A Presentation by Gary Aronson and Brian McEvoy, Video 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 Au Bon Pain: A Presentation by Gary Aronson and Brian McEvoy, Video can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Au Bon is planning to shift buying processes online.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Au Bon Pain: A Presentation by Gary Aronson and Brian McEvoy, Video, in the dynamic environment Au Bon has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Au Bon has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Au Bon 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Au Bon 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Au Bon products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Au Bon needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Au Bon has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the industry over the last five years. Au Bon even though has strong showing on digital transformation primary two stages, it has struggled to capitalize the power of digital transformation in marketing efforts and new venture efforts.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Au Bon 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 - Au Bon Pain: A Presentation by Gary Aronson and Brian McEvoy, Video should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Au Bon 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Au Bon Pain: A Presentation by Gary Aronson and Brian McEvoy, Video, is just above the industry average. Au Bon 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.
Opportunities Au Bon Pain: A Presentation by Gary Aronson and Brian McEvoy, Video | 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 Au Bon Pain: A Presentation by Gary Aronson and Brian McEvoy, Video are -
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Au Bon 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Au Bon 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 Au Bon Pain: A Presentation by Gary Aronson and Brian McEvoy, Video - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Au Bon to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Manufacturing automation
– Au Bon can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Technology & Operations 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Au Bon has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Au Bon to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Au Bon Pain: A Presentation by Gary Aronson and Brian McEvoy, Video case study. Au Bon can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Au Bon can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
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 Au Bon in the consumer business. Now Au Bon can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Au Bon can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Au Bon operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Technology & Operations sector.
Buying journey improvements
– Au Bon can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Au Bon Pain: A Presentation by Gary Aronson and Brian McEvoy, Video 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 Au Bon 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.
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. Au Bon can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Au Bon 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Au Bon 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, Au Bon Pain: A Presentation by Gary Aronson and Brian McEvoy, Video, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
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. Au Bon can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Threats Au Bon Pain: A Presentation by Gary Aronson and Brian McEvoy, Video External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Au Bon Pain: A Presentation by Gary Aronson and Brian McEvoy, Video are -
Environmental challenges
– Au Bon 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. Au Bon can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Technology & Operations 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.
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 Au Bon.
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. Au Bon can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Au Bon 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.
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 Au Bon in the Technology & Operations sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Au Bon with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Au Bon has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Technology & Operations industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Au Bon 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Au Bon is facing in Technology & Operations sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Regulatory challenges
– Au Bon 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 Technology & Operations 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. Au Bon 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.
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 Au Bon business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Au Bon 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 Au Bon Pain: A Presentation by Gary Aronson and Brian McEvoy, Video .
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Au Bon Pain: A Presentation by Gary Aronson and Brian McEvoy, Video 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 Au Bon Pain: A Presentation by Gary Aronson and Brian McEvoy, Video 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 Au Bon Pain: A Presentation by Gary Aronson and Brian McEvoy, Video 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 Au Bon Pain: A Presentation by Gary Aronson and Brian McEvoy, Video 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 Au Bon Pain: A Presentation by Gary Aronson and Brian McEvoy, Video 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 Au Bon needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
